“She really did,” Dad nodded.
When I was five, my dead grandmother tried to lure me off into the woods and it mostly worked. I was gone for three days, following her around and listening to her stories of the ‘old world.’ By the time my parents found me wandering in the wilderness, I was dehydrated and malnourished. She hadn’t bothered with my needs as a living child. My parents believed she was attempting to kill me and snatch me away to punish them for putting her out of everyone’s misery. Looking back, of course, I’m glad to be alive, but also low key thankful. Most of the magic I use in my second line of work, I learned directly from her during those long days in the woods. It was the strangest thing. While I was out with her – I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty or tired. I didn’t feel the trees, rocks, and roots cutting into mytender, young flesh. Whatever she did only broke apart when my carrier picked me up while my sire and Kodiak did whatever they did to chase her back to where the dead should stay. Perhaps, my grandmother still wanted me. Perhaps she was enraged that I was further diluting the bloodline by daring to have a true-mate who was a vampire.
“Come on,” Dad sighed. “If you’re going to think that way, I have to see the bar for myself now. I’ll know if my so-called mother has been there or touched there or whatever you think she did.”
“Pierce might be there,” I whispered and shook my head.
“That’s exactly why we have to go check things out. If she wants you because she thinks you’re going to have a bunch of little vampyric babies, she’ll surely want to get rid of him instead if that’s the only thing she can do,” Dad said.
My wolf growled inside his inner sanctum, and I narrowed my eyes, looking out into the moonlit night. Dad was right. I was a Meadow Elf. I didn’t have the privilege of running away if my ancestors were involved because no one else would ever believe my long-dead grandmother was trying to kill me or my mate. Dead people stayed dead after all. They were supposed to anyway but after seeing what Torvan did at the restaurant I wasn’t sure about anything anymore.
Chapter Five
Pierce
The porchlights at Moonglow Cabin welcomed us. Preston dozed in the backseat with his snacks piled all around him and resting on his stomach. Mori rode shotgun, his hands folded in his lap, and silent as if he waited for me to fill him in on what hemissed out on. Only there wasn’t anything I could fill in. Crilus hadn’t given me a chance to get two words in edgewise after he caught a whiff of me.
“Thank you for agreeing to stay on as our guard after Preston tried to bludgeon you to death with his snacks,” Mori said, keeping a straight face.
“I believe that his heart was in the right place,” I said, and it was only a half-lie.
The real reason I stayed on as their guard was that chased prey runs faster and Crilus already had a speed advantage over me. Besides, his cousins seemed to be his closest friends recently, and if I was with them, eventually he’d have to speak with me, right?
“You’re showing restraint that I’m not sure I’d be capable of,” Mori said.
“My parents are both omegas. They’re brave and sassy and will stand up for themselves but I’ve seen how alphas attempt to treat them. I’m a vampire. So, of course, I enjoy a good chase, but Crilus isn’t a deer. When it comes to intimacy, I only want to chase a man who wants to be caught. As of right now, I don’t think Crilus does.”
“I think I’d chase my mate,” Mori frowned. “And don’t say it’s different because I’m an omega.”
“It is and it isn’t,” I shrugged and killed the engine.
“Are you always so withdrawn?” Mori asked, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror.
I shrugged at him, but he didn’t look away. Since it seemed like he and my mate were close and I’d most likely spend plenty of time in his company in the future, I decided to provide more information that I would’ve with most clients.
“Pretty much,” I admitted. “I’m a guard. I’m glad to keep you company, but most clients just want to live their lives andpretend that I don’t exist. Except children. Children always want to point out the guard.”
“I’m sure Crilus will come around,” Mori tried to reassure me, but I wasn’t so sure.
He hadn’t smelled the sheer panic that washed over my mate upon my reveal. Panic like that doesn’t come from jitters or cold feet. I liked to think that sooner or later, Crilus would come around, but I couldn’t force him to do anything. Who wants a mate that he must drag around by the ear? Not this vampire.
“We shall see,” I said, keeping the emotion out of my voice.
This wasn’t Mori’s problem. Mori might have larger problems than his cousin pulling a runner. Until we had more information on who attacked the bar, I didn’t consider any of them in the free and clear. For the sake of Frost, for all I knew, someone came after the bear because he whacked the wrong person with a sack full of snacks.
“Please remain in the car while I do a sweep of the cabin.”
“I thought that was already done?”
“I never trust someone else to do part of my job,” I said. “Please, remain in the car. It won’t take long.”
“I think we’re clear,” Mori said. “The spirits---”
“Mori, I can appreciate you checking your surroundings in your own way but if you want to do my job, do you really need me here?” I asked.
“Do your thing,” Mori shrugged and sighed. “I won’t wake Preston up until you get back. He drank so much soda on the way here that he’s gonna need to pee when he wakes up and he’s not going to wait around while you poke the grass with a stick or whatever it is that you do.”
I left Mori to wait with his sleeping twin without saying another word. I did a quick sweep of the house and even checked the nesting tower. Then, I sent my parents a quick text to assure them that, yes, I was okay. The meeting hadn’t gone ideally butmeetings between true-mates rarely did. They were on vacation in Greece taking a tour that explained how vampire history entwined through non-magical/non-shifting human history in secret. I’d taken the tour a few years before and found it fascinating. So, I sent them to Greece for their fiftieth mate anniversary. If anyone deserved to have a nice holiday it was them. They offered to return home early in light of recent events, but I declined and told them to ensure their holiday. If there was a mating feast to be had, we’d wait for them to come home at the end of their trip.
