Page 12 of Twist of Fated Mates
Blinking blearily,naked as the day I was born, I mumble, “What are you doing here?”
Our tiny shack is packed to the gills with, well, my pack. At least half our security team must be present: shifted wolves pawing the floorboards, others in their human form staring wide-eyed, and possibly worst of all… my mother, narrowing her gaze.
Judging by the amused expression in her eyes, she’s realized what’s going on and is content to watch as the others figure it out in their own good time.
“You’re okay, Charlie. We’ve got you,” says Oaks, my mother’s second and the wolf who just dragged me out of the best sleep of my life.
“Nothing was wrong in the first place.” I search for Nigel and, to my dismay, find him in the arms of Hardy and Slater, our pack’s head enforcers. Wisely, he doesn’t struggle. “Let him go, guys.”
“He’s a vampire,” says Hardy.
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “I’m aware.”
“What’s going on here?” asks Slater.
“It’s exactly what it looks like.” I wriggle out of Oaks’s grasp (okay, heletsme wriggle out of his grasp because let’s be real, he’s a lot stronger than me) and grab a sheet off the bed for Nigel. “Shall I go into explicit detail?”
My mother’s laughter is enough for the pair to let Nigel go.
“Thanks,” he mutters, wrapping the sheet around his waist.
I place myself between my mate and my pack. “I’m aware no one expected to find me with a vampire, but I assure you, I’m in no danger.”
“That may be so, Little One.” My mother always employs this particular nickname at the worst of times. “But when you never came home last night, we worried. It appears we have much to discuss.”
I’m not above giving my mother my sad puppy dog eyes to get out of this. “Any chance we could do that privately?Afterwe’re dressed?”
“And when the sun’s gone down,” Nigel whispers to me.
“And when the sun’s gone down,” I add. Wow. That’s something new we’ll have to think about, isn’t it?
With a tilt of her head toward the door, Mother dismisses the others, and they file out. “Get dressed. We talk now.” She turns her back but doesn’t leave. That’s all the privacy we’ll be getting.
We shuffle into our clothes, checking in with each other through soft eye contact and tentative smiles. Well, a tentative smile from Nigel. I’m pretty sure I’m grinning from ear to ear. My mate! I’ve found my intended! Sure, my mother’s miffed, and my pack will never let me live down this embarrassing wake-up call, but Nigel and I are together, and that’s all that matters.
I press a quick kiss to his temple and whisper in his ear, “Don’t worry. Everything will be all right. I promise.”
He returns the kiss, lips landing softly on my crown, but still manages to look nervous as a grade school student about to give a book report on a book he didn’t actually read.
“Okay, Mum, we’re decent,” I say. She turns, scanning us both with eyes that miss nothing. “On a scale of swiped-my-finger-through-the-icing-of-sissy’s-birthday-cake-before-she-could-eat-any to snuck-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-get-wine-drunk-and-pick-up-boys, how much trouble am I in, exactly?”
“Brave of you to remind me of past misdeeds at the moment, Little One.” She takes the seat behind the table Nigel occupied the night before. “Sit.”
We sit smack next to each other on the bed in perfect unison.
Her stern expression turns warm as she shifts her gaze to him. “So, you must be Nigel.”
Wait, how does she know that?
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, voice shaky.
“Call me Marina.”
“Yes, Marina.”
Oh, right. I should have probably handled the introductions. Oops.
“I’ve heard a thing or two about you, young man,” she says, not unfriendly.
