21. Finley #3
He stopped and turned to look at me. “I know I didn’t take things well the other night and had a bit of a meltdown, but I’m fine.
After I’ve had some time to process and go over the plan with you, I feel better about things.
It would be worse if you cut me out and I didn’t have all the information.
Then I think I would just go completely crazy with worry,” he brushed a hand down my cheek.
“Knowing helps more than I thought it would.”
Leaning in, I pressed a kiss to his lips. “Okay, I trust you to tell me if that changes.”
“Promise,” he answered with another quick kiss, then resumed our walk.
“Zander, did your mother get you an invite?” I asked, knowing that the conversation between them hadn’t gone great.
He just grunted and nodded. So I left it alone, feeling how much he didn’t want to talk about it on top of his body language. “Then our backup plan is in play. I have an invite with my father, and you with Morwyn. Having the two of us inside makes the whole plan work.”
“I have to admit, it all seems too simple,” Lane commented. “Then again, they did it to themselves, only allowing people who should be there into the gala. It will be much easier not to worry about innocents that way.”
“Sometimes the best plan is the most obvious because no one thinks you’ll do it,” I explained.
“Who in their right mind would storm the gala with an army of vampires, werewolves, and elves? It’s ludicrous to think anyone would do something so basic and direct.
The way to kill this snake is to take off the head, and that’s who will be there. ”
We fell into a comfortable silence as we each dealt with the reality of what we were going to do in the next week.
The basic plan had already been etched out, but now it came down to Ayla and I doing one last mission to break the rest of the foundation and ensure security would be tightened.
So far, no one has commented on the fact that Delilah and Bakos had disappeared, but it had only been forty-eight hours.
“Oh, thank God you’re here,” Katie called when she spotted us.
I’d been surprised when Peggy’s sister decided to stay with the pack, but they understood what their sister did was wrong and deserved to be cast out.
With the spell cast on Peggy, she’d become increasingly volatile, and when we tried to relocate her, she ended up killing herself two days later.
The sisters mourned for their sister, but to them, she was gone the moment the witch fucked with her brain.
“What’s wrong?” Colt asked, sensing her distress.
“There’s a man here saying that he’s Finley’s father. I mean, they sure do look a lot alike, but I remember her telling me she didn’t have any family. There was nothing I could do to make him leave. He insisted that I come find you,” Katie gushed, her hands waving everywhere as she talked.
I tensed, knowing that it could be Eli, but then again, it could be James. Then I remembered James was a vampire and he didn’t have the ability to be out in the sun, and it was the middle of the day. “Where is he?” I asked.
“Ah, sitting at the kitchen counter in the elves’ house,” she shared.
“Said something about that being where he belonged. Wait, is he an elf? He doesn’t look at all like the other four, but it’s so damn hard to tell since none of them carry much of a scent.
Maybe that’s how I should figure out what they are by the lack of scent instead of looking for one. ”
When Katie was nervous, she tended to ramble and right now, she was coming unglued.
I reached out and took her hand, allowing a flow of calming energy to fill her, settling her nerves.
“Everything’s going to be alright, Katie.
By the sounds of it, that man is my biological father, even if I don’t consider him my dad. ”
“Oh, I know how that works,” Katie huffed. “My old man walked out of us when I was three. The bastard and I might share DNA, but that doesn’t mean he means anything more to me.”
I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s something similar to that. Leave it to me. I’ll deal with things. Thanks for looking out, though.”
“Of course, Finley, you’re part of the pack, and we look after each other.
Besides, since you’ve been here and getting to know everyone, it feels like people are bonding more.
Then with the other elves joining us, the pack has had new life breathed into it,” Katie said, gripping my hand in comradery.
“Good luck with the sperm donor, and come find me if you need anything.”
She walked away and I turned to look at the others. “What could he possibly want?”
“Maybe he knows about the press conference and wants to talk you out of it again,” Zander offered.
That could be, but something told me he wouldn’t risk coming here just for that. He knew I didn’t want to see him or be around him if I didn’t need to. This had to be something that could only be talked about in person. Now, I just had to go find out what that was.