26. TWENTY SIX
TWENTY SIX
Vera
I think I check the time on my phone about a hundred times during my evening lecture. I’m already dialling Bas when I burst out of the doors, not even stopping to put my jacket on.
He answers a moment later, his deep voice gruff. “Hey.”
“Hey, are you OK? You didn’t get enough sleep, did you? You were a grumpy bear this morning.”
He laughs, but it’s halfhearted. “Well, it’s promising that you picked up on that. Had a bit of a surprise when I got home.”
“Oh?”
He lowers his voice. “My parents decided to drop in for a visit.”
“Wow. I didn’t even realize y’all were that close.”
“Yeah, neither did I. It looks like they might be here a while too. They’re trying to buy a place together.”
“Wait. Together? I thought they split when we were kids.”
“Uh huh. This is new. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s going to stick. But is that unfair of me?” There’s a rustle, and he grunts like he’s getting comfortable. “I just can’t see them working together any better than they did the first time. They still argue all the time.”
I take a shortcut past the co-op book shop toward my dorm building. “You know them better than I do, but you know it’s normal for couples to fight sometimes. You’re just weird because you never fight me back.”
“I don’t have to. I’ll just pin you down and tickle you, bunny.” He drops the childhood nickname, and somehow it hits different than it did when Riley used to tease me like that as a kid. I chew my lip around a grin. “Just try it.”
He goes quiet, but I get a glimpse of an image through the bond where he’s pinning me down to do something else entirely, and suddenly I’m walking even faster. “No fair.”
He just laughs.
“So does this mean I don’t get to see you this weekend?”
“Are you kidding? There is nothing on this Earth that could stop me from seeing you this weekend. They’ll just have to put up with hearing when I make you scream.”
Oh god, he’s killing me. I’m feeling a little breathless when I reach my dorm. “Is that a promise?”
“Mmmhmm.”
I burst into my room, find Kate absent, and shut the door with a sigh of relief.
It takes me half a moment to dump my things and remove my shoes.
I push my hand into my panties and let out a little moan, phone pressed between my ear and my shoulder.
“I bet you can’t guess what I’m doing right now... ”
Turns out he doesn’t have to. I’m getting pretty good at this whole mate bond thing, if I do say so myself.
Bas picks me up at the bus terminal as the sun is going down.
When I see him I drop my bag and run and jump into his arms, and he lifts me as easily as if I weigh nothing.
I turn my face into his neck and just breathe in his honey-and-bourbon scent for a moment, sighing at how right it feels. “I missed you.”
He groans. “Missed you doesn’t even cover it, bunny. My parents are here, and I just know they’re going to be awkward. So I’m sorry.”
He sets me down, and I have only a moment to gather my wits before a tall woman with short gray hair leans in for a hug. “Vera? It’s so nice to meet you. Or I suppose to see you again. I think I must have known you when you were very small. You’re Tilly and Jamie’s girl, right?”
“That’s right.” I can’t say Bastien’s mother looks terribly familiar, but then we never saw much of his parents as kids. She smells familiar, though. Something of Bastien’s warm scent is in hers too, and of course she smells of magic, since she’s a shifter as well.
“Vera, this is my father, Hunter.” The way he says the word father sounds stiff, just like his posture.
Bastien’s father is standing a little back from us, looking at something on his phone with a frown. When he looks up, he doesn’t smile. “An omega, Sebastien?”
His words are so cold, all three of us recoil a little.
Bastien’s hand tightens on my waist. “My fated mate.”
He grunts. “Let’s get home. I have some phone calls to make.”
That’s it? That’s his reaction to meeting me?
All Bastien’s hostility toward them makes sense now.
I shake my head following them to Bas’s truck.
His mom tries to offer me the front seat, but I insist she takes it, which leaves me sitting in the back with his dad.
The whole trip from the bus station, he doesn’t look up from his screen.
I make awkward conversation with Bas and his mom and try to ignore Hunter. I want to keep an open mind. They’re family now after all, but I have to admit he’s not making a great first impression.
As soon as we get back to the house, Hunter disappears into the guest room on his phone call and Bas starts making dinner. I opt to help, cutting the vegetables while he prepares the meat for the grill.
