Chasing The Night: Big Easy Shifters: Book Three, Knox, Abby [book series to read .TXT] 📗

A fresh wave of horror washed over Chastity. “That’s awful. You should return him to his pack.”

Pen simply shook her head and muttered, “Panthers. Of course, we had to get mixed up with such a high-minded species.”

“Excuse me, but where I’m from we honor our dead, even if they are despicable.” Chastity sniffed.

Pen laughed. “Okay. Gav, you got your hands full with this one. I’ll let you handle this. I gotta go find Bobby.”

Once Pen had left, Gavin checked her over while calling whoever this Lucy was.

This side of the phone conversation sounded like he was simply ordering a pizza.

“Lucy, it’s Gavin…we got a dead one…yeah, another blood purist…no, it was Bobby this time…no, we’ll talk to Bobby, and let’s leave Ash and Vann out of it…only Pen and I know about it…yep…full disappearing ritual…I know what it costs…I’ll pay double if you can leave the wedding and come now.”

At this moment, Chastity didn’t know how she could truly fit in with this pack. Sure, she had heard they’d changed the way they hunted for food to keep regular humans safer, but she didn’t think she could ever be on board with disappearing a body.

Gavin seemed to sense what Chastity was thinking and sat her down on his lap in one of the padded client chairs to explain things. “Bobby was defending us. Manny had been ready to kill one or both or all four of us in the name of shifter purity. We were keeping him close to keep an eye on him. There was exactly one way this day was going to end for him. Killing someone or someone killing him. He’s not the only one. There are others like him. If we don’t do a full disappearing spell, his pack mates are going to come looking for him and it’ll be a full-scale war.”

She nodded her head in understanding. “I guess it makes sense. It’s just a lot to absorb.”

When Lucy arrived, Chastity realized that the woman in the strange robes had been one of the officiants of the wedding.

“Boy, you guys really do keep your practitioners at your beck and call,” Chastity said.

Lucy drew herself up to her full height, which was still several inches shorter than Chastity. “Little girl, a high priestess is at nobody’s beck and call.”

The fierceness in the woman’s eyes was evident, even in this dark room. “I’m…I’m sorry. I’m getting a lot of new information tonight.”

“In addition to being held captive and witnessing a dude having his throat ripped out, she’s had a rough night.”

Lucy waved Gavin off. “It’s already forgiven. What choice do I have? This one is already head over heels in love with you. Pretty soon I’m going to be baptizing a tiny wolf/panther baby if my spidey sense is correct.”

Chastity gasped. “I’m not…no…how did you know…”

Lucy did not answer her question, only waved the both of them away so she could get on with the ritual disappearance that would clean the room of the aftermath, and scrub everyone’s memories of everything that happened that day.

Chapter Fifteen

Gavin

Who knows what Lionel said to his brother? Whatever it was, it worked.

Irene and Uncle Lionel had talked enough sense into Theodore that fences were mended in time for the wedding.

Theodore even offered to pay all expenses for the wedding and even a brand new gown for Chastity, but she insisted on wearing the purple dress from Ash and Rosemary’s wedding, preferring a small ceremony at the county courthouse.

With Bobby still in hiding, the two of them felt it was the right thing to do. Everyone had tried almost everything to get him out of hiding, but it seemed no one could talk any sense into him.

“I’m sorry the pack isn’t all here. I feel like some of this, what happened with Bobby, is partially my fault,” said Chastity. Waiting in line at the county clerk’s office, she seemed almost melancholy, although Gavin couldn’t imagine why.

“What are you talking about?” Gavin asked.

Chastity fiddled with the ruffles on her dress, eyes cast downward. Her mother clucking over the fact that her daughter had chosen to wear the bright, over-the-top bridesmaid dress from Rosemary’s wedding for a simple courthouse wedding with a handful of witnesses wasn’t helping Chastity’s confidence any.

“I just mean, maybe if I hadn’t chased you down, ran into Manny and gotten him all riled up, maybe things would have turned out differently,” she said.

“Look at me,” Gavin said, wanting so badly to cup her face but also not wanting to ruin her wedding-day makeup. Instead, he threaded their fingers together and kissed the tops of each of her knuckles, then said, “Manny was a danger either way. It was just a matter of time. The only tragedy in this is we’re cursed to live with the memory, even if he’s virtually forgotten by everyone else that wasn’t involved in the…incident. And it would have ended the same for him no matter what. Do you believe me?”

Chastity nodded. “I’m just sorry about Bobby.”

Gavin knew it would take way too long to explain everything that was wrong with Bobby and why he felt the need to isolate himself after the attack. But they had their whole lives ahead of them to acquaint each other with all the ways in which the curse affected their lives, even in childhood.

But there was always hope. “Remember, I chased you down, too. Bobby will get better. I have a feeling all of us will get better with time. Who knows, maybe our kids won’t even have the curse. Maybe all of these relationships between breeds that everyone is freaking out about is actually for the best. Maybe this is how we break the curse. Everything is going to work out exactly the way that it should, for the better of everyone.”

Chastity was so overcome, she no longer cared about her wedding makeup. She rose on her toes to deliver the sweetest of kisses to her groom, dropping her small