"Let's go check on the moon plants?" Susie asked Bernard as we finished our breakfast. Lizzie was passing out more leaves for everyone to chew on, although my headache was getting better. I hardly noticed it to be honest, with Ethan around.
"We'll go check on the rogues," Dagny breathed out. "I'm curious to see this cure Susie, I'm so happy we could save them."
"Me too," my mother breathed out as she wiped her hands on a dish towel.
"Dagny, we need you to go back to the coven," Bernard said. "We'll be behind you after we check on the plants."
"We'll check on the rogues," my mother said with a smile. "Lucas, care to join?"
"Sure," he said before he took a sip of coffee.
"Mom?" I asked, wiping my mouth before I tossed my napkin on my plate while Alice slept with her belly up in my lap.
"Oh sweetie, you and Ethan just go enjoy yourselves. We'll find you when we need help fetching the others," she told me with a warm smile. "Dom? Derek?"
"We'll fetch the vampires," Dominic said. "I'll bring them in tonight and have them trolling the streets. God this is going to be good."
"Agreed," Bernard said with a laugh. "I'm almost as giddy as a child."
I snapped my eyes to Dagny's who were almost in disbelief before she eyed Alice. "Oh my goodness Vincent! Look!"
Vincent turned and eyed the bunny with a ghost smile on his lips. "Spoiled little rabbit," he said as he reached out to tickle her belly. She stirred awake then sprung up with sleepy eyes, cocking her head as Vincent gave her an innocent smile. "Have a nice nap love?"
She yawned then hopped across mine and Ethan's lap and over into Vincent's where she curled up and when back to sleep. I sighed and looked back at my mother. "Mom, are you sure?"
"Of course, your father can handle it with us. It is our pack now, right dear?"
My father nodded into his mug. "Best not to argue with your mother baby girl."
Ethan kissed my temple before I leaned on his shoulder. We stayed a little longer and helped my mother clean up. Levi and Eve had ducked out early. My father more or less told him that he would find him when we needed to get the others so he and Eve were free to themselves, which they more than deserved. They had over ten years of making up to do.
I felt like Ethan and I should help my parents and the others. I knew we had plenty to do, but he was insistent on following my mother's orders. More than insistent. He was dragging me back to our cabin, a smug smile on his face as I tried to convince him that we should help.
"Sunshine, your mother told us that they had it."
"Ethan, there's a lot to do. We can't just– "I was caught off with a squeal. Ethan had dipped down and tossed me over his shoulder, then started to walk towards the cabin again. "Ethan!"
"Mmm?"
"Ethan! What the hell are you doing?! Put me down!"
"I don't think so sunshine," he practically sang out; some pack wolves were eyeing us curiously before they just started laughing as Ethan turned a corner and headed down the little footpath towards our cabin.
"Ethan! I can walk you know!" I called back as he adjusted me on his shoulder, drawing another squeal from me as he pinched at my sides.
"I do. I don't care. Obviously," he replied back, smacking my ass playfully and drawing a yelp from me.
"Ethan!"
"Baby, there's nothing more we can do. Your mother said so. So until we are needed, then I am kidnapping you."
"Kidnapping me?" I asked as he turned with the path, the smell of the smoke from the chimney growing stronger.
"Yes sunshine, kidnapping you," he repeated. "Until someone comes for us, you are mine baby."
"I've always been your's Everette," I replied back.
His hand playfully squeezed my ass, drawing a squeal from me as I jumped while he just laughed as he walked into the cabin door. "True sunshine, very true," he said as he pulled me up and tossed me onto the bed as he kicked the door shut.
"You're absurd."
"No, I'm in love with you, there's a difference sunshine."
I sighed while my hands ran up his chest as he leaned towards me. "I love you to Ethan."
He held my gaze in his, blue-green eyes softening as his thumb rubbed against the edge of my jaw before he pulled me to him, kissing sweetly and pushing me back against the mattress. I sighed into his kiss, my limbs feeling like a bond of sappy mush as he slowly undressed me and kissed at my bare skin like it was the most precious thing in the words to him.
