Chapter 34 #2
“Excellent.” Morgan nodded, as if that settled everything, and that obviously Eric would stay if given the choice. Did that mean he’d already decided to stay too? “We should totally get matching cloaks!”
He wiggled again, as if dancing in his seat. That was the thing about Morgan. He was never still for long. But maybe that was just one other way we complemented one another. If we were both in constant motion, it’d be chaos. And if we were both as motionless as statues, it’d be boring.
“We’ll be back at Willow Lake by dawn,” Carter said.
“Excellent,” Morgan said. He patted his stomach. “Just in time for breakfast.”
That drew my eyes off Eric. “Are you hungry? We can stop. We should have eaten before we left.”
Morgan dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “I’m good. I don’t like to eat as soon as I wake up. This will be perfect timing.”
That reminded me. He’d been sound asleep when the others had arrived at our cabin. “If you’re tired, you can sleep. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know.” He yawned and cuddled closer to me. “But I’m okay. I swear.”
Eric watched Morgan snuggle close to me. I wrapped my arm around my mate to hold him tight and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. Eric’s gaze darted quickly to Carter. The shy man’s cheeks darkened, before he dropped his gaze to where his hands were clenched in his lap.
Interesting. Were those two mates?
I wished I knew what kind of supe Eric was. I had a few ideas, but I wasn’t as good at figuring that out as some of the others on my team. Adrian, as a wolf shifter, was really good at it. His sense of smell was amazing.
Shadow magic didn’t work that way.
I considered asking him, demanding he tell me what kind of supe he was. But he didn’t feel like a threat. So, for the moment, I let him keep his secrets. I’d get answers soon enough.
When Morgan didn’t speak for a few minutes, I realized he’d fallen asleep. A wave of contentment rushed over me with the knowledge that he trusted me to keep him safe amongst these strangers. Maybe I wouldn’t fuck up this whole mate thing after all.
The rest of the journey to Willow Lake passed in silence. When we passed the little town where Gage and the rest of the team had been holed up, their familiar cars pulled onto the road and surrounded us, protecting us in a little convoy made up of my family.
I used the last of my phone’s charge to text an update to Van and Gage. When I hit send, a little more of my tension receded.
A deep layer of snow covered the landscape we travelled through.
The storm we’d been caught in must have swept down from the mountains to cover the foothills too.
It was good I hadn’t pressed on during the blizzard.
I doubted we would have gotten ahead of it, and it would have been a treacherous ride.
By the time Carter guided the limo over the town boundary, Morgan was stirring again.
“Oh,” Morgan gasped. His eyes fluttered open. “What was that? Where are we?”
“Willow Lake, finally. You probably felt the magic. There’s a lot of it here.”
A slow smile settled over Morgan’s face. “This… It feels like home.”
Huh. Gage had said the same thing the first time he’d come here. It didn’t feel like that to me, but everyone sensed things differently. Still, it made me wonder why a unicorn would feel the same thing a demon had. As far as I knew, they didn’t have much in common.
Carter drove straight to the Willow Lake Inn. My team’s vehicles parked around us. As soon as the engines died and everything was quiet, I exhaled slowly. For the first time in days, my chest didn’t feel so tight. We were home. Finally.
Morgan was safe.
“Come on.” I wanted to get him inside and up to my room where he could sleep a little longer if he needed.
Although, looking at all the faces peering at us from the inn’s windows, it could take us a little longer to get to my room than I’d anticipated. Half the pack was in there. The light over the inn door came on as the door was flung open. Jake and Jeremy ran outside.
Jake was wearing pajama pants with ice cream cones on them, winter boots, and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He scanned the vehicles before racing toward the one with his mate. Gage scrambled out of the car and swept his mate into his arms.
Unlike Jake, Jeremy had taken the time to grab his winter jacket before plunging outside to greet his mate, Adrian.
When they collided, Adrian picked Jeremy up and spun in a circle.
It was strange to see my old teammates so joyful, but I understood that joy better now that I’d met my own mate.
We’d never had people waiting for us to return from a job before, now we did. Even me.
“Eric? Where is…?” Carter’s question trailed off.
I glanced around to see that the backseat of the limo was empty, and Eric was nowhere to be seen.
“Shit,” Carter muttered.
“Go find Eric. Don’t worry about all this.” I waved to the inn. “Someone will debrief you later.”
Carter didn’t wait for anyone else’s opinion. He sniffed the air, then in a whoosh of magic he shifted into his bear form and lumbered after the missing man.
The vampire had exited the limo too. He was leaning against the nose of the vehicle with his arms crossed over his chest. Everyone eyed him curiously, but no one approached him.
Morgan slipped his hand into mine and squeezed. He stood a little behind me, and when I looked over my shoulder at him, his eyes were wide as he took in all the supes. I hated how unsure he suddenly was. Morgan was never unsure.
He swallowed hard. “I should have put on my wig and grabbed my cloak before getting out.”
“Hey, it’s okay. These people are safe. They are my friends.”
“But they’ll see me.”
Then Ogden appeared in the doorway. His mate, Simon, peered over his shoulder, much the same way Morgan was looking over mine.
“Morgan,” Ogden breathed. “It’s really you.”
“Oh! Hey!” Morgan’s fear eased at the sight of the dragon shifter. He waved.
“Come in, come in,” Odgen said. “It’s freezing out here.”
Still clutching my arm, Morgan stepped forward. I matched my pace to his. The vampire didn’t move.
“Come on. You’re coming in too,” I huffed, waving for the vampire to follow us. I hadn’t known a lot of vamps, but I was pretty sure they didn’t actually need spoken invitations to enter a building.
Keenan nodded and walked along behind us with a sense of confidence he always seemed to carry. But he wasn’t my concern. Morgan was.
I wanted him to like my…
Huh.
This strange little mix of people were more than my acquaintances. They weren’t even my friends, were they? They were my family. It’d just taken finding my mate before I could see what was right in front of me all this time.