28. Bexley

28

BEXLEY

“Here you are,” Ronyn’s mother said as she sat a bowl of pie and ice cream in my lap, “Eat up, okay? There’s fresh fruit in the pie, so it won’t completely undo your training from today.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

She walked over and kissed his cheek. “No problem, Ronybug.”

I wiggled my eyebrows as he grumbled and dug his spoon into his food. I thought it was sweet how he entertained his mother. Even though I knew he was frustrated. I wasn’t sure why. But, I figured it had something to do with a certain conversation I still wasn’t able to have with him. Well, a conversation I needed to have with all of them, honestly.

But, once Ronyn’s mother sat down at her kitchen table with us, thoughts of the bath house with Ronyn quickly faded away.

“Ronyn, you did well with those exercises today. The troops are really coming along,” she said.

Ronyn nodded. “Thanks, Mom. I’m trying to keep us primed and ready, just in case.”

I watched him relax in her presence. His shoulders hunched. The brutal look on his face melted away. He even smiled at her. Genuine smiles. Smiles that softened his face and almost made the shadow man disappear altogether. It was sweet seeing him in his element. Watching him converse back and forth with his mother on upcoming drills and schedules.

He was a softie for his mother.

I liked that about him.

In fact, there were a lot of things about the harsh man that I had come to enjoy.

“You know, Ronyn always wanted to be the commander general,” his mother said.

“Yeah?” I asked.

She nodded as she took another bite of her pie. “When he was younger, he would practically torture Voss. He’d wake Voss up poking him with a stick and the poor boy would have to fight for his life first thing in the morning.”

I giggled at the thought. “I bet Voss was a massive fan of that.”

“First broken nose Ronybug here ever had!”

My jaw dropped open. “You’re joking.”

“Nope!” she chirped as she laughed. “I kept telling him that he’d get clocked if he didn’t stop messing around with Voss like that. And one morning?”

I smiled. “He finally got clocked.”

His mother nodded. “He finally got clocked.”

“Ugh,” Ronyn grumbled.

I barked with laughter. “What else did Ronyn do as a kid?”

She stood to her feet. “Let me get the pictures. I’ve got so much to show you.”

“Mom,” Ronyn said.

“Oh, just a few pictures,” she said.

“Mom, please,” Ronyn said.

My eyebrows hiked up onto my forehead. “Did you just say please?”

He shot me a look, but dear god, this was too much fun. I smiled at him playfully as I slapped my napkin down on top of my half-eaten bowl of pie and ice cream before I stood to my feet.

“Bexley,” he warned.

“I’d love to see those pictures, ma’am,” I said.

“I’m sure you would,” Ronyn grumbled.

“Here they are!” his mother chirped as she came back into the room. “And please, call me Miss Shirley. Everyone else does. Or, Ma.”

“Mom!” Ronyn said as he raised his voice.

“What?” she asked with a shrug. “I’m just saying.”

I giggled. “You want me to call you Ma?”

She looked at me curiously before she beckoned me to sit down. I wasn’t sure why she looked at me like that, but I ignored it as she sat down with the picture book. She flipped open the front cover, placing it into my lap as pictures of a little black-haired, dirty-faced boy came into view.

“Is that Ronyn?” I asked.

Miss Shirley nodded as pride filled her face. “That’s my little boy. He was seven in this picture.”

I pointed to the spindly little blond boy next to him holding up a fish in his hand. “Who’s that?”

“Believe it or not,” she said through her giggles, “that’s Dominic.”

My jaw hit the floor. “Dom was blond when he was first born?”

“Can you believe it?” she asked as she flipped the page. “As blond as the sun, I tell you. And now, his hair almost looks black, even in sunlight. Funny how that works.”

I looked back down at the pictures and it didn’t take a genius to know who the third person in the picture was when I came across it. There Ronyn stood, still taller than the other two. Dom stood there with a proud look on his face, holding up that same fish while his wild blond hair covered his face. And there, off to his right, was a broad-shouldered kid with his fists balled up at his sides and a scowl on his face.

“Oh my God,” I said, laughing. “That’s Voss!”

“That is Voss,” Miss Shirley said as she pointed her finger. “He was angry because Dom stole his fish.”

“Because he did,” Ronyn murmured.

I couldn’t help but let my head fall back in laughter. “That sounds like Dom, all right.”

