Mateless and Home Bound

Chapter 35: Prove It

"He said that he wasn't a criminal," he heard his dad say.

"Things are always difficult when it comes to vampires," Pop argued. "What's a crime to us, isn't to them."

"Do you really think they would let one of them be a cop if he committed any crimes, though?"

"He's a vampire," Pop let out a frustrated groan.

"Yes, but Max, not all vampires must be evil."

"What do you want me to do, Charlie?" Pop raised his voice. "Tell him that he can stay here? Trust in the very being that survives off the blood of humans?!"

"I don't know, Max," Dad said. It sounded like he was on the verge of tears. "I just don't know anymore."

Eric shouldn't be listening in on them, but he couldn't help it. He had been trying to figure out this whole issue ever since they all heard what had happened with him. Dad was really off that day, too. And Eric immediately felt guilty that he didn't go with him to drop off all that food. He could have solved this.

But then they wouldn't have known about the vampire.

"Apple," Pop lowered his voice and hugged him. "I'm sorry."

He still couldn't believe that it was a master vampire, at that. He didn't look like a master vampire. Don't they usually have long capes and walk around with it pulled over their face or something? He wanted to ask Reggie, but they were both busy on patrols at the moment. They had volunteered with a few of the other warriors to pull double shifts for the next month. As tedious as it seemed, it wasn't all that bad. And they really had to figure out where these hunters and vampires were coming from.

Even the Blood Moon pack went on high alert as soon as they got word of a vampire. Everyone takes those as seriously as the plague. Eric wished that he took the hunters just as seriously, but he guessed they couldn't get everything they wished for. He just hoped that no one got hurt through all of this. They had way too many close calls already.

"I'm just scared, Max," he heard Dad's voice again. "We haven't had something as dangerous as this in a long time."

He hadn't heard his dad talk like that in a long time. The last time he sounded so scared was when Eric was just a boy. And he didn't particularly like that memory. He couldn't save him back then like he wanted to, but he could now.

"It's okay, Apple," Pop shushed him. "No matter what, I'll be there for you."

He wasn't going to be the only one. Pop tried to be that person for everyone. He was the one who always tried to make others feel safe. He did a good job with it. Even now, the pack feels safe when they felt his presence. No matter what enemy there was, Pop was the strongest one to them.

But he knew Pop. Pop wasn't always strong. There were times when him and Dad were together that he'd look just as afraid as the rest of them. He always hid it around everyone else. But Eric always saw it on nights like these. It would be the one time they were too busy talking, that they wouldn't notice the prying eyes peeking through the door.

He moved away now, though. He didn't need to listen to the rest. All Pop was going to do was bring him to bed and comfort him until he fell asleep. When Eric was little, that would be the moment when he would pretend like he just popped up and he'd knock on the door to climb into bed with them. Dad always liked holding him when he was worried. Eric never really knew why, but he remembered it for times like these.

Now he was a bit too old for that. He found that it worked on Jane, though. He had finally convinced her to share a bed with him at least. He worried that she would think that he was just like those other alphas that she hated the memory of. Once she finally told him all the things they said, he wanted to hunt each and every one of them down and kill them. He hadn't felt that kind of hatred before. But they deserved it for causing his mate so much trauma.