We get to Ruby’s room and say our goodnights before she enters and closes the door behind her.
My door is painted a lovely lavender colour. The bedroom is laid out the same as all the other rooms I’ve seen. There’s a brass bed with the head against the far wall, which has bedside cabinets on either side. There is a dresser on the side wall that has a plant pot with a lavender plant in it. The other wall has two doors—I’m guessing an ensuite and a wardrobe. The room has a really calming feel to it. Not that it will help calm my wolf at all, she’s too edgy. The only thing that will put her at ease is having our mate happy and healthy in front of us.
I take my phone from my clutch bag and call Benji. It rings for a long time making me think it’s going to click over to voicemail.
I’m just about to disconnect the call when Aunt Lily answers.
“Hello. This is Benjamin’s phone.”
“Hi Aunt Lily. It’s Rosabel. I’m just ringing to make sure he got home safely. Is Uncle Jack okay?”
“Jack is doing fine. He’s complaining about being cooped up so it seems he is back to his normal self. Benjamin is trying to distract him with a game of chess at the moment, but you know Jack. He won’t be fooled for long. Shall I get him to call you back?”
“It’s getting late now. I’ll try him again tomorrow. Thanks, Aunt Lily. Pass my love onto Uncle Jack and you take care.”
“Thank you, Rosabel. Good night.”
“Bye,” I say, disconnecting the call.
I don’t bother putting the phone away. Instead, I scroll through my contacts and call Misty.
“Hello?” she answers with a sleepy voice.
“Misty, it’s Bel. Did I wake you up? I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I wasn’t in bed. I dozed off on the sofa with the candle burning, so it’s a good job ya called or the candle could have burnt the apartment down. How’s the pack coping without Theo?” she asks, sounding more alert.
“They’re doing as good as can be expected and surprisingly they’re letting me lead them. I only had a little trouble from Chloe, but that wasn’t anything new. She wouldn’t let me in. I knocked her out and ended up breaking Theo’s front door in the process.” I’m still dreading the cost of that door.
“You knocked her out?” she asks, surprise clear in her voice.
“Yeah. In my defence I just wanted to get past and I did try asking first. We have a plan for tomorrow night. The only thing is, with me falling into the leader position it means I need to be there. Do you think Lucy will be able to cover for me?” I ask, dreading her answer. If she can’t do it, I have no idea what I will do.
“I guessed ya’d need a few nights off. She said she can do the next three nights.”
“Oh, Misty. You are a star! I’m so bloody unreliable. I’m surprised you haven’t fired me yet,” I say, only half joking.
“The reasons you’ve been unreliable have been through no fault of your own. I’m not firing you for that.”
“Thanks anyway. I have to go now. Wesley wants me up at eight thirty. Can you believe it? I think he’s mad. I’ll try and pop in the bar before all hell breaks loose."
“No problem. Sleep tight. I’m glad I won’t be up that early. He’s definitely not sane,” she jokes, before disconnecting the call. I didn’t even get to remind her to blow out the candles.
I quickly type up a text before setting my alarm for eight thirty and placing my phone on the cabinet by the bed.
I head into the bathroom to clean up. I find a towel and a towelling robe hanging on the back of the door so I decide to take a shower. The hot water running down my body is calming and relaxing but I start to remember my last shower with Theo. Before I know it I have tears streaming down my face. I don’t want Theo to be torn away from me before I really get to have him.
Once I’m dried with Theo fresh on my mind, I decide to drop in on him to check he is still okay. I close my eyes and pray he’s there.
“Theo. It’s Bel. Can you hear me?” I wait for a reply but it doesn’t come. I try again.
“Teddy baby, keep fighting. I’m coming to get you.” I still don’t get a reply but I can faintly feel his hope. He must be in a deep sleep, hopefully healing. Either that or the tranquilliser hasn’t worn off. I’ll hope for the former.
I open the door of the bathroom to find Wesley sitting on my bed. Glad I decided to wear the robe; I pull the tie making sure it’s secure.
