30. Harper
CHAPTER THIRTY
harper
Rhone was a better dancer than I would've guessed. I should've expected it after watching him fight.
The alcohol probably helped, too.
He still seemed mostly sober, though his hands wandered significantly more than usual. The way he was grinding up against me in public said he wasn't feeling anywhere near uptight.
We swayed.
Spun.
Pumped our fists with everyone else.
Rocked together, slowly.
When cheers went up and I could no longer see Nolan and Oren, Rhone tossed me over his shoulder and hauled me out of the room.
I was slightly dizzy, and my fangs were both descended and throbbing, but I wasn't anywhere near devolving. I just felt... alive.
And happy.
Really, really happy.
Rhone set my ass on the edge of the bed as soon as we were back in our apartment, not giving a damn about everyone else's scents on our skin for once. He had my pants off and his mouth on my core in a heartbeat.
I buried my fingers in his hair and tugged harder, pulling him closer as I cried out in pleasure.
He dragged his teeth over my clit, nipping roughly, and I came with a desperate cry.
Rhone didn't take his mouth off my core until I'd come down from the high, and then he was pushing his pants down, freeing his cock with one hand.
The other rolled me to my stomach.
I arched my back for him, lifting my ass higher, and the sound of satisfaction that escaped him was all wolf as he filled me in one rough motion.
I came again, moaning as my body squeezed him tightly.
He drove into me hard, taking me exactly the way I wanted him.
Uncontrolled.
Wild.
Real.
He fucked me until we came together, his knot swelling and locking him inside me.
The pleasure was still insane.
Absolutely fucking surreal.
He pulled me into bed and held me against his chest partway through. When his knot finally softened, he squeezed me tightly, in the kind of fierce hug I had only ever seen in movies.
"You are fucking perfect, Trouble." His voice was low, but the emotion in it was impossible to miss.
"So are you," I whispered back.
He gave me a raspy laugh. It sent goosebumps over my skin. I couldn't remember ever hearing him laugh before. "I couldn't be perfect in anyone's wildest dreams. Even yours."
"You're still perfect for me." I lowered my lips to his arm and kissed him there. "I'm glad you forced me to mate with you."
"Technically, that was fate."
"Then I'm glad fate forced me to mate with you. I'm glad you're here. I'm just... glad."
He kissed the side of my throat. "I had fun today."
"So did I. I like being around you. And being with other people, around you."
"I think that's the best compliment you've ever given me.
I smiled. "I told you that you were perfect."
"I rejected that compliment."
"You're too stubborn for your own good."
He grunted. "Not like that's a secret."
My smile faded, slightly, when I remembered what I'd done earlier.
The message I'd sent to Neve.
"Can you get my phone? I think it's on the floor next to the bed."
"Nope."
I tried to look back at him, but he squeezed me again, trapping me there. "She doesn't get to ruin this. If she replied, we can wait to read it for another twenty minutes."
"What are we doing for twenty minutes?"
"Snuggling."
"I might zone out."
"You won't zone out." He pulled me closer.
I'd never just snuggled for so long, but it was peaceful.
Every time I started to zone out, Rhone adjusted our position a little. Or pinched my nipple. Or tugged my hair. Or kissed some part of me.
Eventually, he let go of me just long enough to pick my phone up off the floor. After he handed it to me, he pulled me back into his arms and held me to his chest once again.
I cuddled closer and finally hit the button to light up the screen.
There was one message waiting.
Only one.
Neve
Video call me.
I grimaced. "I need to get dressed so I can call."
"You can call her like this." Rhone pulled the blanket up my shoulders, covering more of me.
"I can't. She'll think you're manipulating me somehow. It needs to be just me."
"I'm not leaving," he said bluntly.
"You just have to be quiet."
"Alright. Stay here." He disappeared into the closet, and came back with one of my cropped t-shirts. It had the logo of a heavy metal band I'd never heard of printed on it.
I pulled the shirt over my head and attempted to fix my pink hair while Rhone shifted forms and settled back on the bed.
He snuggled up against my side. I stroked his furry ears with my fingers, and he scooted closer even though he was already basically on top of me.
My stomach was a fucking knot while I hit the button to video call my mother.
