Chapter 19
Did I have reservations about leaving Harkin and only leaving a note?
Hells yes, I did. He’d probably be worried sick.
Do I regret doing it? No. Harkin would have sooner handcuffed us together before he’d let me out of his sight to have a conversation alone with Ash.
He might’ve volunteered to go to the Cove for the night, guarding the door, but he’d hear everything.
I wasn’t stupid. A wolf’s senses rivaled almost every other monster.
He might have acted the gentleman, claiming he couldn’t hear, yet I would’ve known the truth.
I’d been flash-traveling through the woods repeatedly.
Soreness settled into my thighs and calves.
Despite my slower breathing, it became increasingly harder to catch it.
Gods. Even my knees ached. There was no other way to get to the Cove fast enough.
What was I going to do? Steal Harkin’s bike that I didn’t know how to drive?
Gee, Harkin, sorry I left inexplicably, but I’m back, and oh, someone wrapped your motorcycle around a pine tree.
Shit. He was probably so pissed by now. I couldn’t let it distract me. One conversation. That’s all I needed. To have a talk with someone familiar and have them set it all straight for me. I’d be quick about it.
I made it to the town center, my flash-running turning more into stumbling over my own feet. Waffles had pissed at one point, the wind thankfully carrying it off. I probably should have considered that I had never sped-run with my zombie pug before. Too late.
Resuming my regular pace, I tripped over the cobblestones, colliding into a gigantic fleshy wall. The point of a curved long horn narrowly took out my eyeball.
“Aurora,” Finneas, a minotaur and owner of Finneas’ Pub, grinned at me from his muzzle. “Nice to see you in town.”
Grunting, I righted myself to standing, using one of Finneas’ thick forearms for support. “I’m just passing through. It’s too bright for me at the center.”
“True, but hey, if you ever want to stop by my pub, I keep the candles burning low at this hour. Sets a better mood.” Finneas scratched his large, golden nose ring.
Finneas consistently displayed cheerfulness, mirroring many residents living in the Cove. It had been a pleasant change of pace from my seclusion on the forest outskirts, but old habits died hard. I still had the habit of assuming their chipper attitude meant they were hiding something.
“I’ll keep it in mind, Finn.” I smiled and walked backward toward The Minty Boar. “The Crimson Crypt is always open to you too. Best place to watch sports.”
“I’ll have to take you up on that. Baseball season starts soon.” Finneas shimmied his horns. “Bye, bye, Waffles.” He waved at my pug, still wedged in the crook of my arm, who gave him a quick yip and a tail wag.
The Minty Boar was a café and pub owned by Dagnar, an orc famous for his meat pies and frothy ales.
I hadn’t been here in ages, but aside from the Crypt, it was Ash’s favorite spot in all the Cove.
It shouldn’t have surprised me he came here on the Crypt’s one closed night.
The bell hanging over the door chimed when I walked inside.
Dagnar grinned from the front counter, golden taps with tubes leading to giant metal casks surrounded by wooden fencing behind him. His tusks stuck out the more he smiled, and he waved a green hand at me. “Welcome in, friend.”
Friend. Ouch. It’d been so long he didn’t even remember me. Not bothering to climb up that particular hill, I waved back.
Ash sat at a corner table, holding a novel with one hand, scratching his feelers with another. He drank from a mug of ale in a third. He smiled when he spotted me. It faded when he saw my expression. I’d tried to look neutral, but obviously failed miserably.
“Aurora, what the hells is going on?” Ash pushed to his feet, using his fourth hand to slide out a chair for me.
Collapsing into it, I set Waffles on the floor by my feet. “So much has happened the past few days, Ash, I’m not sure where to begin.”
“Well, for starters, aren’t you tied to some alpha bind deal? Where’s Harkin?” Ash looked around the café as if a man of Harkin’s size could easily hide anywhere in the near vicinity.
