64
The gazebo that had been here the day I spoke to Knightly about the twins for the first time was remade into a greenhouse It’s beautiful and more than ready to become the home of some very lucky plants. I love plants. I was sad to leave mine back in Paris, but I didn’t know where our permanent residence would be. I couldn’t risk them.
It’s a little past midnight, and the twins are asleep. It’s nippy out, but not cold enough for me to need more than the hoodie i put on after a shower. It’s beautiful here–peaceful. The only sound is coming from the soft waves licking against the shoreline. Even as light–footed, I immediately hear he’s the one who walks out from the back door
“Mind if I join you?” It’s going to be difficult to sneak up on me now.
“I was waiting for you,” I say honestly.
“Story of my life,” he says coming over to sit on the steps beside me. “This peak is called Midnight Moon. It was once the home of the original alphas of this region. That was the name of their pack. In honor of the first alpha of this shore,”
“The alpha’s name was Midnight?” I ask.
“Yeah, he was native,” he looks back at me. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. “Have you heard of him?”
“That’s her name. Midnight. She told me earlier,” I clear my name.
“I see. That’s perfect,” he smiles.
“What’s your wolfs name?”
“He told me he never had one. I named him Buddy”
“Is he the reason why you don’t want to be an alpha?”
“How do you know that?” he looks out towards the water.
“You said he was on your dad’s side until we came along. Midnight said we’re the same vessel but not the same person. It was a guess,”
“Buddy is very strong. Spirits are passed on after we die. I believe that in most of his lives he was forced to submit. Meant to be a king but never born at the right time.
“Im afraid of what he’ll do if I give my father what he wants. Buddy resents me for it. For lots of things. For keeping him away from the packs. For walking away from you. For turning my back on my family. For the spectacles I make to keep him complacent,
“Is it common for us to be at odds with our wolves?”
“No, it’s a sign of early stages of becoming feral,”
“And you were awakened to that?”
“Yeah,” he smiles tightly. I take his hand and scoot closer to him.
“I’ve been reviewing some of the paperwork to be part of the pack and I can’t say I’m thrilled about anything on there. It feels a lot like I’m signing over my entire existence. All this time I thought I was killing this shit out on my own and it turns out I’m the stupid bitch my father always thought I was,”
“Your father is a piece of shit, but I’m glad he couldn’t bring himself to just throw you out. Things could have been much worse if I’m being honest. Angel, I don’t think we’d be able to protect the pups if we stay this way. Rogues are now actively hunted. Their King is gone. Without anyone strong enough to hold their protection, they have to commit or die,”
“How long can we postpone having to commit?” I ask. He turns his body to look back at me as he laughs “They can’t force us to take the oath until we’re ready. I know why I don’t want to commit. Why don’t you?”
“This, I hold up my tablet to show him my notes. “It says any business started after the oath is a business taxed and backed by the pack licensed attorneys. Now look at this,” I swipe over to my contract with Xo. “It’s basically the same thing. Except with Xo, I had copyright protection. The pack oath terminates any outside legal rights. All of it is tied into the pack economy.
“And you don’t like to share?” he smirks.
“No one’s ever shared anything with me. Not without wanting anything in return,”
“You think my parents want something in return“”
“Don’t they want us to take their place a few de
Successfully unlocked!
“Holy shit. Here I was thinking the two of us don’t have much in common,”
“We don’t,” I laugh. “Except us wanting our privacy”
I see how much time I can buy us, he pats my arm.
“Would we have to move?”
“No, this is ours. From peak to peak, he points out “it’s now under Ayre and Arzen’s names. Just in case happens to us.
I pull my legs up and think about the things I found in Perry’s research if anyone had known who I was, I’d be in the same position he’s in. There are eight bloodlines whose heirs must be on the move or extremely good at avoiding getting caught “Perry thinks Gregory Altaha isn’t my real father, I inform him Tve been thinking about how you said you’d do anything including removing yourself from the picture to protect us. What if she paid him the my dad knowing that she wasnt going to make it?”
“If your father is her mate, we have to think about what it means for her not to have trusted him with that information. You were right to keep the pups from me. It’s why we haven’t pushed for you to contact them. I didn’t see it in the binders. 1 went through them on the plane ride back. “He is bothered that he missed something.
“She knew you wouldn’t find these, I scroll to the videos in memory chips stashed in the spines of the binders. It took me a couple of hours to figure out their order. “She said you always miss what’s staring you right in the face,”
Thit play. A screen recording of her research comes up. At the bottom comer is a video window with her dumbing down and translating what she thinks are the most important things about being a wolf of our modern world.
“Hello, Phoebe. My name is Perry and if we’re related, I bet Violetta you’d be able to find these. I know Knight won’t. I always say he sees the world clearer when he’s looking through his sniper’s scope. The idiot always takes for granted what’s night in front of him,”
“She’s literally never fucking said that before, Knight growls.
“He’s also not very empathetic. So, I doubt he’ll try to make learning about wolves cool. It’s fucking boring, but I’m going to give this a shot. I am high off my ass. It’s three in the morning and this is an impulse decision.
“Part one. I’m starting here because you’re like super into fashion stuff. I hope that you get to tag me in on that. I just recently became responsible and I have no fucking idea how to dress. My idea of cute is a matching sweatsuit. Pink with bedazzles on my ass. But the Queen of the Lycan race needs to dress like she’s the princess of Ginovia who had been hidden in San Fran her entire life,”
“She is definitely high off her ass, Knight shakes his head.
“She goes on to tell me everything I would have needed to help broaden Royal Threads. The laws change from the ones i know. I wouldn’t have been able to go off on my own without an alpha, I would have set myself up to fail,”
“This is on me. She didn’t know you had gotten fired. But, yeah. That’s true. Because of the vampire laws, humans aren’t allowed to have ownership of anything without a master,”
“Why don’t we know about this? I mean humans. Why do they not know the world is run by supernaturals?”
“It’s just the mortals here in this state. We keep them here as basically pets. We give them the liberty to survive without the fear of knowing how close to death they are when they’re enclosed with us anywhere.
“The state of California supplies the best human blood to vampires all over the world through blood drives. We’re the last state in the entire FBTS union that is vampire free. They’re hunted here. Not even half breeds are allowed,”
I stare at him and process the way he said that so casually. Every time I’ve seen a doctor, they’ve asked me if I’d like to donate to lower the cost of my medical fees. I never questioned where it went and now he’s telling me that vampires buy it. He’s talked about them before but it never occurred to me that they were real until now.
“Okay, I see what Perry was talking about. That was so cavalier. I’m not sure what I expected the answer to my question to be but it wasn’t that,” I laugh.
“You have to be open to new shit or this is definitely going to scare there fuck out of you,” he given my hand a reassuring squeeze. “You’re doing great, Angel”
“Where I come from, when a guy tells you you need to be open to new things, I’m sure they mean butt stuff,”
He flinches as if I had just flicked him on the nose or something. Then he bursts into laughter.
“Where you come from sounds like fun,”
“There are vampires and werewolves in your world. I beg to
