Chapter 20 Potential Danger
twenty
Potential Danger
*FELIX*
We go back to our rooms to grab a couple of things and then head out.
I am glad we are having a slow day – it’s exactly what I need.
My mind is constantly on Gwen, my mood fluctuating between joy and worry – joy for having found her, and worry of the shifters Dario and I spotted.
Neither Charlie nor Dario pushes me to do some sightseeing or some sort of activity; instead, we go to a small, rather rundown, coffee shop and spend a couple of hours there.
Dario pulls a small notebook out of his pocket. “We can prolong our stay here for as long as we want,” he muses. “On our way back home, though, we’ll need at least one stop.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask before realization settles in. “No, wait, I don’t want you to cancel your trip!”
“Under normal circumstances, I’d say to invite Gwen on the trip,” Dario says. “But she has two more people she is caring for right now, and she told you herself that she doesn’t feel safe. I hope she agrees to come home with us.”
“I hope the same,” I say. “And if she doesn’t want to come to Silverlake immediately, I will stay with her until she is ready. She is looking for a pack, and I hope that when she sees our home, she will like it there.”
“It’s a good thing to invite her to come for a visit and see things for herself,” Charlie says. “Emphasize that she doesn’t need to move immediately. It’s obvious she has trust issues.”
I nod. “I’ve planned on doing just that. However...“ Guilt seeps through me when I look at Dario and Charlie. “This is your vacation, too. I can’t… I don’t want to ruin it.“
“We have been on the road for over a month now,” Dario says. “You are not ruining anything. I don’t mind returning home a bit early.”
“I am with Dario. It would be something else if we’d just started our vacation, but we have been travelling for a while and are only cutting the trip two weeks short. I am looking forward to being back at home.”
Dario smiles warmly. “Me too.”
“Really?” I ask. “You are not just saying this, are you?”
“We mean it,” Dario reassures me.
“So, the new plan is to take Gwen and her friends with us,” Charlie says. “That is if she agrees to it.”
“Let’s say that she does, then we’ll need a second car,” Dario says.
“I will look up some options.” He hasn’t even finished his sentence and already takes out his phone, starting his research.
He is the best brother in the world, and he is really good at this kind of thing.
I have never seen him as anything else besides my twin and best friend, but the way he deals with problems and can immediately jump into planning and organizing could take him far.
I know he thinks he isn’t alpha enough to be considered for a higher rank, but who cares when he is good at so many other things? He would be a pretty good advisor.
“What are we going to do about the shifters both of you spotted?” Charlie asks into the silence.
“We should look for them,” I say. “I don’t feel comfortable with them here.”
“It could be a coincidence,” Charlie says.
Dario looks up from his phone. “It could be,” he says.
“But you doubt it?” Charlie pushes.
Dario looks at me. “What do you think?”
“Gwen said she feels like someone is watching her, and that’s enough for me to be concerned.”
“I get that,” Charlie says. “Better safe than sorry.”
“When is Gwen expecting us?” Dario asks.
I glance at my watch. “In about an hour. Do you think we should get going? I promised Gwen we would bring some snacks.”
I know it doesn’t take an hour to grab something to eat and go to her place, but I am getting anxious to see her again. Fortunately, Dario and Charlie humor me and don’t raise any objections; they don’t even point out that a one-hour time window is plenty to get other things done.
We pick a box of donuts and Pop-Tarts, hoping that the little girl Gwen cares for will like them, and then choose more savory options for us. Gazing at the bags, it dawns on me that we might have gone overboard. “Well...“ I decide on optimism. “At least we are not going to be hungry.”
“We could feed all our siblings with this,” Dario says. “And their mates.”
“Now you are exaggerating,” I grin. “Dad and Liam could eat that alone when they are hungry.”
Charlie laughs. “Whatever, let’s just hope Gwen has a fridge.”
“At least we bought nothing that’s going to expire too soon,” Dario adds.
He and Charlie discuss this for a bit longer, but I ignore them. My focus is solely on my mate now, something in my chest pulling me towards her stronger than ten minutes before. Why? Is it because I am about to meet her?
Hurry to our mate, Kiran growls.
I almost drop the bag I am carrying. Is she in danger?
I don’t know, but something feels off.
Picking up my pace, I almost run to Gwen’s place. Dario and Charlie follow me, asking me questions, but my mind is too filled with anxiety to answer them. I can’t focus on anything else but Gwen.
There is her place! The small cottage she is currently house-sitting, with the red fence and the red door, comes into view.
“Wait!” Dario grabs my arm, stopping me in my tracks.
I am not a violent person, but I am so close to pushing him aside now, just to rush to my mate.
“You look like you are about to kill me,” Dario whispers. “I want us to keep the upper hand. Look, it’s the guys we saw two days ago!”
I cast a glance at the house, suddenly spotting two men approaching the place. My cheeks burn in embarrassment that I almost lashed out at my twin. “Sorry,” I mutter.
“Who are they?” Charlie asks quietly.
“I have no idea, but we can say for sure now that their presence is no coincidence,” I huff.
One of the guys knocks on Gwen’s door. Fuck. What are they doing here? Do they know Gwen? I want to believe they are her friends, but I doubt it. This whole thing feels so off.
Gwen opens the door, a hopeful expression on her face that soon falters when she notices the person in front of her. Her expression is all I need to know to act. I fucking knew they were trouble.
“Time to intervene,” I huff.
Dario nods. “Yeah.” He takes the bag out of my hand, allowing me to run to my mate. I am not able to catch the whole conversation, just…
“What are you talking about?” Gwen says. “I am not Gwendolyn. My name is Elsa.”
