Chapter 22
Aurora
I wasn’t a fan of Creed keeping secrets from me, but I knew enough to know it was about the deal he made to help the government handle situations in NYC. So I could be a bit patient with that.
A bit.
As long as things with him and his lion kept getting better. It had been a few more days since his follow-up appointment and I was meeting that lion shifter’s mate. The one who was a doctor and his mate was a vampire. I figured after my support group was as good of a time as any.
But hopefully this went better than my meeting. I was sure a reporter had joined the group because we had a new member and she was a bit too fixated on me. I would have to bring it up to my security and maybe even Creed. It seemed paranoid but… Maybe not.
“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” I said after Kathryn introduced herself to me.
“Thank you for offering to buy me a nice lunch for my trouble and snagging us reservations at such a hot spot,” she replied graciously. “I always try to get out more, but with a toddler it just gets overwhelming.”
I knew it wasn’t about the money being the mate of a successful doctor, and I was fairly sure she had some business of her own, but it was showing that I was willing to appreciate her. I took in the signs of exhaustion and assessed her.
“I remember how hard it was even if centuries ago,” I told her gently. “Do you have any support here?”
She flinched and went to brush me off but then sighed.
“My family cut me off completely when I fell for a shifter. My mate doesn’t know it’s completely and how vampires are forever.
” She cleared her throat and reached for the water already placed at her setting.
“It’s been difficult uprooting and being transplanted all the way to Atlanta of all places. ”
It was something to bring up with Ellie and maybe her people later.
“It is, but now you know someone and I love babies.” I cleared my throat when she gave me a suspicious look. “I understand if you can’t move past my sins and—”
“What you did to survive centuries ago isn’t for me to judge, and I certainly don’t know a fraction of the story,” she said firmly. “I’m just shocked because I didn’t grow up around helpful vampires.”
So few of us did.
“Hopefully, more of us can help change that,” I said gently and then asked her how things were going with her young baby.
I nodded as she let the floodgates open.
We ordered and she was still going on about how it was just never enough between the baby needing milk and blood from her by the time our salads arrived.
“But I still want to seem sexy and feminine to my mate,” she admitted. “That’s why I hesitated to speak with you. I felt like such a fraud being someone to counsel you when I feel so…”
Lost. Fake. Insecure.
All of the above.
But it did give me an idea on how to help and to change a bit of our business model. There were different needs for new mothers—especially new vampire mothers.
“Your mate is a good man. He spoke like a proud papa and didn’t care at all that his firstborn wasn’t a lion,” I told her gently. “Simply a healthy baby and his mate was a miracle. I know how to help, sweet girl.”
“I was supposed to help you,” she rasped, looking beside herself.
“No one said you still couldn’t,” I reminded her with a chuckle. “I will have many questions being mated to a powerful lion.”
She snorted and then apologized. “He’s more than powerful, Aurora. Even my mate said he was a whole other level.”
I accepted that and listened to her advice as we ate.
All of it was helpful, but I also gave her a few suggestions as well since the magics had noted how I’d bonded well with Creed’s lion.
It gave me a few ideas, and after texting Creed that I was adding a few stops to my day, I swung by where my cousins were staying.
They were hard at work getting the rest of everything together for the fresh meals business and off the ground. We already had a few customers like Ellie and people we knew. I discussed what I learned with them, and one of my elder cousins, Patsy, jumped all over the idea.
She immediately outlined some specifics and the next morning we were sitting in front of Ellie before her normal working hours.
“We’re not asking for this to be some sleezy push towards a friend’s business, but there are medical practices that have preferred vendors,” Patsy said to Ellie as my former stepdaughter flipped through the rough proposal on the tablet. “I saw it constantly. We’ve seen it time and time again.”
“Yes, it’s a heartbreaking issue,” Ellie muttered.
“But one we could bring light to now that there can be a solution,” Patsy pushed.
“Let us work with one of your nutritionists. You have that fertility expert. We could design menus for women who are high-risk pregnancies and not getting the support they need. Even if they do not buy from us, it’s a meal plan that your doctors can use. ”
That intrigued Ellie because there was so much information out on the internet and too much of it was wrong.
And that upset her, but getting the correct information took time and was always expensive.
Her people didn’t always have the time to get it all done, and the reach to manage it was difficult too.
