Chapter Five

Scott

“No,” Duke said, his voice steady.

Travis and Trista knocked on the front door for an hour. The others slept through it for a long time and I wasn’t about to let them in. Eventually, the pounding and screaming woke up Duke and Blithe. Duke lost the game of rock-paper-scissors and had to go up and get rid of them.

“Scott?” Blithe blinked at me from where he was curled around his cat-shifted mate and kittens.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry they followed me.”

“Are you alright?” he pushed himself upright, still staring down at his kittens.

“I can’t ever show my face anywhere again, Blithe,” I shook my head.

“What the h-e-l-l did they do, Scott?” he asked, rubbing his eyes and looking around as if coffee might magically show up.

“I’ll make coffee once they’re gone,” I said. “I’ll be helpful and if you don’t want me to stay here maybe I can stay with Adrian and Nem or someone. I don’t want to go back. No,” I shook my head. “I’m not going back. Not this time. This is too much.”

“Are you going to tell me what they did?” he yawned. “I love you, brother, but I’m brain dead and it’s all fuzzy.”

“It doesn’t matter. I just need to know if I can stay here or not,” I finally said.

“You can stay,” Syre said, yawning as he sat up and checked his egg for signs of hatching.

He was a coyote and a vampire. Duke had told me all about him in a call one night. Syre was sweet and as haunted as the rest of us.

“Trista!” Duke shouted and we all looked toward the stairs.

There was my sister racing down them two at a time. Duke snatched at her hair but missed. Syre was the first out of the nest, all snarl and his fingers already letting out his claws. Apparently, he didn’t even need to know what she’d done to decide she wasn’t a safe person to be around his egg.

“Scott!” Trista yelled, coming fully into view.

“Go away!” I hissed.

Delilah and Lane, Blithe and Cord’s newborn kittens woke mewing and rooting around for milk.

“Trista,” Blithe said, a warning in his tone.

She opened her mouth to speak, but a shadow appeared behind her and Duke. The shadow took the form of a dog and for half a second I thought a shade had found its way into the house until I saw the glowing blue eyes. My mouth dropped open. What the fuck had anyone down here did to earn a visit from a pit hound. Surely, Frost wasn’t sending one after Trista just for---

The dog landed on her with a thud, growling and snarling, and rooting his muzzle around her hair. She growled and tried to push her way up but the hound wasn’t giving in. His three tails stood erect and he smelled --- Well shit! He smelled like mine.

My wolf woke up blinking and sniffing the air. I hated it when he did that because I always followed suit and looked like a hungry idiot. Only right then, I couldn’t think of any of that. Whatever the reason for the hound’s visit – he was mine! Mine! My Alpha – my future. Had he seen what the twins did? Had he already eaten Travis? No! He hadn’t! I would’ve felt the death over the pack link.

“Trista! Stop it!” I shouted, finding my voice as I scurried over the nest’s edge. “Trista!”

In hindsight, I’d realized I yelled at my sister while she was facedown under a huge three-tailed dog, but this was so typical for her. She got herself into bullshit and then wanted to be babied.

Duke glanced at me and Syre. The coyote shifter backed up to the edge of the nest as Blithe was climbing out. The hound didn’t bite Trista. He held her there as she thrashed and shouted threats. Then she screamed for help. The front door crashed above our heads. Travis let himself in after all.

“Stop it!” I said, stepping closer to the pair on the floor.

My wolf was tense, but his tail wagged as if he found an unguarded tray of pies. A memory flashed through my head of my sire breaking up a fight between two interns at the hospital and I charged.

“Nope!” I shouted like he had and grabbed the scruff of the hound’s neck.

He stopped and tilted his head as much as he could with his dignity in my hand. His glowing blue eyes met my gaze for a second and he glanced back down at his prey.

“She’s annoying, but you can’t eat her.”

“Scott! What are you waiting for? Get him off me!” Trista shouted.

