Hayden shifts into his true Human Form. We both rush to our mate’s side. Ansley is sitting on the ground beside her car, a hand clamped over her neck.
“Let me see!” I demand, pulling her hand away.
To our surprise, there’s no bite mark. The vampire didn’t even break skin. I check the other side of her neck to be sure.
“Wait, you weren’t bitten?” Hayden questions.
“I saw the fangs. He definitely bit her,” I argue.
“He bit me! It freaking hurt!” Ansley shrieks, rubbing her neck and looking at her hand with panic in her eyes. The panic gives way to confusion. “I’m not bleeding…”
“We need to move before someone sees what happened here,” Hayden says. “Help me get the bodies in the SUV.”
We clean up the scene as best we can. There’s still blood but it’s better than dead vampires. They look human enough, but three dead bodies are still three dead bodies. We don’t need an autopsy on one of them to cause alarm.
“More people are coming. Move!” Hayden orders. “Drive the car Ansley brought.”
Ansley is still confused or shell shocked. I run to the car, help her into the passenger seat, and we peel out. Once we are on the way to the safehouse, I text Storm and ask him to make sure the security footage in the area is wiped, just to be safe.
Fighting vampires in a parking garage in broad daylight is more exposure than we are normally comfortable with, but we had to protect Ansley. She’s our mate. There was zero choice involved in the matter, just the innate imperative to protect her no matter what.
“I’m in a lot of trouble, aren’t I?” she whimpers.
“You were supposed to stay at the safehouse,” I work hard not to yell at her, once again feeling the pull. The need. Her scent, especially so close, is overwhelming. “But I’m glad you’re okay.”
I notice Ansley squirming in her seat once the adrenaline fades. Her scent gets stronger until I can smell her arousal. She’s reacting to me, just like I’m reacting to her.
“You feel it, don’t you?” I ask.
“I don’t know what I feel,” she whispers. “What is happening to me?”
“Your body is responding to your mate,” I say.
“He’s… not even close,” she says, glancing ahead at the SUV.
“You felt something the first night we met. I did too,” I explain. “Hayden and I talked earlier. You have more than one mate, Ansley.”
Her eyes widen. “You mean… What do you mean? I thought Hayden was my mate.”
“He is, but so am I. Your scent has been driving me mad since we met. Even when I smell you on Hayden. It’s the only explanation that makes sense,” I’m trying to keep my voice calm and even.
“I had a vision. Hallucination. I’m not even sure. But there were children, and I knew they didn’t all belong to Hayden. Do you think…” she trails off.
“You are meant to carry both our offspring,” I confirm. “Tell me more about these visions.”
Ansley looks unsure for a moment, then she tells me about the first one. How it helped her find Daisy. In another, she saw herself naked in Hayden’s bed. Then she had what sounds like a glimpse of the future. A future that seems a lot better than the wretched one we expected. Growing old without ever having a mate or children.
“I’ve never heard of a Scion that could have premonitions,” I admit. “But I’m learning that we don’t know everything about how the world works. Even how it works for our kind.”
“Because of me?” she questions.
“Yes,” I sigh. “All because of you.”
I see the safehouse ahead. I want to believe this is as simple as Hayden suggests, but I still have concerns. This is new territory for us. New territory for our kind.
Can Ansley handle being claimed by two wolves?
CHAPTER 20
