9. Chance
Chance
Iwas trying really godsdamned hard not to show how anxious and possessive having so many Vampires around made me.
I knew logically that Rena was my mate, our connection specific to the two of us, but thousands of years of instincts were a hard thing to ignore.
After she’d fallen back asleep early that morning, I hadn’t been able to rest.
Lying with her in my arms was the only thing that kept me tethered instead of pacing the house like a caged animal. I always had too much energy before a mission, unable to calm my mind or my body, but it was different this time. Rena made it different.
Our lack of the bond made it different.
Before, I’d been fearless and sometimes reckless. I’d had nothing to fight for except the dream that I didn’t know would ever become reality. Now, I had everything to fight for, and the knowledge that without our mating bond there was a chance that I would have to leave her.
I thought maybe it would be better if we didn’t complete the bond before we liberated the warehouses.
If something happened to me, maybe Rena would have a chance to move on with her life.
I wasn’t sure how it worked for human mates before they had bonded.
If we’d never met, I knew that it wouldn’t have affected her at all, but now that we had, I wasn’t so sure.
I couldn’t remember any stories about Vampires who had died while wooing their mates.
I made a mental note to ask Aunt Helen if she knew anything about what the fallout would be.
“All set?” I asked as Rena came out of the bedroom, fully dressed for the day. She was wearing another pair of snug jeans and a black long-sleeve shirt that showed just a hint of cleavage and the entire top of her back. She’d put on makeup, and I wanted to lick her shiny bottom lip.
“Did I take too long?” she asked, putting on her earrings as she looked me over.
“Nope. You look beautiful.”
She grinned. “It’s nice to have my own clothes. I might steal that punching Nazis shirt, though.”
“You’d have to fight Reese for it.”
“I could take her,” she said smugly. “Ask me how I know.”
“Got into fist fights with Reese, have you?”
“Not in years,” she replied as I opened the door for her. “A few when we were young.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” I said as she put her hand in mine.
“Why aren’t you surprised?”
“Don’t all kids fight with their siblings?”
“Probably only the feral ones,” she mused.
“You might be right.” I pulled her closer as we reached the bottom of the stairs. “The Boucher boys definitely weren’t domesticated.”
“We tried our best,” my dad said as he passed us. “But every one of them came out wilder than the last.”
It was early, but there were already Vampires and their mates roaming the house, gathered in the corners talking, and seated in the kitchen.
My mother and Aunt Helen were at the stove and counter, moving like a well-oiled machine, filling plates with biscuits and gravy, bacon, and scrambled eggs.
Reese and Lucy carried the plates to the counter and the dining room table, where they were picked up almost immediately by hungry guests.
“I should’ve come down earlier,” Rena said, hurrying toward my mother.
“How many do you think will leave?” Ambrose asked as he joined me, his voice lower than a whisper.
“Half,” I replied, looking around the room. “Some of them will make excuses, and some will just announce that it isn’t their problem.”
“You think?”
“I’d love to be surprised.”
“How many do you think will get here today?”
“No idea,” I replied, which was probably wishful thinking. “A third of the guys I talked to said they couldn’t get here until today.”
“We’ll make it work,” he said, clapping me on the back. “We always have.”
A few minutes after he’d walked away, Rena brought me a plate of food and a cup of coffee.
“You didn’t have to do that, love,” I said, taking them from her hands. “I could’ve come and gotten it myself.”
“But you didn’t,” she said, pointing at an open chair at the table next to my brother-in-law. “Go eat.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ooh.” She shot me a look. “I like that.”
“Good to know.” I blew her a kiss and sat down when she walked away. “Nice to see your face, Charlie,” I greeted.
“Oh, hey, Chance.”
“How you doing?” I asked, looking him over. He didn’t look great, but he also didn’t look any worse than usual, so I considered that a win—especially with everything going on.
“I’m good,” he lied with a closed-mouth smile. “Just ready to be of use.”
“You’re always of use,” I argued, elbowing him in the side. “Get out of here with that.”
“You know what I mean,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m ready to do something tangible to stop them.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“No one should have to live like this,” he said quietly, looking over at me.
“We’ll stop them,” I vowed, wanting to hug the poor guy but not sure if it would embarrass him.
