"What's in the new one?" Cas asked.
"No idea. Why don't you open it?" I had to stop myself from snapping the words. Really, it was a bit unrealistic for him to expect me to know what was in a sealed package, but he was worried. I needed to cut him a little bit of slack.
He tore open the paper, and I bit my tongue, trying not to let my urge to tell him to go slowly take over. This wasn't a gift that needed to be savored, it was a clue which needed to be uncovered.
A locket fell to the table. I stepped closer to take a better look, jiggling Hannah as I did and making her gurgle. At least she wasn't being affected by the stress in the room. I didn't want her to end up suffering because of us.
"That looks vintage," I whispered.
All three mountain lions looked at me as if I'd grown another head. I sighed. Right. Men. They didn't understand the words that had something to do with fashion.
"It's old and used to belong to someone," I explained. "Is there anything inside it?"
Cas leaned in and unhooked the tiny clasp, prizing the locket open and revealing two pictures.
I gasped. "That looks like me." And yet, it wasn't. The woman's nose was a little too long, and her shirt definitely wasn't a style I would wear, it looked far too old for that.
"It isn't. That's your mother," Kerry said.
"My mother..." I didn't mean to say it aloud, but the thought of what this one piece of jewelry could reveal was too much for me to handle internally. "That means that's my father." I reached out with one of my hands, balancing Hannah in my other.
"Yes," Kerry answered.
"But why?" I looked around the three of them, adjusting my hold on my daughter so I was supporting her with both hands. "What does this person have to gain by showing me this? Who even is this person?" That was a mystery I had no clue how to even start solving.
"Maybe it's someone that thinks they know something about your parents' death?" Levon suggested.
"But we already know what happened and who is responsible. Mary's still in the secure facility, right?" I looked at Cas, pleading him with my eyes for him to tell me my parents' killer was still getting the treatment she needed.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so forgiving to the woman who robbed me of a childhood among my own kind, but something had urged me to forgive her and help her get the aid she needed to heal, especially after hearing what she'd been through. Losing her mate, and then being controlled by someone couldn't have been easy. I wouldn't have wanted to add an extreme punishment to her troubles.
"She's still there as far as I know, but one of us can check tonight just to make sure."
I nodded. "Thank you." Deep down, I was fairly certain that this didn't have anything to do with Mary. Or more accurately, that she wasn't the one who was doing it. The timings just didn't add up. "The first present showed up after she was sent away," I mused, thinking about the timeline.
"Are you sure?" Cas asked.
I reconsidered the span of time for a moment. "Yes, but only just. I suppose there's a chance she could have planted it before we sent her away, but that doesn't seem all that likely. We'd have smelled her in here, wouldn't we?"
Cas and Levon exchanged worried glances.
"What? Why are you looking like that? What did I say?" It was almost like I'd said something wrong.
"Smell," Kerry said.
"What about it?" I frowned, a little lost in what they were suggesting.
"You're not a predator, so I guess it isn't the same for you, but we haven't smelled anyone we don't know in the house in the past few months. And if it's not someone new, then how and why are they giving you secret presents rather than just delivering them to the house?" Cas asked.
I shrugged. "Surprise? Fun?"
"Or a threat," Levon half-whispered. "And I think I know who could be behind that."
Chapter Five
"Well don't leave us in suspense, who?" I asked as I stroked Hannah's cheek with my finger.
"Mary said she thought she had someone in her head, right? What if this is whoever did the other murders?" Levon shrugged. "It's the only person I can think of that would have a motive. You are supposed to be dead, with your parents." He walked over and kissed my head. "I'm really glad you're here with us," he whispered.
"I don't know, but I'm really freaked out." Looking down at Hannah, I couldn't help but compare. "Now, I have a child of my own and I wasn't much older than her when I was shot and my parents were killed. What if they're gearing up to do the same to me and Hannah?"
