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Chapter Thirty-seven

Enzo

S he’s pulling away from me. I can feel it in my bones. Ever since that night we went camping a week ago, Michaela has not been the same. Intimately, nothing is amiss. We are still fucking like horny teens. Just this morning, she nearly sucked my soul out of me in the bathroom.

However, I know something is wrong. It’s the way she cuddles up to me in bed at night. And how her kisses linger longer than they used to. It’s even in the way her smile no longer reaches her eyes and the way she stares off in space.

“Michaela, you’re going to spoil my baby,” Luna laughs.

Three days after we came back from camping, Makya Elom was born. She is the most beautiful baby girl we’ve ever seen. Chayton has not stopped smiling since his daughter was born. I’ve been working as temporary Alpha while he and Luna have been busy adjusting to the new member of their household.

“Don’t you worry about what I do with my new bestie,” Michaela jokes as she rocks the baby.

I watch her closely. Despite how good she is at hiding it, I know this is hard for her. That connection between us is vibrating with emotions.

Luna laughs. “Dang, you’ve replaced me already.”

Makya whimpers, letting us all know it’s feeding time.

“That’s my cue to leave,” I say, making my way to the front door. Breastfeeding is natural and women can and should do it any and everywhere they want to. However, I didn’t want to see my Luna’s tits.

Chayton laughs as I walk past him. I stand on the porch, taking in the warm afternoon air. We’re in the middle of May, the height of spring. There’s nothing like our woods in the springtime.

I don’t have to turn around to see who just walked out behind me. Her scent hits me first. The mix of her vanilla and my wolf scent.

“You good?” I ask as she steps up beside me.

“Of course.”

Turning to face her, I watch her intently. She’s lying.

Lowering my voice, I say, “This is me you’re talking to. I can feel it, Baby Girl. What’s wrong?”

She looks back over her shoulder before stepping off the porch. We’re at Chayton and Luna’s home, which is close to the center of town. Most of the pack lived in homes in this area. If we wanted privacy, we needed to walk a little into the woods.

I follow behind Michaela as she heads into the forest. She stops at a far enough distance so that we can’t be overheard.

“Tell me I’m being irrational, and my jealousy is unwarranted,” she says with her back to me.

I step up behind her, running my hands up and down her arms.

“Your pain is not irrational.”

She spins around and stares up at me. “I feel disgusted. My best friend just had her first child with the man she loves. I should be happy. I am happy. But I also can’t help but think about what I’ll never have.”

“Who says we can’t have it?”

“Zo,” she groans. “Don’t do this. You will only disappoint yourself. I can’t be fixed.”

Grabbing her arms, I pull her hands to my lips and place a kiss on the back. “First of all, stop saying you can’t be fixed. Fixing something implies that it’s broken. And there is nothing broken about you.”

She ducks her head, hiding her face, but I lift her chin to look at me. “Second, there is more than one way to be a parent. Yes, this is Luna’s first birth of a child, but don’t forget Miko is her son too.”

She snatches away from me, her gaze narrowing. “If you think I’m about to let you get another chick pregnant, you have lost your damn mind.”

I toss my head back and let out a boisterous laugh as I grab her back and pull her toward me. “Woman, what the hell are you on? No, I’m not suggesting that. I’m saying Miko isn’t biologically hers.”

“Oh,” she says, relaxing up against me.

I still laugh a little as I wrap her in my arms. “My best friend was raised by two parents that didn’t birth him,” I explain how Chayton grew up. “Yet, you could not tell them he wasn’t their son. Children are orphaned too often in this world, Michaela. We can adopt.”

She leans back, glancing up into my eyes. “You wouldn’t care that it wouldn’t truly be your heir?”

I shake my head. “If I take in a child and raise it, it will be my heir. That goes for wolf, human, vampire, or whatever else child it may be.”

She smiles as a single red tear slips from her eyes.

“You are too good to be true,” she whispers.

“Maybe, but I’m real and I’m yours.”

I drop a kiss on her lips. As she’s been doing lately, when I go to pull away, she grabs the back of my head and holds me there, extending the kiss longer.

“I love you.” She sends the message through our link to me and my wolf.

“I love you too,” I reply.

“Mine,” my wolf whimpers.

Suddenly, alarms blare through the pack link.

“What is that?” she asks. Because she was in my head, she must’ve been able to sense the alarm.

“Something’s going on,” I explain.

“What’s happening?” Chayton ask through the pack link.

“Sheriff on the property. He’s asking to speak to whoever is in charge. There’s a dead body here.”

“On my fucking land?” Chayton roars.

“Yes, Alpha. Out by the main road on the back side of the property.”

“Stay with your mate and the kids,” I tell Chayton. “I’ll go handle it.”

“Come on,” I say out loud to Michaela. I transform into my wolf and rush through the trees. I don’t have to look back to know she’s following me; the soft quick sound of her footfalls tells me she is.

Before we get to where the scout told us the body was, I transform back to human. Michaela stops beside me. We both step out of the tree line and head toward the cop cars and the coroner's van.

Hans sees us walking over and points in our direction.

“Gentlemen, how can I help you?” I say as I approach the cops.

The bald guy that’s only a few inches shorter than me, holds out his hand. I take it and shake.

“Sheriff Tibbs,” he says by way of greeting.

“Enzo,” I reply. He lets my hand go and sticks his in his pockets.

“Well, we’ve got trouble on our hands. Last few months we’ve been getting hit with this spring of gruesome murders. I know you mountain folk don’t get into Jonesville much; I wasn’t sure if you’ve heard.”

