Shopping is exhausting, but fun. The first few stores we try, Megan can't find a single dress that interests her. In the third store, she finds a few things to try on but decides against them. As she searches for herself, I half-heartedly keep an eye out for a dress for myself. But mostly I focus on helping Megan find her perfect dress. We are in our fourth store and Megan is flicking through a rack of dresses and dismissing them just as quickly. I'm quite tired, I don't go out often other than for work and the threads floating around me are distracting. I do wish that I could turn my abilities off and on. A switch would be useful, or a button. Feeling a headache coming on, I decide to step back for a moment. I find myself standing beside Darrien. As he has been all morning, he is quiet and watches us both carefully, I notice his eyes flicking to the side every now and then. I follow his gaze as it does and realise that he is glancing over at a dress. And wow is it a dress. It is stun
Bellamy sits beside me as I finish off my ice-cream. Once again, he is well within my personal space. Is he doing this on purpose or does he not realise how close he's sitting? I can feel his warmth beside me. As I finish my treat he stands, although he looks a little nervous. I'm wondering why when he speaks.“So, did you ask Megan about that thing?” he asks me. I nod my head. He meets my gaze.“And? What did you think?” he questions. He looks like he expects me to be mad. I smile and stand up. His expression is wary as I step in closer towards him but quickly turns to relief when I take his arm which he automatically held out to me as I stood. In fact, more than relief, he looks quite pleased.“I think that it's different. Different, and confusing and might take some time for me to get used to.” I tell him with a small smile.“But you're willing to try and get used to it?”“As long as you're willing to try and understand that it is not natural to me and might take a bit of work.” I
This time the suit is plain black. It looks better and Bellamy seems happier. He is wearing a black shirt underneath. He shrugs at me.“Well?” he asks. I consider a moment.“It's very... black.” I observe. Bellamy raises an eyebrow.“It's a black suit.” he points out.“I can see that, but... it's just... I don't know. It's better. But not right.” I turn to Charlie for assistance. He is nodding along with me.“She's right. I have an idea.” He stands and vanishes yet again. When he returns he is holding two more shirts. A plain white one and a maroon one.“Try these with it.” He hands them to Bellamy. Bellamy sighs in frustration and returns to the dressing room. My phone vibrates in my bag and I pull it out. It's a message from Megan. She has sent me the photo of me in my dress that she took earlier.Megan- Send me mine!I text her the photo of her dress and she sends back her thanks. I flick back and forth between the two photos. Happy to have some kind of evidence that I got to spend
Bellamy's mood seems to have improved. Every now and then I glance up at him and every time he smiles at me. It's actually almost scary. We finish eating then Bellamy pays for the food and leave to walk to his car which he claims is only a few streets away. His mood is still bright, in fact he might even be more cheerful than he was while we were eating.“What's with you all of a sudden?” I ask thoughtlessly. The smile on his face fades.“What do you mean?” he asks cautiously. I shrug.“I don't know, you're all happy. I can't figure out why.” Bellamy looks away.“What is it?” I demand.“Well, that meal went better than the last one. You didn't even argue when I paid for the food.” I roll my eyes at him.“I figured I would just give you cash later, or pay if we end up eating out again.” Bellamy shakes his head.“Just leave it.” I open my mouth to object. He turns a dazzling smile on me.“Please?” I frown. He is trying to charm me into compliance with that smile which just makes me mor
I really hope they don't decide to stay for dessert. I expect Bellamy to pull out his phone and answer messages or scroll through Facebook or something, anything. But he doesn't. His eyes are still on the restaurant but the way he's angled himself in his seat, towards me, at least as much as one can while in a car. Does he want to talk?“Sooo....” I search for a conversation topic. His eyes dart to my face, then back to the restaurant.“Why isn't Darrien here? Isn't he Megan's guard?” A look of irritation flashes across Bellamy's face.“Sending him along would be implying that Tristan can't protect his fiancee. It's like a slap in the face. Megan would never allow it.” I frown.“I don't get it, shouldn't Tristan be grateful. A guard is just extra security right?” Bellamy shakes his head.“Definitely not. It would be like if you insisted a guard come with you while you're out here with me. I can assure you that I would not be grateful.” I sigh. Then mentally freak out a moment. Is he i
I look to Bellamy and find he is fighting off two other men. The men are all pale and have near black eyes, although I could be mistaken in the dark and under this much pressure. Bellamy lunges at one of the men, attempting to knock him down, but a flash of fangs causes him to stumble back as they graze his arm. Vampires. We are being attacked by Vampires. Why are we being attacked by Vampires? Vampires don't care about anything but their next meal! Why would they come after us? Coincidence that we happen to be out at night? But this area has always been relatively safe, and what Vampire in their right mind would attack a Shifter Alpha? I mean seriously, Vampires? Properly aware of the situation, Bellamy is more careful in his next attack. He freezes however, when the Vampire who is holding me tightens his grip and pushes my head to the side, baring my neck. I can feel the Vampire's breath on my skin, it's cold enough to make me shiver. Bellamy growls at him and glares. The Vampire do
