Defender Raptor (Protection, Inc: Defenders, #2) by Chant Zoe

Author:Chant, Zoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zoe Chant
Published: 2020-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

After a year spent in a haze of depression alternating with a strict focus on work, Dali wasn’t used to being so tossed about by conflicting emotions. As she sat beside Merlin in his ridiculously small but also genuinely cool car, she was turned on by his presence and thrilled that they were together and frustrated by the situation with his team and excited by visiting the circus and nervous about meeting his mother and pre-emptively broken-hearted that he might run off with the circus and she’d never see him again.

Focus, Dali, she told herself. Just take it one day at a time.

Or, considering that it was Merlin, maybe she should be taking it one minute at a time.

He pulled into the circus parking lot. It was Monday, so there would only be an evening performance that day, and they were the only car in the lot. But not the only people; a middle-aged woman was leaning against a lamp post, waiting for someone.

“Uh-oh,” Merlin muttered. “That’s Rosine. Rosine Richelieu, of the Remarkable Richelieus.”

“She’s a poodle, right? And that’s the family that didn’t want you as heir?”

“One of them, yeah. And she was one of the loudest of the ‘shifter leaders only’ faction, so...” He squared his shoulders. “Oh, well. May as well face the music.”

Rosine made a beeline for them as soon as they got out of the car. Before they could even say hello, she said, “Merlin, I want you to know that things have changed. You’re a shifter now. From now on, you have my full support as heir.”

It was the first time Dali had ever seen Merlin at a loss for words. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Rosine went on, “I’m going to talk to my family, and also to everyone who had a problem with you before. I think I can persuade them to support you now. But it’ll go better if I do it privately and discreetly. That’s why I came out here alone. So don’t go around yet saying I support you, okay? And don’t try rounding up support yourself. I’ll do that for you. It’ll look better coming from me.”

“Uh... okay,” Merlin said, staring at her like she’d grown two heads.

She nodded briskly. “I’ll let you know when I’ve persuaded everyone who’s persuadable. Until then, we didn’t have this talk.”

With that, she turned around and walked out of the parking lot, toward the circus entrance and fairground. They watched her go in silence.

Dali wanted to be happy for Merlin, but in her heart of hearts, she wished she was a size-changing velociraptor so she could have bitten that woman’s ankle and scared her away before she said a word. If Rosine Richelieu was right about how influential she was, once she was through Merlin would no longer have any reason not to return to the circus.

“That was weird,” Merlin said.

Dali forced herself to focus on what was going on right now, not on her impending heartbreak. “Well, you are a shifter now.

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