Keller’s POV Zara and I are meeting with a woman who Mom is paying to paint a mural on the nursery wall when my phone pings with a text notification. Zara is showing her examples of underwater paintings she has been pinning on mood boards and the furniture we ordered for the room. “Excuse me, Ladies.” I squeeze Zara’s hand and step out of the now empty guest room. “I won’t be long.” Jasper: VIP at Velvet Rope for Sam’s birthday on Saturday. Sam: Holy shit, really? Jasper: Yeah. Kel, can you invite Estelle and Tyree? Keller: Yup. Jasper: What about Zara? Keller: Nope. She’s not 21 and she’s pregnant. Keller: Besides, she’s excited to kick Dad’s ass in Scrabble. Sam: Bummer. Okay. Next year. Jasper: Kel - ask Estelle to let Tyree know about the dress code. Keller: Will do. Jasper: Sam - Melissa Jackson is coming. Don’t blow it. Sam: Bro. Jasper: See you at 11:30 Saturday “Everything okay?” Zara smiles when I come back to the room. “All good. Jasper made plans for Sam’
“What are you doing?” Mom looks into the back seat of Dad’s truck while we head home. “Just making sure he’s not hurt.” I look him over, squeezing his legs gently and pulling his sleeves up to make sure there are no cuts or bruises. When I lift his chin up, he gives me a little whine, making me pull my hand back. I chuckle when he squints his soft, gray eyes at me with a scowl. He looks just like Skylar. “Sorry, little guy. I’m just making sure you’re good to go. Don’t beat me up.” “He doesn’t look like a goblin. How can he be so cute when he looks like your brother?” Rocky asks, admiring the infant. “It’s going to make our mate sad that his mother left him.” “No idea how he can be so cute, Rocky, but he’s already growing on me. Imagine how it’s going to feel when we meet our own pup.” I brush my finger over Dillon’s nose gently. I take the baby to the living room with Mom and finally let her hold him while Dad speaks with Beta Stone in the entryway. “Mom, what are we going to do
“It’s not too late. I can stay home, Pocket. Sam will understand.” I sit on the bed next to her and Dillon. “Go spend time with your friends.” She takes my hand and smiles at me. “Who knows when you’ll have another opportunity? Mom and Dad are here. They set the travel bassinet up. Mom showed me how to make bottles of formula and how to change his diaper. If anything happens, she and Dad will help me. I’m going to leave the bedroom door wide open just in case, but right now, you need to go out. You said the Doc told you to. Don’t go against the doctor’s orders, Keller.”“If you want me to come home, you’ll call me right away, right? Like for any reason. You’ll call me?” I stroke my fingers over Dillon’s soft brown hair. He gives me another scowl and a little grunt. “It doesn’t feel right to leave you two on the first night.”“Don’t make me manipulate you, Keller Joseph.” Zara raises her eyebrows at me. “Tonight, you go out with your friends. Tomorrow, the three of us will spend the d
“Whoa, what? No. You two have met Jasper before.” I hold hands up, but Katie and Kara are already past me, giggling and batting their eyes at Jasper, who has an arm around each of their waists. “Keller, I would remember meeting my mate.” Katie slides her hand up Jasper’s shirt and lets it rest on his chest. “Yeah, Kel, I’ve definitely never met your friends here. You’ve been holding out on me.” Jasper brushes a stray hair out of Kara’s eyes and admires her. “That dress goes perfectly with your gorgeous blue eyes, Darlin’.” “Katie, the last time I saw you, you said my friends were there. It would only have been Jasper or Sam. No one else comes home with me like that.” I run my fingers over my forehead out of frustration. “Oh, I didn’t mean your human friends. I was talking about the drugs.” She rolls her eyes at me and turns back to Jasper. “No. Ladies, there must be a mistake. Jasper isn’t… one of… us.” I try to reason with them, but it’s too late. They are in their own little wo
After a quick conversation with the manager, I point out my friends at the bar. He says he will take care of them and shows me the door to his office where he is going to bring them. I step outside and try to make my way to the alley as nonchalantly as possible. There isn’t anyone there. I don’t know why the Hell I need to meet Tyree’s friends in the alley, but if Estelle trusts him, I should as well. I pace back and forth in the dark alley that smells like piss and vomit until I sense a change in the air. The scent of ozone fills my nose, making me gag. Rocky, who has been unusually quiet with all the commotion, becomes restless. Out of nowhere, he says the most terrifying thing he’s ever said. “The Reaper is coming.” “What the fuck? Rocky, what are you talking about?” I back up against the side of the building and look around, trying to cover my nose from the potent scents building up around me. A searing heat and bright light forces me to close my eyes and turn my head. My heart
Delilah breezes ahead of us, looking around the decor. She comes back to collect James so she can show him an old photograph of someone she knows. “Um, how old is she?” I ask Reggie and Marco. “Good question. No real appropriate answer.” Reggie takes a sip of champagne and pulls up an image on his phone. “We know she’s over a hundred years old, but not older than two hundred. She says Claude Monet was her stepfather. He painted her mother in the mid-eighteen hundreds, but there are no images of Delilah. She seems to be fuzzy on dates until the nineteen hundreds.” “That’s definitely Lady Camille. She got more gray hair now, though.” Marco smiles at the image. “Come on. Let’s help these girls.” Estelle peeks out of the manager’s office and waves to me, making my brain flip into work mode. “That’s our cue. Marco, Estelle, is a veterinarian, but she’s a sigma expert. She knows as much about them as my father or me, maybe even more. She treated and detoxed the twins when I originally p
James approaches Kara, holding both hands up so she can see the piece of metal and the box with buttons. “Okay, Kara. I’m going to slide this metal between the collar and your skin. It might be tight, but I’m not trying to choke you. It will just be for a few seconds, okay?” “What is that?” She points to the metal. James looks at Reggie, who shrugs. “No one will ever believe it. Might as well tell them.” “This is a piece of Achilles’ battle armor. Have you ever heard of him?” James turns the metal over in his fingers and gives Kara a gentle smile, as if he is trying to convince a child. “That’s the sound Katie makes when she sneezes.” Kara turns serious, forgetting about the metal piece. “It’s true. It sounds just like me.” Katie echoes her sister’s words with a nod. “What… Achilles?” James tilts his head. I think he’s starting to understand the twin’s intelligence level now. I cross my arms and observe the interaction, amused. “Don’t keep saying it, Mister James.” Kara puts h
I walk Delilah, James, and Marco out to the alley so they can get home the same way they arrived. “Marco, you have five minutes!” Delilah opens a portal, creating a cold suction feeling in the alley. “Keller Joseph Marshall, it was a pleasure to meet you. We will meet again soon.” James gives me a brief salute and turns his attention back to Delilah. He gives her a little twirl, making her clothing turn back to the wool coat she was wearing when she originally came through the portal. He kisses her hand before they step through together. “Marco, um, real quick, before you go. Bianca. The Luna Regent mentioned she could be Zara’s sister, but she didn’t say it like, you know, one hundred percent outright.” I choose my words carefully so it doesn’t sound like an accusation. “Everyone from your pack seems to adore her just as much as the next person, which is awesome. I’m glad she has an excellent support system… but, uh, so I was just wondering, who are her parents exactly? Is she Za