Chapter Four
My head snapped up. “Holy shit.”
My mom furrowed her brows, and Carly turned to me. “You said a bad word.”
I winced and patted her head. "Sorry baby, I'm just excited."
She looked at the jumbled letters. “Is this what we were looking for?” She scrunched up her little face and then looked back at me. “I don’t understand it.”
I laughed. “It’s a code. I’ll teach it to you.” I pulled out a random paper and flipped it over. I wrote the Alphabet in two lines, matching the letters on top of each other. A over N and M over Z. “Then you just swap the letters.”
By then, my mom was staring over my shoulder. “That’s it?” She looked down at the code and then back at me. “But that’s child’s play.” She looked at me. “He used that to hide his secret?”
I laughed. “Yep. And it is. It’s the way Rick writes secret notes with Abby. I’m assuming he did it this way because he assumed no one would think of a code this simple.”
“For something this important?” She looked down at the paper. She looked back at me with confusion and a little bit of worry on her face. “It is important, right?”
I laughed again and nodded. “This is everything.” I leaned over and kissed Carly’s face.
“Ew.” She giggled as she wiped the pretend spit from her face. “We did it though? You got what you needed?”
I smiled. “We did!” I jumped up to my feet, pulling Carly with me, and then I swung her in a circle. “Wohooooo.” She squealed as we spun and my mom started to laugh. Toya and Wendy ran into the room and stopped on the edges to watch Carly and me spin.
“What’s going on?” Wendy chuckled as Carly giggled.
“Carly and Mom helped me solve the big issue about Vince.” Wendy’s eyes widened and Toya’s mouth dropped open.
“Say you swear.” Toya ran out and swung Carly from me. “Did you save us, baby girl?”
I laughed as Toya swung her into the air, nearly brushing the ceiling.
Carly squealed again and then we dropped to the ground.
Wendy walked over and snagged Carly’s hand.
“Well, since you saved the day, you get to pick what we have for lunch and dinner.” Carly cheered as Wendy led her to the kitchen.
Toya looked after them and I watched her face morph from proud to serious as she turned back to me. “This is what you needed for his servers?”
I nodded and felt my face split. “And it’s perfect timing.”
“Why do you say that?” My mom came closer to us so we could talk low.
“Because I just ‘broke up’ with Brandon. Shannon and he showed up for a final showdown in front of the pack. Now all I need to do is get the king to allow me back to daddy’s pack lands and then I can hit them and disappear.”
Toya and my mother looked at each other for a second, then turned back to me. “I thought you were going to wait for the mating ceremony?”
I stretched my neck. “Can’t, not anymore.”
My mom grabbed my hand. “Why? What aren’t you telling us?”
I sighed, but then my stomach growled, and I winced. Toya turned to me. “Are you eating properly?”
I groaned. “There is too much going on.”
Toya smacked the back of my head. “You screamed at me for the same bullshit excuse during school. ‘It doesn’t matter if you have training, class, or anything else. You need to feed your body, your wolves. Or else you can lose control.’ I think that was it…
right?” She leveled me with a look and I winced.
“Yeah.” I sat down on the couch and looked at the papers scattered around the floor.
“Then you need to come clean.” She came over to my side and bumped her shoulder into mine. “What’s going on? You are normally on top of food.”
I looked down at my hands, and I shook my head. “It’s stupid.”
My mom sat on the other side of me. “Baby. Nothing that is affecting you this much is stupid.”
I looked at her, and then back at Toya. “You will think it’s stupid.”
She chuckled. “Absolutely not.”
I took in a breath and blew it out before and started to pick at the side of my nails. “It’s Rowan.”
Toya tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
I focused on my fingers as I blurted everything out.
“I can’t wait until the mating ceremony because I am coming into a heat.
Erubus has been visiting Nix and Megan and they have both fallen for him, which is what is causing the heat.
I was pissed because I like Thoth, maybe love him, but then daddy spilled the beans that he magically bound the guards at the building to keep Rowan’s letters from me.
I went and got them this morning and read one. He said he loved me.”
Both my mom and Toya were silent for far too long before I looked up and both were looking at me with their mouths dropped open. “Say something.” I nudged them and they finally blinked.
Toya sat back. “That is a lot.”
My mother tried to smile. “That it is.” She grabbed my hand. “Are you sure about the heat?”