“You know,” Ronyn said in a desperate attempt to change the subject, “Mom’s one of the orators of our pack.”

I took his cue and closed the picture book. “Do you have a favorite story you like to tell?”

“Oh, boy,” Ronyn murmured.

Miss Shirley waved her hand in the air. “Oh, you’re gonna have to be more specific about that. Got a particular genre of stories?”

There were genres of stories? How many did she know? My pack didn’t have an orator, so I was a bit unfamiliar with her purpose. I mean, I figured she told stories to keep people entertained. To keep the kids together during moments of turbulence and trial. But as I sat there debating what she meant, a thought occurred to me. A thought that I had to reach way back into my memory banks to pull.

“Do you have a favorite story you tell that comes with a life lesson of some sort? Like a fable?” I asked.

Ronyn’s mother leaned back against the couch and cased me with her eyes. “Those are some of my favorite stories to tell. I think they have a lot of value, especially when it comes to children.”

I nodded slowly. “What one do you find yourself telling the most often right now? Maybe it’ll give me a look into what the pack needs from me while me and my pack are here.”

That got his mother to smile. Hell, even I saw Ronyn grinning out of the corner of my eye.

But, his mother’s smile quickly faded. “Unfortunately, most of the stories of safety I’m telling right now surround vampires.”

“And that’s enough for the night,” Ronyn said as he stood from his seat.

I didn’t move, though. “What kinds of stories?”

Miss Shirley paused. “Do you want to hear the stories?”

I shook my head. “I want to know what you’re telling the children of your pack so I can tell it to mine. We don’t have an orator to help us with this kind of thing. So…”

She reached over and took my hand. “I could tell you the stories if you’d like. Or, you can just ask questions.”

“We really should get going,” Ronyn said as he walked over to the door. “Sun’s set already.”

“Ronyn?” his mother asked, looking at me.

“Yeah, Mom?”

“Sit down.”

“Yes, Mom.”

I had to place my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Oh God, I loved it when someone got Ronyn to obey. For once, things felt normal. For once, things felt even keel, and enjoyable. But, I had to admit, there was a serious lack of knowledge on my part when it came to what we were really battling against, and if I wanted to keep my pack safe, I had to know what she told those pups. I needed to know how she protected those children and what she told them.

It wasn’t until Ronyn sat back down, however, that his mother cleared her throat. “How much do the children of your pack know about protecting themselves from vampires?”

Finally, Ronyn came to my aid. “Why don’t we just start from the beginning if we’re going to do this? No use in beating around the bush, when we can just run through it, start to finish.”

His mother slowly panned her gaze over to him. “You couldn’t get out of here quickly enough, and now you want to stay longer?”

She peered back over at me. “He’s talking to you and blocking us out, isn’t he?”

I didn’t miss a beat. “Guilty as charged.”

She clapped her hands with delight. “Oh, my Ronybug has searched for you for a long time.”

“Mom,” he said curtly.

She placed her hand on my knee. “And I have to admit, I’ve been waiting to have a daughter-in-law around here for a very long time.”

“Mom!” Ronyn barked.

She snapped her head toward him. “Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, Ronyn Gausier. I’ve waited just as long as you have for your mate to come along. Do you know what it does to a mother’s heart, growing old and knowing that her son might be alone when she dies?”

There was that word again. Mate. Only this time, it didn’t come from any of the guys. I slowly looked over at Ronyn and I watched him lean back. He spread his legs, staring his mother down as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. God, what I wouldn’t have given to have been a fly on the wall in their minds. As I looked back at his mother, it was clear to me that they were thinking in groupthink. And when she snapped her head in my direction, I responded the only way my body interpreted.

I held my hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, I know when to butt out. Even with him.”

“Good,” Ronyn said flatly.

Miss Shirley cleared her throat before she turned her attention back to me. “All right, vampire lore, start to finish. Let me know what your pack already knows, and we can go from there.”

Easy enough. “I mean, there are the basics. They can’t tolerate sunlight, so they do their hunting during the evening hours. Their smells. Their sounds. Things like that. But, it’s just the dirty basics. Just enough to survive.”

Miss Shirley nodded slowly. “Being a makeshift pack is hard. It takes a toll on the senses as well as the powers. It doesn’t shock me that you guys had to survive on bare minimum alone. Lack of sleep and nutrition will do that to a shifter.”

“Is a vampire the same way?”

