Chapter Ninety-Six

Havermouth, Present Time

She woke with Talen, as the grey light of dawn peeked through the window, her cheek and hand on his chest and her leg over his, as if holding him to the mattress. He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Sleep, Morgana,” he murmured. “There’s no reason you need to wake.”

“There is actually,” she sat up and slid from the bed as he did. “I have an errand to do this morning before the town wakes.”

He raised his eyebrows as he pulled up his jeans. “A pre-dawn errand?”

“Yeah,” she felt silly admitting it to him. “I am the Secret Keeper.”

He paused whilst buttoning his shirt and laughed. “Of course you are,” he reached out and ruffled her hair. “I should have made the connection. You would know all the town’s secrets. A dangerous game though, Morgana,” he observed. “One that will bring you many powerful enemies.”

“Yeah, that’s what the Triquetra said too,” she sighed, as she pulled on her dressing gown. “But this town has been festering in its little secrets, and I’m sick of their double standards, so, yeah, I’m shining a torch on them.”

“Where is your phone?”

“In the hallway. Are you going to give me your number?” She flirted.

“It’s already in there,” he replied, with a grin, and resumed dressing. “I put it in after I returned from Kabramatta. I will put in Tyler’s number,” he told her. “He is spending too much time watching bad TV at the moment, it would be good for him to get out of the house. If you need someone quickly, call him. He knows about you, and he will come.”

“I might just call him anyway out of curiosity,” she replied, following him out into hallway. He paused by the hall table, locating her phone, and entered Tyler’s number as she watched. “I want to know what your food looks like.”

He laughed under his breath. “He would enjoy that.” He replaced the phone and drew her up against him for a lingering kiss. “I will see you tonight.”

“I’ll be waiting, daddy,” she leaned against the doorframe and watched him get into his Ute and reverse down the driveway as the sky began to pink. A wolf padded out from around the corner of the house and shifted into Heath. “It is slightly disconcerting watching you do that,” she observed. “All the fur blurring and stretching into skin. Shouldn’t you be tucked up in bed, at home?”

“I would not be able to sleep,” he stepped up onto the porch. “This relationship with the vampire is very dangerous, Aislen.”

“Daddy would never hurt me,” she replied, touching her collar, She stepped back into the house. Heath followed, closing the door behind him. “Besides,” she said over her shoulder as she walked down to her childhood bedroom. “He says that I am his mate, and he wants to court me.”

“That is not possible. You are our mate,” Heath was startled.

She peeled off the crotchless lingerie and pulled on a pair of panties from her suitcase, before pulling on the costume vampiress dress. “Well, feel free to discuss that with him when he returns tonight. In the meantime, I need to hurry. Everyone gets up so fucking early in this town.”

“Aislen, please don’t do this,” he pleaded. “You are putting yourself in danger.”

“It’s okay, if I’m worried, Talen gave me Tyler’s phone number,” she told him cheerfully, as she pulled on her boots.

“Who is Tyler?”

“Talen’s blood slave. Talen says he’s spending too much time watching TV,” she replied. She couldn’t resist brushing her fingertips over his skin as she passed him in the narrow of the doorframe. “So, you don’t have to worry. And you don’t have to guard me overnight. I have Talen here to watch me.”

“Yes, I saw just how he watches you,” Heath replied sourly. “That display on the porch was for my benefit.”

“Well, if you’re going to sulk around my house, you have to expect to see some things that you don’t like,” she slung the bag over her shoulder. “Come on then, out you go.” She opened the front door. “I have to hurry.”

He paused on the doorstep looking down at her, the sun catching in the short golden strands of his hair. “I wanted to apologize,” he said softly.

“Apologize?” She raised her eyebrows in astonishment. “What about?”

“About what I said yesterday. I shouldn’t have said it.”

“You say a lot of things that you shouldn’t say,” she pointed out. “But what particular thing has you bothered?”

“About you being our punishment,” his expression was woebegone.

“Oh,” she was disarmed by how upset he was. “Don’t worry about it,” she pulled the door shut and locked it, turning her back and letting her hair cover her face to hide her feelings. “Of all the things you’ve said to me, Heath, that one wasn’t even that bad.”

