by Kallie Frost
“Son of a bitch,” Rion cried from behind me. “That’s Carrick and Cambry!”
One name was familiar. “Your brother? Is this when he dropped you off here? Who’s Cambry?”
“My cousin,” Rion growled. “That's his coffee shop. On Half Moon.”
“So, this guy followed you from home?”
“It appears so.”
I scrolled back further, but Rion and Carrick entering the coffee shop together was the very first picture. I went back to the one of them at the table together. Now that I wasn’t jealous of the man Rion was with, I noticed that there was a cat sitting at the table with them, being pet by Rion. I smiled a little at the thought of a wolf petting a cat.
“Which one is Cambry?” I asked. I started scanning the other people in the picture. Rion pointed. “Behind the cat?” I squinted.
“No,” he chuckled. “Cam is the cat.” Before I could digest that, he gasped. “Look!” He pointed to a man in the background.
“But that’s…” It was our stalker. “So, he didn’t take these pictures. Or at least not all of them. Could it have been whoever was driving the SUV today?”
“Assuming there are only two of them… I think we need to forget about my year away and go back to Half Moon.”
“Will we be safer there?”
“It’s teeming with shifters, my family, and wardens.”
I nodded. He told me about wardens before. They were like some sort of shifter law enforcement and protection. If this guy was a werewolf hunter, which he was starting to seem like, they'd be able to defend us from him.
“Should we pack everything to move?”
“Honestly, I want to just go. Let's get over to a rental car place and leave. I can always come back here and pack up. But I don't want you or Verona in danger.”
“I agree. Let me just get a few things.”
“I need to make a phone call,” he said.
I set Verona down in her bouncer and gave her a quick kiss. Then, I quickly gathered up a massive diaper bag for her. I shoved in whatever clothes and diapers I could find, followed by some toys and all of the pumped milk I had in the fridge.
Rion was just getting off the phone when I finished. “Who did you call?”
“I called the wardens to let them know the situation.”
“You seem calmer?”
“I'm just glad to be getting out of here. Do you need to go to the bathroom?”
“I'm okay, let's go.”
We ordered a car to pick us up and take us to the rental place. According to the app they were only seven minutes away, but it felt like the longest seven minutes of my life. I had never been more relieved that we decided to buy a car seat.
We made it all the way to the rental place and quickly rented a car. We drove, almost wordlessly for the first hour. Verona slept peacefully. It was her first car ride, aside from the short trip to the rental office. I was glad she wasn't one of those babies who cries during the entire trip.
My heart leapt into my throat when I looked out the mirror and saw a black SUV behind us.
“Is that them behind us?!” I asked.
Rion didn't answer, but I felt a surge of fear run through him. He pulled out his phone and handed it to me. “Call the last number. It's the wardens. Tell them what’s happening.”
I obeyed. It rang twice and then someone answered.
“Warden Larkin.”
“Hi, this is Elliott. My mate, Rion called earlier?”
“Yes. Has there been a change in the situation?”
“Yeah, we're driving back to Half Moon Island and we're pretty sure that the guy we called you about is in the car behind us.”
“Is he alone?”
“No, there's someone in the passenger seat.”
“Is traffic heavy?”
“Not exactly, but I mean there's a lot of other cars around.”
“Good, turn on the GPS on your cell phone and have it send me your location. I will drive out and meet you with further instructions.”
After we hung up, I sent him the information, along with a description of our car. I decided to go ahead and send him the picture we had of the coffee shop with the stalker as well. I had to use my phone to take a picture of the image on the camera display screen, but it turned out well enough. He texted back that it would take about two and half hours to get to us.
The air in the car was tense. I looked back behind us, Verona was still peacefully sleeping. My heart ached at the thought of her in danger.
“I'll keep her safe,” Rion growled. “Both of you.”
“I can take care of myself, just make sure you focus on her.”
I watched the car behind us, ready to cry a warning if they did anything. To my frustration, and my relief, they just calmly drove along behind us. The passenger pulled out his cell phone and spoke at length.
“I wish I could read lips,” I said. “I'd love to know if he's telling someone about us.”
“Me too,” Rion said, glancing in the rearview mirror.
I kept Larkin updated on our position and felt a little more relieved each time I checked in. He and someone named Dev were on the way to us.
At last, Larkin instructed us to pull into the next rest area. We drove in and I watched, nearly shaking in fear, as the black SUV followed us. Just as we were told, we drove slowly through and then got back on the highway. The black SUV was still right behind us, but now there was another car behind them. If the black SUV pulled away, the wardens would follow them. If not, they'd be able to ambush them when we arrived at Half Moon. Either way, we were just supposed to stay on course and keep going.
I could hardly believe it when the black SUV took the next exit. The wardens followed them.
“What now?”
Rion reached over and patted my thigh come in comfort. “Now we go home, I guess. Your new home that is.”
