by ZL Morris
Theo sighs and drops onto the side of my bed. “No need to thank me. We’re only doing what we should’ve done from the start. I’m still surprised you’ve forgiven us so easily.”
I turn around and see the expression of guilt on his face. It makes my heart ache for him. I don’t want him to feel guilty over the decisions he made, and I want to put it behind us. I walk to the bed and sit next to him; my backside barely touches the bed before he scoops me up and settles me in his lap.
The tingles fire up again, and I catch my breath. Lately, they’ve become a little stronger every time any of us touch. I shove the sensation away and concentrate on Theo. “I don’t want you to continue to beat yourself up over things that no longer matter. Yes, keeping the mate bond from me hurt, but we need to let it be in the past. You’re here now to prove yourselves to me. Even if I didn’t want to forgive you, I’m tied to all three of you, and I don’t want our lives to be miserable by being bitter about circumstances none of us were truly in control of.”
“I love you. There is not a day that will ever go by where I won’t feel guilty for your heartache. But I promise, I’ll make it up to you in this lifetime and the next.”
We cuddle in my childhood bedroom and bask in the silent comfort between us. One of the three people I never thought would become a permanent part of my life is now mine. In fact, all three are mine.
A distant shout up the stairs lets us know dinner is ready. The interruption causes Theo to groan.
I give his cheek a kiss and chuckle. “Come on, the quicker we get food out the way, the quicker we can get down to why the vampires are really here, and we can sort this mess out.”
“Spoken like a true Luna.” Theo salutes me as he stands up then takes my hand to lead me down the back stairs. It’s hard not to dwell on the wreckage we pass. It makes my heart hurt to see the house in such a mess.
When we step into the living room, I spot the food lined up on the coffee table instead of the dining table. Confused, I glance over and see all the papers still strewn across it and realise we can’t eat at the table.
Tired, I spot a gap between Kenji and Quimby and plonk my backside in the gap. Two hands instantly slide onto my knees and once again, it sets off the tingles. I bite my tongue in hopes it’ll stop the sounds of pleasure from coming out my mouth. Both knees get a gentle squeeze, and I know, without looking, they both sport identical smirks.
Checking the room, everyone else is focused on other things. I stick my elbows out and catch them both in the ribs. Grumbles reward me.
“I’m afraid it’s every man for himself. Henrique has ordered a bunch of food without any consideration for what everyone wanted,” Rosalina explains while she drags a chair over and primly sits at one end of the coffee table. “Solomon has gone to grab some plates.”
Dad enters the room moments later and places the plates on the table. He has something else partially hidden in his hand. When he passes it over to the vampires, I understand it’s their meal. Fascinated, I tilt my head and watch as all three vampires give my father humour filled thanks before he steps away.
“That was kind of you, Solomon.” Leverette chuckles.
“I wasn’t doing it for them,” Dad answers with a growl, picks up a plate, and loads it full of food. “If they fill their bellies then they won’t be tempted by my daughter.”
“Dad!” I choke in outrage. “You can’t say stuff like that.” My eyes seek out the vampires. “I’m sorry, please ignore him. He didn’t mean it. He’s a silly old man and doesn’t know better.”
“It’s quite alright. He’s protective like any father should be,” the lead vampire explains before taking a bite into his bag.
My nose wrinkles at the sight, but I don’t look away, fascinated by how quickly he drains the blood. After he finishes his meal, my attention returns to the items spread out across the table. A plate full of different foods waits in front of me. With a smile, I offer thanks to the guys before I dig in and fill my belly.
Once we finish eating, we sit around the table once more to work on the paperwork. Dad surprises everyone when he disappears into his office and brings back a huge file. After we begin to paw through it, we realise Dad has been collecting information on Blood Moon for years.
Henrique growls when he reads over a single piece of paper. “How did you come across some of this information, Solomon? Not all of this is known.”
Dad rubs the back of his neck and sighs. “While I was doing the food runs and visiting the different packs, I spent my spare time gathering any, and all, information I could find. We’re not the only pack who have had run-ins with them, so it made sense to gather as much as I could.”
As the paperwork lands on the table in front of me, I fight the urge to be sick. Blood Moon has been the cause for several packs losing their females to suicide. They kidnapped them, abused or tortured them, and once rescued, some were beyond the ability to deal with the nightmares they were left with.
Pushing that away, I spot three slips of paper with the Argent crest printed at the top. Beyond curious, I pick them up only to immediately wish I stayed ignorant. There’s a list of all the misdeeds they’ve done to the Argent pack to find out who the Luna is. To find me. At the bottom of the last page is a list of seven names, and next to each name there’s a location of where their body was found and the condition they were left in.
So many lives have been damaged or lost because they were hell bent on finding me.
My blood boils. I take deep breaths to control the anger coursing through me, but it’s no use. My chair scrapes back as I stand. “I suggest we go to war. Now. Why the hell nothing has been done sooner is beyond me, but I won’t have more lives at risk because of me. It ends. Now!”
