Page 20

Chapter

Twenty

“So,” I said as Mason drove me back home, “are you going to tell everyone I harbored a demon pup?”

He huffed. “No, but only because you really were just trying to get it home and you thought of an idea that didn’t require you to go through the portal to videotape it.” He growled, “Even though you did try to run through the portal.”

“Let’s pretend that didn’t happen,” I said and flinched. Now that the pup was safe, I realized it had been a stupid idea to consider, but also …

“I think you should tell everyone what happened, though.”

“So, now that we know there are humanoids, are you guys going to try to go in?” I asked.

“We’ll need to review the video and discuss it,” he answered.

Assuming they weren’t going to let me join in on that discussion, I asked, “Will you let me know what you decide?”

He frowned as he glanced at me before refocusing on the road again. “You don’t want to participate?”

“I figured you wouldn’t let me,” I admitted. “You’re the first one who’s spoken to me since …”

The silence was heavy as we drove through the gates and into our clan territory. He parked in the garage and turned to face me. “I’m still upset about it. I feel … different and I don’t know if it’s a good different or not yet. I’m less angry in general, but that’s not always a good thing, like when there’s a fight. You took it from us without allowing us to have a say and it could have killed you and you would have just made us all watch. We had to sit there, blocked from getting to you, and watch as you exploded and possibly died. You have no idea what it was like to?—”

“I watched my dad get killed, remember?” I whispered. “I do know. I also know from jumping in front of the spell meant for Mom.” Thinking about it in those terms, I set a hand on his forearm and said, “I’m sorry. I was doing it to protect you all, to take back what you weren’t supposed to have in the first place. You’re right that I didn’t take into account your feelings though, and all I can say is that I’m sorry.”

He opened his mouth, but my door was pulled open and a very angry Kayden stood there. “What did you do?”

I blinked at the hostility. “What?”

“There’s video of you sending a small hellhound through a portal. Please tell me it’s fake,” he said through gritted teeth.

Mason climbed out of the car and walked around to my side. “Let’s take a breath, go inside, and we’ll explain.”

“You were with her?” Kayden growled. “I should have known. You’ve always done whatever you could to keep her happy with you. The perfect lap dog.”

Mason growled and stepped into Kayden’s space, their faces inches apart. “That’s rich coming from you. You stalked her so much I was counting down the days until you found a way to sneak a camera into her dorm.”

“Fuck you. The only reason you weren’t stalking her was because you were a kicked dog snarling from afar at your master.”

“Because I didn’t do anything. You’re the one who fucked things up four years ago. Things were almost ruined because of you. Because you never think before you speak,” Mason spat. “And you’re about to do it again if you don’t shut the fuck up and let us explain things.”

“Boys, let’s calm down,” I said and stood out of the car, hands up placatingly. “We’re all friends here, remember?”

“Are we? Because it seems that you’ve been keeping secrets not just from your family, but us, too,” Kayden snapped.

“Everyone, inside!” Caleb roared from the house.

Flinching at the alpha order, we all speedwalked into the house, ducking our heads as we passed Dad and went into the living room.

“Start from the beginning,” Mom said in a calm tone as she and my fathers sat across from us.

“Wait for me,” Trey said as he stepped into the house and took a seat next to Tony on the smaller couch. “I’d like to hear this explanation as well.”

Taking a deep breath, I said, “It all started with the necklace.”

Three hours later, I lay on the couch, talked out, and listened as my family and the trio discussed next steps.

“First things first, let’s focus on the necklace,” Mason said and looked at it on my chest.

My hand immediately went up to wrap around it. “It’s a useful tool,” I commented. “It helps us find the portals.”

“Or, it’s drawing them to you,” Trey suggested.

“This was the first time we’ve had a portal open in our clan lands,” Caleb pointed out.

Kayden quickly said, “We aren’t saying you’re drawing them, but the necklace, Lily.”