We spent the rest of the morning in our cabin, in our haven of safe space. The headaches died down, and luckily, we had to chew less of the leaves. At one point, we decided to shift into our fur and go for a run. A run that was more or less and clumsy climb. Either way, it didn't matter; my wolf was giddy the whole time, on a level of happiness all on her own. She missed her male. She missed the way he smelled and the way it felt to run with him. She missed the way he would playfully nip at her legs as she ran and the way he would nuzzle our neck and coat us with his scent.
She had missed him. I had missed him.
We love him. Our other half. It's amazing to think you don't know what you're missing until it's gone. We had no idea what we were missing until he was gone. We were missing a rainbow of colors–the joy of life that is in the little glances his blue-green eyes would steel of me.
After we ran, Ethan was dead set on making a picnic. In the pain in the ass bath. I just laid back and watched. I had told him it was a pain, but the man was set on it.
Like me, halfway through he scratched his head and told me that, 'This is an ass beating sunshine.' Idiot, but my idiot.
We were picking at the brownies I had made the night before, drinking some coffee as we soaked. Ethan had gone outside and split a long piece of wood so we could lay it across the tub and have a makeshift tray to hold our brownies and coffee.
He was leaning back against me while one of his hands was caressing the skin on the outside of my knee as the other hand tossed a bite brownie into his mouth. My eyes were half closed while my fingers were combing through his hair that I was determined to have him grow out.
"What was it like?"
"What was what like?"
"The other side," he asked quietly.
I let out a long sigh and shook my head. "It's like Lucas said before, it's like a dream. I remember parts of it but other parts seem fuzzy."
"What part's do you remember?"
He leaned back and turned his head to look at me while I chewed on my lip. The memories more fuzzy than I would have liked them to be. "Eli. His mate's name is Grace and she's supposed to have their child soon.
"I remember Caleb. I remember Caleb smoking his cigar in my parent's house while your mother made a pie. I remember her pies. They were damn good."
"She made the best pies," he murmured in agreement.
"She does," I replied. "She and my mother would cook, we made margaritas one night and Lizzie and us all take shots. It was the night after the meeting where we made plans to come back. Eve got so drunk she was dancing on the counter with Susie–" I paused and laughed as I thought some more.
"I think we had a pack up there. I think..." I bit at my bottom lip some more while I tried to pull it forward–pull what was lost. "I remember my great-grandfather, Gramps. He liked whiskey and coke and always made me one. I think Lydia's mate had a name that started with a 'C' and I remember Evangeline. I remember her being there, being happy.
"I remember the day you called for me, the first day," I murmured as the pain of the memory came forward. "I remember wanting to follow it–to answer it. My father had to hold me down until finally, they had Lizzie compel me because I was so dead set on doing it. I wanted to so bad. I didn't care about her I just wanted to see you again," I said, my voice cracking as tears pooled in my eyes.
"I missed you so much and I was so angry with them. Susie said she watched closely, that she was watching and that we didn't need her to see us or the other realm anymore. I was so angry for so long. Every time you called it just–it was a fight to not answer. It was hell."
Ethan sighed. He leaned up and kissed the skin of my jawline, nuzzling it while I sniffled back tears. "I hated it so much, I was so furious with you. I didn't think I could be that furious with you. I didn't understand–he didn't either. We didn't understand why any of you would do that.
"But you're here now. Your may very well have not been here now if you did. She's been watching us closely baby. She's got her snakes on our lines, hell, Lander found one in Lyle's room and I found one in our bed–"
"What?!" I growled out, my beast charging forward angrily and snapping her jaws in the air.
"I killed it," Ethan replied, his beast prowling in his mind as his nose trailed my skin. "I'll kill them all. I'm not upset, baby–I was, but I understand now. Susie was probably right, she's been using too much blood magic and doing things she shouldn't."
"Ya, what is that stuff she's drinking?" I asked. "And that necklace?"
"The necklace has bloodstones on it," Ethan answered. "But I don't know about her drink. She never makes it around us, I only saw her put the powder in it one time. I don't think she knew I was there. She spilled some on the counter and after she left in a hurry I went over and smelled it–it smelled like the bloodstones. Like she crushed them up or something. But I have no idea; I think it's the stones, but I don't know what else."
"That's insane," I breathed out. "And dangerous. A steep price to pay."
"Let her pay it. Let her learn her lesson," he said, his voice dark as it rolled off of my skin.
"We did," I mused. Ethan looked up at me with a raised brow while I pushed some of his hair back. "No more deals with snakes. Never again."
