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“Beautiful,” I tell her, kissing her lips to distract myself from my impending bad mood.
Calvin speaks up from the front. “Ivy and I can go with you to talk to them. Make them see that Ivy’s not done anything nefarious to us.”
I offer him a wry smile. “Doubtful that will be of much help. It was happening to me, and I still didn’t believe she had nothing to do with it. No, no. You two head into my condo and make yourselves at home while I deal with the mess. You sure you don’t mind us crashing at your place for the foreseeable future, Cal?”
He shrugs. “Mind? I prefer it.” He chuckles quietly. “Never thought I’d say that. I generally prefer to keep to myself.”
I think we all know the feeling.
When we reach our destination, Calvin pulls into visitor parking, making it clear that I have a guest.
I am on edge, so much that Ivy’s hand across my stomach only relaxes me marginally. “You shouldn’t be out in the open. Come into my condo while I deal with it all.”
My arm stays around Ivy when we get out of the car, and Calvin hems in her other side while we walk together in the twilight. It’s a risk, to be sure, but it’s also a statement. Luckily, there are no officers around to get in my business. I need the pack to see that I’m not afraid to be near a witch and a vampire.
I can feel eyes on me, and while there isn’t a law that states no one but a shifter is allowed in the complex, it is an unspoken rule I know I am breaking.
Yet even as I let out a low whistle, letting my pack know I’m home and summoning them to a meeting, I still don’t feel that familiar ping that lets me know I belong here.
In fact, when Calvin ushers Ivy into my condo and shuts the door behind them, a wash of angst replaces any semblance of calm.
They are my people now, even though it’s not possible.
If the alterations to my Alpha tattoo are any indication, Calvin and Ivy are my pack, not the shifters cautiously moving toward me as I stand outside my home.
I can’t wander too far from my condo. I don’t have all that long a tether. So, I sit on my stoop, noting the overgrown grass that probably should be dealt with at some point. Another item to add to my list.
It doesn’t take more than five minutes for the pack to assemble, some on two legs and others on four. I nod to my second in command, from whom I’ve never kept a secret this big.
“What’s the good word, Chief?” Mark asks good-naturedly, though I sense a note of worry in his chipper tone.
That’s odd. Mark is usually perfectly mellow.
He sits beside me on the stoop, though he slouches to make sure I am the tallest. He’s five years younger than I am and carries himself like a teenager—all bubbly and happy just to be here.
Good kid.
Oh, to be twenty-seven again.
When everyone gathers, I can tell they are wondering why we’re meeting out in the open. I don’t need to do more than raise my hand for the mumbling to quiet and focus to land where it should.
Still, I don’t feel that click. I thought for sure I would feel it once we were all together, but something is still off.
“Some things have happened in the past twenty-four hours that you should know about.” I don’t mince words or wait for the right moment but decide this is it. It takes me all of three minutes to lay the facts bare before them, letting them know in no uncertain terms that what’s happened has happened, and I’m open to suggestions as to how to undo it.
Though, if I’m being honest with myself, I’d say that I am nowhere near ready to lose this bond the three of us have. While I am acutely tied to Ivy, it surprises me how close I’ve become with Calvin, as well.
Never saw that coming.
I mention zero romantic entanglements, only presenting the tethering as the reason why there is a witch and a vampire on the property.
The members of my pack stare at me with dumbfounded expressions, silent mutiny rolling off their shoulders.
Hairs prickle at my nape. Though I know I’ve done nothing wrong (other than fraternize with a witch and a vampire), I can see that my pack does not view it in the same way.
I can usually feel any tension in my pack in the same way one can sense a shift in the weather. But when the oldest shifter lunges at me, paws aimed to maim, I realize that I am the odd man out of my own pack.
When my howl hits the air, I’m not sure if the sting of the hit or the pain of the betrayal is more acute. Either way, one thing is certain: my pack would sooner see me dead than tethered to a vampire and a witch.
