Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter
Thirty-One
Colbie
We let ourselves into the council building and climb the stairs to the second floor.
The familiar scents of my mates reach my nose, and we track them to a closed door.
Hunter doesn’t bother to knock, instead pushing it open and letting us in.
We find my other mates sitting around, drinking coffee, and they turn their attention to us.
Each of them is in a state of undress, wearing only a pair of sweatpants they must have had in their backpacks.
I swallow deeply at seeing all their delicious shifter flesh on display.
Liam smirks and gives me a wink when I wipe the corner of my mouth to make sure I’m not drooling.
“You’re finally here!” Brodie jumps to his feet and comes over, pulling me to his chest. I drop Hunter’s hand, who growls, but Brodie just shushes him before giving me a scorching kiss.
“Easy, you big lizard. We’re all going to feel a little needy until the mating drive settles.
You know it can take a while,” he scolds the dragon when he pulls away.
Suddenly, we are surrounded by the others, and I’m passed from Brodie to Liam, then Gryffin and Gem.
They smother me with affection, telling me how much they missed me before I finally end up in Micah’s arms.
I’m a little unsure about us. I barely know the guy, but my creatures don’t care.
They know our mate, and they pulse with the unsealed bond, pushing me to take care of what nature intended.
I grit my teeth and squeeze my hands into fists to stop myself from mauling the mer.
I can see by the lines around his lips and eyes and the tension in his body that he is also having trouble restraining himself.
“Hi,” I murmur, and I hear him take a deep breath and blow it out again before he grimaces.
“Wow, fighting the need is a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he admits, “but unless we want to run the bath and have a very awkward mating, it’s going to have to wait,” he explains, knowing exactly what I’m feeling.
“Okay, but as soon as we find a body of water big enough, we are taking care of this unbearable need,” I tell him, and he nods.
“Even if it’s frozen solid, we will get fire starters to melt it for us,” he agrees before leaning in and pressing a gentle kiss to my lips, then he pulls away and stalks to the other side of the room.
I clear my throat and take a couple of breaths, centering myself so I don’t chase him.
“Okay, we need to speak to Lena and her mates. We have to ask her about Nox. I didn’t see him anywhere yesterday, and I’m worried about what that means.
His truck was definitely in that parking lot, and if he isn’t here, then where is he?
” My worry returns with a vengeance, my mind conjuring all kinds of scenarios.
Did the lion kill him like he attempted to do to us?
Did they already succeed in blocking me from the crown?
Or is Nox out there somewhere in the world, doing his darn best to avoid me?
“Yes, let’s get them working on the location of the children, and then we can focus on finding your last two mates. Maybe they know where Nox might have gone since he isn’t here.” Gem tips his coffee mug back, finishing it before going to the kitchen and placing it in the dishwasher.
He grabs the pot of coffee and two cups and pours both Hunter and me a mug before adding milk and sugar to mine and leaving his black. Gem passes them to us, giving me a kiss on the cheek before walking in what I assume is the direction of the bedrooms. The rest of them follow suit.
“There’s cereal in the cupboard and milk and fruit in the fridge if you’re hungry,” Gryffin tells me before following the others.
I sink down on one of the chairs and take a sip of my coffee, sighing with relief as it hits my taste buds while Hunter pulls out a couple of bowls and holds up a box of cereal.
“Yeah, I guess I should eat, though my stomach is in knots at the thought of this meeting. I assumed unicorns were supposed to be all gentle and serene, but Lena is more like a freaking dragon,” I grumble as he pours us bowls and adds milk before bringing them over to the table.
He chuckles. “Yeah, she certainly doesn’t fit the stereotype, but years of needing to put your walls up to avoid being hurt probably did that to her, not to mention resentment at how her children had to suffer is enough to make any parent defensive.”
He slides the bowl over, and I waste no time inhaling it. We certainly worked up an appetite last night, but I still wasn’t tempted when Hunter suggested we shift and go find a deer or something for our dragons to snack on. Gross.
It doesn’t take long for the others to return dressed in their watch outfits with backpacks over their shoulders. Mine was left behind at the cabin, so it’s lucky that Hunter had this dress and a spare uniform for me.
