Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“For the moment.”
“Where’d she take you?”
“Track me,” I replied vaguely. “How’s it going there?”
“We didn’t lose anyone,” Chance said with a sigh. “Lucy isn’t great, but Ambrose is with her. Mom’s going to be down for a while.”
“Matthias?”
“He’ll be fine.”
Chance hesitated, and my gut clenched.
“What?” I barked.
“Uncle Sven hasn’t woken up.”
“At all?”
“It was a partial,” Chance said quietly. I could hear him moving. “He’s alive, though.”
“Shit.”
“You know they have to take our entire head,” Chance reminded me. “He’ll be fine. Oh, and Dad’s awake.”
“How’s that going?”
“He’s surprisingly calm.”
“So not tearing down the house with his bare hands?”
“Not yet, anyway.”
“What about Reese?” I asked. I hadn’t seen my brother Beau’s mate at the house. There was a very good chance that they’d been together long enough that her immortality had locked in already, but it was impossible to know for sure.
“She and Aunt Alice are fine. Did you know she could shoot?”
“What?”
“Oh, yeah,” Chance said in amusement. “Little sister is a damn sharpshooter. She took out all those men in the yard with a rifle.”
“No shit?”
“She’s got nothin’ on Lucy, though.” Chance laughed darkly.
“What do you mean?” Our oldest brother’s mate was fierce, but not especially intimidating.
Rosemary pointed to the right, and I slowed to take the turn.
“She took out almost as many with a pistol in the front room,” Chance said. “We found her unconscious on top of a guy twice her size. She took him out right before she passed the fuck out from blood loss.”
“Gods,” I breathed.
“Snapped his neck.”
“What?” I barked incredulously.
“Moral of the story—don’t fuck with Lucy.” Chance hummed. “Or Charlie.”
I huffed in agreement. Ambrose’s mate Lucy was Charlie’s sister. It was unheard of that Vampires in the same family mated a pair of siblings, but when we’d gone searching for Zeke’s mate, Charlie, Ambrose had taken one look at Lucy and known instantly. In a twisted way, it made sense. The Gods had known that one of the Franklin siblings could never live forever without the other. Charlie would never survive immortality without his sister by his side.
“All good here,” Chance said. “Mostly. Take care of your shit. I just wanted to check in.”
“Appreciate it.”
“You weren’t even thinking of your poor family, were you?” my brother accused, laughter in his voice. “Mating heat strikes again.”
“Fuck off.”
“I’m just fucking with you. We’re good, Danny boy. Let us know that you’re not dead when you come up for air.” He hung up without saying goodbye.
“Love you too,” I muttered under my breath, dropping my phone on the dash.
“Everything okay?” Rosemary asked as we made our way through the woods. We were in the middle of nowhere.
“Everyone’s accounted for,” I replied.
“That’s good.”
“No questions?” I pressed. “You’re not curious what the hell you stepped into?”
Rosemary pressed her lips together and seemed to straighten.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, keeping my tone as light as I could make it.
“Turn right at this driveway,” she said instead of answering the question.
The long gravel road was pitted with holes, and I had to slow to a crawl as we jerked and jostled from side to side. At the end was a small house, more of a cabin, really. Almost every window was lit.
The hair on my neck prickled as I parked out front and followed Rosemary out of the car. Something wasn’t right.
“Come on in,” she griped as I followed her up the steps to the small porch. She threw open the front door and called out, “I’m home!”
My hand had already reached for the pistol at the small of my back when the sound of scrambling paws reached us. Following closely behind was the sound of wheels squeaking across the floor.
I dropped my arm as an old gray bulldog came running into the room, his tongue hanging so far out of his mouth it nearly reached the hardwood.
“Hey, Thunder,” Rosemary said tiredly, crouching down to catch him before he ran into her legs.
“Where the hell have you been?” a voice barked as an older man in a wheelchair appeared in the doorway.
“Hey, Pop,” Rosemary said, rising back up with a groan.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked me.
“Pop, this is my mate, Daniel Boucher. Daniel, this is my father, Gary Whitlock.”
“Well… shit,” the man said, his shoulders dropping.
“Yeah,” Rosemary said, lifting her arms and then letting them fall. “Surprise.”
“Good to meet you,” I said, stepping around my mate to shake her father’s hand.
“Your mate is a Boucher?” Gary said, looking over at his daughter, his eyebrows raised.
She gave a short nod, and her father scoffed.
“What am I missing?” I asked, looking between them. It seemed as if they were having a full conversation without saying a word.
“I need a shower,” Rosemary announced. “Pop, you’ll entertain Daniel, right?”
“Rosemary—” I couldn’t stand the idea of her out of my sight.
“Go on, Flower,” her dad ordered with a jerk of his head. “You stink.”