The rest of dinner was spent in the same comfortable silence but after Damon cleared our dishes I took advantage of Mathias’ offer to give me answers. “Was there ever a time you wanted to be something different or did you always know you would be Alpha, Mathias?”
Mathias licked his bottom lip and swallowed, his Adams apple bobbed declaring his discomfort. Despite his reluctance, he settled forward placing his arms on the table and looked me in the eye. “I don’t want you to feel pressured, but I want to answer you honestly. So please don’t take this wrong.”
My stomach fluttered and a spike of nervousness shot through me.
“You know, I never expected to be Alpha. I knew if I ever had you back within my grasp, I would never let you go again. Not exactly Alpha material when my only thoughts have been of doing the one thing that would destroy everything my people hold dear.”
“Are you kidding me? Have you done the thing you feel so guilty for? I’m here now, not that you didn’t have every opportunity before. You could have come to me without telling me about the prophecy. I wouldn’t have denied you.” I swallowed past the feelings the naked longing in his eyes inspired in me and soldiered on. “You treat these people, your people with respect that takes my breath away. Even in the worst of times you make the effort to ensure everyone feels special, needed. And Elizabeth, bless her meddling heart, has been forcing me on your people all day and you know what I keep hearing?”
He shook his head, his expression one of tentative hope.
“They keep asking me when we’re…” the words I was about to speak tightened my chest, freezing them there. “When it’ll be our turn.” I motioned around us to the decorations and preparations for Ellie and David’s wedding. “They tell me there is no escaping it and not once has any of them sounded bitter. If anything they seem hopeful and I can see in their eyes, the thing they hold most dear, Mathias, is you! All they want is your happiness.”
Mathias reached across the table and clasped my hands in between his. “I don’t think it’s only my happiness they are concerned with. And Elizabeth, that clever devil. I’m pretty sure her goal was to get you to see that.” He nodded his chin towards me. “Whether you want to admit it or not, I think she was successful.”
Before I could respond I caught sight of Damon and the Johnson twins heading towards us. There was purpose in their stride but it was the look on all three men’s faces that had my skin prickling with alarm.
Mathias rose to join them, turned back to me and touched my cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
The exchange was very short. Maybe a word or two spoken before Mathias was joining me again, hand outstretched for me to take. I did and it warmed me in spite of the cold fingers of dread that wormed up my spine.
“What is it, Mathias?” I asked once we were outside the dining room. Though we weren’t alone. The Johnson’s presence was already something I’d grown accustomed to, shadows always at my back.
I’d expected Mathias to play down the danger, keep me in the dark as I’ve always been. But he wasn’t his father. “There were people, shifters here recently, in the house.” We stopped at my bedroom and he nodded toward the opened doorway. “I caught their scent in your room this morning when we were in your closet. It was barely fading and covered up, masked somehow.” He shook his head like he was trying to understand.
“You’ve been searching for them. That’s what the argument was between you and your father? You’ve found something?”
He nodded. “Kyle and Christopher will remain with you tonight. If you must have the door closed then for my peace of mind I asked that you don’t argue with me about them remaining inside your room.”
I opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off.
“You were their target, Casey.”
“Of course. I wasn’t going to argue with you, Mathias. I was only going ask that you be careful. I’m not the only means of bringing an end to this prophecy.”
Mathias grabbed me, pulling me into a hug infused with all the desperate hope and fear I was feeling myself. It was the physical version of the plea I’d just made. Be safe, please be safe, for me, it said. But it was also a promise. He would do all in his power to return to me and I to him.
Kyle and Christopher stood beside me on either side watching as Mathias disappeared down the hallway and around a corner. No one spoke, but I knew something had changed with the exchange. A mutual acquiescence to the role fate laid for us. Together, always. Mates.
YOU ARE READING
A Tail of Stars
FantasyThere is nothing average or ordinary about Casey Miller's life. She has no illusions about that. She's been having visions since she was six. At seventeen these waking dreams have become so intense and overpowering they have put her in danger, lu...