The more I calm down, the more awkward this entire situation seems.“Alright, I should make a few calls, let people know what's happened and where I am. Why don't you go change?” he suggests. I glance down at myself and realise that my clothes are all dirty from where I sat on the ground. I nod and make my way to my room. I quickly trade my skirt for my unicorn pyjama bottoms and my shoes for slippers. I grab a random white tank top and chuck it on instead of my pyjama top. Now that I'm inside, the long sleeves seem too warm. I can hear Bellamy on the phone in the other room. I am pulling a brush through my hair when he knocks on the door.“Come in.” Bellamy opens the door cautiously and looks around as he does. His eyes widen when he sees my huge collection of pillows, blankets and other comfort items. I cross my arms and glare at him.“Don't you dare laugh!” he shakes his head and hold his hands up in front of himself defensively.“I would never! I was actually thinking how much I a
I turn off the water and hear Bellamy talking to someone. I wrap myself in a fluffy towel and exit the bathroom. Curious, I make sure I'm properly covered with the towel before opening my bedroom door and sticking my head out.“Bellamy, is someone here?” I question. He doesn't get a chance to answer as Maggie peers around his shoulder. She raises an eyebrow at my appearance.“Good morning sweetie. I woke early and made some muffins. I thought I might bring a few up for you. For your... gentleman friend too I suppose.” She says pointedly. I blush as I realise how this looks. I glance at Bellamy who shrugs at me helplessly. I step out from behind the bedroom door, desperate to explain myself to Maggie. Not that I've actually done anything wrong. But Maggie is my friend and I don't want her to misunderstand me. As I emerge, Bellamy's eyes go wide, then he suddenly finds something terribly interesting to stare at on my ceiling. His response isn't missed by Maggie who gives a short laugh.
My automatic reaction is to panic and to mentally scream NO ABSOLUTELY NOT! She is just a child. She is way too young to already find the person she is fated to be with, not to mention she has been through too much. What if he is immature or goes through a jerk phase as he grows up? Or worse, what if he is a lot older than her? Four or five years might not mean much when she’s an adult, but at her age that is a LOT. And who could it be? Is he going to be good enough? What if I don’t approve of him, what if he’s a bad influence. I’ve seen people with red threads who hated each other and were terrible for each other when they were young and as they matured became more right for one another. Is it too soon for them to meet? She’s just gone through an incredibly traumatic circumstance and she does NOT need some guy messing with her head right now. I take a deep breath and try to relax. I don’t know who it is, we might not even be meeting him right now. The thread just tells me that he’s s
The next few days pass almost too quickly. Bellamy and I have our meeting with Sara and her father. He was a little curious as to why I was there, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t pleased, but he did agree to back off of Sara a little bit and seemed to appreciate the added security that we are arranging for the university students. On the drive home, Bellamy is grumbling about it. “He was barely polite to you.” He complains. I roll my eyes.“He was polite enough, how polite should he be to a stranger in his house telling him how to parent his child?” I point out Bellamy shakes his head.“You’re his Alpha, my mate, he should know better.” He continued to scowl.“It’s not like he knows that. We haven’t actually told everyone.” I remind him gently. Now it’s his turn to roll his eyes.“Of course he knows. It’s the worst kept secret around, remember? He’s just the traditional type. Isn’t sure how he feels about having a non-Shifter as an Alpha. He’ll get over it.” He says firmly. I f
“Well, I think that it might actually be nice having an extra person around the house. Extra security and company. Besides, you spend most of your time here anyway. Might as well save you the commute. That is, as long as no one else has any objection?” I say pointedly looking at Megan. Sure, Bellamy could object but I already know that he won’t. Megan briefly makes eye contact with me, gives a slight nod, then finds something to stare at on the ceiling. She is clearly trying to look like she doesn’t care but she is blushing bright red. True to form, Darrien is watching her closely trying to work out how she really feels about my suggestion. Realising that she isn’t going to provide any input, he decides to push it a little. “Megan? I would like to hear your opinion. I am still courting you and I don’t want to screw anything up by making a decision like this without your input.” Darrien says clearly. His voice is mostly calm with just the slightest hint of anxiety as he monitors her r
I wake up late in the morning, it might even be early afternoon. I wriggle around a little which prompts Bellamy to do the same, he is apparently already awake. He raises a finger to his lips to shush me before I speak and I can see why. Kiara is still sleeping, lying in the bed between us. She is still loosely holding onto my arm, even in sleep. I slowly disentangle myself from her light grip and slide out of bed. Bellamy follows, clearly doing his best not to jostle her and wake her up. She definitely needs the sleep. She was restless for a good part of the night and almost definitely was having nightmares, but she seems like she’s sleeping soundly now. My own sleep was blissfully quiet. No visions or anything thank goodness. I’m looking forward to having several weeks of steady sleep and so help me if anything tragic or dramatic happens for the next few weeks then whoever is responsible should probably be terrified of me. We step into the hallway to talk without disturbing Kiara.
