Chapter 23

23

" W hat do you mean, ‘what am I?'" I tried to turn in his hold, but the knot held us in place.

"Not sure exactly, but you aren't strictly human. Your blood tastes different. Not like a wolf or even a vampire's. But it sang with magic."

"Me? That can't be. Besides, what else is there?"

"I don't know."

I took that in. Humans, wolves, and vampires. Everything else was just myth. Right?

"What do you know of your father? You said he didn't stick around." Kade absently stroked my belly and it sent tingles of happiness through my limbs, which then made him happy, which amplified my own pleasure.

I forced myself to focus. "My sperm donor, you mean? One-night stand. I don't think my mom even knew his last name. She didn't have a single photo or anything."

"Then it likely came from his side."

"But what could it be? Ooh, maybe I'm a wizard! I'll have to grow a beard."

Kade squeezed me. "Be serious. I don't think you understand the ramifications of what we just did. We're mated . That's for life. A lot more permanent than any marriage ever could be. We'll always crave being near the other, and we'll never have any interest in any one else."

I should probably be freaked out, but hearing that we'd never be parted sent so much warmth through me that I'm surprised I didn't melt. I felt whole, like my entire life I'd been missing something. Or someone. My soul had found its home.

And I didn't care how corny that sounded because it was absolutely true.

I cautiously reached out to the bond, getting a feel for it. I felt Kade answer and our magics entwined. I moaned. Dayum. So amazing.

"You're not mad?" He seemed surprised.

I drew back. "Are you? Oh, God. I convinced you to bite me, and you wouldn't have if—"

A nip to my shoulder cut me off.

"I'm a little scared at how happy I am about this. You're my fated mate. That's really rare. It's a gift." He kissed my nape. "Everything kept telling me you were, but I couldn't believe it. Thought I was just so attracted to you that I was fooling myself. But my wolf kept insisting."

"I've never been so attracted to anyone. I've had the horniest summer of my life. And I'm including my teenaged years when I practically chapped my dick raw and ran up our water bills from all the showers I took. But you just had to walk in a room and I wanted to climb you like a tree."

He snorted. "Like a tree, huh?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kinda tall."

"And you are the most beautiful creature I've ever seen."

"Ooh, I'm definitely your mate if you feel that way." He could keep saying it, though. "Huh, I wonder if that's why the coin chose me?"

"Coin?"

"It's . . . complicated. I think we need to get Alistair, Rory, and Poppy together. There's been a lot of strange things happening on set."

He tensed. "Strange? Like how?"

"Magical. It doesn't all make sense to me, but maybe if we all discuss it together we can figure it out."

And then my phone alert went off. Jabril wanted me on the set.

Dammit.

As we exited Kade's cabin, he yanked me behind him, and growled. I peeked around him. A bald eagle perched on one of his porch chairs. It didn't seem worried that a huge wolf shifter bared his teeth at it. In fact it fluffed its wings and stuck one leg out like it was waving at us. I waved back.

"It's not going to hurt us." I tugged at his arm. "Come on, I need to stop by the yurt for some fresh clothes and then get over to wardrobe and hair before Jabril loses his shit."

Kade didn't budge, and I could feel the surge of protectiveness through our bond. I nudged him.

"Seriously, it's not a threat. I've had animals on my porch almost every morning since we arrived. They've never bothered us. Only ravens seem to hate me."

Kade kept between me and the eagle, and led me away.

The eagle just watched. Amused if I had to guess.

"You know that's not normal, right?" Kade continued to watch the bird until his cabin was almost out of sight.

"I'm starting to realize that, yes."

We walked on. Movement near the forest had us both pivoting. Tiny winged creatures flew toward us, terror on their faces.

Kade's claws sprung from his fingertips—didn't know he could do that—and once again the damn wolf put himself between me and the creatures. They converged . . . and passed right through us. We spun but in an instant they disappeared.

"What the hell was that?" Kade said.

"Pixies, I think?" I blew out a breath. "I'm relieved you can see them. I thought I was losing my mind when I kept seeing things that no one else seemed to see."

"I—" Kade snarled and whirled around.

I followed, expecting more pixies.

Old George sauntered our way. I don't think I appreciated his mammoth size the last time I saw him since his antlers had been so distracting. Admittedly, I hadn't spent a lot of time in nature, but he'd dwarfed the doe and fawn that had slept on our porch one morning. He held something in his mouth. A book?

"That's the biggest deer I've ever seen." Kade looked like he'd shift into his wolf at any second.

"Hey, don't chase him. He's the one who scared away the ravens. The locals call him Old George."

Old George stopped when he was a few yards from us. Like with the eagle, he didn't seem concerned that Kade's wolf would probably love nothing more than to run him to ground.

Lowering his head slowly, he dropped the tome on the ground. He pawed at it, and made eye contact with me. Again, I had the impression that he was way older than any deer had a right to be. He then turned and, with his stubby little tail flicking, sauntered back into the woods not even bothering to keep an eye on Kade.

Kade and I exchanged glances. We cautiously approached the book. Leather bound with gold embossing, it looked like something you'd see in an epic fantasy movie. But it was the cover that caught my eye. A dragon and raven intertwined in battle. The same ones that were on the coin. I pulled the coin out and held it over the book. Yep. The same.

Kade eyebrows shot up. "You weren't kidding when you said you had a lot of strange things happening."

"I'm only now realizing that a bunch of these things are connected specifically to me in some way." I squatted and reached out to touch the book, but Kade grabbed my wrist.

"We can't be sure it's safe."

"Old George isn't interested in hurting me. Promise."

