"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 confird.
"Is this conversation very strange for you?"
"Extraordinarily," Eve said.
Elena nodded. "I imagine so. I’m sorry."
"Don’t be," Eve said, and ant it. "I asked. I wanted to know. The succubus part of genuinely needed to know, for completely legitimate developntal 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 ti 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 confird. "And he worries. About the threats coming. About whether he has enough ti 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, sohow. Less complicated."
Eve blinked against the sudden sting in her eyes. "Thank you for telling that."
"You should hear it," Elena said simply.
They sat in comfortable silence for a mont.....an oga pack mber 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 sothing now?" Elena said.
"Of course."
"Does it..." Elena paused carefully. "Does it bother you? The arrangent the Alphas made? I know they intended it as a strategy. A way to keep Lord Raphael occupied and away from...."
"Away from ," 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 . He needs to feed. You’re willing and apparently...." She chose her words carefully. "....you’re getting sothing aningful 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 and helping and managing a complicated family reunion. You’re part of what makes that possible."
Sothing moved across Elena’s expression.....relief, and sothing 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 mont.
"Luna," she said finally, her voice softer than it had been. "No one has asked 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 . Supplents what he takes....gives back as much as he draws, sotis more. I’m tired afterward, but it’s the kind of tired that cos with having given sothing willingly, not the kind that cos from being taken from."
She t 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 beco is....it matters to . He matters to . Even if I’m not entirely sure what that ans 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 ant what I said....if it ever stops being good for you, you tell . Not the Alphas, not Raphael. . Okay?"
Elena looked at her with sothing approaching wonder. "Okay," she said. "Luna."
"Eve," Eve corrected. "When it’s just us, it’s Eve."
Sothing lit up in Elena’s expression....small but real and entirely unperford.
"Eve," she repeated.
The kitchen door opened and Damon leaned through it, his eyes finding Eve imdiately. "There you are. Damian’s been looking for you. Said sothing 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 seed to default to around the brothers.
"Sa ti tomorrow?" Eve offered. "I’ll bring better coffee than whatever this kitchen has in the afternoon."
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 soone who had co to work expecting an ordinary afternoon and left with sothing 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 seed to accept this with the wisdom of a man who had learned that so 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 ant 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.
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