According to Rion, we were only another half-hour or so away from the island when I realized that the car behind us was the same one that had been there since the black SUV pulled away.
“Rion? I think that same car has been following us…”
“It has,” he said. He didn't sound upset. “It's Kessel.”
“It's what?”
“Kessel. He’s another warden. I guess they put him on us just in case there are more hunters around.”
I glared at my cell phone. “Larkin didn't say that to me.”
“Larkin’s a bear of few words,” Rion said dryly. “He probably figured I would recognize Kessel or not notice him at all.”
At last, he announced that we had arrived. It was too dark to really appreciate the island, but I did my best to take in the sights as we drove over a bridge and then down a quaint street. To my surprise, we drove over a second bridge to another island. This one had a gate halfway across the bridge. Rion pulled up to a little keypad and entered in a code.
He cleared his throat and flashed me an embarrassed grin. “This is the Silvanus private island,” he chuckled. “And holy shit you're about to meet my parents.”
“They still don’t know about me, do they?”
He grinned as we drove over the bridge. We pulled up in front of a grand beach house. I looked up at it, feeling intimidated. I wasn't sure what was bothering me more; the massive house that apparently belonged to his family or the idea that our stalker could still be out there. I wondered if Larkin had caught up to the man yet.
Kessel pulled up behind us and got out of the car. He nodded to us in greeting.
“Any update from Larkin?” asked Rion.
“Nothing yet,” said Kessel. “I figure I'll stick around here until we know what's going on. Just in case.”
“I appreciate that,” said Rion. “You're welcome to come inside if you like.”
“Thanks, I'll probably just patrol around here and then update you when I hear back from Larkin.”
“Thank you,” I said. I clutched Verona protectively to my chest and followed Rion to the front
door.
“Is this the family house? I thought you had your own house on Half Moon.”
“My parents live here full-time. But there's always someone else running around. I do have kind of a big family. There are bunkers, just like the one we spend our full moons in, all over the island. So, we can all get up in the morning and come right up to the house, make sure everyone's okay, and have a family day every month.”
“That sounds fun,” I said.
The door was unlocked, so we went right in. We were in a large foyer that was like some sort of mix of HGTV and a museum. I couldn't quite describe it, but it was a strange beachy-antique-chic. And altogether quite homey.
“You weren't kidding about being loaded,” I muttered.
Rion chuckled. “Don't say anything to my mom yet about what's going on. I’ll fill her in after we hear from Larkin.” He cleared his throat and yelled, “Hey, Mom! I'm home and I’ve got a surprise for you!”
“Rion?!” shrieked a voice from upstairs. Footsteps pounded above us and a figure skidded into view at the top of the grand staircase. I looked at her in confusion. This couldn’t be Rion's mother; she looked our age. Was it one of his sisters? The family resemblance was certainly there.
“Hello, Mom,” he said casually.
Of course! We were immortal. Why shouldn't his mother look the same age as us? In fact, Rion was oh, what, a hundred years older than me?
She turned a piercing gaze to me. I watched her eyes move to Verona and then back to Rion.
“Who's your friend?” she asked. She started slowly descending the stairs, never taking her eyes off us. She looked excited, almost hopeful. I had a feeling she knew exactly who I was.
“Mom,” Rion said. I could feel the pride coursing through him. “This is Elliott, my true mate. And this is our daughter… Verona.” He gently took Verona from me and held her up.
His mother had looked increasingly thrilled as he spoke, but at the sound of our daughter's name she clasped her hand over her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. “You named her after me?” she asked in a quavering voice.
“Well, you're the strongest woman I know, I thought was a fitting name. No offense, Tessa,” Rion added, as another woman appeared at the top of the stairway. His sister didn't look a day younger than his mother.
“Did you seriously just show up here with your true mate and a baby in tow? Without telling anyone?! I swear, if Finch or Ford ever do that to me, I will tan their hides!”
Rion's mother hugged her. “Believe me, if they’re even half Rion's age and do this, you’ll be so relieved that they finally have a mate you won't care.” She turned and beamed at us. “And it’s just icing on the cake, pardon the expression, if the child is named after you.”
“My sister's a baker,” Rion whispered to me.
“Well, it's lovely to meet you both,” Tessa said.
The guy I recognized from the stalker’s pictures as Carrick walked into the foyer.
“What's all the commotion about? What is – Rion? What are you doing home? Is that your baby?!”
Before Rion could even answer him, the foyer had flooded with people. I felt slightly overwhelmed as I shook hand after hand. I lost count of how many times Rion's mother hugged me. Verona woke up, just in time. Soon, everyone was cooing over the baby, and her namesake asked to hold her. They were all was so excited, they didn't even ask us why we would come home early. They assumed that it was because of the baby and we didn’t tell them otherwise. As some of the commotion died down, Rion managed to excuse us and caught Carrick’s eye.