The sound of muffled arguing makes us both pause to look at each other. When it cuts off a moment later with a growl and very distinctive squeak of mattress springs, Bastien’s face loses all its color. “Oh gods, are they…?”
I can’t help laughing at his horrified expression. “Yup. I’d say so.”
“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”
I giggle, slipping my arms around his waist and sliding my hands beneath his shirt and over his warm belly. “I hope we still end arguments that way when we’re their age.”
“We won’t argue because I won’t be a jerk like him.” He doesn’t turn, but he doesn’t stop me from touching him, so I let my hands roam and press my cheek against his back. “Yeah we will. Maybe you’re perfect, but I can be a jerk sometimes, and I expect you to call me out on it.”
“You’re not a jerk.” He turns and grips me by the waist, lifting me and setting me on the counter in front of him so he can lean in and kiss my neck. “We won’t fight like them.”
“It’s not bad to fight, Bas. It’s only bad if you don’t make up afterward.” I try to kiss him, but he pulls away, making a face when the thumping from the guest room is joined by moans. “Sorry. I can’t while I have to hear that.” He winces. “Does it sound like he’s hurting her to you?”
I snort. “Maybe she likes it like that.”
He makes a gagging sound. “Oh gods. Don’t do that.”
“Maybe she likes it when he—” I’m cut off by his large hand over my mouth, and honestly I’m laughing too much to get the words out anyway.
Eventually he starts laughing too and lets me go so I can wrap my arms around his neck and hug him close.
“Maybe we should go stay at the eco-cabins again and leave them to it.”
He sighs. “I wish we could, but I should try with them. I’ll kick myself if I don’t give them the chance to know you.”
The mood is very different at dinner. It’s not really better, though. Hunter sits close to Linda with his arm slung over her shoulders or his hand on her knee and grills me with questions.
Somehow I find myself describing my childhood and my family while he watches me with his boulder-gray eyes.
“So you couldn’t shift as a child?”
“Dad!” Bas drops his knife and fork onto the table and glares at Hunter.
“It’s fine.” I reassure him. I turn to Hunter. “Yeah, for a long time I didn’t think I had the magic. I guess I’m a late bloomer.”
“Right. But you can shift now?”
I wiggle uncomfortably in my seat. “Ah, well, I’m working on it.”
“How long are you planning on staying?” Bas cuts across the conversation, his normally warm expression hardened to match his father’s.
“Now don’t be like that. I’m just looking out for you, son. This could be the mother of your cubs.”
Bas sets down his knife and fork with a clatter. “Vera will be the mother of any cubs I have if she wants that. Whether you interrogate her or not. If you want to stay under my roof, you’d better start showing her some more respect.”
“Sebastien, what your father is trying to say is—”
He stands, and I feel the anger vibrating off him through the bond.
“I don’t want to hear it. Gods, I just knew you would embarrass me.
Vera’s family has always been nothing but welcoming to me, and the second you have the chance you’re in her face asking stupid questions like any of it makes any difference.
She’s my mate! What does that mean to you? ”
There’s an awkward silence.
Bastien’s father scoffs. “Well lucky you’re a beta. The chances of any cubs are low anyway.”
There’s a low growl from Bas and an answering sound from his father.
They glare at each other across the table.
Bastien’s form shimmers, and his body swells.
His face elongates as his shift begins, but a moment later he gets hold of himself, balling his hands into fists and shutting his eyes until his face returns to human.
Then he turns and leaves the room. A moment later the bedroom door slams.
Linda and I get to our feet at the same moment. A harsh bark freezes us in our tracks.
“Sit the fuck back down. Don’t dignify his tantrum with a response.”
My knees tremble at the command in Hunter’s voice. Linda plops back into her seat with a gasp. Was he talking to me or Linda or both of us?
The command in his tone—he used his alpha powers—disgusts me to the point bile rises in my throat, and I want to spit my last mouthful back onto my plate.
No decent alpha would wade in on a trivial argument like that with a bark, throwing his weight around. I grit my teeth and pull on something bright and warm from within me that infuses my limbs with power again. This alpha doesn’t get to tell me what to do.
My legs are stiff as I move at first, but the force of Hunter’s command wears off after a few shaky steps.
He doesn’t make any further move to stop me, and I hurry to the bedroom before he can say anything else.