"That's it. You're getting out of here." Levon smacked his hand down on the table, startling Hannah. She burst into wails of scared crying. Levon flinched and gave me a guilty look. "Sorry," he whispered, patting her bottom as I shushed her.
"What do you mean? Where will I go?" I hadn't seen my mom and dad since Hannah was born. We'd had them to the house, and mom liked to pop in on me now and then, but we had to be careful because they still didn't know anything about shifters. "I could go see my parents for a while."
"No, what if you go to the academy with me?" Levon suggested. "It would be good for me to go, you can see where Hannah will go to school, and we'll be away from the mountain."
"I'll stay here and investigate these gifts. I'll pull the wolves in on it. Kerry, do you think April can be left to oversee things for you for a while?" Cas took charge. "I like the idea of getting the girls out of here. You can sit under an umbrella on the beach for a few days while we figure things out."
"No, I can't leave right now. Maybe in a week or two, but not just yet." Kerry shrugged when I gave him sad eyes. "I'm sorry, but we've got two pregnancies nearing term and you know how frail Mr. Fronx is. He needs me nearby."
"That's disappointing. I love the idea of time with you, Levon, but it won't be the same without the whole family." I looked down at Hannah. "Could we take April? She could help with Hannah. And maybe you two could come down this weekend?" I looked back up at my mates hopefully.
"That's a great idea," Kerry said. "Maybe they'll give birth this week. I can arrange for care for Mr. Fronx if so." He put his arm around me. "Go call April and we'll talk to the guys about the investigation."
As worried as I was, the thought of the beach spurred me. I basically dumped the calm-again Hannah into Cas's arms. "Get the stew off the stove, it's done. Eat it all," I warned. Not that I had needed to. It didn't seem to matter how much I cooked, they ate every morsel.
There was so much to do. "When do you want to leave?" I called down the hall.
"Tonight." Kerry's voice was all authoritative again. He meant business.
First, I grabbed the phone and called April. She was excited to go and said she'd start packing immediately. Then I called the woman who had been housekeeper and cook for the guys before I came along. They weren't helpless, but they had the money to make sure they were fed and clean while they took care of more important matters, and I didn't want Cas distracted with a hungry belly, so I asked if she could come over to take care of them for a while.
They'd arranged for her to have another job after leaving their employ, so she couldn't do full time, but I offered double her rate, and she agreed to do their dinners, and cook two at a time so they'd have lunch the next day, then neaten up the house for an hour or so after she left her other job. She'd be tired, working so much, but she said the money came at a good time. I didn't press, I was just glad it would help her out as she helped us out.
"We're paying Rose double pay to come while I'm gone," I called down the hall again as I ran to Cas's room for the huge suitcase in the back of his closet. "And I'm taking your big case, Cas!" I yelled as I returned to my room and my closet. I didn't use my room much, but I did take advantage of the enormous walk-in closet inside.
I hadn't brought all that many clothes with me, but I had splurged a little to make sure I always had nice things to wear, even when I was just hanging around the house. Not for the guys, they didn't care. But I was the mate of the pack alpha. At a
ny point, one of Cas's pack members could show up here.
Cas had given me an allowance for clothing and household needs. He'd tried to give me a credit card with no limit—not that I knew how he even got one of those—but I'd refused it. We'd not even been together a year. He couldn't take total and complete care of me, it wasn't fair. Instead, he'd come up with a generous allowance, which I'd tried to argue down.
I never spent it all, though, even including the household food in it. And when he checked the account and found too much money in it every few weeks, he'd yell and transfer the money into what he called his "Spoil Leola" fund. I had no idea what he was planning to do with it, but secretly I couldn't wait to find out.
Packing was fast with three men to command. Once they called April's guys and set up the investigation, I commandeered them. First, they played a weird shifter variation of rock, paper, scissors where the alpha’s mom beat the alpha, and the alpha beat the baby shifter, and the baby shifter beat the mom...I wasn’t too sure how it worked, so just stuck with the baby whenever I played. Cas won the job of keeping Hannah happy, I had Kerry and Levon running all over the house looking for things I needed to pack.