“This is a surprise. Congratulations, my brother,” Carrick said, slapping him on the back. “How long are you here for?”
“Honestly, I might just hole up here until my year away is over, make sure nobody on Half Moon sees me.”
“That sounds boring. I mean, we've all done it once or twice, but it's pretty tedious.”
“Look,” Rion said softly, “there's kind of a serious reason we're here…”
“What's that?”
Making sure that no one else in his family was listening, Rion softly told Carrick about our encounters with the strange men in the black SUV. After he explained how they basically chased us halfway here, and that the wardens were currently after them, he pulled out the camera to show Carrick the pictures of the coffee shop.
“That's Cambry’s café!”
“Yeah,” Rion said grimly. “I'm hoping to hear from the wardens any time now. But, we don't know who these guys are, why they were following us… And what it could mean for you, since they’ve got pictures of you too.”
Carrick cracked his knuckles and slammed his fist into one palm. “If they come for me, they’ll get a rude awakening.”
“Just keep an eye out,” Rion warned. “Especially with all of your trips back and forth to the ice rink.”
“Oh, I will.”
Rion led me upstairs to his room. It was practically as big as our apartment and had its own private balcony, overlooking the water.
I poked around while he set up the portable crib for Verona.
“You don't mind having to live here until my year is up do you?” he asked me. “Actually… you'd be able to go to Half Moon and explore. You could even spend some time in my house. Well, our house. It's just easier if I stay here so the humans don’t see me. I'd hardly call this year a waste, but I don't want to have to do it all over again because I got impatient.”
“Of course I don't mind. I don't want to leave until we figure out what was up with those guys following us anyway.”
I settled into a chair to nurse Verona. A strange flash of light kept coming across the window. If it had been blue I would've thought it was a police siren, but it was white.
“What is that light?”
Rion frowned curiously for a moment, then smiled. “The lighthouse. You'll get used to it.”
Someone knocked on our door. Rion glanced at me to make sure I was comfortable having company while I nursed. At my nod, he went to the door. It was Kessel.
“Well, I've got good news and bad news from Larkin,” he said. We ushered him inside and closed the door. “The good news is we caught one of them…”
Rion and I exchanged a look of dismay. “And the bad news is you only caught one of them,” I said.
“I'm afraid that's not all,” said Kessel. “Aside from the fact one got away, their car was an arsenal of werewolf hunting items. Traps, chains, ropes, nets, a ton of guns, and of course, silver bullets. There were also couple smashed cell phones. We've got a tech guy who is going to check them out, but it doesn’t look like we'll be able to get any data.”
“What happens now?”
“We've got a dragon on the way to talk to him. Hopefully they can learn something. And we're going to up the warden presence on Half Moon. The guy who got away is the one in the picture you gave us, so we'll be able to plaster that around. If he sets foot on the island, we'll know.” Kessel sounded confident and reassuring. “I personally will stay here tonight to watch over things. Although I suspect we've seen the last of him.”
“What makes you say that?” Rion asked.
“I've seen it before; couple of gung-ho humans think they're Van Helsing, chase down a werewolf, but then the wardens come along, and they realize there are a lot more of us and we're organized. They get scared off and lose interest. Few moons later they're gone for good.”
“I hope so,” I said.
“Well then, I'll give the island a flyover and find a good, high spot to watch from. Get some sleep.” Kessel nodded toward Verona. “While you can.”
We thanked him, and he left. A few minutes later I heard an owl hoot. It was so loud it sounded like it was right outside the window. Hadn't Kessel said “flyover”?
“Was that owl..?”
Rion nodded. “Yup, Kessel.”
After our conversation, I felt much safer, especially knowing Kessel was out there. Verona was done nursing and asleep. I carefully set he
r down in the portable crib. Her diaper seemed dry enough, so I gave her forehead a tender, goodnight kiss. As love for her poured through me, I thought of Rion's mother and how much her affection toward him showed she cared. And I could sense how much he loved her back. It made me sad to have never gotten that with my mother.
“Should we have come here?” I asked, thinking of the werewolf hunters. “Aren’t we endangering your family?”
“They had a picture of me with Carrick in our cousin Cambry’s café,” he reminded me. “They’ve already been to Half Moon and may have identified my family. Thanks to us, my family can be warned and the wardens are on the lookout. We’ve made them safer and there is nowhere safer for us than here. Don’t worry, we haven’t put them in any more danger than they may already have been in. Besides, now the entire family is safe and together.”
“Your entire huge family,” I chuckled.
He put his arm around me and rested his other hand on the edge of the crib. “It’s your family now too, my love.”
Rion kissed me gently, then took my hand and guided me to our bed.
~~~***~~***~~~
Icing the Omega
Full Moon Mates Book Two
M/M, Alpha/Omega, Shifters, MPREG
Kallie Frost
&
Harper B. Cole
Copyright 2018 Kallie Frost and Harper B. Cole
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