Page 14 of Rejected Nanny Mate
My father was gone, but he’d made sure to taint the fragile new bond with my mate beyond repair before he went. I’d had to humiliate her to save her.
So, I rejected the woman that I'd cared so much for, and laughed when she told me she loved me, even though doing so made me feel sick. I played it cool, trying to act like I’d be okay keeping things casual, but that I had no interest in being with her romantically. It was the right thing at the moment. The only thing I could do was to preserve my legacy and leave Gwen's reputation intact. Then my father died.
By then, things had gone too far. Gwen hated me, and rightly so. I was a coward, and even though the threat was gone, the damage was done. She would never forgive me, and it was best that way. I put on a facade of being strong and stoic, but in the one moment where it had mattered most, I folded. The shame was painful.
Swallowing hard, I moved past Gwen to get something to drink, my arm brushing hers in the process. My wolf rumbled in my chest, and the sudden urge to wrap her in my arms, claim hermouth with mine, and drag her upstairs to bed hit me so hard and fast that it was a wonder I didn't just do it.
I wanted her, and my wolf knew she was ours.
But Gwen wasn't. Not anymore.
“Pancakes and eggs,” I repeated. “Sounds good.”
“And bacon.” She smiled brightly. “Rose has already had breakfast, and she's got a bottle ready for later. She's been changed and everything.”
“Thank you, Gwen.” I poured a glass of orange juice and downed it. “Really. Thank you. It's so great that you're here.”
When she looked up at me, her brown eyes liquid and the freckles on her nose standing out in the morning sun, I knew I had to work on my damned self-control. Gwen had me hanging by a thread. She said she wanted to keep things casual, so that's what we would do.
Even if it killed me.
***
Thankfully, I had an appointment that afternoon that would give me some much-needed space from Gwen. She'd had some offhanded comments about doing some shopping with the baby, and I'd let her know I'd be busy for the rest of the afternoon.
Living with her was so easy. It was hard to remember that the situation wasn't supposed to be permanent.
It was time for the bi-weekly Alpha meeting, and it was being held at Scott's second cafe, Howler's Coffee. We'd taken to meeting at my place for the past few meetings, but the last thing I wanted around Rose was a bunch of Alpha posturing andaggressiveness. We tended to be civil enough, but things could get out of hand in an instant.
I was the last one to arrive, which was a mistake. Scott and Samson were a lot less comfortable than I was with our temporary addition, Jayce of the Blacktide pack, and the tension was already thick around the table when I sat down.
“What'd I miss?” I asked.
“Absolutely nothing,” Samson rumbled. “But can we get started so we can be done already?”
Unfortunately for Samson, I was in no hurry to rush the meeting. I was desperate for time away from Gwen and all the crazy shit she was making me feel. “We'll be finished when we're finished, and not a minute before.” I crossed my arms and leaned back in the chair. “Now, what's the first order of business?”
Scott took over. “As you're well aware, we've all been discussing this over text for the past few weeks, but now it's time to lay it out and see if there's a pattern here.” He pushed a large tablet to the center of the table, and on the screen was a map of all of our pack territories, each assigned a different color. Throughout all of the territories, pins had been dropped. “These pins represent the places everyone has reported feeling the spikes of magic over the past few months. I've been keeping track, and while none of these spikes have felt dangerous, there are a lot more of them than I'm comfortable with. I want you three to look this over and add any spots that I missed.”
Jayce added a few markers when the tablet was passed to him, but Samson didn't have anything new to add. I took the device and dropped two more pins before pushing it back to the center of the table, where Scott took it and examined it carefully.
“I still don't see any sort of pattern,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “It's just random.
I had to agree with him, and it made me equally as uneasy. We'd started noticing the spikes a week or so after Scott's mate Nayeli had performed a cleansing on her old home. The place had been soaked with dark energy, and it had reached a dangerous point before Nayeli, a new magic user at the time, managed to dispel it. None of us had any idea if the spikes we were all seeing were related to that cleansing or just a strange coincidence.
Even weirder, there was nothing outwardly dangerous about the magic spikes. One of the witches in the packs would often sense them, but they'd have dissipated or weakened significantly before we arrived. There was no damage to the earth around the spikes, and no one reported any strange happenings. Just the random, powerful feeling of something different that disappeared just as fast as it appeared.
“I think we should bring the girls in on our next talk about this,” Scott decided. “This is beyond the scope of what we usually deal with. Kiera, Nayeli, and the other witches will probably have a better idea of what's going on.”
“Agreed,” Jayce said. “Nayeli has been working with a few of my pack witches, so they'll be happy to help, I'm sure.”
Samson didn't argue, but the look on his face told me he wasn't happy.
“You have a problem with that, Samson?” I asked.
“No,” he grumbled. “I just don't want them worrying about things unnecessarily. Nayeli's pregnant, and Kiera is still adjusting to being a Luna and the fact that Kit can shift now. This could be stressful, and it's not worth it.”
“I'll keep an eye on Nayeli,” Scott promised. “She's a lot more experienced now, and if I have any hesitation, I'll put a stop to it immediately. If anything is going on, they'll find out and let us know. That's all. Now, moving on to the next thing.” He looked at me and grinned. “This isn't news to Samson and me, but Joe is a new father. I believe congratulations are in order from all of us. How are you liking the parenthood life, man?”