"Let me touch it first. Just in case." Kade released me, but didn't reach for it.

"Hold on." I flipped the coin. Dragon. "It won't hurt me."

"Because of a coin flip?"

"Yeah."

He stared at me for a long moment, before grudgingly nodding. "I hope I don't come to regret this. My alpha senses are going nuts wanting to protect my mate."

My mate . A jolt of giddiness shot through me at those words. He gave me a crooked grin.

"You liked that, huh? I liked saying it."

"Well, alpha , I know we have a lifetime to figure this out, but I want to be an equal partner in our relationship. I'm asking you to trust my judgment." I patted the tome.

He didn't wince but it was close. "Agreed. Just please give me a little latitude for a few days. Once our bond settles my instincts should calm down a bit. I'm not trying to steamroll you or your opinions, I'm just having a hard time reining in my protectiveness."

"Fair enough." I picked up the book. "Let's—"

My phone alert went off again. I groaned. "The moment this film is finished, I'm deleting that stupid app."

"Agreed."

"Do we have to do this scene today?" I asked, staring at a large rock with only a couple foot drop on the Copper Bell Trail, or CBT for short. I couldn't be the only one who snickered when I heard what the locals called it.

For some reason, Jabril insisted we film the soliloquy today. Seemed in poor taste when Hyde was only injured yesterday. That accident had shaken a lot of the crew. The stunt and safety coordinator had even offered his resignation, which Jabril declined because he'd pronounced, "Nature works in mysterious ways."

I'm sure that helped the poor guy sleep better at night. Or not.

I'd heard from a crew member that Hyde's entourage had left last night or early this morning, only leaving the blond guy behind. I think his name might be Leo, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

Interestingly enough, Rory, Ali, Poppy, and Kade all loitered around the set, even though they weren't due in today. Seemed Jabril planned to review Hyde's scenes to see how much work it would take to reshoot his parts, so once I'd filmed my part, we'd all have a much needed afternoon off.

"Seriously, Mr. Jabril. Don't you think it's bad for morale to do this particular scene today?"

Jabril grunted, but otherwise didn't deigned to answer me.

I sighed. Fine.

When he called "Action!" I delivered my lines, giving it my all. I was on my fourth run-through, when the distinct whirring of a helicopter sounded in the distance, and grew steadily louder.

"Cut!" Jabril bellowed. He pulled out his phone. "Damn, I didn't think they'd be here until later this evening. All right, let's call it!"

Ooh, maybe it was the mysterious actor who'd be playing Cozhul.

"Kade you should be here for this. Ride down with me." Jabril stomped off toward the lift without waiting for his answer. I could tell by Kade's body language that he wasn't happy being separated from me or being ordered about. I waved him on and sent reassurance through our link. How cool was it that I could do that now?

After a moment, he jogged over to Jabril and they hopped on the first chair they saw. Rory and I'd have to wait until the crew packed up to go down with them, but at least this way I could make plans with them to meet in my yurt later so we could hash everything out together. I'd made the decision to tell Poppy about my inability to read. Both Ali and Kade had seemed to think she wouldn't think less of me for it, and I we'd grown close enough that I didn't want to keep her out of the loop.

When I approached my friends, they all wore shit eating grins.

"So," Poppy began. "We heard you spend the night with a particular wolf shifter."

"You don't know the half of it." Wait until they found out we were mates and I might not even be fully human.

Alistair's nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. He reached for the collar of my shirt but I batted his hand away. "Did you—"

"Hold that thought." I lowered my voice. "I have a lot to tell you all, and I need your help. Do you have plans today or would you be willing to meet at our yurt later?"

"Does this have to do with you taking over Hyde's role and not even bothering to tell us," Rory said. My bestie did not look happy.

"No, it's about the coin . . . and some other things."

That got his attention. Ali's too.

"Coin?" Poppy asked.

"I'll explain it once we're all there. You and Ali might as well go down on the lift. Rory and I'll wait for an empty ATV and we'll meet you at our place in two hours? Deos that work? That should give us time to get down and give me time to take all this off." I waved at my costume. "I think wardrobe will kill me if I mess up another outfit."

"I wonder how that happened." Poppy tapped her chin.

I sniffed. She'd obviously been hanging around Alistair too much and had picked up his bad habits.

"Well, precious, you don't need to wait for a lift. Poppy and I drove. He pointed to where the crew parked their vehicles and sure enough their motorcycles were there, too.

I grinned. "I'm riding with Poppy."

No one argued. We sped down to the bottom of the mountain in record time—racing Ali and Rory. I may have squeezed Poppy a little tight since she seemed to have a death wish. We came out by the helipad. A sizeable crowd had gathered, and it seemed the helicopter had just touched down because it's blades still spun, though the engine had been cut.

"Do you know who this is?" I asked once we'd stopped and climbed off the bikes. "Is it the actor who's playing Cozhul?"

"I heard it's the new producer," Rory said, handing his helmet to Ali.

"They're coming to the set?" I asked. "Is that normal?"

"Some do, some don't, cupcake. Depends how involved they want to be." Ali perched on the end of his bike. "Do you want to stick around or take off?"

Leave it to Alistair to race down a mountain and be bored the minute we stopped.

"Let's get a look at them, and then we can go," Rory suggested. "Did anyone catch their name?"

We all shook our heads.

The coin fell from underneath my jerkin and landed on my boot. Raven. Ah, hell.

The helicopter door opened and several people spilled out, most carrying film equipment.

Including Matt Dioria, my fucking ex-boyfriend.

Fuck. My. Life.