We all have afternoon coffee together before getting ready for our trip back. Faye is nestled in Marius’ arms, not even moving an inch when they settle in the car.
Celine puts an additional bag in the trunk. “I called Alpha Elden,” she tells us. “I won’t be able to stay the night, but Marius will.”
At that, Faye raises her head, her eyes lighting up. “You are not leaving me alone?”
“Never,” Celine promises her.
“Oh, I had a fantastic idea,” Marius says. “I looked up a recipe! We can make cool cookies together! Have you ever baked cookies?”
“I helped Gwen,” Faye explains.
“Do you want to help me?”
She raises her arms. “Yes.”
Celine chuckles. “You might need to supervise him, Faye.”
“What’s supervise?”
“It means to make sure he doesn’t mess up.”
“Someone here thinks I am a bad cook,” Marius whispers into Faye’s ear.
Faye giggles. “Don’t worry! I will supermise you!”
Celine settles in the car as well, tapping Vincent’s shoulder. “Thank you for waiting, Vince.”
“Don’t mention it!” He grins, steering the car away from the parking lot. “By the way, I called Elden and told him what happened here earlier. He is fuming.”
Marius takes a small notebook out of his pocket and scribbles down a sketch before giving it to Faye. “Like that,” he whispers.
Faye giggles. “Can I keep it!”
“Of course.”
She turns to me. Gwen and I have taken the seats in the second row to give the others more room. Also, I enjoy cuddling withGwen, which is just so much easier when no one else is next to us. “Gwen, look!”
Gwen and I look at the drawing, both of us grinning wildly when we see it. It’s Dad in chibi-style with fumes coming out of his ears. “Something tells me Dad would love it,” I grin.
Gwen chuckles. “Flora too.”
For the first half an hour of our drive, Faye demands all types of drawings from Marius, which he obliges happily with, sketching whatever she wants. After a while, however, Vincent steers the car past the left turn at the junction we were supposed to take.
“Wouldn’t that have been our way home?” I ask.
“Yes,” he mutters, staring into the rearview window.
“What’s wrong?” Edward asks.
“The car behind us. It has been following us for a while.”
Edward frowns, looking over his shoulder. Marius and Celine do the same, both of them much more tense all of a sudden.
“Gwen and I had our scents masked,” I point out.
“Was Faye’s scent masked, too?” Marius asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
