Unraveling Mathias, Marisa Maichel [online e reader txt] 📗

somewhere else in the present. He finally snapped out of it and shouted "Faolan!" Faolan glanced back at him, which was a mistake. Eric scratched his back and picked up a rock. Uncle Soren and Grandfather grabbed Father's arms.

Before Eric could hit him with the rock, Faolan bit Eric's ankle. Eric howled in pain and dropped the rock onto his own foot. Let me say right now, a big werewolf holding his throbbing foot and jumping up and down is hilarious. Faolan bit his other ankle right on the Achilles tendon, which sent the big wolf crashing to the ground.

"Do you submit?" Faolan asked in a deep voice. Eric nodded slowly. To be doubly sure, Faolan broke Eric's arm and bit the back of his neck.

Soon, they were both men again. Naked, bloodied, and bruised. I noticed that small twigs had become tangled in Faolan's long silver hair.

"Leave. Now," Faolan commanded. Eric ran toward the house, clutching his arm. And then something happened. All of the wolves, even the ones in wolf form, bowed to Faolan.

"I accept you as my Alpha," they said as one. Faolan nodded and looked proud.

"I accept you as my pack," he said.

"The binding is complete," Grandfather murmured.

"Binding?" I questioned.

"Yes, Reese," Mother said. "He and the pack are now bound to one another unless he steps down or someone else beats him in a challenge for the Alpha position. Or if someone leaves the pack."

Father was already by Faolan's side, holding him up and whispering in his ear.

"Ah, maybe we should give them some privacy," Grandfather said. "Come, children."

"I'm not your child," Alexander chorted.

"You still act like one sometimes," Grandfather told him.

"Both of you shut up," Uncle Soren said. "I'm not in the mood to listen to you bicker."

"Now you know how I feel when you bicker with Mordecai," Grandfather said. I glanced back at Father and Faolan. Faolan's lips were on Father's cheek. I turned around again to give them privacy.

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Zeke's coven was out a week later. They left a mess behind. Torn carpets, holes in walls, kitchen equipment either gone or destroyed. Nails everywhere, rooms torn up, furniture destroyed. Father was furious.

He hired some people to clean it up, and the bill wound up being over a thousand dollars. Not to mention the cost of new appliances and furniture. I worked extra hard on Saturday to help him out.

One day, on the next Saturday, I was sitting on the couch reading a Sookie Stackhouse novel when Shadowfang placed a dead rat in my lap. I squealed and jumped up. I despise rats. The cat looked offended.

"Bring it to Louis," I told him.

"Bring what to Louis?" Louis said. "Good boy, Shadow! Did you kill that yourself?" Shadowfang glared at him and then started washing his paws. Louis took the rat by the tail and threw it into the outside garbage. I shivered at the thought of having to touch it myself.

Faolan was enjoying his job as Alpha. He had the house fixed up, gave Sadie his cell phone number and let her go back to her family, and he offered a place for every wolf in the pack. Everyone enjoyed his rulership, especially the women. Not because of his good looks, but because of how well he treated them, especially compared to Eric.

When we introduced him to Sarah, he even kissed her knuckles and told her how pretty she is. She blushed at that, despite the fact that everyone tells her she's pretty. And for once, I wasn't jealous. If he and Father were going to be a couple, I would have to get used to his ways, however strange they were.

He and Father had known each other since the 1930s, and Faolan was already a werewolf. He'd been bitten by an infamous and now-dead wolf. Physically, he was in his early twenties. His real age was around one hundred years. He admitted that he hadn't matured much since then. Father interrupted him at that point and said that he had matured more than he realized. Faolan's cheeks turned pink and he buried his face in Father's shoulder. Father smiled and kissed the top of his head.

One night when it was just myself and Father, I asked him: "Are you bi, like me?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I don't really put a label on my sexuality. A lot of older vampires don't. Toby doesn't, and he's the youngest of our current guards."

"Toby's gay," I told him.

"Yes, but he won't say that. He'll just say 'I like men.'"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I told Sarah everything that had happened.

"Well, it's good that Eric and those crazy vampires are gone," she said. "I hope it makes your life and your family's lives easier."

"A little," I said. It was true, no one had heard from Eric since he left the pack the day after the fight. He had disappeared without a trace. As for Zeke's clan, no one had heard from them, either. No one had seen or heard from Ambrose for weeks. Mathias was still in the dungeon, being given bagged blood and occasionally questioned. He made Uncle Soren mad several times. Father had to hold him back from attacking my other uncle.

Nothing Mathias said made any sense. He would speak nonsense and tell what Uncle Soren assumed were lies. Once, I asked him how he knew for sure that Mathias was lying, and I got a look that would kill ghosts.

Speaking of ghosts, I hadn't heard from Michael Nales' ghost in a while, and I hoped he was gone for good. Hope was fruitless, though, as I spotted him several times, glaring at either me or Sarah who, thankfully, didn't seem to notice him. It was apparent that he was only appearing to me.

