Chapter 10
Bert slurped his morning coffee loudly, earning a glare from Drake, his best friend and second. They were in the wolf’s council penthouse having breakfast.
Drake sighed and put his cup on the table. “Either grow up or tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Bert grumped out, putting his mug down by his empty plate.
“Don’t tell me, Max blocked you.”
Bert shot him a look. “No arsehole. He even let me touch his arm last night. I just miss him, and me and my wolf are impatient to make him ours.”
“The touching is good. Why not go back and spend a few days being close to him? I can stay here and keep going through things. Plus, you have more trusted wolves arriving today to help.”
Bert shook his head, putting his cup down. “No, there is still some fear inside of him. So I’ll just keep chipping away at his fears.”
“Just remember, it will all be worth it in the end.”
Bert nodded. “Yeah.”
Drake suddenly grinned. “Let’s go and annoy the kitty, that should cheer you up.”
Bert laugh. “That it will,” he said, standing up and leaving the penthouse with Drake.
Gavin was resting against Hunter when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Hunter called.
The door opened, and Mathis and Gabe hurried in.
Gavin looked around and saw his brother and jumped up, rushing into Mathis’ arms. Gabe gently touched his back as Raz and Thiago hurried in, with Raz going to join the hug.
“We’ve got you, little brother,” Raz said softly.
Thiago looked at Hunter. “Do you know what happened?”
“Apparently, Dave was explaining to Jamie about how everyone here could protect his siblings; he mentioned throat ripping,” Hunter explained.
“That would do it,” Raz muttered, hugging Gavin tighter. Mathis had texted him the night before, telling him about the rescue mission and how Ivan had his mate.
“What can we do, Gav?” Gabe asked him softly.
Gavin pulled back and signed. “I just need you all here with me.”
“Then here we will stay,” Thiago replied.
“That’s a lot of happenings,” Jamie stated when Dave finished filling him in.
Dave nodded. “Yeah, it really is, and just think, you and your siblings are now part of all this.”
Jamie laughed. “I’m not sure if I should be happy or not hearing that.”
“Go with happy,” Dave suggested.
“I think it’s the living for thousands of years thing I’m having issues with. I’ll have to watch Karl and Kitty get old and die. I’m not sure how I’ll cope with that,” he admitted.
“Yeah,” Dave said on a sigh. “I feel the same way about my parents. I mean, logically I know they wouldn’t be with me forever, but I can’t imagine going thousands of years without seeing and speaking to them.”
“And now I’m completely depressed,” Jamie commented, his shoulders slumping.
“We can always ask the witches if they know a way to prolong life.”
“Yeah, let’s go with that option,” Jamie checked the time. “I need to leave for work in a bit.”
“Let me take you to Ivan’s office, and he can drive you, then I can check on Gavin.”
Ivan looked at Jamie as he drove him to work. His talk with Dave had obviously not been great, if the sad slump of his shoulders was anything to go by. “Did you like the library?”
Jamie flashed him a real grin. “Oh yeah. Dave offered me a job, so I'm handing my notice in as soon as I get to work.”
“That’s fantastic. So what's upset you?” Ivan asked him gently.
Jamie sighed. “Dave and I were talking about the whole living for thousands of years thing. He’d miss his parents, and I’d miss Karl and Kitty.”
“That is hard,” Ivan said. “I’ve lost a lot of people who I wished had lived longer,” Ivan replied, scowling at the rear view mirror.
“Dave is gonna ask the witches if they have a spell that can help.”
“It’s worth checking,” Ivan said, looking in the mirror again and frowning.
“What’s up?” Jamie asked, noticing.
“I think we’re being followed.”
Jamie turned round to look.
“Don’t look,” Ivan said, turning down a random road.
Jamie faced forward again and wrapped both hands around his seatbelt. “Is the car still behind us?”
Ivan nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to make more random turns and see what happens.” Ivan quickly made a few more turns. “It looks like they’ve gone now.” He said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Do you think it might be someone from that underground network that you and Dave told me about?”
“It’s possible, but I’ll keep you safe,” Ivan assured him, as he drove back towards the library.
“I’m not worried about me, but you, I’ll be safe in the library.”
“You will be. I’ll pick you up when you finish tonight.”
“Thanks, honey. Can we stop at my place on the way home so I can grab some of my things?”
Ivan grinned at him before pulling into a parking space. “We can definitely do that. We can bring all your things.”
Jamie leant over and kissed Ivan. “Thanks, honey,” he says, pulling back.
Ivan chased his lips and kissed Jamie before pulling back. “Have a good afternoon.”
“You too, stay safe,” Jamie said, picking up his bag from the foot well and getting out of the car. He leant in and blew a kiss at Ivan before closing the door, and with a final wave, Jamie walked into the library.
Ivan watched Jamie, making sure he got into the library safely.
He stayed there watching his surroundings for a while.
Watching to see if he saw the car that had been following them.
Chances are, it was connected to that organisation; he would have to tell Seth and make sure no one leaves the coven house alone.