Page 128 of Shifter Situations

“Are you going to share, or should we guess?” Stone inquired.

“Did you know that King Enterprises owns the building across the street from your apartment? Actually, we own the entire block. Until May, I worked there, but I never felt the tug of a nearby mate.”

Briggs motioned for me to continue, prompting, “Keep going.”

“Jack and I ate at The Blue Plate nearly every Saturday for over a year, but Briggs and I never felt each other. I was in CPB dozens of times with the same outcome. I didn’t feel Vaughn either.

“Franklin pointed a few connections out to me, and I’ve tried to dismiss them or not think about them. But it’s been eating at me. I felt the connection between York and me as soon as I entered that camp the first time.

“I knew I had a mate there before I saw him. The tug was too much to ignore. Even when the memories of him being a mate were locked away, I still wanted to be near him when he found me.”

“And you’ve been wondering why you didn’t feel it with us as quickly... especially when you were so close,” Palmer deduced.

Novak’s golden eyes deepened in color as he thought about what I’d just told them. “That’s what you were talking about yesterday? Why you asked what had changed between the beginning of May and the middle?”

“Yeah, in a nutshell.” I shrugged. “I just don’t understand what was happening.”

York twisted his lips to the right before furrowing his brow. “Their bonds were blocked.”

“I’m sorry,” Vaughn stated. “Come again?”

“I closed the bond between Sloane and me when I was taken. She didn’t feel it while it was blocked off to her. It was painful to do, but it can be done without severing it completely.”

I grimaced, hoping this wasn’t going to be hard for my druid to think about. I wanted to shut down all talks of the camp immediately, maybe even see if he wanted those memories locked away.

But I knew him. He’d say no. He’d had his moment, and he was typically too positive to let that part of his life hold him back.

“But we were so close. There would have been a single wall between her and Briggs at The Blue Plate.” Novak shook his head.

“That wouldn’t matter. If your side of the would-be bonds were closed off, then Sloane wouldn’t have felt them. She could have been standing directly in front of you, talking to you, and never felt a thing. The same would have gone for any of us if her side of the bond had been closed off.”

York eyed my vampire before he continued. “You need to think of it like her door analogy for the mental connections she has. If the door is closed, then you can’t hear or feel anything. You have to open the door to have access to the bond, though naturally, the door is open.”

“What would be able to prevent it in all five of us?” Palmer challenged.

“A number of things,” I confessed. “I don’t really understand the complexity of mate bonds. But I know my mother has been missing for almost twenty-four years, and my parents keep looking for her because they can feel a scrap of their bond with her. They can’t feel enough to find her, though.”

I lost myself in the swaying of the trees as I dug up old memories.

“I remember hearing Papi explain to Jack’s mom, Vixen, that there were ways to close the bond. I don’t recall hearing exactly what he told her, but I know she was worried about Hannibal. She wanted to disappear and had planned to leave Jack with us until she could set up a safe place for them.

“Since she was my mother’s best friend, they did everything they could to protect her, but it didn’t pan out in her favor.” I sighed, blinking out of my thoughts.

I had adored Vixen as a child, and thinking about her made me melancholy. It also made me want to question Papi. He might have some insight into what had happened with our bonds, but he also might be the reason why they were blocked to begin with.

Stone frowned. “I remember my parents talking about Vixen’s death.”

“It was the talk of the Underworld,” I admitted sarcastically.

“Why? What happened?” Novak sat up, giving me his undivided attention.

“Hannibal killed Vixen.” It was as simple as that.

“She knew something was going to happen, so she went to Papi and Lucy, telling them that she was leaving Jack in the custody of the Kings.

“In the Underworld, things like that are legal as long as the Devil has noted it. Earth is different, so she took my parents to have legal paperwork filed. Jack moved in with us five days later. Vixen was found two days after that.”

Palmer studied me closely. “That’s quick.”