3. Death Threats & the Matriarchs
Chapter three
Death Threats really look at him. Straight black hair but with some lighter strands bleached from the sun, dark brown eyes, almost black. It’s possible he has some Bedouin heritage, maybe. He’s not hugely muscular like Ethan, but he’s still pretty solid. Lion shifters are known for their strength and loyalty to their Pride. As far as mates go, he’s a pretty good option.
I need to talk to my mother and grandmother and then make Emmett come over for some “girl” talk. Standing, I gesture towards the door. The other two customers left while we were talking. “I need to close and then I have some places I need to go. You guys are more than welcome to hang out wherever out there.”
Joaquin gives me a two-finger salute and then heads out the door while Kadi lingers. He steps over to me and raises a hand to my face, running a finger down my cheek to my chin and lifting my face so that our eyes meet.
“I’ll give you a little bit of space to sort through your feelings. I’m a pretty laid-back guy, unlike Ethan, but don’t keep me waiting forever, my Little Lioness. Neither of us wants to be in pain,” he says quietly, rubbing his thumb across my lips before stepping away and following his friend out the door.
Lifting a hand to my face, I trace the same path he took and just stand there staring as they walk out into the night.
Gathering myself, I finish unpacking the last box of books. This time, I don’t find any more surprises. Cleaning up the coffee bar, I get things ready for when Emmett comes in in the morning. I go to the back room and grab the box I put the medallion in and then close everything up and drive to my grandmother's house.
Closing the car door when I get there, I look up to see my mom and grandma standing on the porch. My grandma has precognition. Great, that means she probably had a vision about the little surprise I got at the shop, maybe even both.
The way I see them smiling when I get close enough to see their faces tells me they only know about the mate bond. Groaning to myself, I step up onto the porch and into my mother’s waiting arms.
“Shasta, I know you aren’t going to be difficult about this are you?” she asks. “The mate bond is a wonderful thing. You know what will happen if you don’t consummate it soon.”
My mother, of all people, knows about how the mate bond can affect a person if it’s no longer intact. She almost died when my dad did, but with the help of the Coven she has gained most of herself back. It was touch and go for a very long time though.
“Yeah, so, the last thing I want to do is talk to my mom and grandma about my sex life so let's just table that. I guess you didn’t see anything else that happened today. We need to go in so I can show you something,” I say.
They instantly sober up from the happy party they were both having and follow me through the front door and into the dining room where I pull out the box and set it on the table. I unlock it and Grams walks over to open the lid.
She immediately shuts it, making a hand motion that tells me she put an even stronger lock on it than I had. Well, that tells me I was right to be worried.
“We need to destroy that immediately. Who sent that to you?” she demands. The tone in her voice makes the hair on my body rise as goosebumps form.
“I have no idea. It was in a box of books I was unpacking at the shop today. It was a late delivery because the previous order was lost in an accident,” I tell them. Then, while I’m at it, I tell them about the rest of the day’s events.
“That was no accident. Someone engineered that to send that death threat to you without anyone being able to trace it back to them. I want you to let those boys stay with you tonight and until we figure this out. You don’t need to be alone at any moment. This is very serious, Shasta. That’s dark magic attached to that medallion, and dark magic was all over the stranger too, which is why the shifters all said he smelled strange,” she says.
Damn, she’s serious. My grams is usually really laid back except when someone’s in danger and then she becomes a fierce fighter. She's in fighter mode right now. I’m not letting them stay with me. I don’t have to tell her that, though.
“I was gonna call Emmett and have him come over to talk so don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” I say. “Also, one of those ‘boys’ is like six thousand years old.”
“Shasta,” my mother says, warning in her tone.
“Let’s just destroy this thing and then I’ll head back before it gets too much later,” I say. Pulling my phone out of my pocket I shoot Emmett a message and tell him to meet me at my place and then go grab the box off the table.
Grams snatches it out of my hands as soon as I pick it up. “Your mother and I can handle this. I don’t want it anywhere near you. Go home. Tell your mate and his friend to stay with you. I’ll call you in the morning,” she says.
Mom hugs me and whispers, “You know how she is when she’s in her protective mode. Just do as she asks, okay? I love you, Shas.”
Grams is already gone, so I can’t hug her goodbye. “I love you too, Mom, just don’t let her overdo it.”
Grams tends to get a little out of control and she isn’t in the same shape she used to be. At three hundred years old, she’s getting ready to retire and let Mom take over.
She nods and pats me on the shoulder and follows my grandmother.
