Chapter 34
WE SHOULD GET MATCHING CLOAKS
NELSON
Morgan and I gathered our few belongings from the cabin and then the bike—Morgan had insisted on getting his cloak—then everyone trudged through the snow to where the vehicles were parked, including Keenan.
I wasn’t sure how he got out here, but there were only two vehicles at the entrance: the limo and a beat-up hatchback with a wolf suncatcher hanging from the rearview mirror.
Keenan walked to the passenger side of the limo like he expected to join us.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“Coming with you, of course,” Keanan said like it was obvious.
Before I could tell him to fuck off, Morgan squeezed my hand to get my attention.
“He hasn’t lied,” Morgan whispered to me.
I’m not sure why he bothered to whisper. Everyone had probably heard what he said. But perhaps that just spoke to how few supes he’d been around.
“And he saved me,” Morgan pointed out when I didn’t automatically agree.
I shuddered at what could have happened if that wolf had gotten her teeth into my mate.
“Fine,” I bit out. “But I still don’t trust him.”
“I just want to ensure everyone arrives in one piece,” the vampire said as he adjusted his cuff.
“Truth,” Morgan muttered softly.
I narrowed my eyes at Keenan. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the vamp said.
I exchanged a look with Carter. He didn’t look comfortable with the vamp either, but he also wasn’t arguing against him coming with us.
“Fine,” I said. “You can come.”
If Keenan was voluntarily going with us, maybe that was to our benefit.
We had a lot of powerful supes in Willow Lake.
If he needed to be dealt with, it’d be easier to do it there.
As soon as we had cell service, I’d give Gage and Van the heads up about our unexpected passenger.
I had to text them about the tracker, anyway.
Hopefully the hunter I’d put it on hadn’t discovered it yet.
“Come on,” Carter said. “Let’s go.”
At least whatever had been sabotaged on the limo back in the village had been fixed. Carter slipped behind the steering wheel, and surprisingly the vampire took the seat beside him. For some reason, I’d expected Keenan to demand that he sit in the back like a pampered prince.
The divider between the front and the back was down, and Carter kept glancing in the rearview mirror to check on us. Or perhaps he was just checking on his mysterious buddy, Eric.
“I’ll have my people retrieve your personal items and your vehicle from the hotel, Morgan,” Keenan said after we’d been on the road for a few minutes. “And they can collect your bike too, shadow. If you want.”
I didn’t want anyone to touch our things. But before I could answer, Morgan nodded. “Awesome. Thank you. I’m not sure I should go back to that hotel any time soon.”
I put my hand on his leg. Some little way to remind him he wasn’t alone in this anymore. He had not only me but my team and probably most of Willow Lake at his side now too. “My people can get it, you know. You don’t have to go back there.”
Morgan shrugged. “I guess, but as long as the SUV is returned to the rental company and our bags are collected, does it matter who does it?”
I frowned at the vampire. “Why should we trust you, vamp? That mage and wolf were your people.”
Keenan’s gaze caught on mine through the rearview mirror.
We stared at one another for a long moment.
I’d seen a lot of supes in my day, but I still found ancient vampires creepy as fuck.
There was something about how still they could become that didn’t seem natural or normal.
Then again, I supposed they were undead.
Eventually Keenan said, “And now they are dead.”
Morgan swallowed and his face paled. His hand covered mine, where it was still resting on his leg, and he squeezed. Hard.
“Um, Keenan?” Morgan asked softly. “Can you maybe not kill anyone else?”
Keenan twisted in his seat so he could see Morgan. Then he dipped his head slightly at whatever he found on my mate’s face but didn’t make any promises. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could make the promise not to kill anyone either. If Morgan was threatened, I would do anything to protect him.
The vampire’s smile, as he gazed at my mate, revealed the sharp points of his fangs. That was intentional. A vampire’s fangs only dropped if they wanted them to.
“Please, don’t feel too badly for them. They understood the consequences of betraying me when they joined my coven.”
Morgan shivered and leaned closer to me. Eric, who was sitting on the other side of the limo from us, shrank a little at the sight of those long pointy teeth. The guy looked like he wanted to fade into the leather seats. I understood the feeling well. I usually wanted to sink into the shadows too.
I didn’t feel that way now. I wouldn’t—couldn’t?—leave Morgan alone with these people, even if they seemed like they could be allies.
We’d find out soon if that was true or not.
