“I appreciate that, Dad.”
We looked at each other for several long minutes. He surprised me by yanking me forward, embracing me in a bone-crushing hug. I couldn’t recall the last time he’d held me so tight. Maybe the night Mom died? Probably. It didn’t feel strange though. There was something so familial and fatherly in the embrace that I damn near broke out in tears. I wrapped my arms around him and held him just as tight.
“You better come back to me, boy,” he whispered in my ear, so softly that even the other shifters around us wouldn’t hear it.
“I will,” I promised.
“Good,” he said. When he released me, he was back to being the king. “Be safe on the trip. Okay?”
“Yeah.”
He opened the back door of the SUV. “Ladies first, as always,” he said, smiling at Elle.
“Thank you,” she said as she slid into the SUV.
Instead of rows of seats, it had been fitted with bench seating on each side, so we could look at each other as we made the hours’ long drive to the Laurent territory.
Rasp, Vince, and I took our seats, and then the car was in motion, heading down the driveway. I rolled the window down and gave my father and the other remaining folks a wave. I spotted Delphine standing beside Titus on the steps of the house before we rounded a corner, and they were all lost from sight.
“Well, I’m glad that didn’t make it seem like we were all going off to our imminent deaths, right?” Rasp said. “A nice, light send-off. Nothing foreboding about any of that at all.”
“Shut up, Rasp,” I said, though I couldn’t keep the rueful grin off my face. He was right. The whole thing had an air of finality to it that I didn’t like.
Vincent was staring out the window, watching the trees along the drive slip by. His lips moved soundlessly as he counted them and snapped the rubber band on his wrist.
Finally, he grinned, and looked at us all.
“Thirty-seven! That’s a prime number. I never counted the trees before.”
“Real good, buddy,” Rasp said. “Uh, is that important?”
Vincent turned to look at his friend like he’d gone mad. “Seriously? Are prime numbers important? Don’t you know?-“
“Elle, how about you give us a rundown of your family’s holdings,” I said, heading Vincent off before he could go on a tangent. It was a good way to do that without him feeling put out. We did need to know what to expect about where we were going.
“Oh, jeez,” she said. “It’s been a long time since I was there.”
“True, but you lived there for sixteen years. You must recall something about the layout.”
She pursed her lips. “Okay, yeah, I think I can remember some of it.”
We spent the next two hours going over her family estate. The buildings, the grounds, the attached vineyard, the river, and pond on the property.
“What about surrounding it?” Rasp asked. “Is it like Aurelius’s family estate? Super isolated?”
Elle shook her head. “There’s a small town on the edge. When I was a kid, that town was ninety-percent Laurent employees and staff. Security, grounds technicians, the household staff, as well as the workers from the vineyard and the stable. It grew in size over the years, and there are businesses there that have nothing to do with my family, but for the most part that whole town is very loyal to my family. Most are wolf shifters, but a lot are human.”
Rasp and Vincent looked as worried as I felt. The Laurent holdings sounded far more expansive than ours. A town? God knew how much hidden security they had. It was like we were riding right into the lion’s den. Well, the wolf’s den, I supposed.
We sat back and tried to relax during the last hour of the car ride. Elle lay her head on my shoulder, watching with lazy amusement as Rasp and Vincent tried to argue about sports. It was fairly hilarious, considering Rasp was a diehard football and baseball fan, while Vincent couldn’t give a rat’s ass about any of it.
“I’m telling you,” Rasp said. “The Mariners are going to be super upset they let Benson go to the Padres.”
“Why would sailors be mad about a guy becoming a priest?” Vincent asked, his brow furrowed. “Are the sailors atheists?”
Rasp blinked rapidly several times before scrunching his face up. “What are you talking about?”
“Mariners are, by definition, sailors. And in Spanish, ‘Padre’ means Father, which is what people commonly call priests. You just said some sailor is going to go be a priest, but the other sailors won’t be happy about it. Why?”
“I can’t!” Rasp said, shaking his head and throwing his hands up in defeat. “I can’t. Not with this guy.”
Elle smiled and, to my delight, slipped her hand into mine and intertwined our fingers. Vincent then, buoyed by Rasp’s talk of mariners, launched into some description of ancient sailing knot-tying culture. It was goofy and ridiculous, and exactly what we needed. The stress of what lay ahead was almost more than any of us could handle. Talking about random shit that didn’t matter was exactly the thing to keep our minds off it.
“Okay,” Rasp said, sighing tiredly. “Please explain why hemp rope helped alter world history.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Vincent said with a delighted grin. “So, around five thousand years ago in China…”
I tuned them out for a bit, turning to look at Elle. Her hand still sat in mine, pleasantly cool on my fingers. I doubted either of us could have anticipated that we’d grow to mean so much to each other when I found her tied to a chair in my room and my two friends looking like two kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Even then, trussed up and disheveled, she’d been beautiful. I think I was hooked on her from that very moment.
Regardless of what awaited us, I hoped there was more to our story than what we’d experienced so far. At this point, I couldn’t even imagine a life without her. Although, she was still a bit distant at times, almost like she was sad. Was it about her family? Had I or my household done something to make her feel that way? Another thought occurred to me. Did she think this-what was between us-would end?
I frowned, wondering if I’d hit on the truth.
Could that be it? Surely not. I’d told her how much she meant to me, and I’d showed it to her every night since. Could she really think that wouldn’t continue? If so, that meant she was most likely worried about one or both of us dying. That was the only thing that made a lick of sense.
Well, if I had anything to say about that, it wouldn’t happen. As I’d told my father, we were coming home. No matter what.
Rasp and Vincent said something that made Elle laugh, and I snapped back to reality. Her laughter was like music to my soul. That gleam in her eye when she smiled? It was intoxicating. It was at that moment, while I watched her laugh with my friends, that I made a decision. Imight disappoint my father, because if it came down to it, I’d die for this woman. If worse came to worst, I would sacrifice my life to ensure she made it back safe. As heartbroken as he might be, my father would have to get over it. Sometimes there were bigger things worth dying for.
“What are you looking at?” Elle asked, poking me in the side when she caught me staring at her.
“Just you,” I said, leaning my head back against the window.
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