“It’s not true,” he replied, as his hand stroked up her arm, his breath shifting the strands of her hair. “I don’t feel that way about you, Aislen. You are my mate. I have wanted you since the first moment I saw you, and loved you from the moment you cried in my arms outside the old people’s home. Everything else has been… stupidity. Jealousy of how you loved Rhett and not me. Desperation to prevent the pack from taking you from us. Stubborn alpha male pride that you would learn to obey me… And I’m sorry for all that too.”

She felt the tears well up. “Heath,” she whispered. “I…” She turned to face him, but he had shifted and slipped away. She sighed unsteadily. “Ah, fuck, Aislen,” she said under her breath. “What a mess.”

She crossed the gravel to her car and reversed out onto the street.

As she began her rounds of the main streets of the town, she saw the lights go on at the florist. She made her way in that direction as Lauren opened the doors and began to wheel out her displays.

“Why so fucking early every day?” Aislen asked her, pausing to give her a hand.

“Oh, this is nothing,” Lauren laughed. “First, I drive to the farmer who supplies me with most of my flowers, and then I come and open the shop whilst I wait for deliveries from the Rideten flower market. Then I prepare the orders for the day before my shop assistants arrive. I return home, take Jessica to school, and have a nap. After lunch, I come back and do any orders that came through in the morning, and then I pick up Jessica from school and bring her back here whilst I finish up for the day and close the shop.”

“Fuck me,” Aislen shook her head, wonderingly. “That would kill me.”

“Life as a working mother,” Lauren laughed. “What has the Secret Keeper got for us today?”

“Here,” Aislen handed her a sheet. “I’d best get going, you’re not the only early riser. Oh,” she paused. “By the way, do you know where I might find Leighton Richard?”

“Ah, Leighton’s an interesting man,” Lauren had a sparkle in her eye. “Take Main towards Rideten and turn left at the roundabout onto Charles. Follow Charles out of town, and then take the right towards Trayrock, but immediately take the next left. I can’t remember the street name, but he’s the only property there. You can’t miss it. He has kilns in his front yard and a big barn with his name painted on the side.”

“I’m told he’s cute,” Aislen interpreted the sparkle.

“He’s certainly not hard on the eye, and he’s a talented potter,” Lauren told her. “But I thought you and Rhett Salem…?”

“Ah,” Aislen chuckled. “Town gossip, hey?”

“Yeah, I might have heard about a certain kiss…” Lauren replied teasingly.

“Rhett and I go way back,” Aislen replied. “Shit,” she added, as a car pulled up at the curb. “I’d best skedaddle.”

She finished her distribution hastily and returned to her car. As she pulled up into her driveway, she frowned. The lights were on within the house, and she was certain she hadn’t left them that way, she thought. As she crossed the gravel, she saw that the front door was open.

“Fuck,” she paused, a fearful flutter in her stomach. There was something on the door, in red. She stooped and picked up a brick from the garden bed edging, though she wasn’t sure how effective a weapon it would be. “If anyone’s in there,” she called out, as she stepped onto the porch. “You’d better run for your fucking lives.”

Scrawled in red spray paint over the porch floorboards were the words TRIQUETRA’S WHORE, and the rocking chair had been thrown onto its side. The same was scrawled on the door, the paint still glistening and running wet like blood.

“Fuck,” Aislen swallowed hard.

It was written on the hallway walls, on the door to the master bedroom. The beautiful armoire doors were open and the toys from within scattered over the floor and bed. WHORE’S BED was sprayed on the wall over the bed.

“Now that’s just…” She stared at the mess in dismay. “Fucking hell. It’s low to fuck with someone’s sex toys.”

She continued down to her bedroom and found the contents of her suitcase tossed over the floor, the clothing ripped and torn. “Fuck,” she sighed. “Now I have nothing to wear.” The laundry hamper was untouched, so she carried that down the hallway with her towards the kitchen.

The rear door was open, but there was no damage to her laptop or her work on the table. “Interrupted you before you got this far,” she said aloud. “Had to run through the kitchen and out the back.”

They had probably doubled around the house and taken off down the street whilst she’d been making her way through the rooms.

She put the laundry into the washing machine and sighed. “Well, that really fucks up my morning.”