Chapter 12 Carys
TWELVE
CARYS
The last three days had been a whirlwind. There were no signs of things slowing down anytime soon.
Between Kansas’s last ride and Cypher’s patch in party, it had just been nonstop. Today would be no different.
Carys couldn’t believe there was a cure for her mother after all.
That was part of the reason she was emotionally drained.
After preparing herself for losing her mother and then finding out she could be saved if she became the blood bond of a vampire, it was just too many extremes.
Not to mention everything between herself and Monster.
She glanced across the common room where he sat talking with Prowler.
Cypher approached them. “Would you like a drink, Ms. Linda? Maybe help calm the nerves.”
“Yes, thank you. A gin and tonic would be nice.”
Cypher nodded.
“Let me,” Taylor said. “You’re not a prospect anymore.”
“I know, I do it because I want to. Besides, I’ll miss Linda when she leaves to go live with the bloodsuckers.”
“Oh, she’s not going,” Carys piped in. “She’s staying here. It’s just …” Carys trailed off when her mother didn’t protest Cypher’s statement.
“Mom?” If Carys had been thinking rationally, it would’ve hit her that of course her mother would live with the man and not here at the clubhouse with her forever. But for some reason, Carys had been viewing this as a transactional thing. A cure. Not a literal person or bonding.
Shit, what if her mother wasn’t attracted to him? Yet she was forced into another less than loving bond situation. What are additional years worth if they’re spent in misery?
“Oh, Mom. I’ve been selfish. You don’t have to do this for me.” Her mother took her hand between hers.
“I’m not doing this for you, Carys. I’m doing it for me.
I want to live to see you and that big brute over there grow old together.
And if you change your mind about children, I’ll see those too.
And if you don’t, well, look around at all the family you’ve given me to live for.
To watch grow and evolve. I wouldn’t miss any of this for the world. ”
Carys chanced a look at Monster, who had an unreadable expression. The whole children conversation is one they should’ve had but hadn’t.
Carys dashed away her tears at her mother’s words.
“But what if he’s like …” she ended on a sob.
Monster was by her side in an instant. Sitting on the arm of the couch, he snaked his hand around the back of her neck, holding the side with his fingers resting along her pulse. It was for her comfort too.
“Pixie, we’ve told you, vamps are loyal to their blood bonds. While not all get a mate the way we do, they are free to choose a blood bond, and once they bind themselves to them, that’s that.”
Turning from Monster, Carys looked into the eyes of the one person who’d always loved her unconditionally and accepted her choices, no matter what.
Defended her, but also called her on her own shit.
She was being offered a new lease on life, and Carys was making it about herself. She wouldn’t do that.
Shaking off all the thoughts that plagued her, she reset her mind. This was her mother’s day.
“Right. You’re right.” She patted Monster’s thigh. She dried her tears and shifted focus.
Cypher handed her mom her drink. She took a sip and nodded her appreciation to the newest member of the Kings.
“Besides,” her mom added. “I hear they are all handsome as sin and the sex is amazing.”
“Mom, ew. No.” Carys stuck her fingers in her ears. As Monster high fived her. There were whoops and hollers and uproarious laughter.
She removed her hands to slap Monster’s chest. “Don’t encourage her.”
“Me? She's a grown-ass woman who knows what S-E-X is, Pixie.”
“Ugh,” she groaned in frustration.
Prowler approached, looking at his phone as it chimed.
“He’s here.”
Prowler strode to the door and opened it. Carys stood next to her mother with her arms crossed.
“Pixie, sit.”
Prowler turned and looked at her with a smirk.
Ghoul rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait to see this play out.”
Taylor chuckled. “Me, either.”
Monster joined his president at the door.
The whole clubhouse had heard the story of how Monster met her mother, and Carys was ready to lean into her DNA.
It seemed to take forever for anyone to appear in the doorway.
When he did, all she could see was an arm, shaking hands with some of the Kings. She felt her mother’s hand in hers as she stood up next to her.
“Nervous?” Carys whispered.
“No, just excited. Do you know how long it’s been since—” Carys knew exactly where her mother was going with that sentence. It seemed her main goal in life was to make Carys uncomfortable for fun.
She slapped her free hand over her mother’s mouth just as an elegantly dangerous man in an expensive suit came into view.
Carys had never thought of a man as elegant before, but that was the only word she could think of. It wasn’t that he was dainty, far from it, but he practically floated across the floor. He made Carys think not only of the vampires from romance novels but also of organized crime bosses.
