Page 101 of Waltzing With Witches

Morgan gives me a pained look and places a hand on Lou’s back, closing her eyes.

Richard and Connall stare in silence as she assesses Lou. Connall’s jaw works with tension, muscles contracting as he watches the scene.

Dirk leans around Richard and gives Connall a look. “She could do with a little comfortin’, yeh know, bein’ as how yeh’re from Leighton’s pack.”

Connall crosses his arms and shoots Dirk a shitty look.

Richard glances at his second. “Con, I’ve got this if you wanna head back to the hollow and check on things.”

Connall takes the hint and nods at his alpha before taking his leave.

Richard’s eyes flick to mine. “Shall we call your mother and tell her to fuck off?”

That pulls a wry grin to my face. “Absolutely.” I round the bar and place a gentle hand on Lou’s back, over Morgan’s hand. “Mate, I need to take this call. Will you be okay here for a minute?”

She looks up, her expression somewhere between sorrowful and relieved. “Go on. We’ll be okay, and Dirk’ll stay with us, right?” She looks over at the big sylph.

“Tell Evenia to tell my team they’re not needed. But I’m not goin’ anywhere,” he croons, blue eyes focused on the top of Lou’s head.

Half an hour later, Evenia’s been updated, and I’m hoping to gods I won’t ever have to speak to her again. Although I do owe her an extremely lengthy report on the details of what transpired in my comm room.

Morgan’s sisters come and stay for a while, fussing over her and Lou and making my mate retell the story a hundred times.

Eventually, Richard is first to leave, returning to Shifter Hollow. Lou insists that Morgan remain with me while Dirk takes her to Slade’s to get checked out. I thankfully manage to convince Morgan’s sisters that we’re both fine, so they leave as well.

Now, I sit with my mate in the kitchen as we comm every member of the protector team. In all, they killed nearly twenty thralls who came through while the wards were down. But we’ve identified and slain them all.

And what’s more? We’re finally free of Wesley too.

I leave Morgan in the kitchen pouring another round of whiskeys as I slip into my office to make one final call for the evening.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

MORGAN

After everything that happened, after freeing Abe from the virus, you’d think we’d fuck each other six ways from Sunday in celebration. But once we stop drinking and head for our room, I’m half dead.

We’ve checked with the protector team and the monitoring system a million times.

Ever’s safe.

Ever’s free.

And what’s more…Abe is free too.

He strokes elegant fingers down my back as I lie on my stomach and stare at him. “How’d you know it would work?”

I smile. “My magic was going wild when he emerged from Lou. And then, when you burst through the door, it’s like I could see the virus straining to destroy. I knew it would destroy you if it didn’t have an alternate path. Wesley wanted to destroy everything too. I sensed the virus wanted to feed on energy and emotion, and he was so full of hate. I figured they were a match made in heaven.”

Abe chuckles. “I maintain my opinion that you are an absolutely wondrous creature, Morgan Anne Hector.”

I flip onto my side, pressing a palm to his big chest. “When vampires mate, do they change last names?”

His grin tugs his lip to one side where his scar is. “Are you thinking that Morgan of House Zeniphon sounds pretty good?”

“It sounds great,” I whisper, slipping my hand around his throat to feel the steady, constant thrum of his heart.

“Perfection.” He pulls me close, continuing languid strokes down my back, and before we can finish our conversation, I fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.

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