When Gage met Keenan, the demon would sus out Keenan’s biggest desire.
Then we’d know for sure if the vampire could be trusted or if we needed to turn him in to the SC.
The Supernatural Council didn’t execute people anymore, not usually anyway, but most supes would see being incarcerated in one of their prisons as a punishment worse than death.
Humans might think that, since he’d killed the wolf and the mage, he should already be sent to prison, but that wasn’t how the supe world worked.
Pack or coven leaders could mete out justice as they saw fit, if their subordinate was a threat to the lives of others.
Most leaders just weren’t comfortable doing that nowadays, and they’d become increasingly reliant on the SC for justice.
I wasn’t sure that was the right decision, but it wasn’t up to me.
In the meantime, I supposed if Morgan was willing to accept the vamp’s offer to help, I could too.
Conditionally. I reserved the right to change my mind if he stepped out of line.
But since he already seemed familiar with Willow Lake, taking him back with us wouldn’t put us at any greater risk than we already were. Still…
“Do you swear you mean us no harm?”
Keenan’s gaze met mine and held it for a moment. “I do not plan to harm anyone who does not try to harm me first.”
“That’s the truth,” Morgan whispered in my ear.
“Fine,” I said. “I promise the same thing. If you don’t try to hurt anyone, I won’t hurt you.”
Keenan’s mouth twitched. “Interesting that you think you could.”
The smug asshole. I wanted to prove him wrong. I gritted my teeth to prevent myself from arguing with him.
“If you’re serious about getting the SUV, you should know they put a tracker on the rental,” Morgan said, obviously deciding Keenan and I were done.
Turning in his seat to face forward again, Keenan hummed as he pulled out his phone and tapped on the screen.
It looked like we’d come out of the dead zone.
I fished my phone out of my pocket and sure enough, messages popped up one after another.
I scrolled through them quickly, not bothering to answer any of them.
Most of them were unimportant now anyway.
As I did that, Morgan leaned closer to Eric.
“Hey, you look a little uncomfortable, but it’s okay,” he whispered and patted the man on the knee. “You’re safe. Nelson and I will make sure of it.”
The guy shrank down even lower in his seat. He was too big to make himself small though, despite his best efforts.
“I’m Morgan, by the way. You’re Eric, right?”
Eric rubbed his thumb along the edge of the seat.
“And this is Nelson.” Morgan patted my leg. “And we’re mates, which is super cool. I didn’t know I could have a mate.”
A surge of warmth flooded my chest when Morgan claimed me as his mate to this stranger.
Eric’s gaze darted up to us. His attention lingered on Morgan, and I understood why. The intersection we were approaching was lit up by bright lights. Under the glow of the lights, Morgan’s unique traits became obvious.
Sure, everyone in this vehicle had seen Morgan’s unicorn side, but even in his human form, he wasn’t like anyone else. The back windows may have been tinted, but the light came through brightly enough to make the iridescent sheen to Morgan’s hair gleam. It really was stunning. He was stunning.
Morgan smiled at Eric, but the other man didn’t speak.
“Did you know that the first time Nelson introduced himself to me, he said his name was Eric?” He snorted, and a couple of bubbles popped out of his mouth. “Ridiculous, right? He doesn’t look anything like an Eric. But you do. One hundred percent.”
Eric’s gaze darted to me, then back to Morgan.
“I’ve never been to Willow Lake,” Morgan said, “but Nelson says it’s nice. I’m super curious about it. Have you been there?”
Eric shook his head with such a tiny movement that if I hadn’t been watching I might have missed it. But Morgan seemed pleased with the response.
“So, it’ll be new to both of us then.” Morgan bounced in his seat.
If he’d been standing, I knew that little bounce would have been one of his full-body shimmies. My mate loved dancing and moving. That was just one more difference between us, because I could sit or stand without moving for hours at a time.
“We can help each other out while we’re there.” Morgan tilted his head. “You are staying, right? I guess I made an assumption there. But you should definitely stay for a little while.” Morgan looked at me at the same moment Eric looked at Carter. “He can, right?”
“That’s up to him,” I said, trying not to panic about the idea that Morgan also had a choice. Just because we’d completed a mate bond, it didn’t mean we had to stay together.
What if Morgan wanted to live somewhere else?
Sure, a week or so back, I’d dreamed of leaving Willow Lake, but that was before. Now, I couldn’t imagine it. Morgan would be safest surrounded by other supes. Powerful supes.