Free Web NovelChapter 136: Cat Out of the Bag
I quickly held up a hand to stop Gus from talking, taking a quick look at my phone screen― it was Damon. Could the timing get any worse?
I picked up, making sure to not mention any names. A werewolf like Gus would be able to eavesdrop on me at such a close distance even if I were to keep my voice low. Hopefully, Damon would not let any sensitive information out from his end.
"What is it?" I asked, trying to whisper into the phone.
"Go back to Fangborne now, or I’ll send you back," Damon demanded without preamble. I could hear the roar of the car engine from the other end of the call; Damon must have been thoroughly abusing the accelerator. freewebnøvel.com
"Good morning to you too," I said, raising an eyebrow at the brusqueness of his words. "Are you calling while driving? Is this even safe?"
The call did not allow me to see his face, yet I could sense him rolling his eyes at my words.
"I’m a skilled driver. Worry more about yourself. Get out of Everhaven and return to Fangborne by nightfall!"
"What on earth are you saying all of a sudden? Didn’t you say you’ll take days? We agreed I’d wait for you!" Worry began to well up within me as my mind immediately thought about a variety of different scenarios that would warrant this level of urgency from Damon.
Did Damon receive any new updates that I was not privy to from Nicole?
No, Nicole wouldn’t do that to me. And I didn’t feel any sudden pain, so Blaise must have been at least well enough.
Was Fangborne in some sort of trouble? Possibly.
But in that case, why send me back? Even as Damon’s mate, I was a mere human, a relative stranger to Fangborne’s workings. I could not do anything to help.
"There’s been a change in plans. There are vampires in Everhaven," Damon said.
He said so little, but they immediately sent me into a frenzied panic. My heart leaped to my throat and I raised my head to look around me, half-expecting Petral or Ariana to pop their sorry heads out from the crumbling walls of this town. I had wrongly assumed that I would be safe enough in a human town, and so I didn’t bring my staff. Now, I was paying the price for my lapse in judgment.
However, the people walking on the street seemed normal enough. I saw some of them yawning behind their hands as they made their way to work, while others chattered among themselves over their food.
Next to me, Gus’s mouth had fallen open in shock, and his eyes nervously darted around our surrounding area. Just as I predicted, he was perfectly able to eavesdrop on my conversations. Hopefully, Gus would not know what Damon sounded like and he might just think that I was simply talking to a regular werewolf from Fangborne. I did not want to waste time explaining my circumstances to Gus.
Not to mention if there were vampires in Everhaven, was I supposed to leave Doctor Thomas to die? He did raise Blaise after all. It would be highly ungrateful of me to leave him at the tender mercies of a bloodsucker.
"How did you know?" I asked. "Aren’t you on the road already? Wait― did you meet any of them? Are you hurt?" I didn’t feel any pain from my end of the bond, but that could also mean that Damon simply fought all of them without breaking a sweat.
With the added distance and the fact that we had not shared a bed since we looked for Blaise together, I might not have felt anything stronger than mild tiredness.
"I smelt traces of them on the road when I rolled down the windows for air," Damon replied, and I relaxed incrementally. At least he wasn’t ambushed. "If they are lingering in the surrounding areas, then Everhaven is no longer a safe place for you. Get out of there now. I’ll deliver the parts."
"There’s no guarantee they’ll be here, and what’s more, they don’t know I’m here either. In their eyes, I’m just a regular human being," I said.
I didn’t want to leave Everhaven so quickly― I was this close to getting more information about my mother! If I had to reach Fangborne by sundown, I wouldn’t have time to go to the house Gus had mentioned earlier.
"I’m not taking any chances. Harper, go back to Fangborne before I order my wolves to drag you back," Damon threatened. "You are my future Luna; I cannot condone you taking such an unnecessary risk."
I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh as Gus’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. Well. That was it. The cat was let out of the bag. If Gus couldn’t put the puzzle pieces together after Damon’s words, he would have to be dumber than a sack of bricks.
"Alright, alright," I promised reluctantly, knowing full well that Damon was entirely capable of walking the talk. "I’ll go back before sundown."
"Good," Damon said, and then he hung up.
Gus stared at me, his mouth still open with shock.
"Keep staring and you’ll catch flies," I grumbled. "I can just hear those thoughts rattling in your head. Out with it."
Gus ran his fingers through his hair as he blinked slowly. "Let me get this straight. So... when Doctor Thomas said you had a boyfriend, that boyfriend was Alpha Damon, the ruthless leader of Fangborne? You are Alpha Damon’s mate?"
"Yes, you can say that," I nodded.
"Holy shit," Gus’s already pale face whitened even further. Now, he was practically a piece of plain paper shaking in the wind, his pupils wide and panicked.
"I can’t believe this. You were a slave, but now you’re his mate. I was hitting on Fangborne’s future Luna. I invited you to take a ride with me in my car. Oh god. I’ve done it now. I’ve practically signed my own death warrant!"