When he stood in front of them, Carys marveled at how he didn’t have swirling eyes, or sparkly skin, or giant protruding fangs denting his lip. He looked like a man, a handsome one, but still a man.
She’d been aware that vampires existed as long as she could remember, although she’d never met one … or had she? If this man had passed her in a casino, she never would have known he was an other.
Clans guarded their secrets even more fiercely than shifters.
Prowler stepped forward with the man. “Edwin Villenueva, this is Linda Donaldson and her daughter Carys.”
“I am honored to make your acquaintance, Linda.” Carys watched as the man ever so gently lifted her mother’s hand to his mouth. She thought he meant to kiss the back, old-school style. Instead, he turned it over and kissed the underside of her wrist.
Carys didn’t realize she was catching flies until Monster lifted her jaw with a knuckle.
Turning to Carys, Edwin inclined his head. “Carys.”
In that moment she realized she still held her mother’s mouth. Removing her hand, she extended it. “Mr. Villanueva.”
When he took it to raise it to his mouth to kiss the back as she thought he’d meant to do with her mother, she turned it, squeezing his hand unnecessarily hard, and shook it. Firm and vigorously.
There was a hint of amusement that slid across his face. “Please, call me Edwin.”
Carys wanted to say more, lob a threat at him, let him know that if he dared hurt her mother, she’d rain hell down on him, just as her mother had always done for her, but she didn’t get the chance.
They were interrupted by Taylor serving drinks and Prowler introducing the men, who then dispersed off to the side.
Leaving just Monster, Prowler, Taylor, Edwin, her, and her mother.
The conversation between her mother and Edwin seemed easy and light. Not awkward as she had expected. “Are you sure you do not want a traditional ceremony, Linda? While I understand we are entering into a, um, non-conventional bonding, your happiness is important.”
Her mother blushed.
“I am not afforded the luxury of time, but perhaps I will reserve my choice for the future?”
“As you wish.”
Carys still gripped her mother’s hand in hers as they sat there getting to know Edwin. Her mother squeezed Cary’s. That was a cue. Her mother was about to leave. Tears sprang unbidden to Carys’s eyes.
“Shall we go now, Edwin?” Her mother stood, and everyone else followed suit.
Prowler grasped Edwin’s hand. “The Kings owe your clan.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but you owe us nothing other than what our merging of families affords us.”
They said their goodbyes, but Carys couldn’t help but follow her mother all the way to the expensive-looking black car. A man stood by the back door and opened it at their approach.
“After you, Linda,” Edwin indicated the open door.
Carys hugged her tightly. “I’m going to miss you so much.”
Her mother returned her hug. “I’ll miss you too, but stop the dramatics. I’ll be just across town, and we’ll see each other all the time.”
Her mother’s words might sound harsh to anyone listening, but she had her own tears.
She didn’t know how to pull away. Just last week she was holding her mother tight because she might lose her at any time, and today it was because she wasn’t losing her.
“Arden.” Her mother said. Monster gently untangled her from her mother and wrapped her in his arms from behind.
She smiled at Carys, then got into the car. Instead of following her in, Edwin stood in front of Carys, taking her hands in his. Monster allowed himself to be dislodged.
“You are welcome on clan land anytime day or night, unannounced, and can stay as long as you choose. My only request is that if you bring more than two Kings with you, a heads-up would be appreciated. Our security can be … temperamental.”
“Thank you, Edwin. I shall take you up on it.” She tried to sound as old world as he did. “And should I show up unannounced and find my mother less than joyous, just know I have plenty of razor blades and superglue.” She heard Monster bark a laugh from behind her.
Edwin raised a brow at him in question. “Ask Linda.”
Carys stood wrapped in Monster’s arms, watching them exit the gate and beyond. The yard was empty, and when it was just the two of them, Monster slid one hand up her front to her throat.
Bending down, he caught her earlobe in his teeth before whispering. “I have something for you, Pixie.”
“Umm.” He was driving her crazy, caressing the sensitive skin around her ear with his nose. “Is it this?”
She swayed her ass back and forth, rubbing against his growing cock.
“That’s for later. Come on inside.”
“Wait. Um, what my mom said about me not wanting kids, is that something—”
“It was a relief, Pixie. I probably should’ve told you before, but I got snipped years ago.”