Chapter 10 #2
“Effie would need a car. Hell, most of us would,” Julian mused.
“She doesn’t even have a license,” I noted quietly.
“We will have to get her one. We still need to get that fucking photo fixed for her ID.”
“What happened with her photo?” Ryder demanded, suddenly intensely interested in our words. Sometimes his fucking emotional flips gave me a headache.
“They couldn’t get the camera to work,” I explained.
Ryder stared down at Effie for a moment before grabbing his phone and opening it to the camera, if I had to presume. He went to take the picture, and after a moment hissed, letting out a string of swears. “That makes no fucking sense.”
“What?” Caedmon asked.
“The picture didn’t turn out.”
He turned the camera to show a gray screen, like the phone had an error and just didn’t take it. I arched my brow. “Why the hell does that keep happening?”
“I have one possible explanation, but it’s not a good one,” Ryder grunted.
I didn’t know if he meant ‘not a good one’ as in ‘far fetched’ or in a way that could allude to even more danger for my little wolf.
“Stop fucking around, what is it?” Tore demanded.
“I don’t know much about the gods’ realm outside of the mythology I’ve been taught, which is more than most people because of our family heritage, but still lacking.
What I do know is that the crossover is far less than it used to be.
It was more common for the gods to visit Earth centuries ago, and when they did, it was rumored they could never be captured in their likeness, whether in painting or drawing.
That when people tried, the image would always be skewed, or they wouldn’t be able to recall the god enough to do so.
I would imagine that in this modern day, they wouldn’t be able to have photos or film of them taken. ”
“But why?” Caedmon asked, seemingly as confused as the rest of us.
“I don’t know, but since they are largely immortal, it may play into that.” Ryder shrugged. “Would make it difficult to blend in with humans if you had photos of yourself from hundreds of years apart.”
That was a fair point. A point that caused everyone to sink into thought, the silence of the car only enhancing the tension at what Ryder was implying. It was just one more factor that proved Effie was so incredibly different.
The sound of rain splattering against the car caused me to look around and realize a storm had approached without us knowing, spewing water and hail from above as we sped down the highway. The noise was loud enough that it woke Effie, who jolted and looked around with a start before relaxing again.
It wasn’t until about five minutes later that the winds and storm got bad enough that we had to pull to the side of the road, the winter storm warnings causing our phones to go off.
I cursed, realizing that we had gotten off at some exit in the middle of goddamn nowhere between Chicago and southern Wisconsin.
There were a lot of things I loved about the Midwest, but this unpredictable winter weather bullshit wasn’t one of them.
“How long do we think it’s going to last?” Julian asked as Caedmon drove towards a grouping of bright signs for restaurants and hotels.
“Pulling up the radar now—shit.”
“What?” I demanded because of Tore’s words.
“Sorry, lil bit, I didn’t mean to swear.” Tore offered Effie an apologetic look. She smiled softly in return, causing my chest to squeeze painfully, just appreciating how beautiful she was.
“I don’t mind when you swear,” she said, “especially when you’re not mad.”
I believed that. She’d liked it just fine when her sweet lips were around my cock. I nearly groaned at that, keeping hold of my thoughts as I refocused.
“At least a few hours. It’s moving northeast, but way fucking slower than you would think with these winds,” Tore finally explained.
“Let’s grab a hotel room then, even just for the day,” Caedmon suggested.
After considering two highway hotels, we went with the one that seemed to be more of a chain location, assuming it was just a basic place to spend the day…
But that turned out to be far from the case.
We pulled into the parking lot and beneath a porte-cochère that would allow Effie to get inside without having to bear the storm.
“You guys get her inside, Caedmon and I will park,” I suggested. Everyone agreed and hopped out, and I grabbed Ryder’s passenger seat. As they walked in through the brightly colored doors, I looked for the name of the damn place.
Cove Hotel & Indoor Waterpark.
“What the hell is this place?” Caedmon asked.
“Honestly, I’m not positive,” I muttered, pulling up my phone and scanning the website before chuckling.
“Apparently there is an amusement park nearby, so this is the accompanying indoor waterpark and hotel people stay at during the summer. It also has several restaurants attached to it. It’s sort of cool. ”
“Effie is going to love it.” Caedmon smiled while parking.
He wasn’t wrong. The minute we walked into the tropical themed hotel, Effie practically threw herself at us, smiling in excitement and talking a mile a minute.
There was so much to look at in the lobby, between the hand-carved parrot sculptures and the themed bar that was playing beach music.
The hotel, despite being fairly empty, held a lighthearted and fun atmosphere that had me wishing the storm would continue far past a few hours.
Effie deserved to have some fun and relax, and that was exactly what I hoped this would be.
As if the gods had heard my thoughts, we found ourselves watching the radar two hours later and finding that the storm had nearly doubled in size, as well as slowed its travel.
Considering we had rented the rooms for the night, none of us seemed very concerned.
In fact, Julian had knocked out for a nap, and Tore was out with Caedmon getting some snacks for the room down in the hotel lobby.
Ryder and I watched the screen as Effie flitted between the two connected rooms before sprawling out on one of the king size beds.
“I’ve never been to a hotel,” she admitted, sitting up and looking around. “They are really nice.”
Ryder frowned and fixed her with a look. “Never? This is your first hotel?”
I know he didn’t mean to come off as so damn judgmental, but he was incredibly dense when it came to communication. Effie shrugged. “I mean, you saw where I grew up. We didn’t have a lot of extra money. Not that they would’ve spent it on me, anyway.”
“Ryder, you should go with Effie down to the restaurant to grab a bite,” I casually threw out, deciding to help the guy out as he realized his mistake. “I am probably going to take a nap.”
“I am hungry,” Effie agreed as Ryder offered me a head nod.
He stood and grabbed her jacket as she practically skipped next to him, happiness radiating off of her.
When the door closed, I groaned and fell back on one of the beds, hoping like hell he got his shit together.
I didn’t really care if he was around or not—I cared about Effie’s happiness, and if she wasn’t happy, we had a huge fucking issue.
Running a hand over the bite mark on my neck, I couldn’t help but smile. I had no idea how I had managed to let her mark me without giving in to the urge to do the same, but it felt damn good. I had never wanted to belong to someone like I did with Effie. My mate was exactly that—mine.
I wanted her to feel the same level of possession that I felt. When she buried her teeth inside of my neck, the tips of them sharpening, it left me feeling a sense of contentment and satisfaction that was unparalleled.
I couldn’t imagine what it would be like when I marked her. That shit would be unreal.
A shuffling of feet had me sitting up to find Julian in the doorway of the connected rooms, staring at his phone.
“We have a problem.”
Of course we did.