Page 29 of Cursed by Death

He showed up fifteen minutes early, greeted me, and stood next to the casket looking through his bible. I wondered if I told him who’s spawn I was if he’d throw his bible at me and run for the hills.

It wasn’t as amusing as I thought it’d be. It was another thing that was just sad.

Detective Rowans sat down on my left five minutes later and he wasn’t alone. The police officer and the other detective who had shown up at my house looking for him sat down in the two chairs beside him.

I didn’t question why he’d brought them. I trusted the man and at the moment I could use all the friends I could get.

Rally sat down on my right not five minutes later and he wasn’t alone either. The man he’d talked to at the underground sat beside him and Hunter from the garage sat in another chair.

I felt their presence behind me so I looked back over my shoulder. There were so many shifters standing behind us that I couldn’t count them all if I tried. And I didn’t try.

“What—”

“I’m a Prince and you are my mate,” Rally said simply. “My people look after their own.”

I turned back around in my seat and stared straight ahead at the coffin. Silent tears fell down my cheeks and I let them.

“Thank you,” I said to both men on either side of me. “I thought I was going to have to do this by myself and I am more grateful than you know that because of you I don’t have to.”

I knew the men and women behind me heard every choked-out word but I didn’t care. I didn’t know them but I was grateful for their presence as well and they might as well know it. I wasn’t embarrassed at my show of emotions and I wouldn’t allow myself to be.

The Detective picked up my hand, laced his fingers through mine, and placed them on his thigh. His very firm thigh.

Rally placed his hand on my thigh closest to him and he squeezed gently. I knew he felt the strap of the sheath wrapped around my thigh but he didn’t move his hand away and for once he kept his mouth shut.

I nodded for the priest to begin and he didn’t delay. He was looking at everyone with wide eyes and I suspected he knew Rally’s people weren’t human. They gave off a vibe.

I gave him props for sticking it out and not bailing. It was probably only because the police were here.

He talked and read from the Bible but I didn’t hear a single fucking word out of his mouth.

And that was because of the two people who stood off in the distance on the other side of Thomas’s coffin.

Roan and Bane.

It was safe to say they hadn’t been invited. So, I had no idea what the fuck they were doing here.

I knew when Rally noticed them because his hand on my thigh spasmed.

I knew when the Detective noticed them because his fingers gave mine a little squeeze.

As for me?

Well, I was absolutely furious. They had absolutely no right to be here and I wasn’t about to allow them to ruin this.

So, I gave the Detectives fingers a squeeze back and I placed my hand over top of Rally’s on my thigh. I focused on the priest and I tried my best to ignore them entirely.

When the priest was done he came over to me and I stood up to shake his hand and thank him. Rally and Detective Rowans stood with me.

The priest shook the Detective’s hand and thanked him for coming. He looked at Rally nervously but otherwise ignored him.

It pissed me off.

“What, no handshake for a shifter Prince?” I asked snidely. I couldn’t seem to help myself.

You could hear a pin drop in the cemetery because I had every single person’s attention now.

The priest flushed but it was Rally, who had been snubbed, that tried to save him. “Little avenging angel, it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t—”

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