Page 21 of Those That Defy the Realm

Henry gets a separate box as well. I’ve still not forgotten him.

Later arrives way too soon as Rory leaves, with Antares in tow. I don’t know how to feel about the whole thing. The Rory I know has never been confrontational. She’s always wanted to blend into the background, confident around people she knows but not one to seek out attention in crowds. Let alone take on something like this. The thought crosses my mind that she’s only just returned, and am I losing her again already?

But the determination radiated out of her as she left, even if her eyes were filled with pain at leaving her mate behind.

The house has been silent since they left. Ty retreated very fast to his room and Henry followed almost as quickly, not giving me a chance to say a word to him.

Would I have, had he loitered? He seems determined to not bring up the fact we were messaging each other for weeks, so maybe I should bury it and leave it behind as well.

Not letting the frustration get to me, I shut myself away in the study downstairs to work on my portfolio for a few hours, determined to ace the interview I have in a few days despite the fact my life seems on the precipice of turning upside down again.

It works for much of the afternoon and into the early evening, but as I wrap up the piece I’m working on, I can’t help but wonder what the males upstairs are doing.

Taking myself to my own room, there’s nothing but silence coming from either of the guest bedrooms as I pass. I almost wish my brother were around. He’s away on his placement. I try calling my parents, but they don’t answer. Which is probably for the best, seeing as I haven’t exactly told them yet about the fact I’m housing a bunch of fugitives in their house whilst they enjoy a much needed month long cruise to the southern continent.

Telling them Rory is back would be one thing, but explaining her disappearance would be tricky. She’d told me and Bree the truth, but had made us promise that her true nature would go no further. I didn’t yet know the story she was going to fabricate to tell everyone else about her sudden absence. Or reappearance.

A soft knock on my door interrupts my pacing. Pausing midway, I put my hands on my hips and reply, “Come in.”

I’m expecting to see Ty’s frame in the doorway as it opens. Instead, a much taller, more sheepish looking male is revealed.

“Hi,” Henry says. “Am I disturbing you?”

I look around my room, hoping for there to be something obvious I can say, other than telling him I was spiralling. Failing a lie, I simply go with, “No.”

“Do you mind if we talk?” Henry keeps his voice so low I almost have to strain my ears to understand what he’s saying.

“What about?” Narrowing my eyes at him, I almost dare him to say it first. Wanting him to admit what he’s denied all day.

He looks over his shoulder and steps into the room, softly closing the door. He doesn’t move closer, his back almost touching the wood. Suddenly, the air around me feels stifling. My body goes into alert mode, very aware that I’m now shut in a room with a predator.

“I’m sorry for earlier,” Henry says. “I couldn’t admit that we know each other in front of Antares.”

Not the opening sentence I was expecting, confusion overrides my anger. “Care to explain?”

Henry looks at his feet, fidgets like he’s nervous talking to me. Me, the human he so easily managed to dismiss earlier. I don’t know why I’m getting hung up on the fact he’s a vampire.

“I’m sorry,” he says again. He lifts his head but still doesn’t make eye contact, he tilts his head upwards until it hits the wooden door he’s now leaning against, his gaze now on the ceiling. “I consider Antares one of my closest friends, but I really blew up at him for putting that app on my phone. I hadn’t told him about our messages. I panicked when I saw you, and we were surrounded by everyone and I didn’t want to explain. I never thought I’d meet you, hadn’t put any of the clues together. Your friend that went missing, the timeline that fit with Ty and Rory. Because you were human and I’ve only known Rory as Ty’s mate, a vampire, I ignored the obvious. And Clara, Claire, similar but I had no reason to think you’d been lying about your name.”

His words, hearing him speak, bring back all of the messages we’d exchanged, but now I hear them in his voice. It’s a beautiful voice, smooth, rich and sure in tone. Even if there is a nervousness to it currently. I can’t deny it’s endearing me to him once more, cooling the anger. His sentences are coming out like he’s voicing his thoughts as he has them, no filter. No poise.

When I don’t answer, he finally meets my gaze, snaring me in caramel irises as warm as his voice. “Please say you’ll forgive my rude behaviour.”

A sudden lump in my throat chokes my ability to speak. The longer our eyes remain connected the hotter the air in my room gets. My skin feels as if he’s standing right in front of me, close enough to brush my bare arms or blow breath onto my face as he looks down at me from his towering height. I feel it, I swear. The heat of his body, the power in his muscles, the deadly nature of his being.

Powerless before him to form words, I nod instead.

He visibly relaxes as he lets go of a breath, the exhale a long gush, like he’d been holding it in until I replied.

He moves off the door, stepping across my room, taking a couple of strides until he is indeed in front of me, close enough to touch. “I never really stopped thinking about you, you know.”

“Then why did you stop responding?” I have to tilt my chin up now to keep looking at him.

“It’s a long story, but the short version is that I left my phone behind when Ty and I went to look for Rory. I don’t know how much she’s filled you in on…”

“Everything.”

“Well, then you’ll know that we spent quite a long time in the Northern Isles. I hadn’t meant to forget my phone but Ty was in such a state that I barely had time to grab essentials or he’d have left me without me. And I couldn’t let him continue on his own.” His fingers make me jump as they brush along my forearm, where they’re still crossed under my chest. I recoil and Henry immediately steps back. “Sorry. I just never thought we’d meet. I needed to check if you were real.”