Chapter Five

Travis

I pulled the car into Heartville’s parking lot and killed the engine as soon as I could. My wolf’s tail wagged, but he was on guard too. It was a slow, easy wag of a canine with someone he wanted to protect. I glanced at his younger sister still babbling on, too fast for me to understand in the rearview mirror and wondered if it was a good idea to leave her with Terrick and Scott. They already had four pups to take care of and though Dakota Lamb came to Heartville to help, was knocked up by his true-mate, Salta and Terrick’s brother.

“We’ll be fine,” Scott said. “She’s a good helper.”

“Are you sure?” I asked him as my mate’s other hand touched my other shoulder.

“Yeah,” Scott nodded. “Look, we’re okay. I know we could talk the whole video thing in circles all night and all day for weeks on end and not really ever finish. I know what happened and I forgive you. Just don’t let Trista or anyone else speak for me again, okay? I have my own mouth and my voice box works. Hell, ask me over the pack link or the family link or send me a carrier pigeon. That’s all I wanted as a kid. Someone to recognize I have a voice and I don’t need all you brutey alphas to speak for me.”

“Sorry about that,” I frowned.

“I’m glad you learned your lesson before you met him,” Scott said, switching to our family link so that my mate and the little girl couldn’t hear him. “I don’t know that most alphas ever learn it. It’s a fine line between protecting someone and taking their power away. Learn to walk it or you might never have an ink pen again if the rumors are to be believed about Sheldon.”

“Good thing, I mostly type and don’t kill trees to scribble on their corpses.”

“Touche!” Scott laughed.

“We’ll walk you back to the house,” I announced aloud.

“Are you guys going to see the babies?” Salta asked.

“Not tonight,” Scott said before Sheldon or I could answer. “They need their sleep. You do too.”

“But I just woke up not too long ago,” Salta sighed.

“Well, if you don’t take a nap tonight, you’ll sleep all day while the babies are up tomorrow,” Scott said.

“Fine. Can I have lunch first, though? I’m starving. All this running around the highway made me hungry,” Salta said, opening the car door.

“Of course. The fridge is always stocked. You know that.”

“Can we not tell Terrick where the new gateway let me out?” she asked.

“Maybe. I don’t think it’ll always do that, though,” Scott said.

“Why not? Will they fix it? I hope they fix it,” Salta rambled, and Sheldon let out a long, slow breath as the rest of us stepped out of the car.

“Sometimes magic outside of the gateway guardian’s control moves things around so that people will meet.”

“Oh!” Her mouth dropped open and she glanced back at me and her brother. “It’s their fault! They broke the gateway.”

I took Sheldon’s hand and fought off the urge to stay at the car with him. Old fashioned or not, I wasn’t about to let my exhausted brother walk home at night with only a chatty tween at his side. Heartville was supposedly safe now, but they had enough attacks in the history books that I didn’t believe for a minute. Not one single minute.

Sheldon squeezed my hand as if picking up my sentiment. He walked close to me. Our bodies brushed against each other with each step. It was the longest walk of my life, and I once ran a twenty-five K marathon with Trista because she thought it would be fun. It was, but this was torture.

“I’m so proud of you,” Scott said as we crossed the village square. “You haven’t whipped out your phone once to record anything since you got here.”

“I’ve been distracted,” I said and squeezed Sheldon’s hand.

“I hope you stay distracted,” Scott teased. “Wait! Not too distracted! You need to let your job know. They’re just a start up. Do they offer mateship leave?”

“They do,” I nodded. “They have to under Moonscale Law. They might be a new-ish company, but Clarence and Fred are both funding them. So, they should. I mean, I don’t care if they pay me for it or not. I’ll make do with that, but I’m sure they’re not going to fire me.”

Sheldon opened his mouth and shut it again. Shit! We’d have to talk about my work with Starscale Search. I wasn’t even sure there was a coven in London. The supermarkets sold blood pouches and shakes, but beyond that I wasn’t sure how vampire friendly the city was. Most of my co-workers thought of me as a wolf and not a vampire.

“What’s wrong?” Salta stopped in her tracks and turned to face me and Sheldon.

“Huh?” Sheldon asked.

“Not you,” she said to him and nodded at me, “you.”

“He just needs a bloodshake,” Scott said, saving me from having to lie to her. “Remember how much I drank when I first met your brother. Meeting your true-mate makes you thirsty.”

“I don’t think I ever want to meet mine,” Salta said.

“Huh?” Scott laughed.

“It makes everyone silly and a little bit crazy,” she said, holding up two fingers to show just how crazy she thought it made us.

“Go on inside and say hi to your brother,” Scott told her when his house came into sight. “Shhh! Though. Don’t wake up the pups if they’re asleep.”

None of us said anything until Salta disappeared into the house and shut the door behind her.

“Where are you two going if not inside?” Scott asked.

“I’m not sure. I figured we could drive up to rodent territory and get a hotel.”

“We have a room even with Salta staying. So does Cardian and Dakota. And if that doesn’t work there are still a few empty matingmoon houses too.”

Sheldon opened his mouth and shut it again.

“You okay?” I asked, whispering the question to him.

“I just realized no one knows where I am. They might think I’m still out hunting, but I don’t want them to send a search party out looking for me or worse – for Salta. Plus, I was hunting a deer and never got it, because the door buzzed and then Salta tried to run away on her own.”

“You’re hungry,” I said.

“Come on in,” Scott said. “We have plenty of bloodshakes. Bad Wolf Cakes 2.0 make up some good blood stuff too, but they’re closed by now.”

“Are you sure, Scott? I don’t want to put you out. Your plate looks full already.”

“I didn’t say I was cooking or blending. You can do that. Your fingers aren’t broken,” he laughed. “I’m saying, we have enough to share.”