Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Charlie
Blinking blearily, naked as the day I was born, I mumble, “What are you doing here?”
Our tiny shack is packed to the gills with, well, my pack. At least half our security team must be present: shifted wolves pawing the floorboards, others in their human form staring wide-eyed, and possibly worst of all… my mother, narrowing her gaze.
Judging by the amused expression in her eyes, she’s realized what’s going on and is content to watch as the others figure it out in their own good time.
“You’re okay, Charlie. We’ve got you,” says Oaks, my mother’s second and the wolf who just dragged me out of the best sleep of my life.
“Nothing was wrong in the first place.” I search for Nigel and, to my dismay, find him in the arms of Hardy and Slater, our pack’s head enforcers. Wisely, he doesn’t struggle. “Let him go, guys.”
“He’s a vampire,” says Hardy.
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “I’m aware.”
“What’s going on here?” asks Slater.
“It’s exactly what it looks like.” I wriggle out of Oaks’s grasp (okay, he lets me wriggle out of his grasp because let’s be real, he’s a lot stronger than me) and grab a sheet off the bed for Nigel. “Shall I go into explicit detail?”
My mother’s laughter is enough for the pair to let Nigel go.
“Thanks,” he mutters, wrapping the sheet around his waist.
I place myself between my mate and my pack. “I’m aware no one expected to find me with a vampire, but I assure you, I’m in no danger.”
“That may be so, Little One.” My mother always employs this particular nickname at the worst of times. “But when you never came home last night, we worried. It appears we have much to discuss.”
I’m not above giving my mother my sad puppy dog eyes to get out of this. “Any chance we could do that privately? After we’re dressed?”
“And when the sun’s gone down,” Nigel whispers to me.
“And when the sun’s gone down,” I add. Wow. That’s something new we’ll have to think about, isn’t it?
With a tilt of her head toward the door, Mother dismisses the others, and they file out. “Get dressed. We talk now.” She turns her back but doesn’t leave. That’s all the privacy we’ll be getting.
We shuffle into our clothes, checking in with each other through soft eye contact and tentative smiles.
Well, a tentative smile from Nigel. I’m pretty sure I’m grinning from ear to ear.
My mate! I’ve found my intended! Sure, my mother’s miffed, and my pack will never let me live down this embarrassing wake-up call, but Nigel and I are together, and that’s all that matters.
I press a quick kiss to his temple and whisper in his ear, “Don’t worry. Everything will be all right. I promise.”
He returns the kiss, lips landing softly on my crown, but still manages to look nervous as a grade school student about to give a book report on a book he didn’t actually read.
“Okay, Mum, we’re decent,” I say. She turns, scanning us both with eyes that miss nothing.
“On a scale of swiped-my-finger-through-the-icing-of-sissy’s-birthday-cake-before-she-could-eat-any to snuck-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-get-wine-drunk-and-pick-up-boys, how much trouble am I in, exactly? ”
“Brave of you to remind me of past misdeeds at the moment, Little One.” She takes the seat behind the table Nigel occupied the night before. “Sit.”
We sit smack next to each other on the bed in perfect unison.
Her stern expression turns warm as she shifts her gaze to him. “So, you must be Nigel.”
Wait, how does she know that?
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, voice shaky.
“Call me Marina.”
“Yes, Marina.”
Oh, right. I should have probably handled the introductions. Oops.
“I’ve heard a thing or two about you, young man,” she says, not unfriendly.
Nigel’s cheeks burn red.
I’m curious as a cat. “Wait, what have you heard?”
She peers down her nose at me. “Attend more pack meetings like you ought to at your age, and you wouldn’t have to ask.”
“Does that mean you won’t tell me?”
“Ding, ding,” she singsongs and returns her attention to Nigel. “You’ve covered a far distance since last spotted. Your pack is worried sick.”
“They are?” The streak of hope lighting his features looks positively dashing on him, but it’s short lived. The shadow returns before the hope has a chance to settle in. “I can’t go back.”
“You have to, or your mother’s likely to bend me over and beat me redder than your face, and not in the fun way.”
Gross. I scrunch my nose and try to ignore that. Sure, Mother just barged in on me with a lover, but the thought of her with one? Gouge my eyes out, please.
“She wants me back?”