Leverette tuts, “That’s not very Luna-like behaviour, Tallulah. That’s something I’d expect from the boys. I understand why you’re pissed, but once the threats started, we needed to concentrate on keeping you safe. We needed to consider all possibilities before we could do anything. If your father”—he makes a point of glaring at dad —“had given us this information a few months earlier, then we could have done something before now. But, as it stands, we’re more than capable now to lead a war. Our pack is stronger, more able to carry the weight of a war than we could have five or ten years ago.”
Henrique holds his hand out for the paperwork I hold. “Our plan of action is to send the DeLucas in. They’ll let Blood Moon know that if anything else threatens the existence of you or other pack members, then they’ll force our hand sooner. But we need to concentrate on training the pack for such events because if I know Belcoot the way I think I do, it won’t be long before he decides to try something.”
When Henrique stops, Zadimus speaks up, “Once my brothers and I have been to Blood Moon, I’ll set things up on our end. It’s been a long while since we’ve been to war. It’ll be just what my vampires need.”
He chuckles, and it causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. I rub my eyes and stare at the clock; it’s a little after five in the morning. We worked all night. The window shows the sky already lightening. Soon the birds will begin to sing.
My attention turns to the group around the table. The guys, their parents, and my dad all appear worse for wear. Hair is out of place, clothes askew from shifting and fidgeting from being stationary for hours in the same spot. When I turn my attention to the vampires, their appearance is the same as when they first arrived. Their clothes are immaculate, not a hair out of place, and no bags under their eyes.
Is that what blood does to them? How the hell aren’t they tired?
And don’t get me started on all the information Rosalina has shoved into my tiny mind. The amount of stuff I need to learn before I can be given the reigns as Luna truly boggles my mind. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to live up to Rosalina’s expectations.
The only thing I can do is try to go to her if I ever find myself stuck.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
- Tallulah -
The vampires stay for two more days. In that time, we jointly decide the DeLucas will make the journey into the Blood Moon pack’s territory before they carry on home. We sat up late into the first night to discuss and plan.
Then, we argued and planned some more.
We went through every possible scenario. In the end, it was decided they’d have a ‘friendly word’ with the Blood Moon Alpha, Belcoot. Our pack, which sounds weird for me to say, needs time to train. We’re not ready for war with Blood Moon, yet.
Towards the early hours of the morning, the boys, their parents, my dad, and I are full of yawns, about to drop from exhaustion. The vampires still look fresh as daisies. My cheeks heat under the embarrassment I feel when they read my mind, announcing to the room my not-so-clean thoughts about the boys.
Shortly after, we all head out to sleep.
When I wake up later and realise no one’s in the bed next to me, I stretch out the kinks from sleeping in an odd position. Although my brain was too boggled to properly notice, I’m sure Theo, Kenji, and Quimby were with me when I passed out. I didn’t even bother to change out of my clothes once we made it back here; I was glad to be able to crash in my own bed.
Getting up, I grab a pair of sweats to change out of my creased clothes.
God knows how those vamps manage to stay so unrumpled. Do they have beds at their property? It’s a guess that they wouldn’t need them to sleep… My cheeks heat when I imagine they’d at least need a bed for other, well, activities. Shaking my head to dispel that train of thoughts, I swiftly dress and head out to find everyone.
I stop short when I reach the main living room. Candlesticks sit on the table and cast a soft glow around the room. My mind tries to work out what special occasion I forgot about, but it comes up blank. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.
“There you are. How did you sleep?” Kenji asks from the other doorway.
I turn to get a proper look at him, baffled when I realise he’s not in casual clothes, but dressed in a buttoned shirt and suit trousers.
Comparatively, in my own clothes, I’m ridiculously under dressed. “Good. Should I, um, go change?”
“No, you look beautiful. No need to change. Unless you need to, not that I think you need to, just…” His voice stutters to a stop, awkward for both of us.
“Don’t listen to him. Like he said, you’re beautiful and sexy, just the way you are,” Theo’s voice calls from the kitchen and gets louder as he enters the room. His eyes light up when he takes me in, but I don’t miss the tick in his jaw.
Left out of the loop with something about to go down, I try to ignore the sudden tension in the room. I choose to turn my attention back to inspecting the table. The candlesticks catch my attention.
Once, on a food run with my dad, we stopped at a small town. Dad wanted to take a few minutes to stretch his legs while I was allowed to wander into the old-style trinket shops. I spotted the candlesticks and knew with Luna Rosalina’s birthday fast approaching they’d make the perfect gift. With lots of begging, I convinced Dad to buy them. When I wrapped them up for her birthday, I was so pleased to get her a gift I knew she’d like.
Seeing them on the table tonight, I’m amazed she kept them all this time. Someone even took special care of them and polished them to a high shine.
The door to the left pushes open and a silver trolley rattles into the room, pushed by Blaise, the security guy. Stacked high with plates, the smell of food hits my nose, and my stomach grumbles in appreciation.
Quimby places a hand at the small of my back, and I jump in surprise. I quickly turn my head to look him over and realise, he too, is dressed nicely. Although, he managed to get away with being barefoot instead of wearing dress shoes like Kenji and Theo.
“Hey, Quimby.”
“Hey yourself, gorgeous girl.” His hand on my back guides me around to the table and he pulls a chair out for me to sit.
