Page 63 of Her Reborn Mate

“What are we to do?” Vincent asked.

“I’ll tell you what you two are going to do,” I said, rising again. “Alexis, you and Vincent will go to the town square with the pack and blend in with the rest of the people. Just look out for anything suspicious. Set up a perimeter around the town square and search the empty buildings. This could be anything. A shooter holed up in some building wanting to kill the mayor, a series of bombs planted to cause mass murder, or even some chemical agent like tear gas. Both of you are right. This is indeed a call for urgency and caution. I depend on both of you. Make sure that it’s all sorted out.”

“And where are you going to go?” Alexis asked, holding me by my arm.

“I’m going to have a tete-a-tete with my brother,” I said. “I’m going to find him, sit him down, and have him confess word for word for everything that he did. This I swear upon my title as the Alpha of the Grimm pack. This I swear upon my name.”

I couldn’t help but feel that there was an air of finality around everything right now. I could see it in the faces of my mate and my friend. I could feel it in every breath I took. I could sense it on my fingertips. After today, things would never be the same again, for better or worse.

“I can’t let you go alone,” Alexis said, not letting go of my arm. “This entire thing started with both of us. I found you in the forest on that day. Ever since then, our fates have been intertwined. Everything that has happened since then has revolved around you and me. If you must confront Fred, you will do it with me by your side.”

I held her hands in my hands and squeezed them, drawing her closer to me till I could feel her breathe on my face and see myself reflected in her eyes. Vincent coughed uncomfortably and shifted to the side, understanding that this intimate moment required him to shift away for a while.

“I love you dearly, and there is no denying that. Every day my bond with you strengthens to the point that I feel like we’re inseparable in our souls now. That is the truth of it all. However, this thing with Fred concerns me and me alone. Fred may be dangerous. He may have something planned for me. This sudden absconding on his part might be a trap he has laid out for me. I have to do this alone,” I said, now hugging her tightly.

“If this is indeed a trap, wouldn’t it be better for both of us to go together?” Alexis asked, her voice breaking a little.

“I trust you more than I trust myself. I need you on the lookout in the town. If there’s something dangerous cooking up in the square, you will have to deal with it. I trust you will be able to do so, with or without my help. You are the brightest woman I know, and it has been nothing but a privilege to love you and to live with you. The people rely upon you today, even though they do not know it. You have to be there for them. As for me, I will deal with the man who has turned my life into a living nightmare.” I had more planned out for what I’d do to Fred, but it wasn’t something that I was ready to discuss with Alexis. I knew what she was going to say to me if I divulged my plan to her. She would tell me to practice restraint. To calm down.

There was no way I was going to calm down, at least not when the true culprit was finally revealed to me. It wasn’t Edward Beckett. Edward Beckett hadn’t found me on his own. It was all Fred’s doing.

“Will. The pack will need you today,” Alexis said, running her fingers through my hair.

“I have trained the pack well. I trust every one of them to do their part. Vincent,” I said, turning my attention to Vince, who was looking out the window. “You have to delegate the task of protecting the commune to someone as well. Have ten members from the pack stay behind and protect the Grimm Abode. There’s no telling what anyone can do tonight. Neither of you has to worry about me doing something irrational. I am as sane as I’ve ever been,” I said.

“Well, see, that was just what I was about to say. If my father was any indication of the evil that runs in my family, imagine how truly cruel my grandfather would be. You can be sane all you want, but what I want you to be more than sane is careful. Promise me you’ll be careful,” Vince said, shaking my hand firmly as I embarked on my quest to find Fred and bring him to justice.

“Careful, cautious, restrained, and sane. I shall be all of that and more,” I said. “But where would I find Fred at this time?”

“Back when he could still walk, he used to go over to the cliffs and sit there, looking at the sea longingly. It was his favorite spot. Who knows, he might even be faking the fact that he cannot walk or breathe. Perhaps he’s there, at the cliffs,” Vincent said.

“Perhaps. Or perhaps he has run away finally. Maybe he got wise to the fact that we were onto him. I don’t know who tipped him off, but maybe that’s what happened,” Alexis said.

“The time for speculation is at an end,” I said firmly, knowing that we had no window of time to stand around and discuss possibilities and probabilities. “This needs to happen now. I will track Fred while you two secure the town square. With any luck, we will meet in the evening when all is said and done. Hopefully, all of us will still be alive by then.”

I cast one last look at Alexis as I left and saw the worry in her eyes.

Don’t worry, my love. I will come back to you yet. We have to marry each other, don’t we?I said in her mind.

Alexis rushed out the door and flung herself at me, kissing me deeply, unwilling to let go.

Chapter 27: Alexis

For the second time on the same day, I found myself standing disdainfully downtown amidst the claustrophobic crowd of anticipating people waiting to see who’d be elected as the mayor. The City Hall’s government officials, distinguishable from the rest of the crowd in their black suits, were roaming around, making sure that the perimeter was well guarded. But they seemed to be doing a rather superficial job of it. Or so Vince had pointed out once we’d gotten to the town square.

The five or six mayoral candidates who had miraculously all stayed in the running even until the end were waiting with bated breath in the frontmost row of spectators in the town square. I both pitied them and envied them at the same time.

The pity, for the most part, was because they were going to have to take office after Maurice, and who knew how much Maurice had fucked the office in his tenure as mayor? What of the books that balanced the town’s budget? What of regulations, zoning laws, codes, conduct, and municipal development? The past few years when Maurice had been the mayor were some of the worst years the town had seen—trash on the roads, a dirty beach, and no management of the roads and buildings. The town had become a third-world slum. Whoever of these people would end up becoming mayor would have to deal with the mess that Maurice left.

Envy because these people were innocent, regular people who didn’t know about the world of vampires and werewolves. Their lives were banal and boring, bordering on uneventful. I wished for a life like that for most of my life. If I could have some shred of normalcy in my life, I’d jump at the first chance for it. Instead, I was being made to serve as the town’s silent guardian, its secret protector.

“Lexie, why are there so many people here? I am sure this is more than the population of Fiddler’s Green,” Vince whispered in my ear.

“It’s because people from other smaller towns and counties have come to see this procession. This makes it even more dangerous and raises the stakes to an all-time high,” I said, combing through the crowd to make my way to the front, where the stage and the dais were placed. There was a big rope separating the people from the stage. From the front vantage point, I saw the cameras that were located all around the square. All of the cameras were focused on the square, and none were pointed in the alleys, streets, and roads diverging from the square, creating an opening from eight directions that could be used in case of an attack. There were no guards stationed at the roofs either. The only guards and police officers stationed in the square were around the stage and at its entrance. “This simply won’t do.”

“And what are we supposed to do in all this?” Vince was just as clueless as I was, and neither of us had a game plan or a contingency for when everything would go wrong, assuming that everything would indeed go wrong.

“Let’s set up our perimeter. The wolves have to go into each of the buildings around the square and see if they’re vacated and secure. Anything suspicious gets reported to me. Tell everyone to spread into the buildings. You can go behind the stage and see if everything’s in order there. I’m going to the radio tower on the building behind the stage and use it as my vantage point,” I said. “From there, I’ll have an eagle-eye view of everything.”

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