“Oh. Hi Wes.” To say I’m surprised to find him here is an understatement. The look on his face tells me how worried he is. I have no doubts it’s about Alyssa.
“How’s Theo? Is Alyssa with him?” He blurts out.
I make my way over and take a seat next to him. “I’m not sure. I couldn’t get a response from him maybe the tranquilliser hasn’t worn off. I think he heard me because I could feel his hope, faintly. The good news is he’s still alive. Sorry if I woke you up. I didn’t think I’d be noisy.”
“No. It’s okay. At least we all know it’s just you and we’re not under attack. You need to keep checking on them to make sure they’re all okay.” His voice trembles as he speaks. I don’t blame him.
I’m worried and I haven’t been mated anywhere near as long as he has. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried communicating with her since she’s been missing. “Did Theo order you not to try and communicate with Alyssa?”
He tilts his head to the side with a stern look on his face. “Yes. He said I’d get lost in the communication and wouldn’t leave her. It’s been killing me knowing I could talk to her but I’m not allowed. I know he’s right but it’s still hard.” He turns his eyes back to the floor before standing and making a move for the door. “I suppose I better let you get to sleep before you want to contact Theo again.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep,” I admit.
“I know,” he says as he closes the door behind him. Just before it shuts he sticks his head back in. “Thank you.”
I smile in return, but it’s too late I’m left staring at a closed door. Getting into bed is easy. Laying there and trying to fall asleep is harder than I expected. I can’t stop thinking about Theo and how if he hadn’t been taken we would probably be in his room right now, snuggling up in bed amongst other things. Thinking about snuggling with Theo makes me crave his scent. I quickly pull on the robe and go to his room.
I open the door to Theodore’s room and see Ruby sitting on the bed with her back against the head board, cuddling one of the pillows in a death grip. If that pillow was a person they would be struggling to breathe. The room looks different from how it looked last night and I can’t quite place what’s causing the change.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone would be here. I’ll leave you to it.” She looks up at me in shock like she hadn’t even heard me enter.
“No. Stay.” She pats the bed next to her in a gesture for me to join her. “You miss him too. You need to be here just as much as I do.” That’s what’s different; the bed has fresh sheets on it. A deep blood red satin set is replacing the black set from last night.
I sit on the bed next to her and we both slide down under the covers and sniff the sheet at the same time trying to breathe in Theo’s scent. We look at each other and laugh.
“I know it doesn’t even smell of him because I helped him put them on fresh this afternoon. How stupid am I?”
“As stupid as me because I know they were black sheets last night.” We both chuckle in unison.
“Do you like the red? He put them on especially for you. He said red is the colour of passion. It reminds me more of blood than passion but, hey, that’s my opinion,” she says with a shrug.
“Well to be honest, I thought of blood, too, but don’t tell Theo I said that. I do like it though, now I know what he meant by it.” I admit.
“I heard you growling not long ago. Were you talking to him? How is he?” All the happiness she just had in her face vanishes with her words. I can feel nothing but sadness coming from
her.
“He’s still in a deep sleep. I didn’t get a reply from him but I could feel him. He’s still alive,” I say cheerily, hoping to give her something to cling on to. “Will you tell me about him? I haven’t known him for that long; I’d love to hear some stories,” I add. Hearing about him will make me feel closer to him, and hopefully talking about him should do the same for Ruby.
Twenty-Five
ONE TRACK MIND
ROSABEL
“Rosabel! Wake up!” Wesley’s shout wakes me up. It sounds like he’s pounding on the bedroom door, the one I was meant to be staying in anyway.
"I’m coming in,” I hear him announce.
I stifle my laugh; he’s not going to find me in there.
“DAMN IT,” he yells.
I stay quiet. He can wait for me to get dressed. He sounds mad and I don’t really fancy facing a stressed out, angry werewolf first thing in a morning.