Sighing, I grab my bag and head back out to my car. Pulling up to the shop, I see Emmett has made it and is currently standing there talking to Kadi and Joaquin. They better not have told him anything or I will be pissed.
Grabbing Emmett’s hand, I glare at the guys and pull Emmett along to the stairs leading up to my apartment.
“What the hell, Shasta,” he yells.
“Nope, don’t say a word till we are inside,” I warn him.
I let him go and get out my key, looking around me before unlocking the door. Sending a pulse of magic through the apartment, I check to make sure no one else is there before walking inside.
“What’s with all the paranoia?” he asks, flopping down onto the couch.
“Let’s just say some weird shit has happened since you went home earlier. I’m gonna need you to stay the night here so you might want to call Josiah and let him know he can’t have you back tonight,” I say.
While he does that, I go into my room and change out of my jeans into sleep shorts and a tank top, throwing my hair in a messy bun. Sliding on my slippers I see the door to the extra bedroom is open and Emmett is getting more comfortable. I always keep that room for him since it was already his from before when we were roommates. I have one more spare room up here in case I have guests but Emmett stays over a lot, so he keeps a few things here in his old room.
Padding my way into the kitchen, I rustle up some snacks and grab a bottle of wine. We’re gonna need it, I think. Setting them at the bar I grab a couple glasses and pour us both some wine.
Emmett comes in and whistles. “Drinking on a work night? It really must have been a day. Hit me with it,” he says.
So, I fill him in, starting with the medallion.
“Your mate, Shasta? Your fucking mate?” he yells when I get to the part about Kadi.
Groaning, I slump down and nod. “I don’t even know how I feel about it either. Oh, and his best friend, his brother in arms, hates me, so yeah. There’s that.”
He leans over and hugs me. “No matter what happens I’m here. You know that. But tell me how you feel about it without all the extra shit. Ethan doesn’t matter right now. This is about you and Kadi.”
How do I feel? Overwhelmed for sure, but also, a little part of me is excited. Also mates never cheat on each other. Once you have a mate, or mates, you only want each other. Having more than one mate isn’t super common, but it isn’t really rare either. Usually, a person won't have more than two mates though there have been cases where there were more than that. Very few though. Vampires are sometimes an exception because they have Blood Mates. Which is a whole other thing.
The fact that I don’t have to worry about cheating is really a big relief. I haven’t dated for the last two years because I didn’t want to get attached to someone and have to wonder all the time what they were doing when they weren’t with me.
Not that my trauma is their fault. It would be shitty of me to feel that way about someone who hasn’t even done anything to me. But that’s the thing about trauma involving being cheated on, it makes it hard to trust people.
I’ve worked through some of those feelings with a therapist, but it takes being in another relationship to see where you’re at in the healing process and I haven’t allowed myself a chance to test it yet.
“I’m happy, but I'm going to stay cautious,” I tell him. Loki pops into the room meowing loudly. “There you are, I was wondering where you got off to.”
“Why are there shifters watching the shop?”
“The hooded guy from earlier. They are doing a stakeout to see if he comes back,” I tell Loki.
As my familiar, he can speak in my mind. Oddly though, usually Familiars can just give you images or feelings in order to communicate with you. But for some reason, Loki can actually speak directly to me. Familiars are reincarnated supernaturals. The best we can figure is that it has something to do with whatever kind he was, though we don’t know what it is.
“So, they are just going to stay out there all night? Why do you smell like lion?”
“Yes, and maybe because the lion shifter turned out to be my mate,” I say. Emmett laughs and I toss one of the throw pillows at him.
“He sure figured that out quick,” he says.
“He says I smell like lion,” I say with a laugh.
Loki puts his nose in the air and heads toward my bedroom. I guess we made him mad laughing at him. He’ll get over it. Though he’ll probably bite Emmett sometime before he leaves in the morning.
“So, are you just going to make them stay out there all night or are you going to invite them in?” Emmett asks.
Rolling my eyes at him, I say, “Well they can’t watch for the guy if they are up here. Besides, I don’t know him well enough to just invite him into my home on the first night.”
“Listen, you could be getting freaky with your new mate, but you wanna be up here with me instead?” he asks. “Girl, stop it.”
“Yes, you big dummy. You’re my best friend and it’s been a weird ass day. So, there’s no one else I’d rather be here with right now than you. Now let’s find something to watch,” I say moving to the couch and finding the remote. Both of us are anime nuts. I find the one we’ve been working our way through. “Frieren.” We snuggle in next to each other and binge watch a few episodes before finally going to bed.