Sadness washed over him as the last memory of his mate flashed through his mind. He clenched his fist, thinking of the bloodstains he couldn't wash awayeach time he thought of Fox.
I'm so sorry, baby. Wait, did he just say his cousin's name is Fox?
Clearing his throat, he shifted to the side, letting Dilen's hand slip off his shoulder. "What did you just say?"
"Yeah, Fox is my little cousin, by a couple of months. The entire family spoils him, especially his older brother. But it's understandable, you know, because of his heart." Dilen shook his head. "I told him it was a bad idea to get pregnant with his heart defect, but would he listen to reason? Nope, he simply does whatever the fuck he wants."
"Fox," Alistaire said, his voice but a whisper. "You said his name was Fox."
Alistaire wasn't sure if it was a cosmic joke that his mate who’d died two years earlier on the very night he saved another with the same name.
"Yeah, man. His name is Crevan, but we call him Fox because since he was a kid, he's been as sly as a fox shifter. The dude’s so damn clever it's fucking scary how his mind works. I fear for his mate. That guy has his work cut out for him."
"Wait, he's not mated?"
How's that possible if he just delivered a baby?
"Nope, he got tired of waiting for his mate." Dilen leaned closer to Alistaire. They weren't the same height, so he had to lean down so the other man could whisper in his ear. "He was artificially inseminated."
Well, that explains things.
“Should you be telling me this?” Alistaire asked.
“Shit, you’re right. Pretend I didn’t say that,” Dilen said after a few seconds of thought.
Alistaire tried to think if his Fox would do something like that but couldn't answer truthfully. He hated that their time together had been cut short. After Fox's death, Alistaire had quit his job and moved to Vale Valley to be close to his adopted father and the extended family he'd never met.
"Hey," Dilen said. "I'm going to see Fox later. My cousin, Zev, called before you came in. He told me Fox’s awake. Do you want to come with me? I'm sure he'll want to thank you for saving his life."
"No, that's okay. I'm glad to know that your cousin and the baby are all right."
"If you're sure, but if you change your mind, let me know."
He nodded at Dilen and headed towards LaMarkus's office. Alistaire had been trying to adjust to living in a town like Vale Valley, where everyone seemed to enjoy life. He'd missed Synder and thought being closer to him would ease the brokenness in his heart, but seeing all the happy couples and families only made it hurt more. He knocked on the Sheriff's door and entered without waiting for permission to enter.
"Hey, boss."
"Are you ever going to call me uncle?" LaMarkus asked.
Alistaire chuckled. "Maybe one day. This whole family thing is new to me," he answered honestly. He’d been alone for so long he was having a hard time adjusting to being around family, especially since he’d only heard about them and finally met them a little over a year ago.
"All right, we'll give it some time." LaMarkus put the files he was looking through aside and focused on Alistaire. "So, have you given thought to what I asked you?"
Alistaire leaned back in his chair and looked at the other man. "Don't you think you should ask someone who's been in the department longer than me?"
"No," LaMarkus answered without a single thought. "You have more experience than all those men out there. I gave you the rank of captain because that’s what you wanted. And although I trust them, you, on the other hand, I trust with my life."
"How can you trust me so quickly? We officially met last year."
"You think I haven't been tracking you since Synder told us about you over twenty years ago?" LaMarkus chuckled. "You might have been born a McBain, and I will never discount your birth parents, but since you and Synder came into our lives, you’ve become a Vale."
"I'm a Vale in name only."
"In some ways, you're right. You and Synder have shared blood, and Kayne adopted you once they mated. You're a Vale no matter how you look at it."
"That's because I wanted him to turn me into a vampire, and you know how that turned out."
Alistaire was a neo-bhasmhor or an immortal to the human fairy tales due to his mother who made a sacrifice he did not ask for and didn’t understand until he was much older. Alistaire was born from the McBain clan, whose people once lived at the Scottish highlands’ borders, during a time historians now tell as bedtime stories.
