Gypsy Rising

“You don’t get a vote,” I point out. “But I enjoy the mutt’s red, twitching ears right now, as he fights to keep his wits about him. Violet likes Talbot already, because Anna has a thing for him.”

Talbot grins, and Emit grinds his jaw, as his eyes cut toward us.

“Violet, Talbot’s getting coached by your rooftop stalkers across the way,” the fucking tail-wagger states like the tattling little bitch boy he is.

Her gaze immediately swings over to find ours, as she squints and holds her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun, and her eyes narrow, as she releases an audible breath of annoyance.

“Unbelievable. Five months and no one spares me a glance, and now everyone is stalking me right after I break up with them. I knew this would happen,” she mutters as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

“So then she admits she wanted this to happen,” Arion states with a growing grin. “Otherwise, why break up with us at all?”

“Don’t repeat that question aloud, Talbot. I don’t want to be standing next to him when he’s speaking on that level of stupid,” I state dryly.

“I don’t want to be associated with either of you,” Vance gripes. “I just started making progress. I’ll stab you for this shit, wolf. You’ve been warned.”

“Their lips haven’t stopped moving yet,” Violet says to Talbot. “I assume that means they’re being teenage boys right now.”

I hate the way the smug prick smiles, and Emit reaches down impatiently for her hand. “I want to show you your land,” he tells her, while the rest of us twiddle our thumbs and listen in.

“But that’s later, and I’m sort of here with someone,” she answers.

Emit doesn’t even blink in Talbot’s direction. “Your date left in a hurry to deal with a client.”

Violet doesn’t look terribly surprised, but the three of us certainly are. “Jerome never came out of that bathroom,” Arion states, as he purses his lips.

“Not unless he hopped a window,” Vance adds.

“I’m not sure why he’d hop a window or why Violet is bloody buying this story like the wolf is some innocent bloke who spews nothing but honesty,” Arion states as he turns and drops from the building, moving too fast for the human eye to spot.

I catch up to Arion, as we head into the café, where Talbot is already walking out of the men’s room, having beaten us there.

“He’s really gone, Alpha. No blood or signs of a struggle either,” he says to me and only me.

“You didn’t seal the deal yet. Stop calling me Alpha until you do,” I tell him, sniffing the air in search of the lost ex.

He catches up to me, and he hands a napkin to me. I glance down to find Violet’s scribbled invite. I now have an invitation to Sanctuary.

I suppose Talbot isn’t entirely inconvenient. I still don’t want him as a beta.

Emit drives away with Violet, and Arion is quick to tail them, racing behind the new SUV Emit has acquired these past few months.

“You’ll be my alpha soon enough,” Talbot says, even though he seems unusually quiet and far less cocky as he walks out.

“Why did it look like he was sulking?” I ask with a frown, as Talbot leaves without a backward glance.

“Where are you going?” Vance calls to my back.

“To figure out what Talbot Lane is up to,” I state very quietly.

Without another word, I drop down and disappear inside a reflective illusion.

I pause behind my SUV when I hear a muffled cry of some sort. Scratching my head, I pop the hatch, and a groan escapes me when it reveals a panicked, gagged, and hog-tied Jerome.

I’m not sure how this shit happens to me.

“Well…that’s not good,” the useless Van Helsing says from behind me.

Jerome struggles harder, panicking twice as much.

“Was it the mutt or the incubus who did this?” I ask the gagged wanker.

A muffled scream is all I receive in return.

“I’ll have Arion wipe this from his memories,” Vance states as he pulls out his phone.

I can smell Emit on him very distinctly now. Seriously? The wolf grew desperate enough to make this sort of reckless play?

“The wolf is apparently off his rocker and not holding back anymore,” I point out. “Which means…he’s clearly about to take her as a mate.”

There’s a pause of silence on the stunned Van Helsing’s face. I may say the words too casually, given the severity of this situation. Even the psychotic vampire is showing more restraint at this point than Emit.

“He hasn’t tried taking a mate since Idun. He probably can’t even do it anymore,” Vance argues.

“He locked her ex in my vehicle so he could bloody steal her away. He’s decidedly in mate mode,” I absently counter, gesturing at the unwanted captive I’m now stuck with.

Jerome’s eyes get wider as they flick between us, and we tilt our heads in unison, as he pointlessly struggles twice as hard to get away from us.

I shut the hatch and toss the Van Helsing my keys over my shoulder as I walk away.

“What the hell?” Vance snaps.

“Seems like something someone more responsible than me should handle. I have a possible beta who acts sincerely shady, so that’s what I’m going to handle right now.”