For a split second, it crossed my mind to let go of him. To let whatever fate he had in mind for her play out, but I didn’t want to stop touching my mate. I glanced at Duke and he nodded. I’d never been the best at keeping all my thoughts and emotions off the family and group links. He knew exactly what was happening between me and the hound shifter. He sighed and shook his head. Then he bent down and scooped my mate up by his middle.

“Go!” Duke said, his voice taking the tenor I heard so many times from his adopted dad, Jonah.

“I---” Trista started.

“Are you hurt?” Duke asked as Travis appeared at the top of the steps.

“No, but---”

“Go! This isn’t the time nor the place, Trista. I’m going to count to five and then I’m going to set the hound down in the nest to guard everyone here and I’m going to get you and whatever you’re trying to do away from my egg. Trista, I will do whatever that takes and there won’t be a dragon or half-dragon who blames me.”

“But the dog---” she started.

“No. Go. One—”

Travis scurried down the steps and shot me a hateful glare as Duke continued counting.

“You never could take a fucking joke,” he swore in my direction, tugging his twin to her feet.

Duke and the hound he still clutched to his chest growled.

“Go on, guys,” Blithe said, suddenly at my side. “We’ll figure out whatever’s going on later. Just go on. Go to Bobby’s house or something.”

Neither of the twins said anything else to us. They were back on their twin link as Travis practically dragged Trista up the steps.

“Blithe, be so kind as to lockup, cousin?” Duke asked, still holding onto my mate. “Check everything.”

“The bathroom window too,” I said. “I don’t know if I remembered to shut it or not.”

“I got it,” Blithe said, glancing back at his cat mate and kittens.

“I got ‘em. I don’t think this guy is here to do harm. Trista scared or pissed off Scott and he’s not having it.”

The dog panted, but didn’t look away from me as Blithe made his way past us and up the stairs into the main part of the house.

“Do you understand me?” Duke asked, looking down at the dog.

Keeping his eyes locked on me, the dog nodded.

“If I put you down, you’re going to go to your mate and not make anymore work for us. Welcome to the family. That’s my egg. Don’t touch it. Those are Blithe’s kittens, don’t touch them. Don’t feel bad about Trista. You’re not the first person in the family who wanted to body slam one of the twins. They refuse to be adults, but we don’t eat family. Do you get me?”

The hound nodded again, and I let out a long, slow breath. Whether Trista was here or not, my true-mate was. I reached for my phone to text Dakota, but it was probably still back in the kitchen where it hit the floor. I let out another long, slow breath. My lungs felt as if they were too full, even as my heart pounded in my ears.

“No sex in front of the kittens,” Duke looked at me.

“No sex in front of you guys,” I said, trying and failing not to turn as red as my damn hair.

“I’m gonna sit him down now,” Duke said as he squatted down.

I sat down on the floor to be at my mate’s level. Sure, he could probably shift, but my knees were wobbly now. Soon everyone would know – if they already didn’t – what Trista had done. They’d know how my oldest siblings saw me and hell, they probably saw me that way too.

The hound sat on his haunches once Duke was upright again.

“Bloody hell,” my cousin muttered under his breath before crossing the room in giant strides to check on the other omegas and babies.

I glanced over my shoulder, holding my breath. The egg was intact. No one had gotten close to it. The kittens were nursing again, and Cord’s eyes were already drifting shut. The hound bowed his head, and I pressed my forehead against him.

“Are you okay?” I whispered to him. “Thank you for trying to save me.”

The dog let out a long sigh.

“It’s okay to shift back now. She wouldn’t have hurt me. I guess she wanted to rub something in. It’s okay, though. We don’t have to worry about that. It doesn’t matter.”

“What did she do?” Duke asked.

I bit my lip and pretended not to hear him. Later, everyone would know, but I wanted to put off that moment for as long as possible. What if Duke and Blithe thought it was funny? What would I do? Go off and live with my mate and pretend I wasn’t a Hemlock-Knight?