I nodded. “Both of them are going into heat.”
Toya choked on her spit. “What do you mean, both of them are going into heat?”
I chuckled as I looked at her. “Exactly that. Last time it was only Nix and I, Megan took the heat as much as she could, but it wasn’t hers.
Now both of them will go into heat. And honestly, that sounds fucking terrifying.
I barely survived my first heat without my mate, and that was only one wolf. How am I going to survive both?”
My mom wrapped her arm around me. “We have a few weeks. Right?”
I sighed. Do we?
My wolves both looked at each other and then away. Erubus says we have less than two weeks. Possibly a week.
I laughed and then felt tears spring to my eyes. My mom looked at Toya, who threaded her fingers through mine. “What’s wrong?”
I looked at both of them. “I have a week to a week and a half, give our take a day.” I watched the words hit them, but then my mom nodded and stood. “Where are you going?”
“To call your dad.” She looked like she was on a mission.
“Why?” I looked at her, confusion and panic clear on my face.
“Because he has fucking magic, and if anyone can stop this mess from fucking happening. It should be him.” She turned and stomped up the stairs. She was on a mission and no one was going to stop her.
“Do you think there is a way?” Toya looked at me with hope in her eyes. “To stop your heat?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t remember seeing anything that might stop it. Not even pack doctors have the resources, as far as I know.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat, but Toya slid closer and wrapped her arm around me.
“We got this.” She looked sure.
I laughed. “Do you not remember last time?”
She nodded. “I do. So I know Wendy and I can do this.” She rubbed my shoulder.
“We have done this before, and we can do it again.” She pulled me into a hug.
“So let’s not stress about the heat. We have that handled.
Now.” She paused. “The Rowan thing might be a little more difficult.” She pulled back to look at my face.
“You tell me, what do you want? I’ll support you either way.
Thoth, Rowan, some random guy named Todd. You tell me.”
I laughed, really laughed, since Nix and Megan told me about the heat. “Just like that?” I watched her face, but she wasn’t lying.
“Just like that.” She wiped a tear from my face.
“I’m your best friend, Amy. Not a judge.
You tell me who you love. You tell me who you want to be with, and I will one hundred per cent support you.
” She shook her head. “Rowan is a good man. We have just decided he is stupid. And that’s okay.
” We both burst out in laughter. But then she kept talking.
“Thoth is a good friend, and man. If you want to pursue him to see what could be, then do it. You are not tied to anyone. You have no mate that we know of.” She shrugged. “We just want you to be happy.”
I groaned in frustration. “Rowan might be my mate.” I looked at her and watched her eyes widen.
“Why do you say that?” She was hesitant to say anything.
I looked at her for a minute. “Why did you say it like that?”
She looked back towards the kitchen and then sighed. “Truthfully?” I nodded. “Because Wendy and I have been thinking that it only made sense that you and Rowan are mates.”
“Why?” I pulled away completely to watch her face. “And why didn’t you tell me?”
She winced. “Since meeting Nix, we assumed since you two are the last Lycans. You two had to be mates.”
“But the Lycan’s are alive.” I cut in, but she held her hand up.
“We didn’t know that at the time. And having the only two Lycans alive mate made sense.
And the goddess is nothing but sensible.
” I nodded, but then she looked at me. “And the reason why we didn’t tell you was because you two were hitting it off.
And we just assumed everything would unfold as it should.
” She looked away. “And then he shattered you and I wanted to kill him.” She turned back to me. “I was going to kill him.”
“Toya.”
But she shook her head. “You didn’t see yourself at the height of your heat, Amy. If he had shown back up, I would have died trying to kill him. And I would’ve done it happily.”
“You can’t mean that.” I hit her arm, but she shook her head.
“You don’t understand. We handled you, but I was terrified you were going to die.
Having a heat without a mate was bad enough, but adding your shattered heart on top of it nearly did kill you.
” Her face was a mask of rage. “There were a few days where you refused to eat or drink. You whittled down to nothing.” She looked down at her hands.
“When you came to, your wolves were fighting for your life, so you didn’t see much of a difference.
But at the height of your heat, your heart stopped beating.
” Toya met my eyes. "But even after all of that. I knew Rowan was doing it because he cared for you and didn’t want to ruin you.
" She nodded as she sighed. “It took a long time for me to realize that.”