He’s right. If my father wants something, he’ll do everything in his power to get it. Just like he won’t give up trying to capture and kill Vara for her golden wings. Or a gargoyle for their horns. He wants to meet with me, and he won’t leave me alone until I agree.
I pick up my phone and find Locheran’s number. His apprehension is near suffocating.
“What happened?” He asks the moment he answers my call.
“It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“What. Happened?”
I stand and walk to the door, peering out to make sure Dean isn’t lingering and close it. I sit back at my desk and speak in hushed words.
“My brother showed up and said my father wants to have dinner Friday night. He didn’t tell me the time or place. They’re paranoid like that.”
Locheran lets out a long stream of breath into the phone. He’s frustrated and worried if I’m to understand these emotions he’s sending through the bond.
“We need to tell Xander,” I say.
“I’ll do that now. He’ll want to call an emergency meeting.” He huffs into the phone. “I’m sending a shifter to the school to escort you home.”
With that, he hangs up, refusing to let me argue with him about needing a bodyguard.
I lean my elbows on the desk and rub my temples. I might have an idea about how we can use the meeting to our advantage. They’re not going to believe me if I suddenly agree to join. And my original idea of simply telling them I helped a human who I saw get attacked was a weak one.
I need something more convincing.
One thing’s for sure… Locheran’s not going to like this idea.
“No. Absolutely not," Locheran says, pacing the living room in Xander’s penthouse.
I sit in a comfy oversized chair and sigh at my mate’s reaction to the plan.
“They have to believe me, Locheran.”
“I’m not sending you to one of Vara’s clubs. Do you know what kind of supes go to her clubs?” He turns to Vara who sits on the couch between her two mates. “No offense.”
She smirks and lifts a clawed paw. “No offense taken, but to be fair, only a handful of my clubs are for sex craved, blood hungry monsters.”
Layla elbows her in the side. “Not helping.”
“Exactly. I’m not letting my mate get drooled on by horny monsters!” Locheran is yelling now.
“Let me?” I scoff.
“Mouse, you know what I mean,” he says, softening his voice.
Still… his frustration is stressing me out, and I get nauseous when I stress out.
I’m trying not to puke in front of everyone.
“Loch, I don’t care which club we go to. Any will work,” I explain… again, because my mate refuses to agree to the plan. “I want to show up at dinner with a video from a supernatural nightclub. We can stage some horrific shit going down. A human sacrifice or a feeding. Then maybe, just maybe, my father will believe that I want to join them. I can lead them to a dummy location where you all swoop in to capture them.”
“Something could go wrong. A supe could grab her—”
“We’ll make sure everyone’s in on it," Vara says. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“Do you have another idea in mind?” Xander asks Locheran.
The gargoyle king stands with his arms crossed at the edge of the living space where it begins to merge with the kitchen. Evangeline is next to him; her tiny hands wrapped around the bulging muscles of his upper arm.