We finish our breakfast and clean up, leaving the suite as neat as it must have been prior to the guys’ visit. There are a few personal items lying around, and I assume they belong to one of the dudes we killed, but they won’t be needing them now.
“Let’s go. I’d like to knock on the door of their house. I’m hoping having us in their home might keep them a little off-balance.” Hunter opens the door and leads the way outside, and we cross a clearing, heading in the direction they told us they lived before they left last night.
“Good thinking. She might not be so aggressive in her own space,” Gem suggests, and Liam scoffs.
“Or even more aggressive.”
We knock on their door. It doesn’t take long before a bleary-eyed Johan opens the door and does a double take when he sees us.
“Sorry to wake you,” I say, realizing just how early it is, or maybe they are still recovering from the last couple of weeks. “We need to get moving, and I wanted to iron out a few things with you.”
He rubs his eyes but gestures for us to enter. “I apologize. We planned to meet with you this morning, but I guess we were more tired than we realized.”
He shows us into a comfortable but stylish living area and gestures for us to take a seat.
“Just give us a moment, and we will be right with you,” he tells us before hurrying to retrieve the rest of his family and get dressed.
I can’t stop myself from eyeing his muscular back as he leaves.
Nox’s dads are hot, but then so are Hunter’s and Gryffin’s dads.
The slow aging of a shifter makes them look like they are only in their late thirties.
“Are you creeping on your mates’ dads?” Brodie laughs as I wince, feeling my cheeks heat.
“Not really, I was just marveling at how good shifter genes are. I wonder how old they are. Hell, Gryff’s moms and dad are in their sixties but barely look old enough to have kids, let alone ones as old as him and the girls,” I point out, scowling at them when they continue to find amusement in my observations.
Before anyone can make another comment, a gray and white streak of fur flies at me from somewhere. “Agh!” I scream, holding my arms up as it launches itself at me, its claws catching me across the back of one hand.
It doesn’t get any farther, because Liam snatches it out of the air and holds it in front of him with two hands. It instantly relaxes and starts purring, so he tucks it under his arm and strokes its head. I glare at them, not hiding my feelings for the insufferable animal.
“Damn, love, that cat really doesn’t like you,” Gem comments with wide eyes.
I glare at Stormheart with loathing. “The feeling is fucking mutual. Stormheart is a fucking menace to society,” I mutter when a clearing throat has us turning our attention to the newcomers in the room.
Nox’s dads look bemused, but Lena narrows her eyes on me much like the stupid animal. “How do you know my son’s cat?”
“Stormheart and I are familiar with one another,” I reply vaguely.
“And it doesn’t like you? Why is that?” Before I can answer her, Santos chuckles.
“Don’t be like that, Lena. You know that cat doesn’t like any female around Nox. It’s just as aggressive toward you.”
She scowls at her mate before reluctantly nodding her head.
“Despite me giving him to Nox, he has an aversion to me. Nox must have stopped in some time recently, and when he didn’t find us, he left a note asking us to watch the damn thing for him while he went to Chaos Kingdom for a job interview.
Would you care to explain just how you know my son? ”
I decide to give her a half-truth, not quite ready to reveal everything. “Nox and I are recent acquaintances. He lives in the same town my grandparents are from, and we ran into each other one day when I was out walking on the beach.”
“How didn’t he notice something was wrong in this village?” Hunter asks, sounding suspicious. I can’t blame him. Even if his parents weren’t here, he should have noticed things weren’t quite right with everything else.
“I’m guessing he dropped by at night. He would have assumed we were asleep, and he knew that everyone would be inside due to the curfew,” Christos replies.
“And he wouldn’t have had to use the pass to get to the kingdom if he shifted and flew, so he wouldn’t have needed to worry about ferals,” Santos reasons.
I guess that all makes sense.
There’s an awkward pause and I guess it probably time to approach the subject of Nox
Lena hasn’t torn her gaze away from me, and I can see her eyeing my new mate mark on my neck. I don’t think there is much this woman misses, and I really don’t want to be an enemy to her.
“Do you recognize this mark?” I ask her, waving a hand at the guys, and Gem lifts his shirt, showing Nox’s parents their bond group mark.
The three males let out noises of surprise, but Lena hisses at me. “You stupid girl. What have you done? Nox doesn’t want anything to do with a bond group.”