City of Blood

29

Our vacation comes to an end much too soon. Ramsay and his mates stay until the end of our trip, and it's nice to be able to spend time with my brother like this. I hadn't realized how deeply I missed him until now, but I'm glad we've gotten to reconnect.

Callum is feeling better, thankfully. He seems to have been able to fully relax being away from home, but I don't know if he'll stay that way. Being in the city might change how he's feeling, which is starting to stress me out.

I'm going to have to face the Portlandia Pack at some point and it's terrifying to me because they will recognize me now that my scent is how it should've always been. Gods, this isn't going to end well. I'm scared that they'll be angry that I didn't immediately reveal who I am. I'm scared they'll take out their anger on Raina and her mate and son, and I'm just terrified of, well, everything.

What if they demand that I stay with the pack and decide to exile vampires from the pack and try to separate me from Callum? I can't let that happen, but the pack is huge and they'd easily overpower myself and Callum if we tried to fight.

"Lennox," Callum says loudly, making me snap to attention. "You keep zoning out."

"I'm tired."

"You slept for twelve hours."

I look over at him and sigh. "You look so hot when you drive."

"One: stop trying to compliment me in order to distract me. Two: complimenting me while I drive isn't getting you out of driving for the rest of your life. Three..." Callum trails off, looking me up and down with a way too lusty smirk for someone who won't let me suck him off while he drives. "I know I'm hot when I drive. Now, what's eating your brain and making you stare out the window like an idiot?"

"Ouch," I mumble. "You're so mean to me."

Callum scoffs. "I'm way too nice to you if me calling you an idiot for zoning out while I call your name for ten minutes is 'so mean.'"

"You didn't call my name for ten minutes," I grumble. "I know I can't get out of meeting the pack as... well, me, and I don't want to."

"We can run away to some other city. I hear Seattle is just as miserable as Portland this time of year."

I smirk. "We can spend all of our time in a luxury hotel room, then. Guarantee that bed will be more comfortable than the one at the beach."

Callum winces. "Yeah... it was definitely uncomfortable after a while," he agrees.

Honestly, it's probably our fault for how much we used the bed for things other than sleeping, but the mattress definitely got a little worn down. I think the owners of the house would much rather us use the bed to its full potential as opposed to doing what I wanted to do and having sex on every flat surface in the house.

"I know I need to face them," I say, and I'm sure Callum is going to get tired of me whining about this eventually, but he's head over heels in love with me so he can deal with it. "But I don't want to."

"They won't take out their anger on me, if that's what you're worried about. They'll probably be upset with Raina for hiding what she knows, but they're not irrational people. They'll probably be more grateful than anything that you're alive."

I groan and put my feet on the dashboard, making Callum roll his eyes. "I don't think I'd want to, like, live in the pack though. I know it's unfair because they never got to raise me as their son and will want to get to know me... but it feels uncomfortable. Like, I don't know near enough about my own species, but I doubt they'll all be accepting of me."

"You don't have to live with them," Callum says, reaching over and running his thumb over the back of my hand before he takes my hand in his. "They won't expect that of you. You're an adult, you get to make your own choices, but I think it's important you try to let them in. Helen knows them well and she says that there's not a day that goes by when she visits that they don't bring you up."