I pinched the bridge of my nose before letting my head fall to the table with a mild thud. “Back in the Falls.” It came out muffled from my intimacy with the smooth wood.
“Oh, my,” Ash said with a sigh. “I’m going to take it he doesn’t realize you’re here?”
I gave him a thumbs-up but still refused to lift my head.
“Aurora,” Ash beckoned, one of his hands patting the top of my head. “Come now. You came here for a reason, didn’t you?”
With a groan, I sat back and found Waffles’ head to pet. “Why does shifter pack policy have to be so complicated? I mean, they give vampires shit, but from the way I see it, we’re pretty damn free to do as we please.”
Ash nodded like a sagely wise soothsayer. “True, but most of you wind up loners. Or, if you do somehow form a group, a family, if you will, it doesn’t last.”
He wasn’t wrong in the slightest. All vampires had their agendas. Even I had preferences with the way I wished to live my life. Choosing not to feed on humans meant keeping distance from other vamps. They refused to adopt my morals, and who was I to blame them?
“Yes, but—” I scooted forward and pressed my elbows to the table. “—they limit who shifters can be with. Especially alphas.”
Ash arched a brow, his thin lips curling into a smile. “Something you want to tell me, Ror?”
Shit. I was so caught up in what I’d overheard, I’d forgotten Ash wasn’t aware of me and Harkin. Was I aware of me and Harkin? Were we a we now?
“Yeah. We, uh, it’s complicated.” I beat the heel of my palm against the wood.
“Clearly.” Ash had a snarky smile that hadn’t left in the past minute.
“This is serious, Ash. I think I’m putting the packs in danger.”
“How so?”
This wasn’t the time to reveal my past. That was an entirely different and enormous Pandora’s box that I did not wish to open right now.
“I’m different somehow.”
Ash’s feelers rotated. “Examples?”
“I’ve always been able to pick up scents better than other vampires. I thought nothing of it, but Harkin’s scent? It’s borderline intoxicating and so strong.”
Ash nodded.
“The more we’re around each other, the more potent it seems to get, and recently I—” Glancing around the café, as though others gave a flying fang about our conversation, I scooted closer and whispered.
“—recently I had the compulsion to grab Harkin’s comforter from his bed and put it on the couch with a bunch of pillows.
I wanted to just roll in it. I feel like I’m losing my mind, Ash. ”
Ash was still smiling. Why was he fucking smiling? Was he taking any of this seriously?
“Is that why you have a pair of his pants shoved under your arm?” Ash nudged his chin at the stolen trousers.
I chewed my lip, snatched the pants and tossed them onto the table. Not before sneaking a quick whiff, though. “Do you see what I mean? It’s like I can’t get enough of it. Can’t be without it.”
Ash steepled two of his hands together. “This difference you speak of, do you have shifter blood?”
How the hells did he figure that out?
My parted lips and bulging eyes were enough to answer him.
Ash nodded.
Dagnar appeared at the table, holding two fresh, frothy ale mugs. “You two looked thirsty. On the house.” He rested them between us with a tusky grin.
“Thank you,” Ash replied for both of us because I was still staring at him with my mouth open. He kept his two hands pressed together, using a third to finish his current ale and handed the mug to Dagnar.
Once the orc left, I slapped my palms on the table. “Ash, how did you figure that out?”
“From everything you’re describing. The olfactory perception, Harkin’s enhanced aroma. The comforter deal almost sounds like you’re prepping for something?”
“Prepping for what?”
Ash’s shoulders slumped like a disappointed teacher. “I realize you’ve been a vampire for far longer than you were a shifter, but do you really not remember much about them?”
A deep pit formed in my stomach. Before turning into a vampire, I’d been too young to enter heat as a shifter.
The older females in my herd, however, had gone through it regularly.
The season’s arrival was clear from the extensive flattened vegetation throughout the forest. They were preparing beds. To mate. To bear their young.
Was that really what I was doing?
