Page 53 of Shiny Things

“Thanks, Patrick, Silas,” Castor said as he disconnected the call.

“What the hell? It’s like my childhood nightmares coming to life,” Preston said, causing the others to chuckle uncomfortably because we were all feeling the same thing.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have a strong need to get home to my mate. I vote that we consider the options that have been presented to us and write down any further questions you may have, then we will reconvene in the morning to vote on how we will react,” Dad said.

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’m going to have to put an alert out for this,” Ryan said.

“Hold that until tomorrow,” Malachai said. “Give us time to let this sink in.”

I could see my brother was about to protest, and I couldn’t blame him for that, but Preston cut him off first.

“A good majority will be at the Montgomery wedding this evening. Safety in numbers, right?”

“And what of the rest?” Diddy asked.

“It’s one night. I think we all need to digest what we heard before making any rash decisions. It’s not even twenty-four hours. It’ll be fine,” Malachai insisted.

I had a bad feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. I just prayed he was right, because I knew that if anything happened to any bird amongst us, each of us in this room would feel the heavy burden of this decision for the rest of our lives.

Kim

Chapter 15

Knowing Gia, David, and Ryan were being supportive of us made me relax. Maybe times really have changed, and maybe I was overreacting for nothing. Just maybe everything would work out okay for us.

Realizing I was alone in Elias’s apartment for the first time, I couldn’t help but get up and snoop around. I was dying to know what was on the other side of the doors in the hallway. With a happy squeal, I jumped up and went to see for myself.

I knew the door on the left was his bedroom. I opened it and peeked around a bit. When I was here last I’d used the bathroom and then fled like a chicken without really taking the time to check out his space.

The room was large and dark because he had black out curtains drawn. I flipped on the switch. The bed was a big king-sized one with a black comforter. I pulled it down a little to confirm there were black sheets too. It made me grin since black was about all my man wore.

I laid down on the bed and rolled face down inhaling his scent. It made me moan and wish he were there.

Soon,I thought.

It took a lot for me to get back off his bed. It smelled like him and that brought me more comfort than I realized. I already knew what his bathroom looked like with the huge walk-in shower and the jacuzzi tub big enough for the both of us. So I opened the other two doors in the room instead. Both were closets. The first was stuffed with Elias’s things, his clothes, hisshoes, everything. But the second was largely empty. I couldn’t help but wonder why.

Leaving his bedroom, I checked out the door directly across from it. He’d told me that it was a bathroom. Sure enough, inside was a large guest bath. It was just a toilet and sink, yet when I opened the door inside the room, there was a shower and shelves with towels neatly rolled and stored there.

“Guest bathroom?” I guessed.

The opposite wall from the door I’d come through was yet another door. I opened it and walked into the next room.

My jaw dropped.

“What in the world is this?”

I’d had expected to walk into a second guest bedroom and assumed the third hallway door also went into it, but instead, all I found was a massive unfinished room. It was huge. Two of my houses could easily have fit inside it. It was like half the top level was just left to rafters and plywood floor.

Elias had lived here for several years. I couldn’t imagine why he’d never finished this part of his apartment before. I would have to ask him when I saw him later. I needed answers. This was just too weird. Sure, it would mean admitting I’d been snooping, but if he was going to take me as a mate, he’d just have to get used to that.

I was almost giddy with excitement as I headed back to the living room and called Gia.

“You are not going to bail on me,” she said instead of a simple hello.

“Of course I’m not. What are you even talking about?”

“Okay. Sorry. It’s just knowing that you and Elias are together and mating and all. I was just worried you were going to try to ditch me for my brother tonight.”

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