She pointed at me and looked at Ronyn. “She’s got good questions.”

“She’s got lots of good things,” Ronyn said.

“Awww,” I said as I peeked over at him. “Thanks, Ronybug.”

He snarled at me as his mother barked with laughter. She slapped my thigh while she laughed, and I swear, without all of the talk of vampires it could have felt normal.

Romantic.

Real, even.

Ronyn held my gaze for a moment longer than usual before he cleared his throat and returned his attention to his mother.

So, I did the same. “Do vampires have an alternative form as well? Or, is their alternative form death?”

Ronyn chuckled, but Miss Shirley stayed quite serious. “There are rumors of it, yes. We haven’t been able to prove one way or another that vampires now have the ability to shift.”

“But, that also depends on who you ask in the pack,” Ronyn interjected.

“Shush,” his mother hissed.

I curled my lips over my teeth before I cleared my throat. “What do you mean, it depends on who you ask?”

“Well,” she said before she cleared her throat, “there are a few people here that claim to have seen a vampire shift into an animal to get away. But, we’ve never been able to confirm it.”

I nodded slowly. “So, let’s say a vampire can shift into a sun-tolerant animal. Can they then be in the sun?”

Miss Shirley looked over at her son. “She’s got really good questions.”

“Yes,” Ronyn said as he shifted, spreading his legs even further, “she does.”

I did my best not to groan at the sight of Ronyn’s lap growing. God, I wanted to crawl over there and sit on it.

I didn’t know why, but it sure as hell looked alluring.

Comfortable, even.

“So, how does the food chain go for vampires? My assumption is that since they’re near the top, humans and animals are probably their own source of blood to drink?”

Miss Shirley nodded. “They could feast on animals if they wanted?—”

“But they’re too savage and disgusting for something so level-headed,” Ronyn spat.

“I have to admit,” she said as her face grew curious, “I wonder why the Alpha of a pack doesn’t know much in the way of one of our greatest enemies.”

Ronyn fell silent, so I reached for the only excuse I had prepared during my stay there. Just in case someone got that curious.

“I wasn’t raised in a natural shifter environment, like you guys here,” I said.

Recognition wafted over Miss Shirley’s face. “My stars, you grew up around humans. That makes so much sense. That makes so much sense!”

She reached over and whopped Ronyn’s leg with her hand.

“Hey!” he exclaimed.

She hissed at him as she whopped his leg with her hand. “You didn’t tell me she grew up with humans. That explains so much. Always keeping your mother in the dark.”

I cupped my hands over my face and laughed. I mean, I laughed until my stomach hurt. Watching Ronyn with his massive stature trying to scurry away from his salt-and-pepper-haired mother was the funniest thing that happened in months. I doubled over and clutched my stomach. I leaned my shoulder into the couch and looked over at Ronyn. He was so angry with me. His nostrils flared and his eyes grew hardened as he did his best to pin me with a look.

I didn’t care, though.

“Oh, God,” I said as I wiped at my tears, “I needed that. Thank you.”

Miss Shirley reached over and patted my knee. “You’re welcome here anytime.”

I smiled kindly at her. “Thank you, honestly. I really appreciate that.”

“Now,” she said as she clasped her hands into her lap, “anything else you want to know? I’m an open book.”

Did I dare?

Did I lean into things to try and figure it out?

Did I pull the rug out from beneath Ronyn like that?

Turns out, I didn’t have to, because Miss Shirley had impeccable timing.

“So, I want to know more about my son’s mate,” she said as she leaned back onto the couch and crossed her leg over her knee. “Tell me about yourself.”

I peeked over at Ronyn, who wouldn’t even meet my gaze. The man who couldn’t stop staring at me from the woods and the darkness, and now he wouldn’t even look at me.

Before I could start in on myself, however, Miss Shirley filled the silent void. “You know, Ronybug over there had almost given up hope that he’d ever come across you.”

The sentiment broke my heart. “Why?”

Miss Shirley shrugged. “The vampire attacks. Over the last few decades, we’ve been slaughtered in droves. On the run for years. And when you suffer that much death and bury that many bodies, it gets hard to convince yourself that your mate isn’t among them.”

Then, my heart shattered. “I’m so sorry.”

Her eyes welled with tears, but she blinked them away as she reached out for my hand. She picked it up, squeezed it, then patted the top of mine with her other one.