The person who thought I was a monster, and had told my best friend's ex to kill me. Loudly. Without hesitation.
She answered on the first ring.
Her brown eyes were red-rimmed, her expression was dark, and her lips were pressed together tightly.
She didn't say a word.
"Hi," I said, lifting a hand awkwardly in the camera's view.
She didn't reply.
I'd seen that coming, though.
There was no point in beating around the bush, so I started talking.
"The werewolves have a way to stabilize turned vampires.
It doesn't usually work, but sometimes it does," I said.
"I'm stable, now. Mostly. The Alpha Pack is strong enough to keep me from devolving completely when I get dark.
And they know how to bring me back if they have to.
I'll never be able to live like a human again, but my life is good, here. I'm happy."
Surprisingly enough, it was true.
I was happy.
Yeah, I was still struggling. If Oren was right, I always would.
But that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy life.
It didn't mean I couldn't go to parties, and dance with my sexy asshole of a mate for hours.
It didn't mean we couldn't stop at gas stations for an atrocious number of candy bars to keep me sane and overload us with sugar.
"Tell me something no one else knows. Including Bloom," Neve stated.
She wanted to know it was really me.
I didn't have many happy childhood memories. Most of them were overshadowed by the times Neve had been cruel to me as a kid.
"On my seventh birthday, you made a cookies and cream cake, but you forgot the cookies, so it was just a cream cake. I told you it was my favorite. We both knew I was lying, but I asked you to make it the next year."
She'd said no, the next year. I hadn't asked again the year after that.
But the memories of us laughing over the cake, instead of her yelling at me or insulting me, were good ones.
In the video call, Neve's eyes softened just a little.
Then grew glassy with unshed tears.
"What happened? All I know is Velour's side of the story, and I know he was lying," Neve said.
"What did he say?"
"Tell me your side first."
"We were hooking up casually. Bloom warned us both it was a bad idea, but we didn't listen.
He bit me one night, when he wasn't supposed to.
The night Steven died, which I'm sure you know.
He lost control and took too much. I was dying, and he panicked.
He fed me some of his blood, and snapped my neck. Then left."
Neve's gaze darkened.
I gave her a chance to tell me to stop, but she didn't.
"I couldn't think straight, so I went to find Bloom to ask for help.
I ran into Steven in the elevator, and he had me go upstairs to do something work-related for him.
I lost control in his office, and drained him.
Killed him. I didn't know what else to do, so I ran back to my apartment to get my shit together.
By the time I made myself look human again and got back to talk to Bloom, Steven's body had been discovered, and the werewolves were there. I'm sure you know the rest."
Neve didn't say anything, so I kept talking.
"Bloom knew what I was and tried to find a cure, but Maverick was trying to win her over, so he was constantly around.
Velour was supposed to find answers, but he didn't." That was a lie.
Mostly. "We thought I had a little more time when she brought me back to the gathering, so you could end the threat, but we were obviously wrong.
The wolves didn't know what was going on, but when they found out, they helped. I'm mated to one of them, now. Rhone."
"The Beta, Rhone?"
"Yes."
"He killed Pepper Valenti, Harper."
"After she bit and killed a human without consent, Neve."
"You bit and killed a human without consent, Harper." Her voice was sharp.
Rhone growled.
Her eyes widened. "He's with you? Right now?"
"Of course he is. He's my mate. And unlike Pepper, I didn't choose to bite Steven.
Velour killed me, and abandoned me to figure out what was happening right afterward.
I wasn't in my right mind, and I still regret what I did every single day.
Pepper was proud of herself for the murder. I'm not her."
Neve studied me, her eyes still wide.
"What did Velour say about it?" I asked.
"He said you asked him to turn you. That all you wanted was to be a vampire.
He came to me and Holly immediately after you turned.
We had people in the building when you killed Steven.
They were too late, and decided to focus on wiping the footage instead of killing you, after you left. They made the tech guy do it."
I scoffed. "When did I ever want to be a vampire? I loved my humanity. I only tolerated the gatherings because you convinced me they were our culture. The only vampires I even liked were Bloom's family."
Never pressed her lips together. "We need to meet. I need evidence."