I cross my arms in irritation. “Kiara would never! How would she even do that? She’s just a kid!” I object. Dr Dae rolls her eyes at me.“Oh calm yourself girl. I’m not saying she chose to murder anyone. I assume that she was forced to comply somehow. You’ll have to ask the girl when she’s ready to talk. As for the how, the child is a Reaper.” She says it as if it’s obvious but it really isn’t. I know that Reapers exist, but they’re the kind of Magic that most people have heard of but no one has ever met. I suppose Kiara’s dad must have been a Reaper too and why the MRO was so secretive about her markings. Most people are kind of scared of Reapers, they’re kind of the boogeymen of our society. Mostly because they can kill on a whim. All it takes is one touch and they can free your soul from your body. Obviously with no soul you die, and I guess your soul moves on to wherever souls go when you pass on. I suppose that a Reaper would make sense for the representative of Atropos. Her add
Since Kiara probably isn’t up to braving the stairs and she really doesn’t want to be carried around everywhere, we decide to ask Dr Dae to come up to the bedroom. It’s actually kind of weird having so many people in here. Bellamy is a fairly private person, he doesn’t generally invite people to hang out in his… our room. Dr Dae shuffles in clutching her usual bag. I’m surprised that Bellamy isn’t carrying it for her because it looks kind of heavy, but I suspect that she wouldn’t hand it over anyway. I immediately greet her.“Thank you so much for your help. Your contact has become a great friend and she’s a huge part of the reason we were able to find Kiara here.” I nudge Kiara gently with my elbow and give her a little smile. She looks very small and delicate in the oversized, mismatched clothes with her hair dripping down her shoulders. She’s so pale that the bruises on her skin stand out and look even worse than they actually are. Dr Dae gives me a half nod of acknowledgement then
We all turn to face Alex in confusion. I glance up at Bellamy to see if he has any idea what’s going on but he looks just as lost as the rest of us. I continue to stroke Kiara’s hair trying to keep her calm. “Explain.” Bellamy says firmly. Alex flushes red under the attention of everyone in the room. “Uh, well. I assisted Miss Gale in updating her registration with the MRO, and uh, since her position is one of… well almost authority, over the fate’s representatives the updated registration reflects this. So she should be able to make decisions about Kiara’s care like an Alpha would for their Shifters or like a Coven leader would for their Witches. Admittedly it’s a very small group of Magics, but according to the Magic Registration Office, she is in charge of it.” He explains, his voice starts off weak but gets stronger as he becomes more confident in what he’s saying. The police seem a little stunned but I guess Alex isn’t technically wrong. If Kiara were a Shifter, her Alpha would
When we pull up to the house, there’s a police car waiting. There are two cops standing by it, one looks bored and irritated and the other has a fake ‘customer service’ type smile plastered on his face that I know well from experience. Yeah neither of these guys want to be here. They’re probably pissed that we made them come down here. Not to mention uncomfortable being in the Shifter compound. Non-Shifters aren’t invited here often, although I suppose that isn’t exactly true anymore with all our new friends stopping by regularly. Standing beside them looking awkward and uncomfortable is Alex. I bet they’ve been taking their impatience out on him. I narrow my eyes at them and prepare myself. One snotty comment and I am going to tear into them, it’s been a long night. Bellamy parks the car and I wait for him to get out. He speaks with the police briefly and Alex escorts them inside the house. Bellamy returns and opens the door next to Kiara. “Hey, can I help you get inside? The police
As we step outside, I’m confused to find that I actually have no idea where we are. I really was just running and following the tracking spell. I don’t know how far I ran. It’s a good thing the others are here to bring back the cars because I would be wandering all night trying to find my way back. I’m also fairly sure that I left my phone in the car when I jumped out in a hurry. Kiara clutches my hand tightly as the cars pull up on the street in front of us. “Megan, Darrien. You stay here and speak to the police when they arrive. Direct further questions to me. Shaun, you stay with them too.” Bellamy directs as Shaun hops out the car. At Megan’s insistence he stays a good couple of metres away from us.“Yes Alpha Kane.” He responds cheerfully. Aaron and Rio also climb out of the vehicles. Rio stops to chat with one of the other Shifters whose name I still don’t know. Aaron immediately approaches me. Actually a better way to phrase it is that he storms over. He looks almost angry. Or