Page 85 of Locke

“Elena!” I screamed, and covered my mouth. “How the hell?”

Had she been eating Abuela’s mushrooms? But, how would she know about the knot?

While I was worried for her health and sanity, I couldn’t understand how the fuck she would know.

“Emmie, I am fine! Just a headache, though. So are Luis and Abuela. We are all doing great. Better than ever.”

“Then, how did you know? About a knot? How—”

Elena laughed on the other line, hysterical. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve never been so happy for you. Have you bitten him, yet?”

Mary and Joseph.

I sank into the plush, oversized, padded rocking chair, feeling its comforting embrace. Through the window, my gaze fixed on the world outside. The ominous rumble of thunder reverberated in the air, as raindrops cascaded from the heavens. Each drop plummeted onto the broad, lustrous leaves, creating a mesmerizing display before falling off onto the next.

“Elena, what’s going on?” a growl left my throat.

Elena stopped laughing. “All the things Abuela told us as children are coming true, Emmie. We have soul mates. I’m just so happy for you. That you are letting this happen.”

I rubbed my forehead. “But you guys are still in Venezuela. Our family is apart and now that I am with Locke, I can’t leave.” I rubbed my chest, feeling a longing for something so unfamiliar. The friends I made here had become my family.

My only problem is that my blood was left behind. I had to get them here where it was safe.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get you all out of there. I’ll raise the money. I’ll work at the bar here in town. I’m not hunting or doing bounties.”

Elena was silent for a long moment. “Emmie, are you feeling guilty?”

I bit my lip. “Yes. And I think that was why I haven’t bitten Locke, yet, to complete the madness.”

“It’s so hot, you should have done it already,” Elena whispered.

“You act like you know everything that has happened to me!” I snapped. “Do you know about wolves, knots, biting, where have you—wait.” I stood from the rocking chair and paced the room, “Like you have been through it?”

My heart pounded in my chest. Locke has heard every conversation I’ve had with my family. He had my burner phone; he said Switch was great with computers; she knows everything that has happened to me.

He. Did. Not.

“Where the fuck are you?” I screamed into the phone.

Elena smacked her lips. “I can’t tell you that right now. You are in the middle of your mating thing, and you are in heat. Which - let me tell you—”

“Shut up! What the fuck! Where is Abuela? You two monsters have kept secrets from me!”

“Emmie, we had to. You were still coming to terms with Locke and—”

“Don’t Emmie me!” I shook my head. “You knew things were weird and said nothing!”

“Because I couldn’t!” Elena screamed back. “Locke wanted to keep it from you. He wanted to tell you himself. You wouldn’t have believed me. And, anyway…I needed my time, too.”

Her time? Hertime? What the hell? Does that mean she is someone’s soul mate, too? I wasn’t mad about that, on the contrary. I was happy she found love, but she kept it from me. They all did, and here I am feeling guilty as shit falling for a lycan.

Fury consumed me as I let out a feral growl, my face contorting in anger. With a forceful motion, I hurled the phone across the room, its trajectory slicing through the air with a whooshing sound. The device collided with the wall, shattering into a burst of splintering fragments.

All this time I was protecting my family, trying to get them here, and it sounded like she didn’t want to come back at all.

I let the blanket fall and pounded my fist into the sturdy coffee table. It was a hardwood, I don’t know what it was called, but I wanted to break it.

I continued to pound my fist into it. I felt my bones crack and my fingernails lengthen. I made one long scratch down the table as I growled into the room, and suddenly a warm, naked body surrounded me and pulled me away.

---