Ruby and I talked for most of last night. She told me about their upbringing, which sounded just as hard as mine but for different reasons. Their mother and father split up when Theodore was nine years old, and his mother was pregnant with Ruby. Their dad was high up in the pack. He couldn’t divide himself equally between family and pack. Ruby mentioned another brother called Cain, who is two years younger than Theo. Apparently he’s a lone wolf, who doesn’t get in touch often. The werewolf gene skipped Ruby; which she finds disappointing.
Unfortunately, just because you have a were as a parent, does not mean you will be a were, too. They have human genes, as well. It’s just luck of the draw. I’m not sure where the luck lies though. Are you lucky if you do become were or you don’t? I suppose that is up to the individual really.
Once Theo changed for the first time when he was sixteen, his father took him under his wing and introduced him into the pack. Doing the same thing with Cain two years later. With Ruby being human, their father wasn’t interested in her.
Ruby turned up on Theo’s doorstep because her mother’s latest boyfriend is a sleaze ball—Ruby’s words. He came on to her and when she turned him down, he told her mother she came on to him. Her mother hit her and threw her out. I don’t know how a mother could do something like that to her daughter.
Once the sun came up we decided we needed to go to sleep before we lost the chance for sleep altogether. We ended up sleeping next to each other in Theo’s bed.
“ROSABEL! Where the hell are you? You better not have teleported home to get more sleep!” Wesley sounds like he’s ready to tear my head off. I better face him now before he actually does tear it off.
“I’m coming, keep your hair on.” I didn’t bother shouting. He’d be able to hear my voice downstairs with his hearing. Only Ruby wouldn’t be able to hear anything out of the room she’s in, being the only pure human in the house.
Wes storms into the room and takes in the scene before him. He looks mortified at the sight of us both in bed.
“You don’t seriously think…” I can’t even finish the question. I know what he is thinking. I can’t believe he’s jumping to that conclusion.
Ruby must catch onto our train of thought because she burst out laughing. “Look at his face,” she manages to get out, before another fit of laughter takes over.
“Have you managed to wake sleeping beauty up yet? I thought you might need a prince to do it.” We can hear Billy taking the stairs two at a time. He must have felt Wesley’s horror because he suddenly becomes very serious. “Wes. What’s wrong mate?” He walks around Wesley to see what he is looking at. Us! “No way!” He sounds excited. He seems to be taking the scene better than Wesley had, but he’s jumped to the same wrong conclusion. He seems more excited than I’d like; especially since Ruby is involved. She is only seventeen. Too young for him to be thinking about like that.
“You are not serious.” Ruby sounds astonished by two guys coming to the same conclusion after seeing two girls in the same bed.
“Ruby. You must know by now, especially since you hang out with Theo’s pack a fair bit,” I say, as I get out the bed in my underwear—they’ve already seen me in my birthday suit, underwear is a step up. I walk over to Theo’s chest of draws. I start raking through it to find something to wear. “Men have a one-track mind. Especially when faced with two women in bed together, no matter how wrong they are.”
I find some t-shirts in the top drawer and take one out. It’s the one with the werewolf howling at the moon, that he’d been wearing the first night I saw him. I find some sweatpants in the third drawer and pull out a grey pair.
“Do you think Theo will mind if I borrow these?” Billy is still staring at me; Wesley’s eyes are averted to the floor, with bright red cheeks. I stand waving the clothes in the air but no one is answering me.
When I glance over at Ruby, she is getting out of bed and grabbing the robe off the foot of the bed to cover herself, being careful not to flash her underwear to us.
“Billy, what are you staring at?” I ask, hoping to keep his eyes on me.
“Sorry, but you were both in there in just your underwear!” he says, as if we don’t already know.
“Yes. We both had the same idea of being close to Theo by being in here. We talked for a while and went to sleep when the sun came up,” I clarify.
“Together!” Wesley still sounds stunned.
“I’m going to use the bathroom now. That’s if I’m allowed?” I don’t wait for an answer. Instead, I go straight in to the bathroom and lock the door, hoping Ruby can manage to escape without a Spanish inquisition.