“I’m just so happy that you’ve come along for my boy,” she said as tears laced her voice. “All I ever wanted was for my son to be happy. All I ever wanted was for my son to not be alone, and…”

I slowly looked back over at Ronyn and he stared up at the ceiling. His legs jiggled. His hands were folded neatly into his lap, but I saw how tightly he gripped them. His knuckles whitened as he ground his teeth together, and I saw the sheer energy it took not to leap into the conversation and rip it out of our mouths.

Was that what happened between us?

I was… his mate?

As a human!?

Wait, he’s not the only one that’s said that word to me…

I thought back to Dom. I thought back to the first moment I ever spent in the vicinity of that man, and I thought back to the words he used. The words he chanted while driving into my body and filling me to the brim beneath the summer solstice moon.

He called me his mate as well.

Did that mean…?

Selfishness.

As Miss Shirley continued to rattle on about mates and how she first met Ronyn’s now-deceased father, it all made sense. Why Ronyn apologized for his selfishness in the bath house. Why he kept his distance. Had our mate connection pulled him into the bath house? Maybe that’s how he originally knew that I wasn’t a shifter. He felt the connection, but I didn’t?

“Bexley, honey?” Miss Shirley asked as she shook me softly. “You okay?”

Ronyn cleared his throat and stood. “I think her full stomach is finally getting to her. It was a hard training day today.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” she said as she stood.

I mindlessly stood with her, but quickly pulled myself out of my trance. “Miss Shirley, thank you so much for inviting me into your home.”

She waved her hands at me. “Nonsense. My son’s mate is welcome here anytime.”

Ronyn growled beneath his breath as he walked with me to the door. “Thanks for the pie, Mom.”

“Anytime, Ronybug. And Bexley?”

I turned toward her. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry if I talked too much.”

And if I wasn’t already out of my trance, that did it.

I rushed over and wrapped my arms tightly around the woman’s neck. “I’d give anything to hear my mother’s voice again, Miss Shirley. Don’t ever stop talking.”

Her embrace was warm and comforting as she blanketed me with her arms. “Come by anytime, okay?”

“I promise,” I whispered.

Reluctantly, I pulled away from her and scooted out of her home. Ronyn was swift to close the door behind me, and he damn near shoved me down the porch steps. I stumbled to my feet before he grabbed my arm, leading me back toward the bath house.

“Where’s the fire?” I asked playfully as I scrambled to keep up.

“There is none,” he said flatly.

I shrugged off his touch. “I know, it’s just a metaphor.”

“Let me walk you back to Voss’s place.”

“I’m good here, thanks.”

He stopped and turned around. “Bex…”

The nickname robbed me of my breath. But, only for a moment. “Ronyn…”

But instead of starting the conversation, he just shook his head and turned his back to me.

“Goodnight, Bexley,” he said.

I stood there beneath the pale moonlight and watched him walk away. “Night, Ronyn.”

Selfishness. I wondered if Dominic was my mate, too. It was a word he used with me that night. Was it real? Or was it just some kink or fantasy he fulfilled that night? I had more questions than answers, and Ronyn was nowhere to be found by the time I came to. I looked around at the dark expanse that settled over me, my gaze volleying between Voss’s front porch and the bath house. I lifted my arm and sniffed it. Jesus, I needed a shower.

But, more than that, I needed answers.

So, I turned around and started toward Dom’s place.

“Dom!” I exclaimed as I knocked furiously on his door. “Dom, are you still awake!?”

He whipped the door open with a coy smile on his face and leaned against the doorframe, staring through the screen door at me. He folded his arms over his chest, and that’s when I realized that he was shirtless.

His lean, chiseled muscles were on full display for me, and I couldn’t stop tracing his black geometric tattoos with my eyes. They traced his chest and lined his abs. There were tattoos running along the lines of his pelvis that disappeared beneath a familiar pair of gray sweatpants.

So, that’s who dressed me when I was catatonic.

“Yes?” he asked cheekily.

I cleared my throat and whipped my stare back up to his. “Are we mates?”

That cheeky little grin of his stayed on my face, but his arms slowly dropped from around his chest. He pushed off the doorframe, dropping his stare only to open the screen door for me.

“Why don’t you come in and we can talk,” is all he said.

And even though I knew I stunk like hell, I didn’t care.

What I needed more than a bath… were answers.