Misenchanted Shifter Read Online Free PDF

with Lord Heller. He wasn’t sure what to do with me either, but he brought me to his daughter while he was figuring it out, and she and I hit it off. She was old enough to adopt me and worked from home doing artisan tapestries, so she was able to give me the care and attention I needed.”
    “What about your parents?”
    “I send them cards at Christmas, but I never get anything in exchange. I am fairly sure I am dead to them.” She shrugged. “Mom loves me though, that I am sure of.”
    “Your adoptive mother?”
    “Yes, Amethyst Heller. Her mother and Adros were marred for eleven decades before she died; he gave her as much youth and life as he could. In the end, Mariella Heller passed away and he took her last name to honour her memory. Even love couldn’t hold back death.”
    She shook her head and glanced quickly at Harris. He was looking a little surprised, but his loose grip on her hand was still there.
    “You were raised by a half-elf.” He nodded. “That would explain the impeccable grooming.”
    Eileen was startled into laughing. “It would. As Lord Heller’s granddaughter, I had to attend any number of fey events. Mother taught me to turn myself out and suggested that some of the older fey would be comforted by a more retro look. I took up eveningwear styles from the forties and fifties, and it served me well. The hair is a little more complicated, but I am used to it now.”
    He smiled. “I like it. How do you wear it normally?”
    She shrugged. “Up in a ponytail. I work frequently in hostile territory and keeping my hair back gives me all my peripheral vision.”
    He asked, “What do you do?”
    “I am a substitute teacher.”
    He blinked and chuckled. “That is a very strange coincidence.”
    Teebie came in with a tray, winked and set it down before leaving. Coffee and cake were arranged delicately with a sign that said, Decaf on the pot.
    “Would you care for some coffee?” Eileen went immediately into hostess mode.
    “Please, and some cake if you do not mind.”
    She set about pouring the coffee and handing him cake and one of the teeny forks. It looked ridiculous in his fingers, but he wielded it with practice. “Cream or sugar?”
    “Cream and two sugars.”
    She blinked at them sharing taste in coffee additives. She set both cups up the same and stirred neatly before putting the cup and saucer within easy reach.
    “Now, why is it coincidence, and why do you look like you are used to having tea parties?”
    He grinned. “I have six nieces who have bullied me into finding a mate of my own because they are getting tired of me being alone.”
    “Six?”
    “I am the youngest of four children. My oldest niece is twenty-four.”
    “Any nephews?”
    “Five. My sisters are all content with the families they have. It is their children who were a little on the pushy side. Their mothers might have been in on it.”
    “Your siblings are all girls?” Eileen laughed. It explained several things about him.
    “They are. I had to practice dancing with all of them, was dragged shopping for not only prom but wedding gowns when the time came. I have been to hundreds of tea parties, birthday parties and pixie parties in the backyards of my nieces over the last few decades.”
    Something in the way he said it clued her in to something. “You are a little older than you look, aren’t you?”
    He smiled shyly and nibbled at his fork.
    She tried not to laugh at the image of his broad-shouldered body and huge hand gracefully clutching the china plate and teeny utensil.
    “If I told you how old I was, my sisters would kill me. If I am the youngest, it is not something that my sisters would want me to admit.”
    Eileen narrowed her eyes. “What is your beast?”
    He focussed on his coffee. “I am an elk, usually.”
    “What are you when you are not usually an elk?”
    “An Irish elk.”
    “Those are extinct.”
    “You don’t have to tell me. It is something I am very aware of.” He looked