Melina

I was deliciously achy when we made it back to Trevor’s house the next day. Honestly, I hadn’t realized I could come that many times in one night. I’d lost count at fifteen. Whether Trevor’s vigor had been the result of residual sexual energy from the affinity test or me having admitted to loving him, I had no clue, but it was no exaggeration to say he’d been insatiable.

The first thing I heard when we walked in the door were Gryph’s angry shouts. Trevor had asked him to stay at his house to make it easier to act as my bodyguard if I needed to go into work at the last minute. I honestly hadn’t thought about Gryph being at the house when we’d asked Julia to stay the night to watch Mr. Whiskers, but it was probably a good idea, anyway. With Gryph here, no one was likely to go after Julia to hurt me or Trevor.

“Those two seem to hate each other,” Trevor remarked with a shake of his head.

I barely managed to hold back my snort of laughter. Trevor was still pretending not to notice the sexual tension between his sister and Gryph, which also seemed to be what Julia was doing. The situation with Gryph and Julia could create some complications if it moved beyond sexual attraction, but I didn’t see that happening. From what I’d gathered, Gryph hadn’t been looking for a mate before his accident, and that likely hadn’t changed.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Trevor asked.

“Maybe we should have suggested Julia take Mr. Whiskers to her place, or asked Allie to keep him overnight.”

Trevor shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Julia can handle herself.”

This time, I wasn’t able to hold back the laughter. “Really?”

Trevor had the sense to look sheepish. “I’m working on accepting that my sister is an adult.”

“What about your other sisters?” I asked.

“Let me get used to the oldest being an adult first,” he replied.

We were nearing the kitchen where Julia and Gryph were arguing, and they still hadn’t noticed we were home.

“If you weren’t such an overbearing ass, you might have a girlfriend!” Julia shouted.

“A girlfriend?” Gryph scoffed. “What the hell do you think I am? I’m not like those pussy warlocks who sniff around you, hoping you’ll notice them. I don’t have girlfriends. I have females to fuck or to mate. What the fuck am I talking about? There’s no mate in my future. What female wants a damaged wolf?”

There was a short silence before Julia spoke, and I half-expected her to get on Gryph’s case about his self-pity again. From what I could tell, Julia’s refusal to pity him was one of the biggest reasons Gryph was drawn to her.

Julia surprised me when she finally spoke. “I’m sorry, Gryphon. I don’t know much about werewolves, and I know nothing about how your relationships work. I never even considered that female werewolves might be stupid enough to react that way to your injury.”

“Don’t you dare pity me, Sass,” he growled at her before storming out of the room, and coming face to face with us. “I think I should get some air, Ms. Melina. When do you need to be at the studio tonight?”

“I’ll take her tonight, Gryph,” Trevor offered.

“What about the buzzard?” Gryph asked.

“He’s a condor,” I corrected. “We’ll take Mr. Whiskers with us. You deserve a night off.” I was still worried about my baby being at the studio with a killer on the loose, but I figured Trevor would take good care of him when I was busy.

Gryph snorted, and I could swear I heard him grumbling something about witches feeling sorry for him as he stormed out of the house.

“Ugh! I can’t believe I act like such a bitch with him!” Julia didn’t give us a chance to talk more about Gryph, which was probably a good thing since I didn’t think Julia or Trevor would like my opinion on what caused her to act that way with Gryph. “My phone started blowing up as soon as your affinity test was over. Seriously, people were sending me messages during the council meeting. I can’t believe no one got busted for that.”

I shrugged it off. No, I did not like the fact that my relationship with Trevor was big news among the witch community, but there was nothing I could do about it. In fact, I’d have to be an idiot not to have realized this was going to happen.

“Shit!” Trevor shouted.

I looked over, wondering if he was honestly shocked by all of this.

“Is your phone on?” he asked me.

“Of course, it is,” I told him, since I never turned my phone off. Grabbing it from my purse, I saw that my phone was in fact off, probably because the battery had died at some point. “How did I not notice my phone was dead?”

“You were a little distracted,” Trevor reminded me, but his voice didn’t have the sexy quality I’d expected. “I’m going to walk Julia out. Don’t look at your phone until I get back.”

“I’ll call you later, Mel,” Julia said, giving me a quick hug. She was as sweet as my sisters, which was both annoying and endearing. Seeing her act bitchy with Gryph made me like her more. I didn’t want to be the only bitchy one in the group all the time.

The first thing I did was plug my phone in. After Trevor’s reaction, I was picturing messages about the affinity test from everyone, maybe even pictures some brave witches had snapped that had gone viral. That I could deal with, even though I’d probably be annoyed.

I’d just turned on my phone when Trevor’s hand slammed down over the screen. “I thought I told you to wait until I got back.”

Trevor’s pissed off tone had me tempted to smack some sense into him. He had to know I didn’t take orders from anyone. At least, I didn’t take orders outside of the bedroom.

“Did I do or say something to make you think I was suddenly going to let you start controlling my life?” I asked.

Seeing his strained expression, I should have picked up on how serious this was, but I seemed stuck on the fact that he was ordering me around.

“Melina, please don’t look at your phone yet,” he implored, which is when I caught on that something was seriously wrong. “I need to call the police. Promise me you won’t look at your phone until I do that.”

My gut tightened as his words sank in. “Oh, Goddess,” I breathed out. “Something horrible has happened, hasn’t it?”

Trevor wrapped me in his arms, and I got the impression he was both offering and seeking comfort. “Yeah, honey, something really bad happened.”