Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 46 - Flat-Footed

[Long A/N Sorrrrry but it's skippable]

So peeps. PEEPS. My family — after five years — finally got suspicious of all the typing I do, and they were guessing at fanfiction author, so I laid a false trail of weird-ass computer codes to throw them off the scent. Only trouble is, it worked a little too well, and now they're convinced I'm hacking the government, which is probably worse than the truth. I'm getting interrogated. God I wish I was making this up.

Secondly, keep an eye out tonight because I'm finally ready to share something with y'all. You have all been very patient with me, so thank you ;) NOW ON WITH THE STORY.

Breathe in, breathe out. My head was aching still, warning me that I'd left my scent off too long, and that made it difficult to focus on anything inside my skull, where the pain was strongest and throbbed like a drumbeat.

My link with Eira was stronger than my link with Vik, by a long way — I could actually hold a conversation with her. It was strained, and it took all my concentration, but it was possible. Breathe in—

"Can you link Vik and ask him to go along with it?" I managed to whisper at Eira. "The Silver Lake Alpha is getting suspicious."

—and out again. It was a strain to keep my eyes open and moving, but if I didn't, they would know I was mind-linking.

I felt Eira flinch at the words, because I had spilled over. "Go along with what, Ric?"

I swallowed, trying to pull the pain back, away from her. Breathe in, out, in again. It seemed to work. "Just do it, please. He'll understand in a second."

A moment of silence from her end. I could hear the beep beep as Vaughan was patched in to another phone. I was cutting this quite bloody fine.

"Done," Eira said faintly, and I could breathe normally once again.

Vaughan smiled when the call connected. He held my stare while he spoke, so smug and certain I was about to get caught out on the lie. "Morning, Lloyd. I've got a guy called Joe here who says he's from your pack. Is that true?"

I had to strain to hear Vik's voice through the phone, faint but discernible. "Joe? Yeah, I've got a Joe. I hope he's not causing trouble."

The glare I was given was nothing short of hateful. Vaughan wanted me dead, for some reason, and this was inconvenient because killing a Shadowless member would be an act of war, provoked or not. And no one wanted to pick a war with the pack which had thrashed all comers on the battlefield in the last few months.

"Do I sound like I'm about to give him a commendation?" he snapped. "He's trespassing on my land. So, yes, he's causing trouble, and I'd very much appreciate if you could come and get him."

Vik's eye-roll was audible, somehow. "Can't you just, like, let him walk home? It's fifty miles. That should be punishment enough."

"You'll come and pick him up personally, Lloyd, or I'll throw him in a cell and charge him for trespass like I would a rogue."

Pretty please? I tried to convey it through the mind-link, both to my sister and Vik himself, in the hopes that he would get the message, one way or another. I probably sent a portion of headache with it, but neither of them complained.

"Oh, bloody hell, fine," Vik spat.

Jess was trying to mouth something at me, and I was trying not to look at her because I didn't want to draw attention to her. She could link if it was important. Beside her, Scott was staring at us, his jaw unhinged and his forehead creased.