“No. Only you can change the situation.” She sat back, bored out of her skull looking at the calm lake and the unmoving mountains and trees around it. She was tired of beauty. It was time for a few battles.
“I don’t know that I can do that,” he said. “I’ve chosen this life for a reason.”
“Jaysus, lad, I’m not askin’ you to mate her. I’m not after a litter. Lord knows she wouldn’t be into that, anyway. I’m just askin’ ye to finally take on the challenge you were born fer. Things are just heating up. It will get worse. Much worse. Her type of power compels people to want it, by challenging, romancing, or stealing. We need someone that can bring us all together and create a cohesive army. That donkey of a gargoyle can’t even unite the house. Jessie could, o’course—they all respond to her—but she has no experience. She needs a battle leader. That is you, Austin Steele. That can only be you. You have the organization, experience, and brutality to make that work, not to mention a soft spot for Jessie. Yer the man for this job. Ivy House is showing us what it looks like for the wrong man to be in that position.
“I think ye were right about the training. We’ve gone about it all wrong. Sure, she can take it, and yes, she is getting better, but…what you said made more sense. I don’t think she trusts that wanker. She is certainly slow to bed him. Tonight must be another bust for him if she’s wanting to meet me.”
Niamh didn’t miss the vein popping out on Austin Steele’s clenched jaw, or the way he balled his fists when she mentioned the possibility of the gargoyle bedding Jessie. Jessie had somehow grasped the heart of this untouchable alpha. Oh, how the webs were tangling.
“I know she doesn’t trust him like she trusts you,” she went on, brushing it aside. He could ignore his growing admiration until the end of time, if he fancied being a stubborn fool, but Niamh couldn’t let him ignore how much he was desperately needed both in this town and in that house. He was trying to run, but she needed him to stay. They all did, Jessie most of all. “I wonder how much better she would get if she was working within a trusting, safe environment. I think she needs more support than we are giving her, and until she has it, those wings and the next phase of her magic will be held back. This is a hunch, now, I can’t say fer sure, and that clueless vampire can’t get through that book, but…”
“I’m not the kind of guy you let off the leash, Niamh.”
A growl rode his words, his past rising up to haunt him. Her senses all clicked on, feeling the predator in her midst. She ignored them.
“You can lose yourself to your animal around her, entirely lose yourself. She will stop you from going too far out of preservation for you. She is the only one in this world you would allow to magically cage you, like she did yesterday, without seeking retaliation as soon as you broke out. Do ye know why that is?”
“Because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
“No. Because you trust her. Because ye know that she is not trying to control you, she is trying to help you.”
He didn’t comment, which meant he did know that. She was on the right track, quite amazing, since she usually had no idea what made people tick—nor did she care to know. This situation was dire, though. The episode in the kitchen had been weighing on her mind. Jessie had chosen a side yesterday, and she didn’t seem to feel any regret about not picking her current team leader. That spoke volumes.
It also spoke volumes that Austin Steele, on the brink of passing out, had sat beside Jessie until everyone else had returned from taking care of the intruder. He was in this, whether he wanted to admit it or not.
“Even if I did agree to join Jess’s council, the house gave the gargoyle the ability to grow her magic. He will not follow me until I make him, and he will not be at his best if I subdue him. He and I won’t work. It’s too late.”
“This is the problem with talking to men. The lot of you are so dense, I wonder how you get through without someone holdin’ yer hand.” She ran her hand down her face. “Ye already have a place in that house. He doesn’t. Ye already have the magic. He doesn’t. If you give in and sit in a council chair, there is no doubt in my mind that Ivy House will give you what you seek—what you should have been given in the first place.”