Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

Before I could combust from the mere weight of Shadow’s scorching gaze, our food arrived, and I was once again thankful for the gift of food and all of its delicious distractions. Angel’s face lit up when they placed her usual tray in front of her, and it was one of those rare treasures that sent my heart into happy flutters.

She must have noticed me looking at her with a stupid goofy smile, which oddly had a dark cloud descending over her features. She went from angelic beauty to badass-who-would-kill-you in a heartbeat. “What?” I said, looking around for the threat.

Angel actually growled, drawing my gaze back to her. “No one will take my family from me again.” Gold glittery power fluttered off her. “Dannie made a grave error in judgement, and even though she’s Shadow’s mother, there’s no redemption for her.”

My throat was dry, and when I tried to swallow, I couldn’t make it work. “She might release the stone,” I managed to say.

Angel’s expression did not soften. “I’m not sure that’s enough.”

My face crumpled, and Angel dropped a hand on my shoulder. “For you, and only you,” she said, “I’ll give her the chance. Maybe she’ll convince me to allow the option of redemption, but I need you to prepare yourself. If she’s anything like the many powerful beings I’ve known, she won’t stop until we destroy her.”

Shadow closed his arm around me, pulling me away from Angel. “You’ll find no resistance from me. Mother or not, she’s gone too far.”

It hurt to think of them destroying Dannie because she was basically the only mother figure I’d had, and maybe, a part of me understood why she’d swallowed the stone to save us all. I wasn’t okay with her choices, far from it… I was fucking furious. But sitting here tonight, with our pack once again whole, I just wanted it all to stay like this. War was the path that would tear us to pieces.

Shadow and Angel were not like me, though. Their pride was strong, and their need to remain dominant meant they could not tolerate anyone messing with the magical balance.

I, on the other hand, knew when it was best to just get out of there and thank the fates it hadn’t been worse. Hopefully, I could convince the others that there was no dishonor in all of us walking away alive.

Everyone at our table focused on their food after that. Unsurprisingly, Shadow, Galleli, and Len had ordered nothing, but Alistair did have a fishy stew, its scent interesting but not unpleasant. Lucien only got a drink he sipped at occasionally, which I assumed was blood, but maybe I was stereotyping vamps there. I actually had no idea what they consumed for energy, and I’d add it to my list of questions to ask when we had the time.

“Eat,” Shadow ordered, interrupting my observation of the table.

“Yes, sir,” I smartassed, snapping my heels together.

His eyes held a warning, but there was no fixing me at this stage, so I smiled cheekily and went to work on the multiple meals I’d ordered. As optimistic as I was, there was still a chance tomorrow was our last day, so I’d chosen all of my favorites.

Once I started to eat, I found I was ravenously starving, stuffing my face until I felt like I was about to burst. Leaning back, I sucked in a deep breath, my lungs mildly uncomfortable by how full my stomach was.

Len let out a low burst of laughter. “That was damn impressive,” he said, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. “I knew shifters could eat, but… where do you even put it all? You’re tiny.”

I tried to smile, but I was just too full. My eyes had been bigger than my stomach and now I was paying for it. When my gut swirled, I wondered if I might vomit up everything. I must have gone a little green, because Shadow reached out and brushed a hand over my braid, the soothing heat of his power settling my stomach.

“Would you like dessert?” he asked, his voice vibrating with humor, even if his face didn’t show it.

I thought about it. Despite what Shadow had just done, dessert would probably push me over the edge again.

“I’d like to try chocolate,” Angel said suddenly.

My head snapped toward her. “Seriously?”

She nodded. “I feel this is the best time to give human food one last chance.”

Great, so she had that ominous feeling too.

“You’re right, there really is no better time,” I said.

Shadow waved a few of the robots over. “We need chocolate,” he told the closest one. “Bring everything you have that’s made from the chocolate of Earth. Cake, bars, drinks—all of it.”

If robots could get excited, this little one was doing it, lighting up and squeaking as it hurried off. “Everyone who can eat chocolate and not die will be trying it,” I said with a laugh.

Lucien leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “I heard chocolate was deadly to dogs. Are you trying to knock Shadow off?”

My lips twitched. “Look, I know firsthand that chocolate doesn’t kill shifters, but no lie, I did consider testing the theory on Shadow, especially when I first arrived here. Unfortunately, the bastard doesn’t eat.”

“Oh, I eat,” Shadow replied seriously. “My favorite meal is right here in this room.”

It took me a second. An embarrassingly long second.

“That shade of red is nice on her,” Len said. “Matches her hair.”

I wasn’t red from embarrassment, despite Shadow all but talking about eating me out in front of all of his friends. If anything, this public claiming of his was far better than love words, though I wanted those as well.

