“Quick thinking,” said Silas.
Dean felt himself puff up with pride. Silas chuckled before casting his gaze around the once library. “There is nothing left, but at least it wasn’t a wasted journey.”
“And we didn’t die,” clarified Dean. He felt that was quite an important point.
“That too,” agreed Silas easily, with a smirk.
“Can we go home now?” pleaded Dean.
Silas nodded. “I’m pretty sure they can find you anywhere now. So they can come tell you what they have found.”
Dean tried not to feel unsettled at the thought. They seemed willing to obey him and if they could find him anywhere, surely that was a good sign that they would be able to find Ash? It was all good, it was fine. He wasn’t about to be eaten by scary monsters for a start. And he got to go home with Silas.
“What the hell are they?” asked Dean.
Silas was silent for a long moment. “Nobody really knows. They are not from our realm, or hell, or the fey realm. They are from somewhere in between. They appear sometimes around interdimensional portals and they like death.”
Dean swallowed nervously as he digested that piece of information. Silas liked to know everything, so it was lovely he was being so honest and admitting that he didn’t really know. Which also meant the necromancer was admitting that he didn’t know how to protect Dean from them, if the shadowkin changed their mind about their weird obedience. That wildly unsettling thought made Dean dizzy for a moment, but the feeling soon passed. His mate was incredibly clever. Silas would figure it out. Silas would do everything in his formidable power to keep him safe.
Dean smiled at his mate. Everything was going to be okay.
Silas smiled back warmly, took his hand and together they headed home.
Chapter twenty-four
Thefairylightswereannoying. Silas had been fiddling with them for what felt like hours, but he still couldn’t get them how he wanted. Sighing in annoyance, he jumped down from the bed and looked up at his handy work. From his new vantage point, it didn’t look too bad.
He had shoved the bed into the far corner and retrieved all the pillows and throws from the cupboard. Silas scowled, it was far too early to be going into heat again but Malachi had said it might take a while for things to settle down.
Damn it. Silas wanted everything to go back to normal. He didn’t like all this nonsense. The insane urge for comfy things itching relentlessly at the back of his mind was immensely distracting. He had hoped his last heat had been the end of it and everything would return to normal.
His ears pricked up at the sound of a van pulling up outside the house. It had to be Brendan returning from his trip to pick up the pack’s deliveries from the post office.
Silas ran down the stairs, pushed past the people standing by the back of the van’s opened doors. Ignoring Brendan, Silas cast his gaze over the various parcels, looking for one that was the right size and shape. As soon as he saw it, he grabbed it and ran back to his bedroom.
Ripping open the packaging, he was hit with the smell of factory chemicals, as well as the strange smell all new things had. He wrinkled his nose. Hopefully those scents would soon fade. The fur was soft and warm in his hands, a beautiful charcoal gray. Silas hurried over to the bed and spread it out. It covered the double bed perfectly. Thank heavens for eBay. Silas was thrilled it had arrived today.
He ran his hand over the soft bedcover and grinned. He wanted to get on it, naked, and feel it against all of his skin. But first the bed needed to be enclosed and dark. Nailing some curtains into the ceiling might work. Then a better idea struck. Branches attached to the bedposts, making it a homemade four-poster bed. Then covers could be hung from and draped over them, making the bed like a tent or a den.
Silas grinned and dashed off to the woods to find some branches.
A couple of hours later, Silas stood and admired his handiwork. Perfect. It was only mid-afternoon, but he couldn’t resist anymore. He stripped hastily.
As soon as he crawled into his den, a feeling of peace washed over him. It was dark, enclosed, and the fur delightfully soft on his sensitive skin. He wriggled around for a bit before sighing in contentment. Damn hormones.
Silas groaned, he couldn’t deny it anymore, he was going into heat. Not soon, not even later today, but right now. He had shit to do, Dean had shit to do. Carefully, he closed off the mate bond so Dean wouldn’t hear his horny thoughts. Well, hornier-than-usual thoughts. There was no need for the alpha’s day to be ruined as well.
Silas tried to distract himself with unsexy thoughts. The shadowkin hadn’t appeared, and it had been two days since the visit to the mansion. Which meant either they couldn’t find Ash, or they hadn’t understood what Dean was on about, or they couldn’t find the alpha to report back.
None of those reasons were great. Silas wasn’t keen on returning to the mansion, but logically he could see that they probably should, just in case it was that the shadowkin couldn’t find Dean. But if they couldn’t find Dean, what were the chances that they had been able to find Ash?
And maybe it was good that they couldn’t find Dean? They were creepy and dangerous and Silas did not like the reminder that Dean was something ‘other’ now. It was unsettling and uncomfortable. But still a million times better than Dean being dead. Silas could cope with anything other than that.
His cock twitched, undeterred by his dark, swirling thoughts. Distraction wasn’t working. He glanced down at his hard cock and glared at it.
“Fine,” he muttered. “Have it your way. But I’m not disturbing Dean until tonight.”
Silas groaned, the hours until evening seemed impossibly long. Hours in which his need would only continue to grow until it burned.
