Iwalked my mom out to the car quickly. “Mom, truthfully those guys are some old alcoholicsfrom Kai’s program. I’m afraid he might be in trouble. I’m going to go gethim.”
God,I was becoming a good liar. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I haddevised a good cover story to my mom to explain our interesting lifestyle onthe mountain. Alcoholic healing retreat sounded good at the time.
“Oh.Well, what if you get hurt?” My mom asked as I locked her inside the car.
“I’llbe fine. Black belt in martial arts, remember?” I shouted through the glasswindow.
Iopened the café door just in time to see Kai pick one of the men up by theshirt and pin him against the wall. People were screaming.
“Youleave my mate alone!” he roared.
‘Kai!There are humans!’I scolded him.
‘Idon’t care!’he roared insidemy head.
Thesecond man approached Kai and I knew that if I didn’t stop them, Kai was goingto shift and all hell would break loose.
“Okay!I cheated. I’m sorry. It was a long time ago. Get over it, baby. Let’s go,” Ishouted at Kai loudly as I tugged on his arm. It was the only thing I couldthink of. He glared back at me with yellow eyes and I quickly dropped hissunglasses off his forehead to cover them.
“Slut,”some old woman mumbled to me as I tugged on Kai’s arm. The other diners werewhispering and scowling at me. Great.
‘Kai,if you expose us to the humans. We’re dead. Let’s go.’
Astrange look came over Kai’s face. He let go of the guy’s shirt and he fell tothe ground gasping for air. Kai grabbed my hand and walked with me outside.
‘Allright, I have two plans. Plan A, we stay in Oregon and fight. Plan B, we moveto another country and leave the entire pack behind and start again.’
Hiswords shocked me. I nearly tripped over my own feet.
‘I’mnot leaving Emma, Diya, Safe Haven, or my mom!’
Kaigrinned.‘Good. I liked Plan A better, anyway.’
Ifeared how bloody Plan A would be if it meant war between the vampiresandRAIDOS. Werewolves didn’t exactly have high numbers. Last time I checked, ourspecies was dying out.
Afterdropping my mom back off at home, Kai called Trent and asked if he and anotherpack member could keep an eye on her house.
“Youthink RAIDOS would hurt my mom?” I asked in shock. We were almost home. Thisentire day had been unsettling and wasn’t exactly how I imagined the day beforemy wedding going.
“Iwouldn’t put anything past them at this point.”
OhGod. Shit just got real. I leaned my head back on the seat and sighed.
Max
Whenwe pulled up to the house I saw that the Seattle pack had arrived. Max and Tarawere talking together and laughing. Kai sighed.
“Theygravitate toward each other,” he stated.
“Kai,in my vision quest I learned something. Reincarnation is real. TaraisMax’smate. Like, literally. Like the same mate as he had before. When are we goingto tell him?”
Kaiseemed to consider my words. He ran his fingers through his thick hair.“Aurora, if I died in your arms and then another guy came along and tried tokiss you and say he was me, how would you feel?”
Well,when he put it that way. … “Weird. Mad. But in the end, happy?” I wasn’t sosure.
“Wewill deal with it when we have to. Come on, it’s our time to just worry aboutus.” He leaned across the steering wheel and kissed my neck. I gave a softgrowl and he slipped his hand up my dress. I caught it and smiled.
“Notuntil tomorrow night, lover boy.” I opened the door and got out. The look hegave me could start a fire. I had to admit, I liked getting him riled up. Igreeted Shamus and the others lingering around our front yard. All of a suddenI felt movement at my back. Kai swept me up in his arms and began walking me upthe stairs into the house. His eyes were smoldering.