“We’ve heard,” I say, ignoring the fact that he called us mountain folk.

“Last night, around three in the morning, another house was attacked. This young man here is part of that house. We believe the killer dropped the body on your land.”

The sheriff was smart. He knew enough to know that we didn’t haul this dead body back here.

“Seems that way.”

“They’re getting desperate in their attempt to set us up,” I tell Chayton.

“Seems like it,” he says. I had no doubt he’d be listening in on this conversation.

“Sheriff,” Michaela says in a seductive voice. “Do you mind if I look over the body? These types of things interest me.”

Before I can open our link and tell her there is no way he’s going to allow that, the sheriff replies first.

“Absolutely.”

“What the hell?” Chayton has the same sentiments as me.

“Thank you.” She walks away from me over to the body.

“How the hell did you convince him of that?” I ask inside her head.

“Charm,” she replies with a chuckle.

She squats down, looking over the body.

“That’s one beautiful woman,” the sheriff says. “She yours?” he asks, looking at me with a grin. I can smell his desire for Michaela.

“Kill him,” my wolf growls. Ever since that night we went camping, he’s grown even more possessive of her. I don’t blame him. That shit was wild.

“Please don’t kill the sheriff,” Chayton says with a laugh.

I ignore him and my wolf. “Yes, she’s mine,” I reply to the sheriff. “And I’m a very stingy mother fucker so keep your eyes to yourself.”

The sheriff quickly looks away from my mate.

Chayton laughs in my head. Michaela stands up, dusting her hands off on her pants. She walks back over to us.

“Sheriff,” she calls out to him again in that tone.

“Woman, you are about to have two dead bodies on our land in one day,” I warn her.

She doesn’t even turn to me. Instead, she reaches out, placing a hand on the sheriff’s arm. He nearly melts at her touch.

“I’m working, mate,” she says in my head before speaking out loud. “Tell me how many people died in the house last night.”

Once again, she asks him for information that I know he can’t tell her. Yet, once again, he forks the info out to her quickly. “Four. A bunch of college kids here for vacation.”

“And is this house off by itself and is there a glass patio door?” she questions.

He smiles once again. The scent wafting off him makes me even angrier. She better wrap this shit up quick because I’m about to murder this fucking cop.

“Yes, to both. We believe the killer came in through the patio door.”

“Thank you,” she removes her hand from the sheriff’s arm. He sways a little, taking a step toward her. I pull her ass behind me and a growl slips out of my mouth. The sheriff startles, stepping back.

“Is that all you need from us, sheriff?” I ask through clenched teeth.

He clears his throat and tugs at his belt buckle. “Yes,” he says. “Your other guy already answered all my questions. We should have all this cleaned up soon.”

“Thank you,” I say, still feeling on edge.

“Yes, thank you,” Michaela adds, stepping around me.

The sheriff’s face turns red as he bows his head to us and walks away.

I turn to my mate. “That had better been worth it.”

She laughs. “It was. Now, get the guys together. Let me tell you what I found.”

We take no time to get back into town and gather up the others. Chayton, Alarick, Zyion, Michaela, and I were in Chayton’s office.

“I think we have been going about this wrong. We’ve been trying to track them down, but they’re well aware of that. It’s why they’re hiding so good.”

“Too damn good,” Zyion says, rolling his eyes.

“What do you suggest?” Chayton asks. He’s still pissed that body showed up on his land today. I can feel the anger through our link.

Michaela turns to Alarick. “Can your mate do an extinguish spell?”

He looks taken aback by her request. “I can ask.”

“Please,” she says. She then turns back to me. “Here’s what I noticed. Every house the vampires have attacked has had three things in common. They were off by themselves, had more than two people in them, and they all had glass patio doors.”

I think over her words. “They are looking for certain houses.”

“Yes,” she replies.

“My mate says that she can do an extinguish spell easily,” Alarick informs us. “She can even make it last for days.”

“Perfect,” Michaela claps her hands together.

“You want to set up a trap?” Chayton asks.

“Oh yeah. All we need to do is find a house that fits their criteria. If we can bury our scents with the extinguish spell, then me, Alarick, Enzo, and Zyion, can lure a vampire to us. If I can get my hands on one of them long enough, I can figure out where they are, how many, and who is controlling them.”

Damn, my dick is hard as hell seeing my woman work her magic.

“We’re going to need more than just us four. We have to really entice them to attack. Make our house stand out more than any others.”

“I agree,” Chayton says. “I can…”

“No,” Alarick says.

“Not happening,” Zyion adds.

“Stay your ass home,” I join them.

Chayton laughs. “Well damn, it’s like you don’t even want your Alpha around.”

“We will always want you around,” I say to my best friend. “But this is why you have a Beta and other wolves in your pack. We cover you when we need to. Stay home with your new family. We got this.”

He looks around at us proudly before dipping his chin. “Then just tell me what you need?”

“I need to use your computer,” Michaela says. “It’s time I dust off these realtor skills and find a home near here that fits the criteria. I’m also going to need heavy chains, something that will hold a vampire down. Alarick, have Ashara soak them in winter thistle. It will make them unbreakable and hold him down.”

Zyion shakes his head. “You’re like a walking encyclopedia of information. I swear you’re making this shit up as you go.”

We all laugh at him.

“I’ll recruit Torak and about two other scouts to come with us,” I say.

“And Chayton,” she says, getting our attention. “I’m going to need to feed. I don’t have time to get to the blood bank or go to Lexington. Next time, I promise…”

He holds up a hand. “I trust you, Michaela. Go to Jonesville.”

She dips her chin. “Then let’s get this going.”