“The person you have called cannot be reached. Please leave a message for — Antoine — after the beep.”
“Ugh!” I growled, hanging up the phone.
“Woah, what’s with all the dead birds?”
I spun around to face Tate, his face a mixture of confusion and disgust. Not wanting to or willing to admit that it was me. Which it wasn’t. It had to be Antoine. I took several deep breaths trying to calm myself.
“Hey...” Tate closed the distance between us, placing his hands on my shoulders, rubbing soothing circles. “It’s okay. They’re just birds. Breathe, princess. That’s it. Breathe.”
I nodded, matching my breath with his.
When I’d finally calmed down, Tate ushered me away from the birds to another side of the courtyard where I couldn’t see them. But I still knew they were there no matter how far away we got. I would always know they were there.
He brushed my hair back from my face, his voice low and soothing. “Want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“No.” I swallowed the thick lump in my throat. “Not really. Just trying to get a hold of my dad.”
“Yeah, I get that. Family drama is the worst.” Something in his tone of voice made me look at him. His usually happy-go-lucky demeanor wasn’t quite so bright, and there were bags under his eyes.
I was such a jerk. Here I was freaking out over some dead crows when Tate was clearly going through something, something that I didn’t even know about. That hurt more than I expected.
While we had been keeping our distance because of Kyren, I realized I hated it. I wanted him around all the time. I wanted to know why he had such a sad look in his eyes. To hear him vent about his family the way I vented about mine.
“Does this have anything to do with the thing you had to do last night?” I placed my hand on top of his, trying to show him that I was here for him.
Tate gave me a lopsided grin, but I could tell his whole heart wasn’t in it. “Kind of. My brothers want me to come back and rule the pack.”
“And you said...?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up one way or the other.
If Tate decided to go back to Utah, I’d be devastated, but I’d understand. It would also mean that Kyren would follow him. Could I do that? Say Kyren wanted to get back together. Could I leave my family behind to be with them? I wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t something I wanted to think about right now.
“I said no!” Tate gripped my hand firmly in his, his eyes searching my face. “Of course, I said no. Everyone I care about is here. My life is here. I love my family, but...” He shook his head and blew out a breath. “They never understood me. I can’t be their alpha.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” He grinned at me, this time a real smile. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t leave you even if I wanted.”
“But Kyren...?”
Tate cupped my face with his hand. “Kyren or not. He’ll come around. Maybe not this week or this year, but eventually. I love you. And I love Kyren. Why can’t I have you both?”
I placed my hand on top of his, looking off to the side. “What if one of these days you have to choose?”
“I won’t.”
“But what if,” I implored, trying to get my worry across. “One of these days, Kyren could come up to you and say, I want to move to Timbuktu and I want to stay here near my family. Who would you stay with?”
“Timbuktu? Really?” He smiled, his amusement at my choice clear. “That’s never going to happen.”
“But say it does?”
He sighed, pausing for a moment. “Then I’d choose you. Kyren and I will live forever. You’re human. I only get you for a short time, and I won’t lose a minute of it because he’s being a big baby.”
I wanted to believe him, I did. But it was hard to believe someone would want me so much that they’d split themselves in half just to be with me. That was what it would be like for a human servant to be away from their master.
My mind wandered to what had just happened with the crows. Then there was the fact that I might not be just human. If I’d caused what happened with the crows, then maybe I’m more immortal than I thought.
This could mean all kinds of other things I didn’t know before. I could be a human with vampire powers. A human with no blood ties to a vampire who lived as long as one.
