Page 122 of The Married Alpha And His Arrow: Vol 1

A very bad thought hit me, he could try to barter with Haley’s blood. Few vampires would be stupid enough to agree, but some could be tempted. A Hood member in a physically abusive relationship was shocking. Emotional abuse? Sure. Lexi was clearly in one and so was Sally. But physical? They were very strong themselves.

It wasn’t good if it required the leader to step in. That would mean her mom’s ex-boyfriend was from a powerful family within the Hood, or her mother would’ve handled it alone. The rest of her evening didn’t surprise me.

I felt bad about hitting Kincade and Kevin, but I just couldn’t stop myself. They were supposed to protect her, and they left her all alone. What was I supposed to do? Give them a high five? Her explanation did make me understand how she didn’t notice anything amiss with her car. This was a lot of information to digest. It wasn’t even regarding my family, and I was blown away.

I explained my side of the situation. If I’d marked her, I’d at least have the mate bond to know something was wrong. Instead, I was in her house waiting for her while she was being shot at. Bolt snorted at her request not to punch her guards, “We can’t promise that. When it comes to her safety, we just can’t promise we won’t hit people.” I agreed. But we could try.

I carefully tried to broach whether the vampire she met was trustworthy. I inherently didn’t believe it because I am a werewolf. We tend not to trust them. I could see it in her eyes though, she believed every word this woman said. It wasn’t making sense to me.

Didn’t this woman say she’d met with her mother’s parents in the last few years? Why wouldn’t the topic of Lexi and Heath come up? Did she think it was a sore subject because they weren’t with them? Bolt huffed, “I guess that could make sense. It didn’t seem like her dad’s parents wanted her dad with her mom. Maybe the other grandparents were angry?” This was a mess, but I did know I’d kick her family’s ass when we crossed paths. They hurt her, and that was unacceptable.

I encouraged Lexi to talk to Heath. He might hate me and be steadily becoming a thorn in my side; however, he did seem to be good at getting information. He could help Lexi figure out if any of this was true.

I was growing more skeptical. Best friends who didn’t know a boyfriend’s name? Even saying Anne knew and said nothing all this time. According to Matt and Lexi herself Anne was the sweetest woman. If Anne kept this kind of secret, I wasn’t sure Lexi’s grandparents were worth knowing.

Or one HELL of a miscommunication had happened. Alternatively, the vampire was lying through her fangs. We needed to see if any of these claims could be verified. Bolt was furious, “Mate feels betrayed by her people.” She did. I could see part of her pain was with two people she couldn't confront. Her parents.

If people kept this secret in the Hood, it was to honor their leaders wishes. Lexi could never ask her parents for their reasons. I comforted her the best I could while Bolt paced in my head. I told him, “Her people may not know the truth. They may even have been told these people died. Or they knew the truth of what her family did. Or according to her dream; the family was accused of something. It had to be bad if their people didn’t bring them back when her parents died.” Bolt huffed, “That’s true. I still want to rip them apart.” I agreed, “We might just do that.”

My feelings of relief over Lexi agreeing Anne loved her didn’t last long. The woman she met was Susan Herford, the mate of Vampire King Matias of North Carolina. Shit. The King’s mate wasn’t a very old vampire. She wasn’t even thirty years old. Susan was known for telling everyone EXACTLY what she thought.

While I was in Europe she kicked a few of their subjects out, and they ended up in the same country as me. They said she’s a straight shooter. They hoped she’d lose that the longer she was around, but I didn’t. It was a refreshing quality for a vampire to have.

That probably meant she was telling the truth. My heart stopped for a brief moment when Lexi said King Matias and Susan wanted her to do events for them. Bolt said, “We could go with her. We could keep their fangs off her. It’s out of state, and no one would care if we were there.” I was on board with that. Bolt was right. Alpha Eric would know I was there, but he wouldn’t say.

I could fly her there, and we could spend lots of time together. Matt and Ted could even come. Derrick could handle things here. Or we could trade on and off. But if Lexi was going, I was going on my plane. His would fly her at night, and there would be vampires on the plane. Bolt growled, “With our beautiful mate? I think not.” There we agreed. We’d take my plane.

King Matais had a reputation of being trustworthy. It wasn’t him, so much as the people working for him being near her, that worried me. My staff would be nothing but appropriate, but his would not. Not when she didn’t bare my mark.