Before I even bother getting dressed, I shift, calling my wolf forward so we can check on Theo again. “Theo. Can you hear me?”
“Bel. You’re okay? I was worried the tranquilliser had hurt you when he shot me.” It’s great to hear his voice.
I can’t help but giggle at his words. “You’re the one on deaths door, and yet you’re worried about me? I’m fine. I tried to communicate with you again before I went to bed, but you were out cold. I could feel you faintly so I knew you were still with us,” I explain.
“I’m glad you’re okay.” I feel him relax through our mating bond.
“Has he given you any meat yet? You sound and feel much better.”
“Yes. He gave us some meat during the night. It won’t keep me going long. It was enough to let me draw some energy from the pack. It should keep me going until you get here, later.”
“Ruby and Wesley will be glad to hear you’re better. You said us. Are you with the others?”
“Yes. They were in the room when I came around from the tranquilliser. They’re both well. Alyssa was a little distraught at the thought of having hurt me but I think I managed to talk her out of that. Jared is here too. How is Dominick and Chomp? They were both in big trouble when I fell unconscious?” He asks.
“Chomp is dead, well dead dead; you know what I mean. Dominick wasn’t far from following him but I donated a bit of blood, and he’s fine now.” I hold my breath as I wait for his reply, wondering how he will take the news about Dominick feeding from me.
“I bet he enjoyed that, the donation. So that means we have a tie to break again when I get back. That could be fun.” His cheery reply helps me relax.
“Hey, cheeky. You might not be up to it.” I can hear the laughter through our connection. But feeling through the bond, I can tell he’s been pretending to feel better than he actually is. He feels extremely tired and he’s struggling to keep up the act. “Theo. You can’t fool me. I’m an empath and your mate. I can feel how tired you are.”
“What? Your empathy works even like this?” He sounds as shocked as I was when I discovered it too.
“Yes. You’re feeling guilty now for lying to me. Actually, you’re probably only feeling guilty because I found out. You didn’t feel guilty when you were actually lying.”
“Sorry. I’m just trying not to worry you.” I can feel the truth to his words.
“I know you’re going to hang on for us, no matter how
bad you feel. You’re not one to give up. I better go before Wesley rips my head off.”
“He better not.” He sounds mad; his anger flowing through the bond confirms it. I’ll take it as a good sign that he has the energy to spare on emotions like that.
“Oh, he’s mad because he told me I had to be up, ready and downstairs by eight thirty. Have you heard of such a stupid idea? That is way too early for me to get up. He had to come in the bedroom and wake me up just before I came to talk to you. I’m only guessing because I haven’t seen a clock yet, but it feels like lunchtime, but that could just be the hunger from all these changes confusing my biological clock,” I try to explain.
“He can’t give you orders,” Theo demands. Did he even listen the rest of what I had said?
“I know. I had to lead a pack meeting last night. That was so fun.” Sarcasm at its best.
“Did you have any trouble?” he asks, sounding nervous.
I really shouldn’t worry him, but he’ll be able to tell if I keep it from him. “Not really, except I owe you a new set of front doors. Don’t worry. It’s secure enough with all the top dogs staying there,” I joke, hoping he doesn’t ask for more details.
“Oh great. I dread to think what else can get broken before I get back tonight,” he says with a laugh.
“I better go rally the troops so we can prepare for your rescue.”
“I love you, Bel.” It isn’t just words. I feel the love being sent through the bond.
“And I love you, Theo.” I could spend all day talking to him but I know I can’t so I tear myself away by pulling my wolf back.
I get dressed as quickly as I can.
I head down the stairs and in my haste I lose my footing about halfway down. I reach out trying to grab the wall or something to stop my fall but there is nothing I can grip.
“SHIT!” I scream as I fall head first down the stairs.
Billy appears out of nowhere, at the bottom of the stairs, stopping my decent before my face smashes into the slate floor. “Jesus, Bel. Are you okay?”
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