The Alpha Kings And Their Stripper Mate

Chapter 144: Chapter 143: Learning About Raphael

"So," Eve agreed faintly.

They looked at each other across the kitchen island.

"He’s your uncle," Elena said, and it wasn’t quite a question.

"He is," Eve confirmed.

"Is this conversation very strange for you?"

"Extraordinarily," Eve said.

Elena nodded. "I imagine so. I’m sorry."

"Don’t be," Eve said, and meant it. "I asked. I wanted to know. The succubus part of me genuinely needed to know, for completely legitimate developmental reasons...." She heard herself and laughed. "And also I was just curious."

"Understandable," Elena said, and the smile she gave Eve was warm and genuine and oddly conspiratorial. "For what it’s worth, he talks about you. During the....during our time together. Not constantly, and not inappropriately, but—he’s proud of you. Talks about your training with real pride. Says you remind him of your father."

Eve felt a warmth bloom in her chest that had nothing to do with her succubus nature. "He says that?"

"Frequently," Elena confirmed. "And he worries. About the threats coming. About whether he has enough time to teach you what you need to know." She hesitated. "He loves you very much. I can feel it in his energy when he speaks about you. It’s different from how he feels about everything else....cleaner, somehow. Less complicated."

Eve blinked against the sudden sting in her eyes. "Thank you for telling me that."

"You should hear it," Elena said simply.

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment.....an omega pack member and the Luna, sitting in a kitchen over herb bundles, having navigated one of the stranger conversations the Blackwood estate had probably hosted.

"Can I ask you something now?" Elena said.

"Of course."

"Does it..." Elena paused carefully. "Does it bother you? The arrangement the Alphas made? I know they intended it as a strategy. A way to keep Lord Raphael occupied and away from...."

"Away from me," Eve finished without rancor. "Yes. I know about that part."

"Does it bother you? That I’m....that I’m here for him? I don’t want to be a source of...."

"No," Eve said, with complete honesty. "It doesn’t bother me. He needs to feed. You’re willing and apparently...." She chose her words carefully. "....you’re getting something meaningful from it too."

"I am," Elena said quietly.

"Then it’s good," Eve said. "You’re taking care of him while he’s here. While he’s spending his energy training me and helping me and managing a complicated family reunion. You’re part of what makes that possible."

Something moved across Elena’s expression.....relief, and something more complex underneath it.

"There’s one more thing," Eve said. "This is more awkward than everything else, so brace yourself."

Elena looked cautious. "All right."

"Are you okay? Not just physically. But....are you managing? Because what you’re doing....providing that level of energy, that consistently....even for a werewolf, that’s significant. I want to make sure it’s not taking more from you than you can sustain."

Elena stared at her for a long moment.

"Luna," she said finally, her voice softer than it had been. "No one has asked me that."

"I’m asking," Eve said.

Elena considered it genuinely....taking the question seriously rather than deflecting with automatic reassurance. "I think so," she said at last. "Yes. He’s careful with me. Supplements what he takes....gives back as much as he draws, sometimes more. I’m tired afterward, but it’s the kind of tired that comes with having given something willingly, not the kind that comes from being taken from."

She met Eve’s eyes. "And I’m genuinely...." A pause. "I’m genuinely glad I said yes. Whatever the Alphas’ original intentions were, what this has become is....it matters to me. He matters to me. Even if I’m not entirely sure what that means yet."

Eve nodded slowly. That had the ring of honesty that no amount of performance could replicate.

"Then I’m glad," Eve said. "And I meant what I said....if it ever stops being good for you, you tell me. Not the Alphas, not Raphael. Me. Okay?"

Elena looked at her with something approaching wonder. "Okay," she said. "Luna."

"Eve," Eve corrected. "When it’s just us, it’s Eve."

Something lit up in Elena’s expression....small but real and entirely unperformed.

"Eve," she repeated.

The kitchen door opened and Damon leaned through it, his eyes finding Eve immediately. "There you are. Damian’s been looking for you. Said something about feeding you properly before dinner." His expression was carefully arranged to be neutral but wasn’t quite making it. "Should I tell him you’re busy having kitchen conversations, or...."

"I’m coming," Eve said, sliding off the stool.

She looked at Elena, who had straightened instinctively at Damon’s appearance....that particular alertness that everyone in the estate seemed to default to around the brothers.

"Same time tomorrow?" Eve offered. "I’ll bring better coffee than whatever this kitchen has in the afternoon." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Elena blinked, then smiled. "I’d like that Luna." Thank you for coming.’’

Eve nodded and followed Damon out of the kitchen, leaving Elena alone with her herb bundles and the warm, slightly stunned expression of someone who had come to work expecting an ordinary afternoon and left with something considerably better.

In the hallway, Damon fell into step beside Eve, glancing at her sideways.

"How was that?" he asked.

"Illuminating," Eve said.

"Do I want to know in what way?"

Eve considered the conversation....the feeding dynamics, the stamina, the healing salve, the genuine warmth that had developed between two people thrust together by her mates’ transparent scheming.

"Probably not," she said.

Damon seemed to accept this with the wisdom of a man who had learned that some information arrived with costs he wasn’t prepared to pay.

They walked down the hallway together, and Eve filed the afternoon away in that part of her understanding that was growing every day....the part that was learning what it meant to be not just powerful, but connected. Not just a succubus, but a person with a family worth protecting.

All of them. The complicated, unexpected, extraordinary lot of them.