When I was sure I had it all, I searched online for packing lists and discovered a few more things I'd forgotten. Finally, I zipped the suitcase closed, packed to the brim. I'd managed to fit Levon's things in it too, and only a backpack for the car of things to care for Hannah while we were on the road. It wasn't a long trip, just about six hours, and she loved to ride in the car. We didn't drive often, so it lulled her. She'd likely sleep the whole time.
The next thing I knew, we were loading the car and I had to say goodbye to two of my mates for the first time.
As excited as I was to go to the beach and see the academy where Hannah would go to school, saying goodbye to Cas and Kerry was harder than I imagined it would be. April and her guys drove up just as I threw my arms around Kerry's neck. Cas walked over to greet them.
I spent several minutes in Kerry's arms. In the almost year since I'd known them, we hadn't been separated by more than a day's run. And toward the end of my pregnancy and for the first few weeks of Hannah's life, they'd spent their time as close to home and me as possible.
I'd grown very attached. Tears fell down my cheeks as Kerry and I whispered loving words to each other. "Come soon?" I asked. I knew they wouldn't let me come back home until the threat was taken care of. I had no real way to defend myself against a real attacker. I knew self-defense, sure. But if someone of their caliber came after me, I didn't stand a chance.
Saying goodbye to Cas was just as hard. He was stoic and calm, but I felt his anxiety. It radiated off of him like a shockwave. He really didn't like me not being near him. "If I didn't trust Levon so much I couldn't let you go," he whispered, jaw hard.
I threw my arms around him and he lifted me up with his hands under my thighs so I could wrap my legs around his waist. He loved holding me like that. "Be safe," he whispered into my ear. "I'll take care of this bullshit so you can come home."
"You better," I exclaimed. "I can't be away from you for long."
With one last kiss to both of them, I climbed into the back of Levon's SUV beside Hannah's car seat. April got in beside me with very red eyes. The poor girl, she was leaving all of her mates. At least I had Levon.
Hannah was already asleep, thankfully. The night was falling, and the first leg of our drive toward the interstate was filled with the golden orange sunset.
"Go to sleep if you can," Levon said. "We'll be there in no time."
I'd grabbed a bunch of pillows and a couple of blankets at the last minute for just such a reason. Levon turned on a podcast about programming—yawn—and the next thing I knew, the lights inside the car were on and Levon's voice rang out. "We're here."
Hannah whimpered as I looked around eagerly. I began to unbuckle her as I peered out the windows. Nothing was visible except windows in a massive building. The windows looked like they belonged in a church.
Clutching Hannah close, I opened the door, and the smell and sound of the ocean smacked me in the face. "Oh," I said. "We're right on the water?"
"Yep. The tide stops mere feet from the front door to the school. It's spelled, and won't go closer. The witches need wide-open skies for some of their spells, so this was the place they'd settled on for the school." Levon stretched and looked around as the clouds moved and the school came into clear view.
My mouth dropped.
"Holy shit," April said from behind me. "It's gorgeous."
The school was gothic style in architecture. It looked like someone had magicked it straight from Europe five hundred or more years ago. Long turrets twisted around as they rose into the air. The gray stone stood strong in the moonlight. It reminded me of something out of a fairy tale. Stunning and impressive, but also a little imposing at the same time.
"Damn, I could've gone here instead of stupid old state school," April grumbled as she opened the back of the SUV.
"Me, too," I said as I reached inside for Hannah's backpack. Levon grabbed our suitcase and April's, locked the car, and we walked toward the school. The steps leading up to the front door were wide, built for looks, not functionality. By the time we reached the top I was very grateful I'd been going on the runs.
Hannah squirmed. "She's probably hungry and needs a change."
