Chapter 17
seventeen
GRAYSON
Time passed just as quickly the next day.
My alarm caught me off guard again in the middle of another endless meeting, and my guilt was fierce enough that Merrily called me immediately.
I left the meeting abruptly with a growl about checking on my mate. The office I'd been loaned wasn't far, but I answered before I reached it so she wouldn't be sent to voicemail.
"Hey, I'm so fucking sorry." I dragged a hand through my hair, shutting the door behind me a little harder than I needed to.
"What are you sorry for?"
"I abandoned you less than twenty-four hours after sealing our bond, Love."
"Oh. Well, stop feeling guilty for that. I told you, I get it. Eventually, you'll be done." She yawned widely. "I'm about to call it a night, though. Just got in bed."
"I'm coming back tomorrow, whether or not it's done," I said firmly.
If the pace didn't pick up tomorrow, I was going to have to make a strict schedule. I wasn't going to be the one who fucked things up permanently with Merrily after fate handed me the fae queen I'd spent an entire century fantasizing about.
She was mine.
I'd figure out a way to make it work.
"You still need to feed. I'm sure you're not in any danger, but I would like to know that you're at full strength just in case. Just slip into my dreams," she said.
"I'm fine. I want to see your face for a few minutes, though. Set the phone up against a pillow or something while you fall asleep."
I felt her amusement through the bond, but she didn't show it as she answered my video call and set the phone up. When she was done, she lowered her head to the pillow she had claimed the first night she slept there, and looked at the phone expectantly. It only showed me half her face.
"Move a little to your right."
She scooted a little, and her face disappeared completely.
"Left, actually. To your left."
She slid to her left, and the movement jostled the pillow. Her phone plopped onto the mattress, and I bit back a curse, shoving my hand through my hair again as I tried to calm my frustration.
I should've been with her.
I should've been in our bed beside her, holding her in my arms.
I was going to have to make some rules with the vampires, because I wasn't doing this late-night meeting shit again. Not with my mate waiting for me back at home.
Merrily propped her phone back up, and I could see her whole face in the camera again. Her waves fell around her head, and she was wearing another one of her little sleep sets. "Just breathe, Gray. We're okay. A few nights apart isn't the end of the world."
Did she even miss me?
I fucking missed her.
"Tell me about your day until you fall asleep. Mine was shitty," I said.
She spent twenty minutes catching me up on the lunch she'd had with her whole family at Kat's cafe, in which Darius acted as their barista and somehow managed to talk not one but seventy-six people into making small, silly bargains with him while they were there.
I wished I'd been there with her.
Just watching her talk was fucking captivating.
When she started dozing off, I stayed on the phone, watching her fall asleep and feeling the gentle tug of her dreams as she did. Rather than slipping into them, I just stared at the woman.
My woman
It took me a good twenty minutes with the distance between us, but I took the time to solidify my shadows around her, adding everything I had to the magic curling around my mate so she would sleep as well as possible.
If I couldn't be there to ease the price of her magic completely, I could at least help in that way.
When I finally forced myself to go back to the meeting, I muted my phone but left the call on, so I could peek at my sleeping female whenever I wanted to.
Between the paperwork, financial issues, and demons being demons, the transition from one king or queen to another was always a mess.
It was particularly bad this time, but my mood was significantly better every time I saw Merrily’s sleeping face.
I told the vampires in no uncertain terms the next morning that I needed to see my mate and was leaving early in the afternoon to do so.
They all knew who she was, so they feigned support.
The plan went to shit about a half an hour before I was supposed to head out.
Two of the guys who were on the shortlist to become the next vampire royal showed up, already in the middle of a tense, verbal fight. I tried to talk them down, but my usual charm failed me.
Probably because I was fucking pissed that I'd been away from Merrily for so long.
There was a brawl, which turned into a real fight, and we ended up at one of my MMA gyms for a hell of a lot longer than we should've.
When one of the vamps took things too far, we had to take him to a holding cell at the police station while another group rushed the other vampire to the nearest hospital.
I met them at the hospital to make sure the bastard was fine afterward, before going back to the office building with a group of vamps.
My reminder about Merrily going to bed went off just as I reached the door of my borrowed office to look for my car keys.
I dropped my forehead against the thick wood with a quiet thud, misery rolling through me like a fucking river.
Merrily's mind brushed up against mine through the bond, and my misery shifted to guilt.
I forced myself into the office, striding to the desk and looking for the keys under stacks of paperwork.
"Are you okay?" she asked me.
"Trying to be. I sound like a broken record at this point, but I'm sorry."
"I heard about the fight. The pictures made it look pretty rough. Need me to kill someone for you?"
"Nah. In some ways, it made things easier by wiping two guys off the list of potential leaders."
"Alright. You're not heading home yet, are you?"
"No, I just got back to the office they've loaned me while we figure this shit out. I was about to grab my keys and head home."
"Don't bother."
"Don't bother heading home? Where are you?"
"Here." It took me a second to realize I'd heard that last word out loud, near the door I'd just walked through.
My head snapped upward, and I found my mate leaning casually against the doorway, wearing nothing but one of her soft little outfit sets, an oversized sweater that opened in the center, and my shadows.
"You're here," I said, shocked.
"I'm here. Seemed like you could use some backup, or at least a hug. Not that most people would look forward to hugging death incarnate, but—oof." That last sound was muffled as I crossed the room in two steps, dragged her into my arms, and squeezed her tightly to my chest.
Merrily hugged me back as I buried my fingers in her hair and breathed in her scent.
Finally.
She was there. In my arms. Because she knew I needed her.
I hadn't had anyone to rely on since I lost Jazz and Dante to that coup. Not really. Rae and I were close, but she refused to rely on or be relied on by anyone. Mia and Charity needed my help too much for me to ask them for anything, and they had each other.
I had never realized how badly it sucked to be so fucking alone. Not until I held her in my arms like that.
"Thank you." The gruff response was the best I could give in the situation.
"Let me see your face." She leaned away from my chest, taking my chin in her hand. "No bruises, so that's good."
"I wasn't involved in the fight. Just haven't fed or slept much. I'll look better after I do.”
"You couldn't look bad if you tried, Gray.
" She said the words almost absentmindedly, as she took my baseball cap so she could drag her fingers through my hair.
She combed the strands away from my eyes before replacing my hat.
"I rented us a room at the hotel a few blocks away from here.
We're going there tonight, and we'll come up with a plan in the morning.
Tell them you won't be back until noon tomorrow—they can deal with it. "
I let out a long breath. "Alright. You've convinced me."
"Wow, what a challenge," she teased.
"You picked a good moment to attack. I'm fucking exhausted."
"I know. I can feel it."
I took Merrily’s hand and laced my fingers through hers. She led me back to the parking lot, and directly to her car.