Page 55 of Fangs for the Memories (Budapest Bites #1)

“ F ucking hell!” Lucy swears me into consciousness.

“What?” I sit bolt upright, one eye sticky with sleep. She’s staring at her phone.

“Your flipping werewolf mate just broke out.”

“Broke out?” My brain simply isn’t catching up with me. “Broke out of where?”

“The police station.”

Now all sleep leaves me, bile rising in my throat.

“That’s not good.”

“I’d say not.” Lucy swings her legs over the edge of the mattress on the floor. “I’m going to get Lydia involved.”

“Wait? Really?”

“We can’t have a wanted werewolf running around London, not with your name on his lips.” Lucy throws back her head. “I was so close to sorting this out too.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I drop my head into my hands.

“Hey…hey…” Lucy is beside me in a heartbeat. “None of this is your fault, okay?”

“It’s not Ferenc’s either.”

Lucy shrugs. “I guess not. He came for you, and he’s going to keep coming for you. We just need to make sure he and Mark don’t meet again.”

“And what are the chances of that happening?” I gaze at her. “London’s a big place.”

“If I know he’s out, so will Mark.”

“And so will the others,” a voice intones from outside the bedroom.

“Fuck!” Lucy is off the bed and has her hand in her wardrobe, reaching for something.

“Dominik? Is that you?” I call out. “What are you doing in Lucy’s flat?” I look over at her.

It appears she’s frozen.

“I’m here because that great lump of a mate of yours has done the opposite of what I told him to do, so we have to move to Plan B. And if you could be quick about it because these two wolves are not happy.”

I march over to the door, despite Lucy shaking her head at me, and open it.

Dominik, far larger than the life he doesn’t have, is standing in the hallway, holding Ferenc’s guards one under each arm.

“Let them go,” I command.

He heaves out a sigh and releases both, who go into attack mode.

“Stop,” I growl. “Wait.”

To my enduring surprise, they obey me, partially shifted, with fangs and claws outstretched. Both of them don’t take their eyes away from my face.

“It’s okay. He’s a…friend,” I say, far calmer than I feel. “You want some breakfast?”

I swear, if they’d shifted their tails, they would be wagging.

“Yes, mistress,” the slightly larger of the two, Lazlo, says. His friend, Sándor, who has yet to speak to me, also nods.

“You have the touch,” Dominik intones.

“Yeah? And you shouldn’t break into people’s homes. I thought vampires had to be invited?” I spit at him as I usher the huge werewolves down the hall and into Lucy’s kitchen.

“I was,” I hear him call out as I shut the door.

Whatever is going on, I need a distraction.

Which means I find myself, despite feeling like absolute crap, frying up bacon, sausages, and eggs for my two new friends who watch my every move, even while they both eat their way steadily through a packet of cereal, sloshing on the milk as the other pours it out.

I am going to owe Lucy big time once this is all over, and as my shop is trashed, not that it belongs to me anyway, I don’t know exactly how I’m going to repay her.

I let the tears trickle down my face with my back to the rest of the kitchen, attempting to concentrate on not wanting to throw up and not wanting to burn anything.

At least until I hear a whine behind me.

Both Lazlo and Sándor look like they’re under a significant strain.

“We are here to protect you,” Lazlo says. “But you are distressed and we cannot help.”

“I’m going to be absolutely fine.” I dash away the tears and flip out the cooked meat and eggs onto plates in front of the pair. “Absolutely fine.”

They both gaze at me with their big, dark werewolf eyes.

“Ferenc will be proud of you for being such good protectors,” I add.

“Yes, I will,” he growls from behind me. “Even if you have my mate cooking for you.”

“Ferenc!” I can’t see from the tears which course down my face. All I can make out is the huge black shape stood in Lucy’s kitchen and filling it up. “How did you find me?”

Strong arms are wrapped around my body, lifting me into the air as a pair of lips hits mine in a kiss which takes all of my breath all at once.

“How could I not find you, kedves? You are my fated one and I will always come for you.”

He smells of citrus and something else, something musty, but I don’t care because he’s here, in the flesh, and I am never, ever letting him go again.