Without waiting one second longer, I push past the guys, narrowing my eyes to a dark glare. They are normal wolves. To them, Gwen smells like a human, but they certainly can tell that I am a lycan. “Do you have business with my girlfriend?” I ask.
The tone in my voice is so threatening that the guys take a step back. I’m surprised; I didn’t even know I had it in me to scare someone.
“Your… girlfriend?” one of the guys mutters.
“Yes, I was travelling and came to pick up Elsa.”
Gwen immediately plays along. “I was waiting here for my boyfriend,” she says, smiling at me. “I am obviously not the person you are looking for.”
“Don’t you have a kid with you?” the other guy asks.
“Yes, my little sister,” Gwen says promptly.
Who the fuck are these guys, and what do they want from my mate? It’s obvious now that Gwen doesn’t know them. Dario?
My brother has stayed behind a way, which gives us the chance to work in secret now. Yes?
Can you take some photos of these idiots? I need to know where they came from and who they are.
I am on it, Dario says. They look like pack wolves. Maybe Dad knows who they are.
I turn my attention back to the situation at hand. “And where are you from?” I ask sweetly.
One of the guys swallows thickly. “Not from around here,” he mutters.
“Is that so?” I say darkly. “And who exactly are you looking for? Why are you bothering my girlfriend?”
Contrary to my angry tone, I let my power seep through. It usually has the effect of soothing and calming down those around me, to make them relax. People talk more when they are relaxed. It also makes them feel drawn to me. Gwen must feel it too, because she looks at me curiously.
It works, because…
“We are just searching for a friend,” one of them suddenly says. “He is looking for a girl with long, wild locks and a small kid with her.”
“We probably got the wrong girl,” the other one adds. “We apologize.” I stop my gift, the tension suddenly becoming thicker again. The guys look at me now, clearly nervous again. “We don’t mean any harm,” he mutters.
This asshole wants me to believe that?
The two guys simultaneously take a step back.
Felix, I get your anger, but we can’t start anything here in a human town, Dario intervenes. I have taken pictures, and Charlie has recorded most of the conversation. We need to go from here.
Fuck, he is right. If I start a fight here, it will alert the humans, and that’s always a very risky situation.
I need to rely on our usual network now.
One thing is for certain: these guys might be looking for Gwen for whatever reason, but they don’t look like they are incredibly dangerous or even particularly sly.
They are literally walking around in broad daylight and knocking at Gwen’s door instead of just charging in.
Checking them over now, I also realize that nothing about their aura indicates they are of a specific rank – more like normal warriors.
Everything about their behavior right now is meek, and they are clearly trying to de-escalate the situation.
I open the door to Gwen’s house again, waiting for her to step inside, before turning to look at them.
“Never bother my girlfriend again!”
*GWENDOLYN*
I am still processing what just happened. My heart almost sank to new depths when I saw the two guys, the same men who were at the club a couple of days ago. They were looking for me.
Fuck! I don’t know what I would have done if Felix hadn’t come in time.
No one has ever defended me against anyone, except my dad and Daniel.
But this here is different. Felix didn’t even hesitate to come and protect me, and very openly claimed me as his.
He called me his girlfriend for obvious reasons, as humans could hear us, but to the wolves, it was obvious that he claimed me.
I understood it, the guys understood it, everyone who knows shifters would have noticed.
My chest feels warm at the thought. He wants me. He openly claimed me as his. This is not just a show he is putting on; he is clearly in it for me.
As if he can read my mind, he pulls me into a hug. “No one is going to harm you,” he mutters into my hair. “You are my mate.”
I nod against his chest, not able to say anything.
“I don’t want to interrupt anything,” a voice can be heard. “But we brought food.”
“Oh!” I move back to look at the other two, recognizing them as Felix’s twin brother and his friend. “I am sorry!”
“Don’t be,” Charlie grins. “You can be all over your man, I don’t care.”
Dario groans. “I do,” he complains. “Well, at least partly.” He smiles at me, reaching out his hand to shake mine. “I am really happy to officially meet you.”
“Me too,” Charlie says before she grins at Dario. “I can’t believe Dario and I lost the bet, and didn’t find our mates first.”
“I didn’t know it was a competition,” Dario says.
Felix smiles. “It is not.”
“Of course it’s easy for you to say that,” Charlie teases.
I was anxious they would judge me for working in the shady club – it’s the first place they saw me at after all – but none of them even mentions it.
Felix gazes around, his eyes falling onto Tuesday. “Is that a capybara?” he asks, clearly stunned.
“Yes.”
“You told me you had pets,” he blinks. “But I didn’t expect… well…”
Oh, please don’t let him hate them. Brandon didn’t like pets. Only recently, I realized he didn’t like anything that meant something to me.
“Goddess, it’s so cute!” Felix beams, getting on his knees. “Can I touch it?”
My heart makes a leap of joy. “Of course. It’s very friendly. Actually, it should feel lonely without a companion, but apparently Tuesday is a special case.”
“Tuesday, huh?” Felix grins while gently petting Tuesday’s head. He laughs when the capybara waddles closer to him and rubs its head against his leg. Tiger and Mr. Dot soon follow. Only my duck stays with its eggs.
Felix looks almost boyish when he laughs, but it still makes my heart beat faster.
Seeing this tall, broad-shouldered guy gently handling these pets makes me fall quicker for him than I should.
He is hot and adorable at the same time.
I didn’t think it could be possible, but his dimples drive me insane, as did the dark look in his eyes when he sent the other shifters away.