He nodded then leaned up to kiss me, his hand cupping my cheek and pulling me down to him. His lips covering mine and drowning away any feelings of anger, bitterness, and guilt still trapped in me. He was my healing water that I forever wanted to bathe in.
"The pack will be thrilled," he breathed out, his lips still hovering close to mine. "Both, I still can't believe Eve is back."
"I know," I practically whispered back. "We missed them too. We missed our home."
"It wasn't home with you gone sunshine, I think I spent more time at Evan's than I did our home." My heart twisted as I looked back at him. A ghost smile tugged on his lips before he kissed me quickly again. "Let's talk about something else?"
"Like?"
"Like our herd of children and our vacation, do you think we could have twins?"
"Ethan..."
"Sunshine..."
"Twins? Really?"
"Well baby, it runs in your family." I leaned my head back and shook my head. "Besides, you did say 'why the hell not?'"
"I did," I sighed out. "We may not have that many, it's not like we can control it."
"Well baby, we'll just keep trying until we do. We're not quitters babe, we're not quitting on this."
A laugh broke through my lips before both Ethan and I were laughing together in the tub, spilling water everywhere but neither of us cared. Laughing, it was carefree and without the ghost of broken behind it.
He sighed, the laughs calming from his lips as he leaned back against me. "Evan is going to piss himself when he sees you."
"We need to practice poofing," I thought out loud.
"Poofing?"
"Yes babe, we're going to get Evan and Lyanna. That's two people. You'll have to poof too."
"Poof?"
"Yes, Ethan, poof."
Ethan shook his head. "They're not staying with us?"
"Well, I thought it would be nice..." I paused and eyed him, my teeth biting my bottom lip as I saw his eyes slightly widen at the thought of his brother and Lyanna in this tiny house with us. "What baby? It would be a nice?"
"Is that what you really want?"
I chuckled and nipped at his earlobe. "No you idiot, we can probably put them at my parents."
Ethan growled playfully low at me then nipped at the skin of my neck while I reached forward to grab another brownie. I was munching on one while Ethan drank some coffee, quietly enjoying the feeling of his naked skin against mine and the crackling of the fire when there was a knock on the door.
He stood up quickly, sloshing water over the side as he stepped out. "Expecting someone?"
"Maybe Cora or Jake? I can't link up here yet, so it may be someone with a message," I told him.
He nodded and wrapped a blanket around him before the went to the door and cracked it open. Jake was standing outside. He gave Ethan an awkward wave and handed him a satellite phone. "It's for you."
"Who is it?" Ethan asked as he took the phone.
"Evan," Jake replied. "He knows something's up. I tried to talk to him but he isn't listening to me."
"Does he know I'm up here?" Ethan rushed out.
Jake shook his head. "No, he thinks I am bringing the phone to Micah."
"Ok," Ethan replied with a nod. "What about the others?"
"I don't know. It sounds like they are all suspicious, but keeping their mouths shut. Like more or less Evan is the messenger."
"Thanks, Jake, I'll handle it. We'll being seeing them in a little bit anyways. Any word other than that?"
"No, not from them. The warehouses created a mess though, in both the human and our wold," he told Ethan as he handed him a newspaper. "Riley called. Lizzie pooled to his office and got this. We made the paper."
"She knows," I breathed out.
Jake turned his gaze so he couldn't see me as Ethan stepped to the side, further blocking me from anyone's view. "It's safe to assume that!"
"Does she know if it was the vamps?" I asked. "Does she suspect I mean?"
"I don't know," Jake replied. "We need to ask them."
"Let me talk to Evan," Ethan stated. "We'll see if he's heard anything. Where are Hadrian and Willa?"
"Checking on the rogues," Jake said.
"Ok," Ethan breathed out. "We'll come over in an hour or so. We need to start moving."
"Alright man, just uh, well?" Jake sighed and looked at the phone. "Hadrian's got a phone with a number programmed in there and so does Micah. You can call them, too bad you can't link yet."
"Ya," Ethan breathed out sharply before he picked some more leaves off of the moon plant outside our cabin. I smiled, I had crushed some of the leaves up and baked them into the brownies. I wasn't sure if ingesting them would have the same effects, but so far I had no headaches. I made a mental note to make more of them, the 'special brownies' that is. "Alright, I'll get a hold of you if I need you."
