Chapter Fourteen

“Suga, I’m home,” Mira called as she made her way through the door.

“Which suga are you talking to?” Ven called back.

She laughed and moved in a smooth circle that caught her feet up as she headed for the floor. Tristan’s arms were the only thing holding her stable.

“Hi suga.” She swayed in his arms.

“You’re drunk.”

“Nuh huh. I’m tipsy, there’s a difference.”

“Did your tipsy self, drive home?”

“No,” she tried to stomp her foot it was an epic fail. Did Tristan realize the room was spinning? She placed her head on his chest and decided not to tell him. If the world was ending, she wanted to go out like this.

“Wanna hear a secret?” She giggled while she waited for his answer.

“Tell me.”

“Troy drove me home. He said tipsy was too far gone to drive.” She pursed her lips and managed to look up at him.

He waited, pulling her closer to him until she was ready to tell him her secret.

“You have too much patience,” she muttered. “I think Troy is an alien-like you. Not like you, but like an alien from a different planet.”

Now that her secret was out, she closed her eyes and allowed Tristan to support her whole body.

Troy was an alien, but he didn’t think this was the time to confirm her suspicions. He wrapped his arms around her picking her up bridal style.

“Did you have fun? How are Anna and Eve?”

“You should have come; we had excellent drinks and tasty food. Anna and Eve are doing good. I get positive feels from them, but I know it’s too soon. You mark my words those two are going to be the cutest couple.”

She put her hand in front of her mouth and yawned. “Where are you taking me?”

“To the bedroom. I also have a couple of bottles of water in there for you to drink.” The water wouldn’t sober her up, but it should help with dehydration when she woke.

He placed her in the bed before taking off her clothes and tucking the covers around her.

“I’m not sleepy,” she murmured before she was lost in the sound of snores.

It still amazed him that his little mate was a snorer.

He shut the door softly behind him and made his way to the living room.

“Is she alright?” Locke asked.

“Too much to drink, she’ll be fine.”

He took a seat in a comfortable armchair and looked around the room. All of Enigma One was there as well as Ven. Each one of them was invested in Mira’s life. Not because she was his mate because she had touched each one of them with her thoughtfulness.

It felt a little like the calm before the storm. Maybe it was more like when they hadn’t fought for a while, and tension was riding the air. If they were on the ship, dread would be pulling at them. Whatever the creators had in store for them wouldn’t be something they were going to walk away from unaffected.

“Can you feel it?” Ven asked.

Tristan nodded.

“Is it coming for Mira or for us?” Cade asked.

Ven shrugged his shoulders.

Mira had been with him and by default his brothers for the last three weeks. She hadn’t mentioned leaving, and he hadn’t brought it up. He also hadn’t brought up the topic of mating. His werewolf was growing impatient it wanted his mate. It thought the male was taking it to slow. Which meant he was keeping his teeth and his mouth to himself. He didn’t trust the primitive part of himself not to bite first and get scolded later.

“How have you managed not to bite her?” Key asked.

“With difficulty.”

“Do you think we will find females?” Key pondered out loud.

That was the question they were all asking. He didn’t have an answer for them.

*~*~*~*

Kill me now! She knew better than to drink. She was a lightweight. Alcohol attached to her bloodstream like it was blood and whisked its way merrily through her body singing drunken songs of exuberance. Then she woke up to find death watching her out of one bloodshot eye.

“You’re awake.”

She grabbed the pillow and buried her head under it. The male was a menace to society. No, he was her own personal demon sent from hell to torture her continuously.

“Shh, too loud,” she whispered. Was he laughing? That sounded like a laugh.

She took the pillow partially off her head and opened one eye cautiously to take in his laughing face. Fucker! She slammed the pillow back down on her head and groaned in remorse as bells and harps attacked her? That stuff sounded like harps playing inside her head.

She didn’t know how he was doing it, but she knew it was Tristan’s fault. If she thought over her life, she’d see that everything was his fault. Damn! Do all hangovers make you feel this way or was she special?

The pillow was pulled away from her head, then she felt a sweet kiss on her cheek.

“I have water and aspirin. According to the Internet, it will help.”

Aww, he’s so sweet. She let go of the demon thought as she took her time to sit up. It would be embarrassing if her equilibrium was still off. She took the meds and then leaned against him.

“This sucks.”

“What happened?”

She closed her eyes and then blinked a couple of times as she tried to remember what happened yesterday. God, she prayed it was yesterday.

“We went to this place it was a nice restaurant with a full-service bar. I got a coke until we were seated.” Anna and Eve were teasing her amid the hugs they were giving her. She’d been away too long, and they missed her.