"Here," April said. "I'll run back to the car and change her. Do you have a bottle of pumped milk in the backpack?"
I nodded. "Yeah, just use the bottle warmer that plugs into the car. It's in the glove box and the milk is in a cooler in the front pocket."
My breasts tingled, reminding me I'd need to empty them, and soon, but I couldn't yet. "Make sure she only eats a little if you can, so I can nurse when we get to a room."
I could've nursed her anywhere, I wasn't shy, but I wanted to be focused while we met the headmaster and were taken to our rooms.
Levon opened the enormous doors easily. "Shouldn't these be locked?" I asked as he set the bags inside, then took my hand as we walked in together.
He set our luggage to the side and pushed a button on the wall. "They're spelled. I've been cleared to go through and since you came in with me, the magic allowed it."
My mouth dropped again as we looked around.
It was a freakin’ fairy tale.
Chapter Six
I woke up to the crackling of a fire in the grate. I wouldn't have thought one was necessary given the heat outside, but the inside of the castle had a slight chill.
"I fell asleep?" I asked Levon, looking around to work out exactly where he was.
He chuckled, drawing my attention to a rocking chair in the corner where he sat with Hannah sleeping soundly in his arms. My heart swelled at the sight, much like it always did when I saw one of my mates being all cute with her. I wasn't sure my heart would be able to take it sometimes.
"You did, the moment you fell down onto the bed."
"Huh. But I slept in the car." How had I needed that much sleep?
"Adrenaline poured off of you until we got here. I'm not surprised you crashed. Plus, you're a new mother, Leola, you can't expect your body to run the way it used to."
Oh. I guessed that made sense, even if I didn't like it. There was a reason I'd already tried to focus on exercises. I wanted to get back in shape so I could keep up with my lions. They liked to run, and I loved to join them.
"What's the plan now?" I asked, at a loss for what else to say.
"We'll go see the headmaster. He's an old friend of Cas's."
"Did you tell him we were coming?" I didn't question the fact that Cas had never mentioned the man before, especially not when he'd only talked about the academy a couple of times.
A weird expression flitted over his face.
"That's a no then." I pushed myself up out of bed and headed over to the suitcase. No doubt it would have been too much to ask for Levon to have unpacked. But that wasn't fair, he had Hannah to contend with.
"But you're not alpha, and you're worried about us just walking in there," I finished. "I get it. But we can't let that stop us. Do you think he knows something about the presents?" It was a little strange that we were going to see the headmaster at all. I wanted to spend time at the beach mostly, and maybe to see the academy itself. I had no interest in making small talk with some teacher on a power trip.
"No. It's just about implementing their new database and getting Hannah registered to come here. If that's what you want? We don’t have to stay here at the school." His eyes revealed just how unsure of himself he was, though I didn't know why.
"If it will get her the best education possible, then hell yes. How much is it?" That was my one worry. An education like this couldn't come cheap, and even though I wanted to give her the best I possibly could, we needed to be able to afford it.
"She's the alpha's daughter, she doesn't need to pay."
"Oh." That was some real nepotism there if I'd ever seen it. We should have to pay just as much as the other students here for education. Not that I was going to start arguing against that. Free worked well for me. "Let's go see the headmaster then."
I pulled a sundress out of the suitcase. It would look smart, especially with the linen blazer I had in there too. Not quite what I'd have planned to wear to meet a headmaster, but it was better than turning up in a bikini and sarong.
Levon chuckled. "We don't have to go right now. We can wait."
"And waste time we could have spent at the beach? I don't think so." Without caring he was watching, and hoping that April didn't suddenly decide to walk in the room, I stripped off my shirt and leggings, already missing the comfort that outfit gave me.
"Life with you is never going to be boring," he mused.
"I don't plan it to be." I pulled the sundress over my head, letting it fall down naturally and hide all the bits of me I was feeling less confident about recently. At least it had that going for it, even if my leggings were comfier.
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