"Sounds good, see ya," Jake said as he took a step back. "Bye Char!"
"Bye, Jake!" I called back with a laugh as Ethan closed the door.
"I haven't had a headache you know?"
"I baked the leaves into the brownies," I told him as he dropped the blanket was walked back towards the tub. "An hour or so?"
"More, 'or so,' sunshine," he replied with a devious smirk as he stepped back in the tub. "But first my brother."
My best stirred at his words. "Baby, what if she knows?"
"I don't think so," he replied. "I have a feeling she doesn't, not yet at least. She has to know about the warehouses, they made the damn paper."
"Can I see it?" I asked.
Ethan handed the paper to me from over his shoulder. I took it then slid up so I could sit on the edge of the tub. I didn't want to get the paper wet, the water on my hands was already doing that.
I flipped the paper open, turning a few pages until there was a fourth of a page with a story on the warehouses. A picture with smoke and fire, the warehouses burning to the ground, and firemen running to them as the photo. I smiled. Susie had done well with Dagny and Bernard by disabling all the magical boundaries.
The column was well written but I found myself laughing. The humans suspected some kind of human trafficking and underground dog fighting in the warehouses from what police and firemen saw. I laughed because that wasn't far off, if they only knew how close it really was–what it really was.
The city was shocked to say the least. No one had any idea that there were two clubs there. The police said they had to be 'black market' operated or part of some 'elite crime gang;' not too far off either.
The phone rang on top of the split log we were using as a tray until it picked up. Ethan was nibbling playfully on my calf while I continued to read the story on the warehouses. "Hello?"
"Evan, it's me."
"Ethan?! Are you shitting me! Where the hell are you?!"
"In the mountains," Ethan answered simply as he draped my legs over his shoulders.
"In the mountains?" Evan replied, an annoyed mockingness in his tone. "Funny Ethan. Where's Levi and Lucas?"
"In the mountains," Ethan repeated, a sly smile tugging on his lips. I put a hand over my mouth, covering a laugh so Evan wouldn't hear.
"Brother–"
"Evan I am serious. I am in the mountains. Levi, Lucas, and Jane are here. We're fine."
Evan was quiet for a few moments before he sighed. "Do I even want to know?"
"You do actually, I promise to tell you later this evening, ok?"
"Ethan, is everything ok? Are you ok?" Evan asked, his voice slipping into a worry that made my heart clench for him.
Ethan smiled. He kissed one of my calves before he leaned against the inside of thigh while my fingers played with his hair as I continued to read the story. "Yes, more than ok. I swear I will let you know later, just keep covering for us, ok? Has she asked?"
"No," Evan quickly rushed out. "She hasn't. But she's been more or less pissed as hell brother. Someone tore up her warehouses."
I bit my lip and suppressed a squeal as Ethan smiled. "They did?"
"Vampires," Evan replied. "They've been spotted all over Anchorage. Someone thought they saw Alex and Helen. Did Derek ever tell you anything? Did they ever say they were going to attack her like this?"
"No," Ethan murmured out amusingly. "I can't say that the did," he answered truthfully. "What of her rogues in there?"
"I don't know brother, the rogues are gone. All gone," he replied slightly in disbelief. "It's insane. It looks like they came, took the rogues, killed most of her people inside, and burned it down. There was one man that said he saw vampires tearing into people from outside. You're sure Derek didn't say anything?"
"Even I swear, Derek never told me anything," Ethan replied, again, truthfully.
"Well, do you know anything about it?" Evan replied.
"More or less. I'll fill you in. She hasn't been around?"
"No," Evan breathed out. "She's down in Anchorage. She made Talia and Ajax go with her, Joe, and Lawrence. She's been dealing with the humans, I guess the magical boundaries were destroyed and the human police came in."
"Shit," Ethan replied. "Well, that sounds like a mess," he tried not to chuckle out. I covered my mouth with my arm then started to fold the paper up, setting it on the log while Ethan nipped at my calf again.
"Maybe this is what we need, maybe things will work out?"
"I think they will Ev," Ethan replied, his lips softening a bit.
