Prologue
Garridan watched as Bennett shovelled macaroni and cheese into his mouth. Truth be told, he had more cheese on his face than in his belly.
The poor kid’s entire life had changed and Garridan worried every single day that it would have lasting negative effects. He appeared to be resilient, even though he asked about his mom and dad at least once a day since the attack. That, more than anything, told Garridan all he needed to know.
“Bennett, slow down or you’ll choke.” Garridan stood and walked over to the phone on the wall. He held it, making sure there was a dial tone and then pressed buttons, calling his friend Tony. Tony was the only friend he had left. Everyone else had died in the attack.
“Okay, Uncle Garridan.” The way Bennett said his name, as if the ‘I’ didn’t exist always made him smile. It erased a little of the worry he had for the boy.
Garridan shook his head and watched the kid like a hawk as he ate. Bennett wasn’t going to choke to death on his watch.
He put the phone to his ear and stretched the cord across the room, so he’d be closer to Bennett in case he needed rescuing. He ruffled Bennett’s hair, but kept a hand on his head.
“Tony here.”
“Is the meeting set up?”
“Yes.”
“And this blood whore is trustworthy?”
“Fuck no, he’s not trustworthy. He’s a blood whore. You know how they are, loyal to his master. He does know about the attack, though, and he has information that suggests the vampires are preparing for a war with all shifters.”
“What does that have to do with the wolves attacking our village?”
“The wolves were forced. They feared the vampires more than they feared retaliation from us. Rightly so, too. Fuckers wiped us out, man.”
“Do you think you can find one of the wolves? Tell him I just want to talk.” Tony was the best tracker in their entire village and seemed to be able to find information on just about anything.
“Yeah, probably. You want to go that route and not meet with the blood whore?”
“No. I’ll meet with him, too. I have a bad feeling about him, so be careful.”
“Yeah, you too, man. I’ll see you later at the club.”
Garridan took his hand away from Bennett’s head and walked across the kitchen to hang up the phone. The more he dug into the attack, wanting answers as to why his best friend and his best friend’s mate had to die, the more questions he had.
Garridan came back to the table and ruffled Bennett’s hair again before sitting down. There were so many things to worry about since he’d become Bennett’s sole guardian. All he wanted was to be able toexplain to him why his parents died when he was old enough to know. If Bennett were older and they had to have that conversation, the only thing Garridan could tell him was that he was looking into it.
What kind of answer was that?
Garridan worried about him adjusting to his new situation and he worried that maybe he wasn’t going to be a good enough parent. He wasn’t going to do as good a job as Samuel and Jeanette would have done had they lived through the attack.
What if he fucked the kid up? What if he wasn’t enough?
Bennett’s cheese-covered lips pinched together, and his little brow furrowed as if he too were worried about something. It took Garridan a few seconds to realize that Bennett was mimicking him, frowning because Garridan was.
Garridan chuckled and then tried to frown again, just to tease Bennett, although Garridan definitely didn’t succeed the second time around. Garridan smiled at the cuteness that was Bennett. “Hey, you stole my face.”
Bennett giggled. “You’re so silly. Just like Daddy is.”
Garridan smiled. He supposed he was a lot like Samuel. They had been best friends for most of their lives and were similar in many ways. They’d shared a sense of humor that had made their friendship stronger than it would have been otherwise. They’d trained together every day and had even lived together before Samuel found Jeanette. They were like brothers, so much so, that Samuel’s son had always called him Uncle, and Garridan had gone over there every Sunday for dinner, along with the rest of Samuel’s family.
He was grateful for those dinners more than ever. He missed his friend so much since he’d been gone. He was just grateful he had spent so much time with Samuel. It gave Garridanan opportunity to have a relationship with Bennett, which was proving to be important considering the kid was stuck with him.
God, the poor kid would have had a much harder time if he didn’t know Garridan quite so well. Bennett never once questioned being with Garridan. They had one moment that first night, when Bennett wouldn’t go to sleep so Garridan had made a game out of it. They’d camped out in front of the television watching cartoons. Right before Bennett had fallen asleep, he’d asked if Mommy and Daddy would come to get him soon. Garridan had had to explain to the kid that Samuel and Jeanette weren’t coming back. Bennett had cried and Garridan had held him all night long.
He started a thing, so every night was campout with the television playing because Bennett couldn’t go to sleep without the background noise. Garridan was content with their little arrangement. They both needed each other during the nights. The darkness was a reminder of how hard they fought to survive.