I turned my phone toward Rhone, so Neve could see him glaring at her. "Meeting him isn't a good idea."
"Of course it is."
"It's not. Rhone is really protective of me."
"Why?"
He growled again.
"Because I'm his mate, Neve." My voice was sharp.
"If Bloom's situation is anything to judge, the werewolves don't give a damn who they mate with. They'll pluck up the first vampire they find on the street, and—"
Aaaand Rhone shifted forms.
I tried to stop him from ripping the phone out of my hand, and failed.
One moment, he was furry. The next, he had me sitting on his lap while he glared at the woman who had raised me.
She suddenly looked very, very scared.
"Shut the fuck up," Rhone growled. "You don't know a damn thing about werewolves. If you did, you wouldn't be helping the vampires murder humans under the guise of taking us down. We have evidence that you were aware they were turning people, by choice."
"I'm not helping them murder humans," Neve said sharply.
"Riley met you when Holly Valenti turned her," I said. "She saw you. She knows your name. She's here, and sane, just like me."
"She was already dying, and she was supposed to be the one we turned. Not her brother," Neve protested.
"Then your plan failed, because Holly went clear the fuck off the rails," Rhone said. "Unlike your people, we take out anyone who kills a human by choice. Velour turned Harper without feeding her afterward, so Steven's death was on his head."
"Velour's dead?" she asked.
"Very." Rhone gestured to the fangs hanging around my neck.
"Good. I didn't excuse him for what he'd done, even when I believed his story. The Valenti's insisted that it was your fault, and the Yellow's weren't willing to kill them for it. I had to take matters into my own hands."
I blinked. "You… did what?"
"After our people had the investment company's tech guy erase the security footage, we had an in with him, and a way to hurt them.
I convinced Holly that turning someone else and getting them to take the company down would be the best way to attack.
She was desperate to hide what Velour had done, and hates the wolves, so she agreed to it. "
"Didn't she realize it would turn the city against vampires even more?" I asked.
"She didn't care. She didn't think the vampire reputation could be improved, and she wanted the werewolves to go down with her. After what I saw, I just wanted to destroy the Guild to remove the corruption."
Not all of them were corrupt.
Some of them were good, like Bloom's family.
"Holly hasn't realized what I'm doing, but she will. I've been trying to come up with a way to kill her, but I don't have any connections capable of it. She's still in hiding, but she has a plan," Neve explained.
"What's her plan?" I asked.
Neve hesitated.
Rhone bit back another growl. I put a hand on his thigh to tell him to chill (and because it was a nice thigh).
"I can tell you in person," she finally said. "When she realizes what I'm doing, she's going to kill me. I need protection."
"You think my pack is going to protect a woman who helped a vampire turn two humans? That's not an option," he said bluntly. "Your best chance of survival is turning yourself into the cops and serving the prison sentence."
"Helping a vampire turn someone is a life sentence," Neve said sharply.
"One you deserve to be serving," he agreed.
"You'll never find Holly or figure out her plan without me."
"We found Velour. We'll find her too. Ozzy was your last chance at taking down the investment company, right? Holly wouldn't have burned that bridge if she had another one. Whatever else she's planning, she's targeting the tower."
Neve clenched her jaw, just slightly.
He was right.
"You can show up at the tower yourself, and we can help you find your way to a prison sentence. Or you can keep hiding, and wait until Holly or our people find you. Your choice."
My mom looked at me. "Harper? You'll make him keep me out of jail, right?"
"Do you remember the year after you made the cream cake? When I asked you to make it again?" I asked.
Her face flushed. "I should've had more patience."
"You insulted me until I locked myself in my room for the an entire day, and you gave the cake you had bought to the Yellows. We didn't celebrate at all. You even returned the presents."
"You were ungrateful."
"I was just a kid. And I agree with Rhone—show up at the tower to pay for what you did, or hide until someone finds you." With that, I ended the call.
My heart beat rapidly in my chest, and Rhone dragged me back into his arms.
He held me while my eyes burned, and he turned on another cake show to distract me when I couldn't sleep.
The echo of what he'd said to me earlier played on repeat in my mind, and I clung to it.
You are fucking perfect, Trouble.
Eventually, I crashed in his arms.