"She did call this morning. I think she wanted you to come with her. You weren't back and Jaxon was getting irritated. I told him to hold his tits; I told her Levi, Lucas, and Jane took you on a hunt, that you were more or less a little more depressed than usual and they wanted to cheer you up. She thinks you four are out elk hunting. I thought she would be pissed but she seemed to buy it, she said she wants us to come early with some of the other alphas to the meeting."
"Why?" Ethan asked, my beast stirring slightly with worry at the words.
"Who the hell knows Ethan," Evan sighed out. "Bro, really, where the hell are you? What have you guys gotten into now? You know if she finds out you're not really elk hunting that she's just going to try and torture you again?"
I bit back a growl as Ethan snarled out. My heart was beating faster while Ethan leaned closer to my leg and kissed the inside of my thigh, sending shivers across my skin. "Let her try. It will work out."
"Ethan?"
"I'll come for you later. Just make sure everyone thinks we're hunting. Can you be in my house at sundown?"
"Why?" Evan asked slowly.
"I'll meet you there. Just do it, alright?"
Evan sighed. "Alright, brother."
"Bring Lyanna," Ethan added.
Evan was quite for a few moments. "Alright, fine. This better be good."
"Oh, it will be," Ethan chuckled out. "Fifty bucks says you piss yourself."
"I'm not asking, I'll see you later," he replied before he hung up the call.
Ethan chuckled and leaned back with his head resting on my belly. "Sunshine I think I just made us fifty bucks."
"Mmm," I hummed. "Good, I forgot to tell you we bought a warehouse."
"We did what?"
I shrugged innocently. "Well, we have the rogues that couldn't heal due to mate loss there. We needed a place for them. So we own a warehouse on the bay too now. We can probably poof them to the portal. Let's ask my dad later."
"We own a warehouse?"
"Well, Riley kind of bought it with our money... He was going to suggest it anyways."
"We own a warehouse."
"Ethan yes, we own a damn warehouse," I chuckled out. "We can talk about it later. It's on the bay so there's a lot we can do."
He sighed and shook his head, a soft smile on his lips. "Evan is going to flip. You know that right?"
"At least she suspects the vampires, it sounds like they are holding up their end of the deal, even Alex."
Ethan growled lowly, his fingers pressing into my calves a little tighter. "Sunshine–"
"Right now he's working with us. I know, I know how you feel–how we felt, but I'm not killing anyone unless I have to," I stated. "We need to make peace with them and while killing Alex would please my beast more than I care to admit, I think it would only do more harm than good. If he is willing to change and to start fresh then we should too."
"Baby, he has your father's pelt and fangs, you know that right?"
I bit back a growl and nodded. "I do. Believe me, I do."
"What does your father think?"
"Still wants to kill him but he knows he needs to work with him. The Kings need to show the world that we can work with them."
"And what of her, what if she wanted to?"
I snarled lowly, the water in the bath vibrating. "That woman nor her father have it in them. She sits on a mountain of lies and he is just the epitome of evil–the both are."
"I don't even know if she knows what the truth is anymore," Ethan thought out loud. "Remember how she told you she lost her light to vampires?"
"Yes?"
"Well, when she first proposed to me the–well, you know," he said while he leaned against my thigh. "She told me that she couldn't imagine living without a mate. I thought it was an odd thing to say since I remembered you showing me that conversation. I hinted at it, said something like I thought she had one or whatever. She just waved me off and said 'no, she hasn't been blessed with one yet.'"
"You're kidding?" My mouth slowly fell open as the memory of that conversation came to mind. The one I had with her in the warehouse when Ethan was taken. I remembered the conversation, I couldn't forget it if I wanted to.
Liar.
Ethan was probably onto something. I doubt she really knew the truth. She's probably brainwashed herself in her own atrocious lies, forever unable to remember the truth.
"Do you think her mother was actually killed by vampires?" I asked, my wolf snapping out in anger.
"I don't know sunshine. I don't trust one thing that witch says," he breathed out. "At least she's buying the cover you organized with the vampires."
"Mmm," I hummed, my beast and I still furious with the new facts. To think for a second at that time, during that conversation, I actually felt some empathy for her. Any empathy I had was tossed out the window. Chunked out the damn window of a one hundred story building.
"Baby," Ethan murmured against my calf before he kissed it. "No more talk of her. I've had enough of her for a lifetime."