Mildly fascinated at their movements, the guys and Blaise make quick work of unloading the trolley’s dishes onto the table. With a nod from Theo, Blaise leaves with the empty cart. The guys load the plates with food, none of them waiting for our parents or the DeLucas.
Confused, I ask, “Are our parents and the DeLucas not joining us?”
“Not tonight. They have a lot to still sort out, and they wanted to give us some space,” Kenji answers, but I don’t miss the slight drop in timbre in his voice or the way his hands tremble as he sets a full plate in front of me.
They each take a seat, and we eat the rest of the meal in silence. By the time we finish, I’ve had enough of the weird, awkward tension. “What’s going on, guys?”
They exchange pointed looks, but none of them answer. After a moment, they stand together and stalk around to my side of the table. Theo turns my chair so they can all crouch in front of me, eye to eye. My nerves jump at the creased brows and pursed lips.
“We…” Kenji tries and stops. Now, with him so close, I see the fine sheen of sweat on his brow, and my stomach twists.
“With all that’s gone on over the past couple of days,” Theo butts in with a no-nonsense tone, “you finally know the truth of our mating bond and how much you mean to us. We want you to be our mate.”
I frown, confused by what he means. “Why would you ask that? I’m already your mate, aren’t I?”
Quimby growls at his brothers, and it startles me. “What these two dickheads are trying to say is we want to make it official. We want you to formally acknowledge our mating bond. Will you?”
~
Time passes in a whirlwind after their proposal. The DeLucas went on their way to deliver the warning to the Blood Moon pack. A few of our pack began to train under the guise of increasing pack morale and dependability. A few people were chosen by Theo to start to fix up Dad’s house. And the preparations began for our bond ceremony.
As soon as I said yes, it seemed as if my feet barely touched the floor. From talks of dresses with Rosalina, to discussions of food with the guys, even my dad put in his two pennies worth. Thankfully, I haven’t had to make too many decisions because the guys wanted to make sure I understood how much they wanted me. They snuck me out at every opportunity, and Rosalina agreed we needed the time to cement our bonds.
In all honestly, I’m grateful for them. I’ve only been to a couple of parties after the mating bonds, so I never witnessed the whole slew of preparations needed for the ceremony. If I had known the amount of work that went into it, I’d have run in the opposite direction.
One of the more amusing decisions I was in on was the choice of flowers. We had to be careful of the types we picked because of all the sensitive noses. Rosalina explained that Henrique wouldn’t be impressed with being interrupted constantly by sneezes every few seconds.
Now, with the ceremony only a day away, the whole house smells of flowers. Rosalina accepted the last delivery this morning. I tried to help unload the back of the truck, but she shooed me away.
While I may have made some of the decisions, even for me, the final ceremony decorations will be a surprise.
~
In a quiet moment after my hair and makeup are complete and I don the dress, I walk over to the full-length mirror and allow my eyes to finally take it all in. The white lace dress is not one I would’ve been brave enough to pick out on my own. But Rosalina has such an eye for detail; I can’t help but fall in love with it. When I turn slightly to the side, the lace hem brushes against my knees. It’s sophisticated, yet not over the top. A simple write ribbon, which sits under my breasts, shows off my figure. A sweetheart neckline at the top and delicate capped sleeves finish the look.
My eyes fill with tears, and I blink multiple times to stop them from falling. It won’t do for the guys to see me all puffy eyed on our day. Besides, I really don’t want to ruin Rosalina’s hard work on my makeup. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d stand here, with a beautiful dress on, ready for my mating ceremony. That I’d be lu
cky enough to be blessed with one mate, never mind three.
The board with all the pictures draws my attention. Snapshots of the guys and me together as children, when we were inseparable, mix with a few photos of us together these past weeks. My four-year-old self loved those boys then, and I love them even more now.
A light tap sounds on the door, and I give the photos one last glance before I turn away. I nervously grasp my fingers. “Come in.”
My dad cautiously pokes his head around the door. Seeing me fully dressed, he slips in and shuts the door. We both stand and gawk at each other. I’ve never seen my dad in anything other than jeans and a holey t-shirt. I fully expected him to wear his new dark-blue jeans and a clean t-shirt, which hasn’t got his dinner and whatever else, spilt down it.
The suit he wears comes as a huge shock.
A sniffle causes my head to shoot up, and I catch a single tear fall. I rush over to Dad, who braces himself so I don’t knock him on his ass, and my arms wrap around his neck to hold on desperately. This is a new chapter in my life that I am excited for, but up until recently, it’s only been Dad and me. A sniffle in my hair has me fighting tears. He releases the death grip on my waist and pulls back. His hands come up to cup my cheeks, and his love shines through his bright eyes.
He clears his throat. “The very first time I held you, I knew I’d have my hands full. You’re my baby girl, and even though you have those boys, I want you to know I’m here. I’ll always be here.” He places a kiss on my forehead and smiles at me. “I love you, Tallulah. There’s not another man out there who could be prouder of the lady you’ve grown into.”
I swallow past the lump in my throat. “I love you, too, Dad.”
