Page 14 of The Baby Hex (Mori’s Mementos #2)

Pierce

I waited until the living room fell quiet before I rounded the counter again for a better look at the broken window.

I’d already alerted Medwin over the flight link that we’d need back up.

I’d woken from my very short nap irritated to my bones.

Everything inside me said it was time to bare fangs and get to work but I’d put it off as irritation from Crilus ‘sneaking’ out of the bedroom. Only now, I knew I was wrong.

Glass shards covered most of the kitchen floor as one of the big bay windows had been shattered.

On the floor, amidst the demolition debris was a dead raven.

The bird was already stiff since rigor mortis had already set in.

The bird was long dead. Someone had most likely killed the bird just for the purpose of smashing it through the window.

No wonder Preston had been so mortified.

Glancing around the kitchen, I grabbed a dish towel and used it to cover the bird.

It deserved dignity in death as much as any other victim of a violent crime.

I climbed onto the sink and examined the edges of the window behind it.

No blood on the glass but on the ground were heavy boot prints that didn’t belong to me or one of the other Moonscale Guards.

That’s what had irritated me. Someone who shouldn’t have been there – someone who probably pressed their piggy nose right up on the window – was too close to my mate.

My instincts put it together before I ever had the chance.

Whoever they were had waited until Crilus had left the kitchen.

It was time to interrogate Preston to see what the snacking bear was really hiding but that could wait until Medwin was here.

I always liked to have another omega around if I had to interview an omega.

Add to it his being Crilus’s cousin and a kid of the leaders of another group and I figured all the extra ears on it would be for the best.

Whatever magic the suspect used to propel the raven through the window still sizzled in the air.

Part of me wanted to give chase and track him through the woods.

If a second guard were here, I would’ve but I wasn’t falling for that and leaving four omegas alone inside the cabin.

Not even if Creon now had my back up taser that could shoot electricity up to ten foot if the need arose.

I took out my phone and snapped some photos of the crime scene as the headlights of Medwin’s minivan pulled into the driveway of Moonglow Cabin.

Everyone teased him about that damn van, but it did the job of hauling him and his family around.

I snapped more photos from every angle I could think of because I was pretty sure now that Crilus was here, Medwin would try to put me on mating leave.

I appreciated the sentiment, but this was personal now.

Twice in one night someone decided to fuck with a building in which my mate stood.

That wasn’t going to fly. Not now. Not ever.

I went out the backdoor, wishing Crilus and I had already exchanged our claiming vows.

Then I could keep the omegas huddled in the living room in the loop, but he insisted that wasn’t going to be the nature of our relationship.

I’d wait until Earthside itself crumbled down upon its own atoms if that’s how long Crilus needed to trust me.

I wasn’t going anywhere but neither was the longing burning behind my fangs.

“The others are en route,” Medwin said, killing the engine and stepping out of the minivan.

I wasted no time filling Medwin in on the details. He nodded along, smoothing down his bed tussled dark hair. His eyes shifted to that of his dragon and raked across the cabin and its grounds. The damn place had become an epicenter of things going wrong.

“You’re considering taking them to your parents’ place out in the mountains, aren’t you?”

“Perhaps,” I said, not willing to commit to telling him a location.

When shit hit the fan and it involved your mate, you told no one your next move.

It was a lie of course. If whoever was after Preston was willing to follow him out here into the wilds, they’d probably be willing to follow him into another nature-filled location.

I wasn’t sure where our next move was but I’d figure it out soon.

Hell, maybe even going back to the Raven Hollow Wolves with Creon would be an option.

“Let me know when you’re leaving. I hate to do this because I actually think you’re one of the best guards we have and I know how you’d stay on top of this but until you claim him and get all the magic out of your systems, I have to put you on mating leave.”

I opened my mouth to protest. I was willing to wait forever for Crilus to realize that I was the same man he chose all those eons ago in the Other World, I wasn’t willing to sit on my hands and not work forever.

I’d write in with a letter of protest as soon as I had a spare moment.

The language Medwin used made it sound as if he’d force mates to exchange the claiming vows---

“You know damn well that’s not what I meant,” Medwin sighed, picking up my thoughts over the flight link.

“No one has to do anything, but instincts run wild during the true-mate response, and I don’t want you to fuck yourself over because of it.

” Three SUVs pulled up and Medwin dismissed me to go inside and wait with the omegas.

I was never good at being a civilian. Being a guard suited me. Sitting on my hands wasn’t something I could do. Only this time, Crilus was waiting on me inside.