My eyes narrowed because he’d known what I was thinking quickly.

“Try to take it off,” Mason said.

Exhaling harshly through my nose, I reached back towards the clasp, but as my fingers neared it, my hands shook so much that I had to lower them and put them in my lap. Shaking my head, I said, “I can’t.”

“Can we try to remove it?” Mason asked and turned to face me. “Please?”

A hiss escaped before I could stop it and I slapped my hands over my mouth.

“So, this is our fault,” Kayden whispered and his expression darkened. “We gave her that necklace knowing it came from a demon.”

“We didn’t know it came from the demon. We thought it had stolen it,” Trey reminded him.

“We still knew it was demon related.”

“That was kind of the point of the gift,” Mason added.

“Boys!” Mom shouted. “Worry about your gift giving priorities later. Let’s talk about this.”

“I don’t really want to fight her to try to remove it,” Tony said and rubbed his ribs absentmindedly. “Last time we fought she wasn’t even trying and bruised my ribs.”

“Wait for her to fall asleep and try to remove it then?” Kayden said.

“You would suggest that, stalker,” I hissed at him.

Everyone’s eyes widened.

“Maybe we should talk about the necklace later,” Tony said in a higher pitched voice than normal.

Scrubbing my face with my hands, I apologized, “Sorry.”

“Why does my daughter think you’re a stalker, Kayden?” Branson leaned forward on the couch menacingly.

“Can you pull up the video and screencast it to the TV?” Mason asked, distracting everyone.

Running upstairs, I grabbed my laptop, then ran back and hooked it up.

Everyone stared anxiously at the screen from when it started with him in the bag until the end when the humanoid had smashed the phone.

“Replay it at half speed,” Riddick said.

We watched it a dozen more times.

“Send it to us so we can use enhancement software,” Caleb ordered me.

“It’s in our shared cloud server,” I informed them.

They all looked over at me.

“You thought something was going to happen to you?” Mom guessed.

“Approaching demon portals is never safe,” I whispered and looked down at my lap.

“You weren’t scared of the demons,” Mom whispered. “You were worried about the audience, weren’t you?”

“That’s why I was glad it was in the warehouse area, but apparently someone still videoed us.” I sighed and leaned back on the couch, closing my eyes. “I try so hard to do things right, like I’m supposed to, but somehow they always get muddled up no matter how hard I try.”

Mason set a hand on my leg and squeezed. “It’s not the end of the world, Lily.”

“I have a potential solution,” Trey said.

“Let’s hear it,” Caleb replied.

I sat up and opened my eyes, eager to hear his suggestion.

“Everyone knows we’re on special assignment to hunt demons. Everyone also knows that we’ve been friends with and recently started courting Lily. We can explain that this was her working with us, conducting an experiment, and share a single, image from the video.” He held up his hand before anyone could comment. “Not an image of the humanoid or even the hounds, but one of the valley, minus the spire since that might incite panic. We already know the demons are coming from another place and this image will just give them that confirmation. Yes, it’s going to open up the floodgates for them to want to know what our next steps are, and honestly, I think we should call a Summit to discuss it with everyone to make a determination. I definitely don’t feel like my trio should make that decision.”

“It is a good solution,” Tony commented.

“Let’s hold an emergency meeting with my parents to get their approval first,” Caleb said. Looking at me, he said, “You’re coming, too, cub.”

“Okay,” I agreed, feeling microscopically small.

Looking down, I realized Mason still had his hand on my leg.

A small smile formed, but I quickly stuffed it away. Now was not the time to gloat that he cared still.

“Mom? We have a situation. Where are my dads?” Caleb asked with his phone up to his ear.

“We should bring in the former royals, too,” Mom suggested. “They’ve been dealing with the public and demon attacks longer than we’ve been alive.”

Caleb nodded and continued talking to Nana Jolie.

“Are you hungry?” Mason asked.

“I am,” I said. “I bet you are, too. I’ll make something for everyone.”

