“We’re not sure they were after him at all. They could’ve been after me for reasons I’m not comfortable to discuss just now,” Mori said. “Whatever tried hit up against Crilus’s shields, though. He’s tired and sore and that makes him cranky.”
“Okay, Dad. Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Crilus said.
“Would you like something for your pain?” I asked, forcing my mind not to go to the place that wanted to kiss every inch of his sore flesh until his brain was so overcome with pleasure that his pain was forced to flee like a thief in the night.
“Uh… Are you trying to sell me drugs?” Crilus asked.
“Yes,” I laughed. “Two can be idiots together but there are some over the counter anti-inflammatories in the glovebox. I believe those are the first line for magical exhaustion and that feeling that you took a beating that didn’t even have the respect to leave bruises behind.”
Crilus frowned at me but opened the glovebox anyway.
“They’re in a blue bottle. While you’re in there would you please hand me the hand sanitizer?” I asked because sooner or later, I’d have to tell Crilus the truth and with new regulations in place, the sooner was probably the better.
“Yeah. Sure. Afraid we have cooties?” Crilus said, grabbing the clear bottle of hand sanitizer and holding it out to me.
“Thanks, Crilus,” I said, careful not to touch his hand.
Another touch would’ve been my undoing. I forced my eyes to focus on the road and not on him as we pulled onto the highway. Safety first. That was the rule even more so now that my mate refused to sit properly in the passenger seat. If something collided with the nose of our car, he’d be smashed to smithereens with the way his legs were all pulled up like that. His beautiful long legs…. I shook my head and refocused my eyes on the highway in front of me.
“Are you okay, dude?” Preston asked from the back seat, and I told him that I was indeed fine.
Thankfully, the bear didn’t ask any further questions and offered me a piece of jerky instead which I gratefully accepted. I wasn’t the biggest fan of dried out deer meat, but we’d probably be forced to spend the next few weeks in small quarters for their safety until the others figured out who or what wanted to blowthe three of them up. We’d be around each other even longer since he was related to my mate.
After eating the jerky, I considered when it would be best to use the hand sanitizer. The biggest flaw of the regulation issued pheromone blocker spray was that it was decently easy to take off with a tiny bit of hand sanitizer. It took much more water to wash it away, but hand sanitizer was everywhere these days and guys often used it without giving it too much thought. I didn’t have to wait long for a safe window to use the stuff because thirty minutes into the drive Preston asked to stop at a petrol station for snacks.
Preston and Mori went inside but Crilus didn’t bother getting out of the car. All of shifter and vampyric evolution didn’t prepare me for this moment. Sure, the plants that went into the process of making pheromone blocker spray grew native in many places, but I wasn’t sure they were meant for moments like this. Would giving him a head’s up make it easier on him? Would he just think I was a creep trying to hit on him?
“Why do you keep staring at me?” Crilus asked.
“I’m about to explain that,” I said, popping the top on the hand sanitizer.
“With that?”
“With this. Don’t worry. It’s not enchanted. I believe its ingredients basically amount to rubbing alcohol and gloop.”
“Is this about how I sucked off Cobalt in front of other people? It’s like no one has ever heard of sex magic. He knew what he was getting into. In fact, the night he met his---” Crilus paused his story to sniff the air.
I continued to rub the hand sanitizer into my skin, pushing up my shirt cuffs as I went. Crilus’s pupils grew to nearly cover his green irises.
“No,” he said and gave one shake of his head. “Not happening.” He opened the door. I called after him, unlockingmy own but even with my vampyric speed he was already out of the parking lot before I got out of the car. I chased after him or at least tried to, but two hundred and fifty pounds of bear shifter tackled me and beat me around the ears with several bags filled with snacks.
“Stop it!” I said, trying to catch the bags before they thunked into me again.
“What did you do to Crilus!?” he growled and thumped me again.
One of the bags broke, sending snacks flying all over the parking lot.
“I did nothing to your---” he thunked me again with the remaining intact bags.
“If you do not stop this right now, I’m going to have to detain you!” I said, fighting off the urge to bare my fangs to him.
“I’d like to see you try!” Preston growled.
“PRESTON, STOP!” Mori bellowed and tackled Preston.
Both omegas fell on top of me and bags and packages of snacks fell all around us. I tried to wiggle out from under them or grab one of them to separate the wrestling match that kept me pinned to the ground but neither of them was having it. This was a sibling matter that I wasn’t a part of, and I would’ve happily butted out if they gave me an escape route that didn’t involve punting two of my charges into the sky so I could chase after my mate.
“And this is why we ask you all to tell us when you meet your true-mates,” the all-too familiar voice of Medwin Moonscale reached my ears as big hands pulled Mori away from Preston. The bear remained in place, laying across my back like I was a common pick pocket that he placed under citizen’s arrest.
