Page 85 of His True Beloved

We stood at the edge of the woods, away from listening ears. Nibbling my lip, the excitement, the fun, was now ending. Sebastian and I couldn’t stay in our room and wait for the problems to go away. It was silly of me to forget the looming issues with Wyatt, but it was nice not having to remember the threats.

Rowan slipped notes under the door daily for Sebastian to read, who only told me with great reluctance they had no leads on Wyatt. Wyatt only texted, and each round of texts came with a new burner phone. We weren’t told what the texts said. Rowan took it upon himself to make sure that Sebastian and I bonded and controlled my thirst.

He doesn’t need some crazy lady running around biting people because Sebastian is too pissed off about Wyatt.

My parents stood next to Rowan, Suron scanning the area, keeping any friendly humans that needed to speak to Suron away. I never realized that vampires could get bags under the eyes, but Suron certainly did.

Between the lovemaking, the feeding, and just plain hog wild sex, we also talked in the bath together. Sebastian, at one point, brought up how Suron had indeed lost his family, and I immediately started crying for him. I wanted to run, give Suron the biggest hug, and make him come back to Bergarian with us and start our new lives together. The thought popped into my head we could adopt him and make him our little adopted son that travels around with us, but Sebastian shot that down real quick. He didn’t find it funny, but having him come with us was still on the table even though Suron was adamant he would stay at the coven for the time being.

Along with these talks, my crazy dream about meeting the goddess Artemis came up. Sebastian hung his mouth open as I told him about our supposed future together if we stepped forward with it. He rubbed his face several times as he let the information set in. He repeated, shaking his head, swearing under his breath until the burning in the back of my throat came back, so that discussion died on the spot.

Rowan crossed his arms, glancing back between my parents, Sebastian, and me. I took a step back, hiding slightly behind Rowan feeling guilty that I was part of this problem of a threat not just to me but possibly to the coven. Rowan’s face darkened as he began speaking, and my mind zoned out. The leaves on the trees rustled, becoming louder until all I heard was the white noise of each branch swaying with the breeze.

I didn’t even try to concentrate on Rowan’s words. They became mumbled and sounded like whales calling beneath the ocean. Taking a breath, I looked deeper into the woods while everyone’s backs were toward me.

A sliver of purple hair flew from the tree trunk, and Pamela’s giggle had my ears clear away the white noise to concentrate on her. “Quick, come ‘ere!” she called me. I stepped further into the woods, glancing back at the group that stood at the forest’s edge. Rowan talked animatedly, Mom covering her mouth in what looked to be shock. Sebastian’s jaw was tight, and his fists held tightly together.

Yeah, I’m not ready for reality.

Finally reaching Pamela, she was behind the tree trunk, crouched to the forest floor.

“Glad to see you are okay!” She jumped up, giving me a hug.

“You’re naked, and ew”—I pushed her away—“and you stink.” I held my nose. She smelled like a wet dog and a mix of muddy feet. I stepped back, pushing her away.

“Aw shucks, your smell came in. It’s all right, though. You smell like a dead corpse. I say that in the most loving way possible.” She tilted her head in amusement. Taking in her appearance, she was primarily clean, just the dirty feet and the slightly tangled hair. Her shoulder stood out the most. It was pure white with no mark in sight.

“You haven’t claimed your mate yet?” I slapped my hands to my thighs. Pamela’s smile dropped, and she shuffled the ground beneath her with his feet.

“Just wanted to make sure you were all right. Now that I see you walking and not sucking my blood, I’ll let Enzo claim me now. It’s been a lot of fun poking and teasing the alpha, though.” She snickered. “He said he was gonna pound me good and spank my ass until it was so red that I would be mistaken for one of Hades’ demons.” She cackled.

Snorting back a laugh, a rustle in the bushes had me step back. “Did you hear that?” I whispered away, but it smelled similar to Pamela. “Oh shit, your mate is here!” I whisper-yelled at her. She shook her head, waving her hand around.

“No, he isn’t. He can’t come on the coven territory without permission.” Pamela snorted. “That’s what has been so fun! I run up to the line, shake my ass and come back over here. He throws out curse words and shit. It’s hilarious.”

Shaking my head violently, I waved my hands in front of me. “No, Rowan said that he called Alpha Enzo this morning, giving him permission to come to get you. Apparently, you walking around naked all the time has disturbed some of the humans,” I hissed. That was a fun conversation before we walked out the door. Rowan had been extra grumpy dealing with an incubus, and he was tired of Pamela using his coven house as part of her teasing game of predator-to-prey for a werewolf couple.

“Ohhhh.” Pamela realized as she turned around and saw bright yellow eyes staring back at her. His black fur, filled with patches of white on his chest and over his eye, screamed alpha male. He licked his long fangs, and my heart stopped in an instant.

It was the damn scariest thing I had ever seen in the past five days.

“Christine!” Sebastian yelled through the darkened forest. Pamela and I had walked deeper into the wood farther than I realized, and my fear had rocketed. Sebastian could feel every emotion blasting through me.

“Run,” Pamela leaned toward me to whisper and shifted. Screaming, I steadied myself running in the same direction as Pamela. I didn’t know if I could beat up a wolf. I felt very much human in the strength department, and running seemed like an excellent idea.

Pamela was further up ahead, the damn wolf prancing around a few trees until I found a wall of rock and trees to hide inside. I panted, listening to Pamela’s paws scurry off, and my heart steadied. I don’t know how fast I ran, but I had to be far away from the coven house. I couldn’t even see the edge of the forest line. I was screwed.

Playing in the woods was considered degrading by my sperm donor’s standards, and he never let me play in them as a kid. Finding my way back was going to be hard. Hell, I could barely use my GPS in my car without getting lost.

“Sebastian will find me,”I muttered to myself until I heard thick heavy footsteps pad through the dried leaves. Deep guttural growls had my breath stop, my claws lengthening on my fingers, digging into the soil.

I’m going to die.

Enzo was after Pamela, but how the wolf looked was enough to make me pee my pants. What if he went crazy and thought I was going to hurt Pamela? I had no way of knowing.I don’t deal with werewolves in their fuzzy form.

A playful yip came from behind my rock fortress, and my eyes peered over carefully, seeing who was behind me. Pamela had her ass in the air, waving her tail around like some fun-loving husky while Alpha Enzo licked his lips and drool saturated the leaves below him.

Enzo leaped forward, wrestling her to the ground until he grabbed her by the neck with his mouth. It wasn’t with his fangs but a gentle hold letting her know who was in charge. Pamela was flipped over instantly, her back to the ground and Enzo hovering over her. The yip of surprise had both of them shifted. Instead of his fangs across Pamela’s neck, his hand was cupped around it, his thumb rubbing tenderly over her jawline.

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