The bell rang over the door. I re-adjusted my position to look aloof. As if not only were me and Ash having a boring conversation about the next Town Hall meeting, but the gargoyle who’d entered actually cared.
Paranoia was a recent development that I did not enjoy.
“Apparently, it’s back. In a big way.” Ash tilted his head in that insect-like way he had. “Have you considered that you and Harkin may be mates?”
“What?” I shouted, catching the attention that I didn’t want from everyone in the café, including Dagnar.
Mocking me, Ash held a finger to his lips to silence me.
My shifter abilities could somehow be back? Do I even remember how to be a shifter?
“Ash, that’s crazy. Vampires and shifters can’t be mates. That’s like a platypus and an octopus. Just because they both have the word ‘pus’ in their names doesn’t mean they’re compatible.” I grabbed the mug with two hands and guzzled from it.
Waffles wiggled between my ankles, curling up into a ball.
Ash scratched the top of his head. “Interesting comparison. You’re not entirely a vampire. I think it’s possible and something you should consider.”
Consider having a mate? Not only any mate, but Harkin?
My throat tightened. I recalled being a young and wistful shifter, watching others much older than me pair off to their mates, hoping for the same for myself.
The day I met my maker took all that away from me.
Though something tugged on an invisible string in my chest the day I met Harkin.
I thought it was simply attraction. The man was and is hot as hells. Could that have been a celestial sign?
Oof, I did not need this type of hope rearing its ugly head.
“Okay, consider it considered.” I stifled a belch and used the back of my hand to wipe the froth away from my upper lip. “The closer Harkin and I are to each other, the more other shifters not in his pack try to bite me. What do you make of that, Mr. All-Knowing?”
Ash’s brows shot up. “Bite you?”
“Mmhmm. Apparently, I have an incredibly irresistible odor and they think biting me will make them, into one of me or something.” I shook my head and dunked a finger into the ale, plucking it into my mouth. “Idiots aren’t even aware that’s not how it works.”
“There’s something else I should tell you while you’re here.” Ash slipped his fourth hand into his pocket, producing his phone.
“Oh? I don’t like that tone. What is it?”
After flipping through a few screens, Ash rested the phone in front of me. “Flip through that a bit. Anything look off to you?”
Hunching over the phone, I thumbed through it. Blood bank records from not only the Cove but outside suppliers in the US and Europe. Each of them stated “Unavailable” for every single blood type. My throat swelled.
“How is this possible? Are you telling me the shortage extends to the blood supply even for humans?” I slid the phone back to Ash.
“It appears so. I feel that all of this connects. It’s too much of a coincidence considering there’s never been a shortage, let alone this severe.”
I scraped my thumbnail over the metal handle of my mug. “Or maybe they’re two entirely different things converging together to fuck with me.”
The smugness that was once in Ash’s posture evaporated. “Ror, you need to get back there.”
“Why? What’s the rush?”
Ash tapped all four sets of fingers on the table. “Whatever is going on here, I feel in my gut is all attached to Harkin. Given that he’s an alpha, he has to be losing his mind right now.” He cut his gaze to mine. “And I don’t mean metaphorically.”
The back of my neck numbed. The way Harkin described how he’d react on the alpha bind if he lasted too long without seeing or smelling me. How could I have been such an idiot?
“You’re right.” I pushed to my feet.
“Go,” he insisted. “Text me, call me, whatever you need, but go now. I’ll look more into the blood bank scenario.”
I frowned because I’d been quite enjoying our time together. I scooped a sleepy Waffles into my arms. “Thank you for this talk.”
“Go,” Ash said more forcefully.
“I’m going,” I snapped back, baring my fangs.
With a scolding set to his jaw, Ash, with three hands, pointed toward the exit, as though my considerable seniority meant nothing.
“Thanks for the ale, Dagnar,” was the last thing I said before flash-running to the forest and on my way back to Plena Falls.