Page 118 of As The Shifter World Turns

Three days had passed since our animals came face to face. Three days when I saw how truly I’d lost Ivor. Fuck Kellan and his bullshit lies.

I tried to call the rat bastard again. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe that was part of the problem. Even in the huge shitstorm that was my break up, it was Kellan I was calling, not Ivor.

Not that I could call Ivor. He blocked me and made Daire promise to not even speak about him, much less let me into their place.

No one from Sunshine Manor was giving me the time of day except Martin and Toby and even at that, Martin had a coldness to him. Not the same kind of rage that Seb had, the rage that led to violence. But his displeasure was there.

After five rings, the phone went to voicemail and I hung up. There was no need to leave a message. I’d already left far too many. I caught my reflection in the phone. At least my eye wasstarting to look almost normal.

When it started to buzz in my hand I almost dropped it, Kellan’s name scrolling across it.

“About time, asshole.” It wasn’t the best way to answer the phone, but it made my point. “Why are you such a lying piece of shit? Why? You were the one who left me and then you decide to what… play with me like prey? You aren’t even a freaking lion. You have no excuse to be doing what you’re doing. Fucking none.” My voice had reached a screaming level. I couldn’t control it. I don’t think I’d ever been as mad at anyone as I was with Kellan. Not ever.

“Ivor was never good enough for you,” he said. Wait? What?

“That’s not any of your concern. You weren’t good enough for me is what you’re saying.” I needed to get out of here. The walls were closing in around me as we spoke and knowing Kellan as I did, this conversation wasn’t going to get any better.

“Bullshit. I was the best you ever had. You told me more times than I could count.”

I grabbed my keys and walked out of my place. I needed air. “Do you ever tell the truth?”

“You know it’s true. You loved me in your bed.” And that was when I heard his voice coming from two places; my phone and in person. The fucker was here… in the hallway. No wonder he was saying such bull shit. He was hoping for an audience, for some drama. Gods, I fucking hated that we shared the same damn air.

I slid the phone in my pocket. “You can leave now and don’t come back.”

A door opened. Great. We had an audience.

“Leave him alone.” It was the new guy, Seb clattering down to the second floor, and he was barking the order at me, not the person who deserved it. “Stay away from Kellan. He doesn’t deserve your shit.”

He was so wrong there.

“My shit? You're the man who decked me. Not really sure you have room to talk.” I still didn’t understand what the deal was with that. That night hadn’t felt like an escalation to violence kinda fight until his fist slammed into me. “I don’t have time for you two.”

I stormed towards the door, the last thing I heard before I left was, “Is he the one who knocked you up? Is that your baby daddy?”

Fuck everything—except Kellan. Because someone fucking him was exactly how we got into this mess in the first place.

Micah

Elune had fallen asleep on my chest as I rocked in my chair. She was so beautiful it almost hurt. All of the books said I should put her down, set her inher crib so I didn’t have a difficult time with bedtimes in the future, but I couldn’t bear to do it.

She was so peaceful, so content, so perfect. I was sure there would be a day when she would do something that would upset me… it was the way of things. But at this moment, it didn’t feel possible.

“I love you more than the sun and the stars,” I cooed and I continued rocking.

My phone started to ring and I inwardly cursed at myself for leaving the ringer on. I fumbled around until I could get it open enough to silence it and saw the word ‘Professor’ on the screen. He never called. Or rarely. In any case, I found myself doing anAccept callwithout thinking.

“Professor,” I whispered.

“Is that sweet baby of yours sleeping?” he asked. He was a father. He got it.

“She is. What can I do for you?” I raised my voice slightly. The books also said to keep noise at the same volume to help with sleep later on and as a rule my mate and I did that, but phones felt different somehow. Maybe it was being around too many humans and hearing them almost shout their conversations.

I might spend too much time reading books about parenthood. At least I got out of the social media groups. They had me so paranoid about everything I could barely sleep.

“I was just checking in.” There was something off about his words. “Seeing how she is doing. I’d been thinking about when you came to me after you discovered your mate’s pregnancy.”

I’d been so freaked out at the time by how supposedly I could never get a non-unicorn pregnant, that I went straight to him. In hindsight that hadn’t been the best idea. It led to awkward follow-ups like this. Even the calls while Archer was pregnant felt almost forced, like he and I were something to be observed in a test tube.

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