“It could even be shared with trusted restaurant chains to have a special menu item with higher nutritional needs,” I suggested.
They both shot that down because most couldn’t be trusted to not substitute with cheaper ingredients or warp something to their advantage. It made sense and they were polite in how they phrased it, explaining it well to me even.
But there were a lot of ideas and plans to consider for sure.
Creed was pacing when I arrived at the house we were still using. The air around him was tense, but he was trying to swallow it down.
He wasn’t doing a good job of it, but he was trying.
“I want to know what this is for my own knowledge even if I understand you’re trying to control it,” I told him.
He flinched. “It’s not jealousy. It’s how long you were gone and we don’t know where. It’s just—too long.”
“Thank you for explaining,” I accepted. “I will do my best to add more details in the future.” I smiled when he relaxed some.
Then I was in his arms being kissed. “I am trying. We are. I swear it.”
“I believe you. I feel it.” I rubbed my hands over his chest and told him most of what happened. I left out my side mission to a few of the powerful witches who worked for ASH that I now had a relationship with.
I was keeping that in my back pocket since I was pretty sure I would need it.
“That sounds awesome, and I’m glad more people are on board with your vision for the company,” he praised when we were eating.
“I’ll work on some preliminary contracts and maybe—you received some more requests to do interviews and more.
” He nodded when I glanced at him. “I know it’s hard and too much on you, but it’s a chance to bring light to victims.”
“And a limited chance,” I mumbled, nodding that I heard him.
I wasn’t sure I could do it though.
But I wanted to. I wanted to do what I could for other women who had suffered—were still suffering.
And especially the ones who could be saved from suffering in the future.
I thought about it a lot the next couple of days while getting more and more set up with my cousins and extended family.
The sale was finalized with one of the properties I was purchasing for them, and now that more had happened with my family and the European government, some of them had retained other attorneys and were suing… A lot of people.
Like a lot of people.
The Graves family, their in-laws, others involved—the list was long and all were committed to getting their pounds of flesh.
And I worked a lot on my mating. I was able to instigate better and that helped Creed and his lion. I couldn’t do much besides tell him that I wanted him to kiss my body.
But he seemed happy with that, especially how often I wanted it. Plus, I was touching him more.
And the backsliding stopped. I felt… I stopped crying about how he was treating me. It was still trying and we had work to do, but it was better.
We were the team again.
Which was why I felt the fool when I realized that Creed had been pushing me to leave, not because he was showing me that we were making progress, but because he was up to something sneaky. Two of the guards who were supposed to be at the house with him were suddenly helping us make deliveries.
Then I realized it was on purpose. One of the women gave a me a look and that was all I needed to know.
My mate was putting himself in danger.
Fool.
I slipped away and contacted the two witches who worked for ASH that I’d made deals with. One arrived to where I was almost immediately, handing off her kids to my cousin who was looped in and then opened a portal to where we needed to go.
To say the shifter was shocked and on alert was an understatement, but I said exactly what I needed to for my own goals.
“Your mate is in grave danger and I can take you to him,” I told her, extending my hand to her. “We don’t have time.”
She didn’t hesitate, and I didn’t care if it was another reason I suffered in hell later. Add it to the list of my sins, but I would do whatever was needed to protect my mate and keep him safe.
Like the idiot was trying to do for me.
She fell for it and came through the portal with me so we ended up outside of the house I was staying at.
“Know I want you dead for what you’ve done to Creed and don’t be foolish,” I told the woman as I grabbed her by the throat and dug my nails into her skin. “You understand, yes?”
“Have they hurt Creed?” she rasped.
“Don’t act like you care,” I snarled, my fangs out and itching to tear out this woman’s throat.
I dragged her with me when I heard elevated voices.
“Touch my mate and I will slice yours to ribbons before sucking down your entire pack one by one. And before you think I can’t, I’m centuries old and have endured horrors none of you pups can dream of. ”
“Aurora, wait—no—what are you doing here?” Creed whispered.
“Shut it, my mate,” I snapped. “You are grounded and so is your lion. For a long time.”
I didn’t even cut him a glance, focused on the two men who had come for Creed and were dangerous. One now looked at me with my death in his eyes since it was his mate I was holding.
But the other was more dangerous by far.
Because he was the Alpha of the NYC wolf pack.