Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“I wasn’t at home that long,” Xander says with a scowl.
“It’s been about two hours,” I reply softly. “And, no, it’s not your fault.”
Xander looks stricken. “I took a fifteen-minute shower, got dressed, and freshened my protection spells around the house. It was no more than an hour.”
Then he blinks and shakes his head.
“What is it?”
“I saw it in the mirror after my shower. I thought it lasted all of two minutes—if that.”
“It was holding you there while it fucked with Lorelei,” Giles guesses.
I look around my small living room. My mom and Aunt Hilda are here, along with my cousins, their men, and Xander.
I was relieved that I didn’t have to be alone when they all showed up, but it wasn’t until Xander arrived that my heart started to calm down. It’s like he’s a Xanax for my soul, and that’s incredibly irritating.
“Why didn’t you go to the hospital?” Xander asks, still kneeling next to me. I have a feeling that if I’d allow it, he’d scoop me up and set me on his lap.
“Because I’m fine. I have some bumps and bruises, and I’m pissed off, but I don’t need a hospital. Jonas is our healer, and I know Lucy will have something, too. There’s no need to be dramatic.”
“Right, a psychotic being is fucking with you, runs you off the road, and there’s no need to be dramatic,” Xander says, nodding.
Xander is never sarcastic. It’s just not in his nature.
“Okay,” Mom says, jumping in. “I think everyone needs to take a deep breath. Lorelei, Jonas will take a good look at you, and if he thinks you need a hospital, you’ll go, and that’s all there is to it.”
“She’s okay,” Jonas says, smiling at me. “Time will heal her, along with some witch hazel and arnica.”
“See?” I point to Jonas triumphantly. “I’m just fine. You can all go home.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Xander replies, shaking his head. “Not a chance.”
“I don’t need to be babysat—”
“Do you think I’d leave?” he demands, fire flashing in his black eyes. “That I’d just walk out that door, knowing you’re hurting?”
“That’s what you do!” I explode as pure fury rolls through me. “You fucking leave me when I need you the most! So don’t sit there and act like you want to stay and protect me now that the stakes are high because it wasn’t that long ago that I begged you not to go, and you just sauntered right out anyway. And the stakes were much higher than this time, and you know it.”
Xander and I are panting heavily, glaring at each other, and the room is deadly quiet.
“What happened?” Jonas asks gently. It immediately brings tears to my eyes, but I don’t look away from Xander. He’s not angry now, he’s sad and grieving, and I want to both slap him and wrap him up in my arms.
“Tell them,” he says. “You need to.”
I shake my head and cover my face with my hands. I don’t want to speak of it; because if I do, it’ll be true, and the utter grief will just tear me apart all over again.
But after everything we’ve been through as a family, and all we still have to endure, they deserve to know what kind of a broken woman I am.
“Baby, please talk to us.” My mom strokes her hand down my hair soothingly, and I want to sob.
So, I do.
Mom gathers me close, and I cry into her shoulder, letting out a lot of the grief I thought I’d processed over the past two years while I was away.
Someone covers me with a blanket. Someone else wipes my face with a cool, wet washcloth.
Finally, after the crying jag, I blow my nose and sit up, looking around the room.
Xander has walked over to stare out my windows at the water, his hands shoved into his pockets, looking so tall and strong…and so weary.
Everyone else just watches and waits.
Breena’s already dabbing at her tears. She’s such a gifted empath that when someone feels big emotions around her, she feels them, too.
Goddess, I love her.
I love them all, even the one who caused this.
“A few years ago, maybe three months before I left for California, I was pregnant.”
Breena gasps, and my mom takes my hand.
“Xander and I decided to wait until we got through the first trimester to tell everyone, just in case. You know, how some people do. I know my mom lost a baby before me, and I just wanted to make sure everything was on track before we announced it to the family.”
Xander’s back twitches in agitation.
“I had a bad dream. We were a few days away from telling all of you and planned to announce it at the Yule party the aunts always throw for the family. I even made fun T-shirts for them. We were really excited. But I had a bad dream, and it just stuck with me.”