“I know that there’s not much I can do,” he said, clasping his hands together on his lap, his shoulders turning in a little. “But I can go with the others after. Alice is going to need someone to help with heavy lifting and run errands for her.”
“That’d be a good job for you,” I agreed. “Pitch in where you can, little brother. It’ll help more than you know.”
“I will,” he said with a nod. Then he rose and silently left the table.
Worry made me watch him cross the room to bring his plate and silverware to the garbage. He stopped and told the women thank you then walked out of view.
We’d been giving Charlie space, letting him grieve my baby brother in his own way and on his own time, and he didn’t seem to be doing any better than the day he’d shown up with Lucy and Ambrose.
There were days when he stood straighter and spoke louder, but those days were few and far between.
The man was wasting away, and there wasn’t anything any of us could do to help him.
“You’re not eating,” Rena observed as she sat down in Charlie’s vacated spot.
“Too busy thinking,” I said sheepishly as I scooped a bite of food.
“Want to share?”
I looked around the crowded table. “Later.”
“Okay.” She dug into her own food, and we sat in companionable silence until we were done.
“I need to find my dad and see if there’s anything he needs me to do before the meeting,” I said as I stacked our plates. “You want to come with me?”
Rena shifted in her seat. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
“You hurting?” I asked, leaning over to whisper in her ear.
“It’s not terrible, but it’s headed that way,” she replied with a grimace.
I nodded and tugged her with me to thank my mom before we left.
As soon as we reached the hallway, she snuggled into my side with her arm around my back.
Holding hands hadn’t been quite close enough.
I understood the urge. The heat was throbbing beneath my skin, and the only relief was where her hip and side were pressed to mine.
“Dad?” I called, knocking on his door. “You in here?”
The door swung open almost immediately. “Come in,” he greeted.
My brothers, Uncle Mordecai, and Uncle Sven were already there.
“Took you long enough,” Danny joked. Rosemary was curled up next to him on the couch.
“Mom insisted on feeding us,” I replied smugly. “She didn’t want her baby boy to go hungry.”
“I knew you were a mama’s boy,” Rena murmured, making everyone laugh.
“That was a dig at my brothers, and you just ruined it.”
“Truth hurts, darling,” she shot back, tightening her arm around my waist.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, leaning down to speak quietly in her ear. “That one’s weird.”
“Told you,” she whispered back.
“The plan is for Dalton and his team to meet us here at noon,” my father announced without preamble. “We weren’t sure if the timing would work, but he called this morning and said they’re ready.”
“Do we know how many of their mates will be helping in the second wave?” Ambrose asked. “We can probably make do with the mates we have here, but it’ll be a lot slower that way. If we want to leave that facility with any kind of speed, we’ll need one mate for each of the injured ones.”
“A little less than half of the Strike Vampires will have mates with them,” Rosemary answered. “The others have littles at home that they’re not willing to leave.”
“We’ll manage with whoever comes,” my dad said, nodding at her. “Now, did anyone have any problems with the Vampires already here? If you did, speak up now, and we’ll send them on their way. We’re not taking any chances.”
“Except this one,” I cut in, raising my hand. “You’re taking this Chance.”
“That joke wasn’t funny when you were ten, and it isn’t funny now,” Beau said.
“It’ll always be funny,” I argued.
“Is this open to anyone?” Rena asked. “Because I didn’t like the guy with the cigar.”
I chuckled as my dad lifted his hand and swiped it over his mouth, trying to hide his grin.
“He may be a jackass, but he’d kill for Ambrose,” he told Rena. “Anyone else notice anything off?”
“I didn’t get a bad feel about anyone,” Danny said, shaking his head.
“It would be hard to know, since none of them know what the target is yet,” Beau said. “That’s when we’ll have to pay attention.”
“These Vampires either owe us favors or have had our backs in the past,” Ambrose said. “I didn’t get a weird feeling about anyone.”
“Erik,” my mom called as she threw open the door. “I think you should go outside. We have some new arrivals.”
I followed my father and uncles through the house and out the front door, then stopped, my chest tight with emotion.
A long row of large black SUVs were parked in the circular driveway. The moment we stepped outside, the doors opened, and one by one, Vampires in tactical gear climbed out.
The active Vampire Command teams had arrived. The ones that Command had refused to send on an official mission. The Vampires we’d worked alongside until Zeke’s death had pulled my brothers and me out of the teams.