Mother huffs. “Of course she wants you back. She’s your family, darling.” Mum breaks out her mum-voice for Nigel, the one that promises everything will be all right. “They all want you back. They’re your pack. They’ve been searching for you since you ran away.”
“But…I’m a vampire now.”
“Which, while rare for a werewolf, is not entirely unheard of. They’ve been researching. Everyone wants to help you.”
He picks at a loose splinter on the table. “But—”
“No more buts. You’re going back.”
I open my mouth. “But—”
“None from you either.”
“He’s my mate,” I blurt out. “If he goes, I go.”
“Your mate?” She arches her brows. “Well, that changes things, doesn’t it? Are you sure?” Even as she asks, she waves her question away. “Of course you’re sure. Sorry. You’ve just caught me by surprise. Congratulations are in order.”
Relief swells my chest. Not that I’d been worried. Except. Well. Maybe. A little. “Thank you.”
“Wow.” Mother leans back in her chair and huffs out a long breath. “We have a lot to do, don’t we? New mates. A missing person safely found. Vampires demanding answers. And we can’t get started until dark. Hmm.”
“Vampires?” asks Nigel.
I grab his hand, “Demanding answers?”
“Indeed. I’m glad we found you before they did.” She slaps her thighs and stands.
“What do they want?”
“I’ll catch you up tonight. We’ll call a pack meeting. Until then”—she pats my head—”remember to eat between rounds of se—”
“Mum!”
“Sessions.” She chuckles and pats Nigel’s head too. “I’m leaving Hardy and Slater to stand guard, so don’t get too loud. Or do. They could use the entertainment.”
Nigel fidgets in his chair. I yank him up to give my mother a proper hug, first me, then him. Because once she opens her arms, there’s no refusing her comfort.
“All right, boys, I’ll leave you to it. Join us when the sun sets, and don’t be late.”
“Yes, ma’am,” we chorus as she heads out.
I’m glad to be alone together again. “Well, that was embarrassing.”
Nigel flops onto the bed and covers his face. “Yes, that, and also terrifying, nerve-racking, and mortifying. I cannot believe this is how I met your mother.”
“It could have been worse. We could have been midsession.” I laugh. “There are certain things even I would rather not share with her, and that’s one of them.”
“Will I meet your father tonight?”
“Oh.” Explaining this to people isn’t my favorite thing. Not everyone understands. But Nigel is my intended, so I shake off my hesitation. “I don’t have one. Or, I mean, I do, obviously, but I don’t know who he is. My mother insisted.”
“Oh. Okay.” He sits up, hair all floppy and tangled and adorable. “Why? No, you don’t have to tell me. Sorry to be nosy.”
“Don’t be. After you shared your story with me last night?
Nigel, I’d tell you anything. It’s no problem, just, Mother’s a bit unconventional.
Especially as an alpha of a werewolf pack.
” Most wolves are monogamous. It’s the natural way among us.
But my mom isn’t the conventional sort, and mated life doesn’t suit her.
“She seems nice.”
“She is nice. To everyone who deserves it and some who don’t. But she’s never wanted a mate. She thrives on…” How to put this delicately? “Variety. Men, women, some werewolf, others human, a troll once, and occasionally more than one at a time.”
Heat warms my cheeks. Not that I’m embarrassed of my mother’s love life, only that it’s a topic I prefer not to think of.
Because gross. That’s my mom. “I’m not even sure if she knows who my father is.
I wouldn’t put it past her to have made certain no one would know by sessioning with multiple options. ”
Nigel smiles. Fangs peek-a-boo between his lips. “Well, that’s one less chance at another embarrassing introduction. As if I could do much worse than being naked and drooling on you.”
“You weren’t drooling. Were you?”
“Does it matter? We’ll never live that down.”
“Who cares?” I slide closer to him and smooth my fingers through tousled ebony locks. He’s so pretty. “All packs need cringeworthy stories to tell and retell. We were just being helpful.”
“I suppose that’s a good way to look at it.” He catches my gaze, eyes darkening.
“Of course it is. The way I see it, we have the rest of the afternoon all to ourselves.” I trace his jawline and tuck his hair behind his ear. “We could be helpful over and over again in that time.”
He grabs my waist and tugs me close. “I love the way you think.”
I’m grinning as our lips meet.
And I love you.