"She's just such a cockroach!" I blurted out like a soda busting after someone shook it up too much.
"Sunshine," Ethan slowly said as he turned slowly, kissing the inside of my knee. "We're done talking about her in this cabin."
"Until?"
"Baby," he whispered against my skin as he moved further up; my skin still dewy from the bath flushing where he kissed me. "Do you actually want to talk about her?"
"No," I rushed out quickly, sucking in a breath as he kissed closer to my center, to the place that was starting to tingle with anticipation. "It's just that I–Ah!" I yelped as he licked the length of my folds.
"Baby stop talking," he murmured with a slight chuckle before he sunk his face back in between me, licking and sucking and spearing his tongue into me while I melted against him.
My legs growing weak and my arms forgetting that they were even arms as I clung onto the edge of the tub, holding myself up while my legs draped over his back; his fingers sinking into me while he sucked at my sensitive nub that lit my body up like a damn firework like it was a lollipop. Nibbling on it, I could feel my insides tighten around his fingers as they curled up, hitting a place that took my breath away so aggressively that I wasn't sure if I could get it back.
Before I knew what was happening, he removed his fingers–drawing a cry from my lips as my body cried out for him to finish what he started; but Ethan had other ideas. He tossed the log across the tub on the floor then pulled me down to straddle him; I leaned my head on his shoulder, panting hard as he slid against me until he pushed me slowly back onto him.
Biting down on his skin, the thickness of him filling me where I was already sore. It stung a little but slowly the pain turned to something else that had me almost whimpering for more. More because he was moving so slow; up and down into me so I could feel every inch of him leave then fill me over and over again.
"Ethan..." I sighed out, a pleading tone in my voice.
"I said no more talking sunshine," he breathed back as he kissed at the skin of my neck with a soft growl vibrating off of him.
I let out a soft moan, the water rippling around us, slightly spilling out of the tub as he continued to thrust into me. His arms holding me to him in a steel grip I never wanted to break out of.
"Ethan," I said on the edge of a groan, my mouth reaching up to nip at his earlobe. "Please..."
Another growl vibrated off of him, aggressive and dominant. I shivered as it pulsated over me. He stood abruptly, holding me to him and walking to the nearest solid space he could find–a wall.
He was crushing his lips against mine while he relentlessly crushed himself into me, sinking himself fully into me until I forgot what we were even doing before. Another growl ripped out of him as my chest rumbled in approval, a ball of pent of pleasure building in me as he leaned down to take a nipple in his mouth. His teeth tugging on it while he flicked his tongue over it.
I was tugging at his hair, my nails struggling not to dig into his scalp while my legs pulled him closer to me. My hips matched his thrust; sweat and water dripping down our skin from the bath in teasing little drops the only things between us.
I leaned forward and kissed at his mark. His mark that was like my own drug. His mark that was like a smokey flavored honey, masculine and bold in taste as my tongue ran over it. My teeth nibbled on it, biting teasingly while I sucked harder, wanting more of the taste.
I bit down hard again as his thrust sped up. He let out a groan, pushing his neck into my mouth while his hand reached between us to rub small circles over that bundle of nerves that was throbbing at my core.
A growl ripped out of me followed by a sharp moan as the ball of pleasure building in me released; my skin like static electricity and my limbs starting to turn to jello. My fangs were slightly piercing his skin as I bit into him, the rush causing me to cling onto him as he thrust a few more times until I felt him stiffen then spasm in me with a sharp cry of his own.
I leaned back against the wall while he leaned on my shoulder. Panting while we held our places; he slowly carried me to the bed where carefully, he laid me down then pulled away from me. A murmured whimper came out of my lips as he left me, the feeling of him gone leaving me with an empty feeling.
He kissed my cheek then walked over to grab a clean dishtowel stacked on a shelf over the sink; walking back, he knelt down to kiss me slowly as he wiped off the bits of him that were leaking onto my thighs before he chunked the dishtowel away and climbed into the bed with me–pulling me to lay on his chest while our hearts tried to calm their rapid beats.
His fingers trailed over me, drawing a purr from me accompanied with a shiver that caused me to nuzzle into him more. Sleep was pulling at me while we wordlessly laid in a peaceful bliss. "I love you, baby."
"I love you too," I breathed out against his skin before I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.