I was greedy.

The red in my cheeks was the heat of my arousal. It had hit me hard and fast, and with enough intensity that I was barely able to stop squirming in my chair. Shadow knew that because he knew the scent of my arousal.

Before I self-combusted or embarrassed us all, about twenty servers reappeared at our table, their arms full of dishes.

Wow. Shadow might have gone a little extra on dessert, considering half the beings here would probably have one taste and throw up or die. These immortals with their “energy transference” instead of food lifestyle were so dramatic.

The only ones at our table now were the main pack, all their hangers-on having disappeared back to their worlds. Which left just the seven of us to be involved in this dessert taste test.

Humans adore these? Galleli asked.

I nodded. “Oh, yes, chocolate is well loved. We have it in many different strengths and styles, but it’s always a hit.”

I leaned in and breathed deeply, savoring the scents from the closest plates and sighing at the rich cocoa that invaded my nostrils. “Looks like we have cake, mousse, dipping sauce, ice cream, and dark, milk, and white chocolate in an array of styles.” I lifted my head to see more. “Cookies, dough, crumble, and… oh my freaking god, they have doughnuts with chocolate sauce and Nutella filling.”

Since my arrival here, more and more human food had appeared on the menu. Shadow’s doing, of course, since he was the one controlling this space, and I couldn’t help but feel completely touched by all the little extras he gave without asking for thanks or acknowledgement.

Ordering one of everything had no doubt been for me as well, and I needed to do better in letting him know how much it meant to me.

“Thank you,” I whispered, turning my head to meet his gaze. “I see what you do. I appreciate it. I appreciate you.”

For a split second, he looked completely taken aback. Not just taken aback, but… lost.

The Shadow Beast had no idea how to handle gratitude.

No one had ever noticed the good in him, and granted, they’d have had to look closely since he so effortlessly embraced the darkness. But these slivers of light that filtered through the cracks in his shadowy soul were so blindingly beautiful that they took my breath away.

“There’s nothing I won’t do to make you happy, Sunshine,” he told me, his eyes holding flickers of fire. “You only have to ask.”

I was going to be seriously spoiled if he kept this shit up, which would only make me all the more insufferable. Maybe I should do some charity work to even it out; I was fairly certain it worked like that.

“What should I try?” Angel asked, distracting us as she leaned over to sniff at a few of the dishes. “Give me the absolute best.”

I leaned over with her, weighing them up before I started to rearrange the plates into one long line down the middle of our table. “This is my favorite,” I said, pointing to the rich devil’s food chocolate cake. The sort with thick, creamy frosting, and a cake so moist, you could see it glisten before you had a taste. People could hate on the word moist all they wanted, but when it came to cakes, there was no better descriptor. “And I’ve lined the rest in my basic order of preference, but to make myself very clear, there are no bad choices here.”

Next to the cake was the chewy cookie sandwich, with smooth vanilla frosting in the center, then a chocolate crumble cake, with a gooey mousse filling, followed by a triple deck chocolate block, showcasing the best of dark, milk, and white chocolate.

Angel lifted one of the utensils provided and scraped off the smallest sliver of the first cake. She cleverly knew to take an even distribution of frosting, cake and cream. Overloading on one aspect destroyed the full experience, in my expert opinion.

When she lifted the sliver to her lips, she smelled it first, her face crinkling. “It’s an odd scent,” she said. “Almost earthy.” Her tongue darted out, and why the fuck I was holding my breath, I’d never know, but this felt like a pivotal moment in our relationship.

She licked at it first, and I saw her nose flare.

Leaning back in case she was going to hurl, I waited for her next move. The whole piece went into her mouth and she swirled it around for a beat before letting it settle on her tongue. Then she swallowed it.

A moment’s silence followed.

She was the only one brave enough to taste anything yet, and I knew more than one at this table was waiting for her opinion. Angel was the guinea pig in this experiment.

“Wow,” she finally said, her eyes meeting mine. She smiled broadly. “I can taste some of the undertones that I imagine most wouldn’t, but… it’s good. It’s really, really good.” She clapped her hands together. “I finally found my thing, thank you!”

Her hug was immediate and enthusiastic, and I wondered if maybe the chocolate was going to affect her in another way. It did have a calming, somewhat euphoric effect on humans… Maybe it would do the same for Angel.

Before I could run away with those thoughts, everyone went into action, reaching for plates of food. “Dig in,” Len said loudly, drawing attention as he grabbed some cookies.

Even Shadow chuckled as they started to experiment with the dishes. My heart was so damn full as I watched them laugh and screw up their noses when they found dishes they didn’t enjoy.

It was pure fun escapism. One last moment together.

Whatever happened tomorrow, this night meant everything to me.

I would never forget it.