The Paranormal Council: Complete Series

Chapter 2

BJORN

Despite himself, Bjorn’s attention focused on the door every time it opened, desperate to see Ari the moment she arrived. He knew that he probably shouldn’t be so obvious in his attraction for her, especially not in the Council chambers, but he just couldn’t help it. Technically, what the two of them were up to went against Council rules, and if they were discovered then they’d both lose their seats. And yet, that wasn’t enough to make him want to stop, especially since Ari had revealed the truth behind mating. He’d been labouring under the illusion that mating required a bite, but apparently, it didn’t work like that. All true mates needed to do was meet, and since learning that, barely a moment had passed when he hadn’t thought of Ari; the truth that he’d thought he knew fast becoming something he was sure about.

“Sorry I’m late.” Her lilting voice broke through his thoughts and he had to stop the grin spreading across his face. Everyone knew him as the gruff bear shifter who was too jaded to smile at anyone, and he couldn’t go about ruining that reputation, even if he had felt himself softening to the outside world more recently. To his surprise, Ari threw him a small smile as she sat in the only empty Council seat, the other three having arrived shortly after he had.

“Anything wrong?” Nathalie asked from her seat next to Bjorn. He was surprised to see her wearing a powder blue suit rather than the white dresses that she normally preferred. He’d never really understood why unicorns were so focused on the colour white, but they all seemed to be, and for Nathalie to be wearing any colour at all was odd. Her skin shimmered in the dim light of the Council chamber, but Bjorn had long since stopped noticing her ethereal beauty, which paled in comparison to the auburn-haired vixen sat a few seats down.

“Court ran over.” Ari waved a hand dismissively, though Bjorn could tell from the tight set of her mouth that there was something more going on. If he was lucky, he might have a chance to get it out of her later. “But more importantly, how are we coming on with the necromancer problem?” Their eyes met as she looked at him, not a hidden look this time, as this was an issue that the other Council members knew they were working on together.

“No name yet,” he responded briefly.

“I have a meeting with a necromancer representative tomorrow,” Alden added. He was sat between Nathalie and Ari, and often stayed quiet unless he felt he had something valuable to add. Bjorn liked that about the guy, he didn’t have time to suffer fools.

“Just a representative?” Ari responded, her smile slipping slightly, revealing to Bjorn how downcast the whole situation was making her. While working on her previous case, she’d noticed that the murder victim showed all the signs of being targeted by a necromancer, and she’d instantly told the Councils about it. He’d then had to watch as she worked herself to the bone to get the accused woman acquitted of the charge, showing a rare determination that not many had. It was one of the many reasons he liked her so much.

“You know what they’re like Ari,” Bjorn interrupted before Alden could reply, only to receive a death glare for using her nickname. He cursed inwardly, not knowing how it had slipped out. They were normally so careful about keeping their relationship under wraps and not raising suspicion. Which was often difficult, especially considering how little he knew about the other Council members in comparison to how much he knew about Ari. He wasn’t sure how it’d got to this point, but like everything else between them, it had just clicked into place.

“Can we use the nymph support to force them to be more cooperative?” Nathalie asked softly.

“Are we sure that we want to call on them so soon?” Alden countered. A hissing laugh came from the seat next to Bjorn.

“So, we make a big deal about marrying that panther to a nymph and you don’t want to use that! Typical bird. I thought you were supposed to be wise?” Drayce bit out. Bjorn had always wondered why he was on the Council, particularly when he seemed so uninterested most of the time. Alden’s head swivelled round to look Drayce in the eye, and the two stared off, neither of them saying a word.

“Boys!” Ari interrupted, clicking her fingers and breaking the staring contest. Beside him, Nathalie sighed. As much as he hated it, this was often how the meetings went. Drayce seemed to hate everyone and it riled the normally calm Alden up the wrong way. “We can at least ask Aella if they’d support us, I know she’s trying to get the High Council to introduce stricter rules around blood slaves, so she might have something for us on that front.”

“Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way of telling who even is a necromancer, they keep their records even more under wraps than we do.” Even as he spoke, Bjorn found himself getting annoyed at them. They were worse than vampires as far as he was concerned. Sure, there were vampires that went off the rails, but their Council liked to make a big song and dance about punishing them. On the other hand, the Necromancer Council seemed to stop just short of encouraging their people to kill so they could practice their art. It was all very shady.

They moved on from the Necromancer issue, and Bjorn was grateful that there didn’t seem to be too much going on in the shifter world, other than a disagreeable divorce relating to a false mating; a cautionary tale to any shifters attempting a relationship with each other. He’d glanced towards Ari while they were talking, but she was studiously avoiding his gaze.