Finally, the last day of school approached. Sarah and I barely had time for each other, as we both worked extremely hard to keep our grades up. My grades were better than hers, and I suppose she felt like she had to keep up with me, which I tried to assure her that she didn't. Several times, Mother, Alexander, or Alicia found her slumped over her desk, a document open on her laptop or pen ink on her cheek.

She barely ate, as she was always nauseous afterward. But if she didn't eat, she threw up. Mother tried to help her find a balance.

One Saturday, Sarah was at my house, writing on the laptop that she kept here. I still didn't understand how she could have afforded it when she bought it, then I decided I really didn't want to know.

Currently, she was browsing YouTube, watching makeup tutorials for green-eyed brunettes. She wanted to do my makeup one of these days. I told her that the only makeup I ever wear is eyeliner if I'm going out to a band gig or if Ariella drags me to the local teen nightclub. She pouted for a while, then got over it. She also asked me if I wanted to do her makeup. I told her that I didn't want to hurt her.

She was planning to document her rape story. Right now, she was planning her makeup for the online world.

"I'm thinking gold eyeshadow," she said. "Gold eyeshadow, dark brown eyeliner, and black mascara. I'll keep the lips simple-just some nude lip liner and lip gloss. What should I wear?"

"Why don't you wear your zebra tank top?" I said. She actually thought about it.

"No, I want people to focus on my words, not my clothing. I'll put my hair up. Should I reveal my shoulders?"

"You do what you think is best."

She thought through some more. "I'm starting to get a headache."

I leaned forward and kissed her. We kissed for a while, then she had to break away for air. I silently cursed her need to breathe. We kissed some more, and I pinned her to the bed and growled possessively.

"Reese?" she said nervously.

"I need release," I breathed out. She wrapped her arms around me.

"I know, baby, but we can't. The baby...."

"I know, I know. I'll be right back."

Minutes later, I let out a roar. I put her underwear back in its secret compartment in my bathroom and walked back to my mate. My sweet, young, female mate. When I saw her again, I growled. I could smell her from across the room. She blushed and grinned abashedly. She'd been playing with herself. And now her legs were spread, spreading her scent.

I could feel my eyes darken and my pupils slit. She closed her legs and buried herself under the covers.

"Oh, no, you don't," I hissed. I grabbed her around the waist and turned her over. I took her jeans off, then mine. I fucked her from behind for at least an hour.

Finally, we had both had enough. She pulled her underwear back on and then fell asleep seconds later. I purred and lifted her shirt. I put an ear against her stomach. My future stepson kicked. She didn't wake up. I imagined her full of my own young and purred louder.

I wasn't tired yet, so I turned out the light for her and pulled out a book. I'd finished Moby Dick and was now reading a book that Sarah had recommended. She was trying out horror novels. It was odd: horror movies made her nauseous. She'd found one called Ouija Board and wanted to know what I thought about it.

I decided to sit by the pool and read. I put on my black trunks, grabbed a towel, and went downstairs to our massive indoor pool. I paused at a sight. A person was sitting at the bottom of the deep end. I took a closer look, and realized it was Dean.

No one had seen him or Peter in days. We all worried, but at the same time, we had been focused on other things. Peter was healed now, and Father was going to move him to the dungeon with Mathias.

Dean must have seen me, because he swam to the surface and climbed out.

"Prince Reese," he greeted, going outside. I sent Father a quick text to tell him what I'd seen.

Father: Don't worry about it. If it happens again, don't bother him. He's going through a lot right now.

I set the towel and the book on a chair, then jumped into the pool.

People and objects seem more beautiful when they are under water. Mysterious, haunting, gorgeous. Unless it's a book, because then the pages get ruined and you can't read them. As I swam, I thought about that and Sarah. I'd seen her swim before. She liked to swim, although she hadn't been able to swim like she wanted to lately.

She could only wade into the water at this point. She looked so beautiful, especially in that dark purple bikini that she wore on her birthday. A lot of eyes were on her that day. She had enjoyed it, which made me happy. She was healing.

Of course, she still had nightmares. But now, she admitted, some of them were tinted with good thoughts. For example, she'd recently dreamed that she and I were in Japan, wearing kimonos and drinking juice. She had confessed to me that she wanted to visit Tokyo on her honeymoon. If it was Tokyo she wanted, then she would see all of Japan. If she wanted to see Stonehenge, then she would see all of Britain. Though I would not let her go into the Suicide Forest or the Black Forest in Germany.

She was mine, and there were some things I simply would not allow, like putting herself in danger.

 

With that said, to say I was furious a few hours later would be an understatement.

"How could you let her do that?!" I screamed into the phone at Alexander.

"Quiet! I can't hear myself think!"

"You can't hear yourself think?! I can't hear myself think! I knew you didn't care about one way or the other, but letting her go find Glen...."

"Hey! I'm not her babysitter! She went to find him to tell him to leave her alone! And she didn't