“Tell me what?” Pierce asked.
Kodiak narrowed his eyes on me and I sighed. Had I really done somethingthatwrong? I had warned him the my familywas batshit. That our magic wasn’t to be trusted sometimes. That meeting our true-mates had a way of taking a wrecking ball to our lives.
“Oh, that,” Pierce shrugged. “It’s not been too bad. It’s taken away my sense of time and my motivation to leave the house but I’m not sure that latter part is magic. You’re here.”
“What? You know?” I blinked.
“Mate, I’m inside your head as much as you’re inside of mine. Besides that, your magic brushes up against my wards all the time. As far as my sense of time passing, it’s always different for vampires. We have forever unless something kills us. At least, my family does. I meant it when I said I’d spend eternity with you. If you need to work through this phase to believe that, keep casting away. Though, you’re going to have to start eating more and we’re going to have to work out a blood supply method if they’re all going on strike about bringing it to me.”
“But you were so confused about the empty blood fridge and—”
“Yeah. Because the magic has eaten my sense of time,” Pierce shrugged, glancing around the table.
“Eat up,” Kodiak sighed. “Both of you. There’s a pot roast and a lasagna. We weren’t sure what you liked, Pierce.”
“I’m not too picky. Being a guard means I’ve eaten a lot of instant dinners,” Pierce shrugged. “It’s nice to meet you and really, I’m fine. Crilus is just trying to prove that I didn’t mean what I said.”
“I am not. We’re safe here. No Sharon Claudis. No Venal Claudis. No grandma. No nothing,” I said, watching Pierce cut into the pasta.
“I should heat these up,” Kodiak sighed, realizing he skipped a part.
“Did you really know or are you covering my ass?”I asked Pierce over our mating link.
“Both. I suspected but didn’t know for sure until Kodiak brought it up. For what it’s worth, I don’t think the spell is inherently bad. A sense of time isn’t needed to survive and if that’s what is given up to keep people alive, it would be worth it. I figured you’d get it out of your system and want to go back to the Raven’s Perch eventually and if you didn’t that was fine. Eventually, we’d invite my parents over for dinner and Clarence or someone would find Sharon.”
“Am I an asshole for not helping?”I asked.
“Maybe,”he shrugged.“More so I am. I’m a guard after all. I’m trained for such things. Though, if they haven’t gotten her yet, it means she’s laying low. Probably waiting until the baby is born.”
“I could feed her to your wards,”I whispered even though we were speaking over our mating link and Kodiak couldn’t hear us.
“If she were to die in the house that’s exactly what would happen,”Pierce shrugged and took a long drink of his shake.“Do you think Kodiak will help work out the blood delivery or is he just here to scold you?”
“I think I have them worried,”I sighed.“I hate that but…”
“You could live like this forever?”Pierce filled in the blank for me.
“Yeah. I could.”
“You can keep me here,”he shrugged again.
“What if it’s just the magic that makes you feel that way?”I asked him.
“That was the way of things before you started that spell. I brought you to a place where my wards and blood magic would make you feel protected. I’d have kept you here until the Sharon stuff was over either way.”
I laughed and leaned back in my chair. It had become the sort of situation where I wasn’t sure if I was the perpetrator or the hostage anymore.
“So, what are we doing about this, you two?” Kodiak asked, coming back to the table once the food was in the oven.
“I was his hostage before he was mine,” I crossed my arms.
“It’s true. I’m keeping him here. I know Preston is his cousin, but he’s been attacked once and nearly twice since all this started. I’m a selfish man, Kodiak. I’d lock him up in a tower if that’s the only way I could keep him safe.”
Kodiak’s expression softened. There were two omegas across the Atlantic that he felt the same way about. My carrier was the pack leader, and Kodiak was good at letting him hold his own but if push came to shove, he always had his back.
“Then you know, he needs to see a doctor if he’s pregnant.”
“He will,” Pierce said and I almost opened my mouth to protest. I’d tell him he wasn’t my boss but shit, he was right. I’d take care of the baby.