“When the waiter came to take our orders the girls and Troy ordered a drink. I don’t drink often, but I thought why not? It’s a celebration. I was going to order a daiquiri, then they started to tease about the bartender watering it down for me.” She knew they were teasing, but it brought back memories of being in school where she was the one on the outside looking in.

“That song was on the radio, you know the catchy one about coke and patron. So, I ordered one of those.” Her friend’s faces were shocked. She whipped her phone out and took a pic of their faces.

“Mira we were just teasing,” Anna said. “You don’t want to drink that.”

“I really wanted to taste the drink. I hadn’t realized how little I actually drank. When the waiter brought it over, I decided better to just tip it and gulp. That’s what I did. It went down smooth, and there was little taste. The coke kind of overpowered it, so I ordered another, make it a double.”

Troy almost came out of his seat with that order. Those unnatural eyes of his were on display for about thirty seconds before he got his shit together. She had sat there and gloated. She was a bad mother…

“I gulped that one down too. There should be a class that says not to gulp alcohol. Treat it like a wayward child who will kick your ass when you’re not paying attention. After that we ordered food, but I needed something to drink with it.”

She turned to look at Tristan hoping he would understand. It made sense.

“So, I ordered another coke and patron. Troy ordered me a regular coke too. At the time, I thought I had to drink my last drink. Idiot. Anyway, I drank it and sipped at the regular coke. When I tried to get up, I fell. Troy wouldn’t let me drive. He drove around the city for a long time. I was in and out of it. I asked him why he wasn’t taking me home. Did you know that patron is tequila?”

“I knew love, did you?”

“It was just a catchy song.”

He gave a growl. She squeezed his hand.

“Why didn’t Troy bring you home immediately?”

“He said something about not wanting to fight the wolves. I didn’t tell him I swear.”

“I always suspected he knew. Are you ready for a shower?”

She nodded her head realizing she felt better. She felt like crap warmed over, but it was better than the dead crap feeling she had earlier.

“A shower sounds good.” Her head still hurt, but the shower was helping. Brushing her teeth helped more. She no longer tasted what she was going to call the aftermath of her destruction. Nor was she going to answer the burning question in her mind, did she throw up and then go to sleep with a nasty mouth. Some things shouldn’t have answers. She let the water run through her hair wishing she could clean her memories the same way.

“How are you?”

She was gingerly drying her hair as she stood in the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her breasts.

“Better, thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not laughing at me, well you know what I mean. Also, for not telling me what a fool I was or how low my tolerance is.” Or a hundred other things she could think of.

“Is it okay to tell you that you’re a cute drunk?”

“No.” Unfortunately, she couldn’t make the sudden smile on her face go away. “Go, I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

She was so happy she would hum, but her head.

Only Tristan was there when she walked in.

“I think the others got tired of waiting for us.”

“I don’t blame them. What are we having for breakfast?”

“Eggs or french toast?”

The thought of eggs running on her plate made her gag reflex engage. “French toast.”

“I’m on it. Did you learn anything last night?”

She went out to be with her friends, but part of her was listening to hear if there was word about Meghan. She was still missing.

“Mum’s the word on Meghan, but I did hear something strange.” She reviewed the emotions she picked up to analyze if what she remembered was true or some tequila induced daydream.

“There was a woman, she was the aunt of one of the girls. She says six of them went out and never were heard from again. She’s gone to the police as well as the news. The girls aren’t exactly model citizens, so the news didn’t pick it up. Her friends think her niece ran off with a new boyfriend or a pimp who would give her a bigger share of the pie. The aunt was scared, not just for her niece, but for herself.”

“Mira?” She was staring off into space. “What’s wrong?”

“You know the world is made up of more freaks than norms.”

“You’re not a freak.”

“Aww, thanks love. You have no idea how many times I’ve been called one or how many times I’ve been harassed for being different.” The aunt had met her eyes, in that moment, she detected something about her that was different.

“What if the missing girls are different, like me?” She paced the kitchen trying to make her alcohol-soaked memories make sense.

Tristan kept cooking giving her time to think.

“Meghan’s missing. We know she’s the daughter of someone prominent, but we don’t know who. Doesn’t that strike you as weird? No one is on television pleading. The cops haven’t come back, just nada. Like she fell off the face of the earth. Now we have six girls missing, and the cops are refusing to look for them. The news won’t pick the story up. Something smells bad, and it isn’t me; I showered.” She gave him a smile and sat when he placed a plate of french toast on the table.

“Do you think I’m crazy?”

“No, I’ve been troubled ever since we found Tina.”

She knew the feeling. The fact that Tina almost died said that there was a new player in town, and he wasn’t playing with a full deck.

Tristan picked her up and placed her on his lap. He began to feed her. Never in her life, had she ever met a male strong enough to pick her up and thick enough not to complain about her sitting on his lap.

The world was destroying itself while she enjoyed the eye of the storm.