“I will,” Bjorn said, reaching back and rubbing his arm. The gesture was distracted, his mind elsewhere, and Viggo huffed at having lost his attention so quickly. Bjorn continued speaking, oblivious. “No one’s come around looking for him, I would have noticed that with how intensely I’ve been patrolling, so he was probably acting on his own – though the fact that he had access to moonrock and knew that it would affect us is worrying. Maybe his car was abandoned somewhere nearby? That should provide us with a lot of information, and of course I’ll have to dig up the body. That’s not going to be pleasant, but if he had a cell phone on him, we need it.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Viggo said, stepping back and checking his watch. It was almost noon, and if he wanted to get to the office in time to get any real work done, he should get going. With Bjorn entirely preoccupied, there was no reason to delay. “I’m off. I’ll see you later tonight, okay?”
“See you later,” Bjorn said, waving him off.
Making sure he had his keys and cellphone, Viggo gave Bjorn one last kiss and went to work.
15
SEBASTIAN
“Sweety? Are you awake? I made breakfast!”
Sebastian closed his eyes at the sound of his mother’s voice, pulling the covers up over his head and taking a deep breath. He’d been home for less than two days and his mother was acting like a complete lunatic. When she wasn’t trying to convince him to escape to Canada with the fake passport she’d bought on Craig’s List, she was coming up with ways they could sue Viggo, Life Mate or the federal government into giving him his freedom back.
It was exhausting.
“Sweety?” his mother called again, this time from just outside the door. “I made your favorite. Come down and eat, I have something I want to talk to you about.”
Sebastian sat up and swung his legs off the mattress, staring at the window and wondering if he should make a run for it.
“Sebastian?” his mother called, knocking on the door. “Are you coming down for breakfast?”
Sebastian rose up from the bed, pulling on his clothes from the day before, not wanting to be naked in case his mother decided to bust down the door.
“I’ll be right down,” he said, sitting down to put on his socks. “I just want to brush my teeth.”
“All right,” his mother said, sounding stressed. “I’ll be downstairs waiting for you. Hurry up so that the waffles don’t get cold.”
“I will,” Sebastian promised, feeling bad for being so impatient with his mother. It was obvious that she was being eaten alive by guilt over what was happening, convinced that it was her fault, though Sebastian wished she would be calmer about it. There was nothing either of them could do to get him out of being in Viggo’s pack, and at this point he really just wanted to make the best of it.
Heading into the bathroom and brushing his teeth, staring at himself in the mirror and trying to see if he looked at all different, he washed his face and made an effort to style his mess of hair. He had a bad case of bedhead and not the cute kind.
“Sebastian?” his mother called, making him wince.
“Coming!” He unlocked his bedroom door and stepped out into the hall. His mother grabbed his shirt, just holding on to him, and Sebastian fought the impulse to push her hand away. “You didn’t have to wait for me. I said I was coming.”
“I know,” his mother said, glancing down at her hand and looking startled to see it tangled in the fabric of Sebastian’s shirt. She hastily let go. “I just wanted to walk down with you.”
Making their way down to the kitchen, Sebastian took a seat at the table while his mother served him a waffle and poured him a glass of orange juice.
“Thanks,” he mumbled, helping himself to some syrup. “You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?”
She sat down across from him and Sebastian wondered what scheme she’d come up with now. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face was drawn, but she was wide awake – almost to the point of being manic – and Sebastian wished she would go to sleep and rest.
“I know you said the passport I bought wasn’t good enough, and I agree-” Sebastian buried his face in his hands and groaned. “-but I’ve been reading about this thing called the dark web. You can get anything there, and I think if we get you a better fake, we can have you safe in Canada by Monday. We just-”
“Mom, no. Please,” Sebastian cut her off. “I already told you, fake passports don’t work. They scan your passport when you pass through immigration to verify it electronically.”
“But the ones on the dark web-”
“And I don’t want to flee to Canada, okay?” Sebastian put down his fork and leaned forward, willing his mother to see reason. “This may not have been what I planned for my life, but I want to make the best of it, so can you please leave it alone and be supportive?”
His mother clenched her teeth, tears welling in her eyes and making them glisten.
“I’m just trying to help,” she said.
“I don’t need help,” Sebastian countered. “I told you, Viggo made it very clear that I don’t have to do anything I don’t want. If I make a run for it now, it will only cause trouble and make things more difficult.”