Standing, I hated the loss of his hand on my leg, his touch, but hurried to the kitchen to make something to eat.

Kayden followed me, but stayed a bit back, giving me some space. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” I said and turned my back on him.

“I also shouldn’t have ignored you the past couple of days.” He sighed loudly. “I keep ruining things and I don’t know how to stop. I’m just always worried about you, terrified that something bad is going to happen to you and I won’t be there to protect you.”

“You’ll never be around me all the time,” I said. “You have to learn to let me protect myself or accept that your brothers will keep me safe.”

When he realized what I was making, he started pulling the other items necessary out to help me finish it. It was a simple enough dish, cook meat, add veggies, add water, simmer for fifteen minutes, add spices and herbs for the sauce, and let it stand so the sauce thickens. I made rice while it simmered, so it was ready in time to eat.

It was a common dish for us growing up because it could easily be doubled or tripled and kept for a week in the fridge.

“Oh, chicken curry!” Triston exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen. “I haven’t had that in a while.”

“Food’s ready!” I called out and handed Triston a bowl. “Here, Tris.”

He pecked me on the cheek. “You’re the best daughter.”

“I’m your only daughter,” I said, but accepted the compliment all the same. I grabbed two bowls and filled them up for Mason and I. He’d started into the kitchen, but I held the bowl out for him. “Here. Thanks for helping me today and listening to me in the car.”

Mason took the bowl and kissed my cheek. “You’re welcome.”

Trey stopped next to me, leaned over, and whispered in my ear, “You didn’t text me about our next date, Princess.”

“I was giving you time to deal with the changes from the extraction and decide how you wanted to proceed,” I whispered back. “I was waiting for you to speak to me.”

Straightening, he scowled. “Really?”

Feeling embarrassed, I nodded and headed to the dining table to eat my food. I sat beside Mason and my eyes widened at his already empty bowl. “Hungry, little fella?”

He stood and nodded. “Headed for seconds.”

“Good thing I made a shifter sized batch,” I chuckled.

Trey and Kayden sat across from me. Mom and Caleb sat at the ends of the table and everyone else filed in.

“Thank you for cooking, Lily and Kayden,” Caleb said. “It’s been a few years since we had curry last.”

“I’ve been craving it,” Mom sand and took a huge bite, moaning as she ate it. “So good!”

“Once we’re done eating, we’re going to meet everyone at my parents’ house,” Caleb said. “So, eat your fill because we’re likely going to be there a while.”

“Do I really have to go?” I asked softly.

“Yes, because you’re the one with the demon handling experience,” Trey said before my parents could speak.

“What was it like?” Mom asked.

“He reminded me of Tony,” I said with a half-smile.

“How so?” Tony asked.

“He ate a butterfly after it landed on his nose, too.”

Everyone laughed while Tony sighed.

“They understand our speech,” I said. “I asked him to do a flip and he did one.”

Everyone stared in shock at me.

“He felt like a hybrid shifter in a sense,” I admitted. “Maybe he’s a hybrid demon or something? I don’t know, I just know that he wasn’t trying to harm me, was scared of those bigger hounds, and listened to me. So, maybe our initial assumptions of the demons are all wrong. Maybe they aren’t all evil, just like not all of us are good.”

Their continued silent stares made me shift uncomfortably in my seat.

“I think you could be right,” Mom said. “Though, we can’t know for sure without more investigation. I did hear a voice that I thought was a random animal in the barn the past couple of days and it wasn’t aggressive.” She shrugged. “I can’t know for sure if it was the pup, but the timing fits, so it could have been.” One of Mom’s powers was the ability to hear animal’s thoughts and communicate with them. Once she communicated with them, it made them smarter, though, so she didn’t do it often.

“I think it’s probably a good thing you didn’t let your mom talk to him. The last thing we need is smarter demons,” Trey said.

That was something we could all agree on.