Page 49 of Daring Her Vampires
“Allie, I’m serious,” he growls, prowling closer to her.
“I’m careful.” She presses her hand to his chest. “I’m not weak. He won’t attack until he thinks he can win.”
“You need to stay at Sally’s,” Atlas says.
“Uh…no,” she sputters. “I’m not getting in-between that.” She wiggles her fingers at us. “I’ve been fine staying with the family. Roxanne is expecting me.”
“We can follow her there,” Stephanie says.
“We won’t let anything happen to her,” Quinn adds, and my mates reluctantly nod. “I’ll keep in contact.” Allie hugs Luca, and I step away from Atlas so she can embrace him.
“Let’s go,” Luca says, guiding me toward the door.
Allie wiggles her fingers toward me before getting in her vehicle, and Quinn and Stephanie follow. Luca opens the passenger-side door for me and shuts it after I get settled. Atlas gets behind the wheel, and Luca sits behind him. My mates are tense, and I want to ease their worry. The topic of the witch will make dinner tense, but making food for them is my love language. I pull out my phone and text Bishop, Logan, and River, inviting them for a meal. What food do I make to satisfy my vampire boyfriends, a dragon, a lion, and a wolf? I doubtAtlas and Luca will care. River loves food, so anything will be consumed, but he won’t be happy to dig up the past. Bishop might breathe fire when I ask him. My apartment isn’t much, but it’s mine.
I don’t want a hole burned in my roof.
“Boyfriends, we need to go to the store,” I announce.
“This is a lot of food,” Atlas says, sitting at the counter after they hauled the twenty bags of food in. They’ve calmed down after messaging Allie numerous times. She took her things to Roxanne’s and should be here soon.
“You haven’t seen River eat,” I snort. “The party was nothing. The boy always has food in his hand.” I move around the kitchen. “Plus, I needed some essentials.” Brownies were a must. I usually make them from scratch, but sometimes, you need them immediately.
“Are you expecting them to be angry?” Luca frowns, joining his brother.
“Yes, but I know they’ll do the right thing.” I nod firmly. Spreading the ingredients on the counter, I wash my hands and get started.
“We have other options,” Atlas says.
“This will be the best one,” I insist.
“Have you met the witch?” Luca asks.
“I haven’t met Mara.” I pour the breading into a bowl. “I have met others. Lace is a witch and Daisy’s friend. I spent some time with her while they were going through some shit. She’s nice, and I got to watch her start a fire with her mind.” I grin. “Herpowers aren’t like Mara’s. We aren’t close friends and don’t keep in touch.”
“We don’t know much about their magic. Traveling like we have, we don’t spend time making friends with anyone,” Atlas says, watching my hands as I mix the crumbs.
“Was it hard to be alone?” I ask. “I realize you had each other. Weren't you lonely?”
“We didn’t miss what we didn’t have,” Atlas mumbles.
“It was hard to trust anyone but the three of us,” Luca says.
“But you must have come across others like you and me,” I insist, as I brush my hands together.
“Yes,” Atlas says, but pauses. I look up, tilting my head. “We met a woman.”
“It’s okay. I know I won’t be your first,” I say dryly. “I don’t like thinking about you with anyone else. It makes my skin itch. But you didn’t know me then, I won’t hold it against you.” His jaw ticks. “Unless it’s difficult to talk about.”
“She was beautiful.” He folds his arms on the counter. “I met her at a bar we frequented. Luca was home with Allie. She was a lion shifter. We didn’t know such a thing existed until we met other vampires. They taught us about using our sense of smell. I instinctively knew what she was. We started talking, and she reeled me in. She said all the right things, and even though I learned about mates, she wasn’t mine. Why not have fun?” I dunk the chicken in the egg. “We met numerous times a week. I started to care about her, and we made plans. Luca and Allie went to a job, so I brought her to our place. We rented a cabin for a few months.”
“They didn’t know about her?” I ask, glancing at Luca. He is stiff and staring at the wall.
“No. We fought over something stupid, so I didn’t share. We weren’t talking about much at the time. The weekend made me fall a bit in love. She listened to me and seemed to give shitabout me.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I didn’t expect Luca and Allie home so soon. When they arrived, we were on the couch.” He clears his throat, and I wrinkle my nose. “It wasn’t innocent.” I nod briskly, hating the vision. “Allie was surprised. Luca was irate. Before I met her, she was seeing Luca.”
“Oh, fuck,” I whisper, forgetting all about the chicken in my hand.
“She was playing us,” Atlas grits out. “We went to the bar together many times. We didn’t see her, but she saw us. Her friends bet her she couldn’t get us both.”
