18. Sacha

Chapter eighteen

Sacha

I was going to need to get a therapist. The guilt of helping my mother into prison was weighing heavily on me right along with taking her away from Gavril. I had to keep reminding myself that she hadn't been a good mother to him anymore than she had been with me—and she might've been worse to him. I was sure that it would be a hell of an improvement that he'd be raised by Mara and Titus with their kids from now on. About the only thing I didn't feel guilty about was asking them to take him in.

And there were so many other good things that had come out of this insane week. Finding Zeke, winning his trust, and being able to earn his love was right up there at the top of the list of things I should be proud of. He made me feel like everything else was possible. Leading the pack, running the business, it was all doable with him by my side.

"How are you frowning and grinning at the same time?" Zeke asked as he paused in filling his suitcase. We were in his hotel room one last time so he could pack up and move into my apartment. Eventually, we'd move into the alpha's house, but I wasn't ready to take over that space yet.

"Seriously," he said, making faces, "I can't even get my face to do that."

I laughed at him, which was probably what he'd wanted. "I've just got a lot going on in my head."

"Well, tell your forehead to listen to your mouth for a while. Everything's going to be alright."

Trying to take his advice, I watched him put a knee into his suitcase to keep it closed as he slowly worked the zipper around the edges. One wrong move and that thing would explode. I hadn't even seen him wear half the items he'd shoved in there. Had he brought his entire wardrobe from Miami?

Oh, god, had he?

"Zeke," I began, dreading the answer, "will you need to go to Miami to get the rest of your things?"

"No," he grunted as he wrestled the zipper around a corner. "This is everything I need for now. I've got other stuff in storage at Fabian's, but he said they'll ship it here once they're back. Ha! Did it." He stood away from the suitcase with his hands on his hips.

"Hail the conquering hero."

Zeke came over and draped his arms on my shoulders. "Don't worry about that, too. I really feel like I've closed one door and opened another and I'm good with that. You've made me feel necessary , Sacha. In a week!" he said on a laugh. "I've never had that before."

"You are necessary."

He gave me the sweetest smile and kissed me slowly, like he savored the contact. I curled my arms around his waist, delving deeper into his mouth, only to have him chuckle and scamper away again. He shoved a pair of slippers into an outside pocket of the canvas suitcase, and I could've sworn I heard it groan.

"Oh! Before we go to your place," Zeke said, "we need to stop by The Magic Shop. I want to tell that creepy bastard that everything's worked out for us regardless of his meddling and cryptic messages."

"What magic shop? You keep mentioning it and The Owner, but we don't have a magic shop here. Is it in—"

"Yes, you do." He looked around like he was getting his bearings and then walked over to the window. "It's right there," he said, pointing. But then his eyes went wide as he stared across the street. "What the fuck? I swear to god, that was a magic shop. I've been inside twice!"

I went over to look and saw that he was pointing at the souvenir shop. "That's just a tourist trap. It's been there forever. We actually had a hell of a time getting them to match the resort's aesthetic on the storefront until the awful old guy who runs it finally gave in."

"Tall skinny guy, looks like a Victorian mortician, wears a top hat?"

I frowned at him. "Short, bald, wears Hawaiian shirts even in the winter?"

Zeke's eyes were huge as he slowly shook his head. "But Fabian went with me. All of us were in there the day we arrived! The Owner guy gave me the love potion, and I saw all the books about your family history. And then we went back for the tarot reading and—" He stopped to gasp, pointing behind me.

I turned to see the dresser with a mirror on top, not sure what was so shocking about that. But then I noticed a tarot card tucked into the mirror's frame. It was the moon card. In fact, a wolf-man was holding a moon with a waterfall behind him. That was…oddly specific.

"It's stalking me," Zeke whispered, and I didn't think it was possible but his eyes got even wider.

I rubbed his arms up and down. "Blink for me, so your eyeballs don't fall out."

"Ew." But he blinked and snapped out of it, too.

"I think you might've had an encounter with something magical that wanted to play matchmaker."

His gaze flicked between me and the card. "Excuse me?"

"There's more magic in the world than we will ever fully perceive."

"Are you quoting something?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure it's true and I think it applies here. I'm also going to guess that whoever that magic shop owner was, he was a benevolent creature just trying to help in his own way. He acted like the linchpin that got us started and kicked off everything else that's happened." I gestured out the window at the souvenir shop. "And now that he's no longer needed, he's moved on."

"And you can just accept that? A magical something manipulated us and then disappeared?"

I shrugged. "I only wish he'd stuck around long enough for me to thank him."

Zeke exhaled hard and went to sit on the edge of the bed beside his suitcase. It held itself closed even as it jostled toward him, and he pushed it away.

"Think of it like this," I offered. "If I exist as a man and a wolf in some magical way, why can't there be other kinds of magic and other kinds of magical creatures? Some people might call him an angel, right? Or a cupid? There are all sorts of myths about mysterious helpers doing something kind for people in need. Well, maybe we were the people in need this time, and he helped us."

Zeke nodded at the floor. "Yeah, okay. It's still really crazy, though."

"Agreed."

"He had some cool stuff in that shop. Way better than mugs and t-shirts and crap like that. I actually kind of wish he'd left the family history books behind. I'd have liked to read those."

The subtlest of breezes blew by behind me, and I turned to see a row of leather-bound books lined up on top of the dresser. I bit my bottom lip and tried not to laugh. Zeke was going to lose it when he saw—

"What the actual holy fucking fuck?!"

A snort slipped out of me, but I squashed it as I realized he was sitting there with his eyes bugged out all over again, both hands covering his mouth, and looking like he was seconds away from bolting out of the room. "Easy," I said calmly, "I think it's a gift. That's a nice thing, right?"

"But he's listening ," he whispered in horror.

"But in a nice way? Like a fairy god, uh, father."

"Fairies?"

I shrugged. "Maybe?"

He fanned himself with both hands. I trusted the suitcase to hold and moved it to the floor so that I could sit beside Zeke. I rubbed his back a few times, not sure what else I could say.

"Just how many supernatural creatures are real?" he asked as he leaned forward on his knees. "Like fairies, centaurs, trolls, unicorns… That kind of thing?"

"None of those, as far as I'm aware, but there are a lot of us."

"Like what?"

I nibbled my bottom lip, not sure I should tell him.

"Oh, god, what?" he said on a moan.

"Well, some of them are really misunderstood, and you've probably heard of them but have them all wrong. I don't want to freak you out more than you already are."

He frowned at me. "Why would they allow themselves to be misunderstood? Like, why couldn't they change the narrative?"

"Sometimes the myths help their cause. Keep them safe."

I could see him thinking about that, the wheels in his mind turning while he stared at the carpeting. "Like the hike where the tour guide tells everyone all about the werewolves in the area so that if someone ever sees one of you they'll just think it's part of the story?"

I smiled. "Yeah, like that."

I'd been thinking more along the lines of vampires liking that the good folks stayed home after dark so that they could hunt the seedier side of society in relative peace, but his example worked, too.

Zeke side-eyed the books. "Should I wish for anything else?"

I snorted a laugh. "I wouldn't push my luck."

"Alright," he said as he stood, "you grab the books and that damn card and let's get out of here. I want to have a nice relaxing weekend before you're neck deep in alpha stuff, and I have that interview on Monday with management."

"Yes, dear."

He shook his head, but I saw his grin as he towed that suitcase toward the door. I tucked the moon card into one of the books like a bookmark before I scooped the books into my arms and discovered they were a lot lighter than they should've been. A little more magic? That was fine with me.