Matt linked me, “GET LEXI OVER HERE! TED IS BROKEN!” I winced, “What happened? Keep in mind if this a sexcapade injury Haley is a better choice to fix him.” Matt said, “Ha-ha, you have jokes now. I don’t fucking know. He’s cooking and zooming around muttering unintelligibly to himself. I NEED Lexi. Plus, Ted says he’s cooking for all four of us.”

I replied, “My mate is getting dressed. Personally, I have never hated you more than in this moment. I have had my mate naked all day long, and you just made her put on clothes.” Matt snarked, “Aww poor you. My mate was a mess all day, and now he’s cooking like a crazy person. GET LEXI OVER HERE!”

Few people were able to surprise me like Lexi did when she jumped on my back. Bolt grumbled, “You should’ve gone slower. We got here too fast and now she’ll get down.” I agreed, “You’re right. I just wanted to impress her with my speed.”

Matt was visibly relieved to see us. I had to agreed that Ted looked a little frantic. I linked Matt, “Lunch? He does know it’s practically dinner time?” Matt explained, “Somewhere along the way time stopped meaning something to him. I have no idea what’s happening. He’s been cooking FOR HOURS. He made a lasagna and garlic bread from scratch and there are brownies. That smell amazing. He slapped my hand when I tried to eat one.” I laughed.

When Lexi mentioned brownies, Matt ranted, “Can she not smell them? They have fudge layer, Chase. He made twenty-four of them, and I couldn’t have a single one. Not even a tester. No amount of pleading got me that damn brownie and the smell is wafting.”

Lexi had Ted admitting something was wrong in literal minutes. Matt linked me, “Do you SEE why I needed her? I had no idea lasagna means something is up. She just knew I needed to get him to talk. I thought he had a loose hair about cooking or some shit.”

I pointed out, “You could’ve asked him.” My Beta literally said one word. I shot him a look linking, “For future reference, more words are helpful. For example: Ted, is she right? What’s wrong?” Matt gave me the finger.

Ted explained the problem. Bolt asked, “Why is his grandparents coming a bad thing?” I had no clue. I asked Matt, “Are his grandparents like super Hood assassins that kill good people?” Matt replied, “I have literally never heard about his grandparents. I’m guessing they don’t approve of our relationship.”

I frowned, “Their goddess put you guys together.” Matt retorted, “The lasagna is to butter me up for what? So, I don’t kill his grandparents if they upset him? I better get one whole pan of brownies for that to work.” I laughed out loud.

The topic turned to their mating ceremony. Matt asked, “Do I actually have to tell you, you’re my best man?” I snorted, “No, your brothers aren’t here and I’m your best friend. You guys need to do this in our territory. It’s typically done on the back lawn.” The look on Lexi’s face told me I was going to have a time convincing her to do ours in our territory. She clearly had somewhere in mind. Haley saved us again by being the best partial fairy of all time, offering to conjure the perfect venue on our pack lands.

Matt linked me, “I love Haley, I really do. The goddess blessed us all by giving Alpha Eric his mate.” I agreed, “Me too. Maybe whenever the time comes Lexi can have her do that same for our ceremony.” Matt said, “I bet Haley could conjure us one big pack house and main house if you and Cameron want to combine packs.” I reminded him, “He hasn’t agreed yet.” Bolt huffed in my head. We missed our brother, and I wanted him back. He still might not agree.

Matt asked about the grandparents. I linked, “Why do you care? You already hate them.” Matt retorted, “I need to know how hard it will be to kill them when they hurt Ted’s feelings.” I linked him, “They will be harder to kill if they stay in the Shroud. Banning them from the territory would be bad.”

Matt huffed, “Fine. Then they meet my mother.” I snorted, “Your mom will fry their asses.” Matt smirked, “I know. She loves Ted.” Then he dropped the whole dinner tomorrow deal. Bolt linked me, “That's a fast turnaround.” Yes, it was. I didn’t like that I was suspicious, but I definitely was.

When his phone rang, he linked me, “I’m guessing somehow my mom found out. I swear the doors are all shut.” I looked around, “They are. She didn’t hear about it from here.” Matt answered and I could hear Isabella, “Do you KNOW how embarrassing it is when your soon to be son-in-law’s mother calls you to say she can’t host the family dinner tomorrow; so, would you please host it instead so we can still all get together? HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME? I don’t even know what types of foods they like!”

Matt explained his side. I linked him, “Heath probably doesn’t want outsiders there with the leak going on.” Matt linked me, “Genius. I love you.” He dropped that into their conversation. Ted gleefully thought that was the end of it. Matt covered the phone.

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