CHAPTER 2
963 Words
Nobody moved for three full seconds.
Then my mother set down her mug with a quiet click and said, "Stay here," and walked to the front of the house.
Priya looked at me. I looked at my plate. I took another bite of plantain because my hands needed something to do and because I refused to let her see me rattled.
"You know who that is," she said.
"I don't know anything yet."
"Zara..."
"Priya." I looked up at her. "Sit down or go upstairs. Pick one."
Her mouth opened. Closed. She went upstairs.
I heard my mother open the front door. Heard a voice, male, formal, the kind of voice that belonged to someone who'd been sent rather than someone who'd come of his own will. I couldn't make out words. I focused on breathing and on keeping my face ready for whatever walked through that door.
It wasn't Callum.
It was a man I recognized from my first life, one of Gregory Reeves' outer circle, young, broad-shouldered, with the careful blankness of someone trained to deliver messages without reacting to them. He stood in our hallway and looked at me the way people look at things they've been told are important.
"Miss Cole," he said. "The Alpha of Ironveil extends his greetings on your birthday. He requests the honor of a brief introduction at your convenience. His son will be attending the summer gathering and the Alpha thought..
"
"Tell him thank you," I said pleasantly. "I'll be out of the country."
My mother made a very small sound.
The man's expression didn't c***k. "Of course. He'll be sorry to hear it. Should I tell him when you expect to return?"
"I'm not sure yet." I smiled. "Long trip."
He nodded once, looked at my mother, and left.
The door closed.
My mother turned to look at me. "Out of the country."
"It bought us time."
"Zara." She came back to the kitchen and sat across from me and her voice was low and even in that way that meant she was being deliberate. "I need you to tell me what you know. Not hints. Not pieces. What you know."
"I know that man was sent here to get a look at me before I could prepare for it." I met her eyes. "I know that an Alpha doesn't send someone to a girl's birthday breakfast unless he's already decided she matters. And I know that whatever he's decided, nobody asked me."
She was very quiet.
"I need to go to Dad's today," I said. "Not next week. Today."
"I already called him. He's sending Dayo."
"When?"
She looked at the window. "He should be here in four hours."
Four hours. I thought about that car outside, about Gregory Reeves on the other end of whatever report that man would deliver. About Priya upstairs processing the same information I was and drawing her own conclusions.
Four hours was a long time.
"I need you to do something for me," I said.
"What?"
"If anyone from the Ironveil Pack contacts you after I leave..."
"I'll handle it." She reached across and covered my hand with hers. "I have been handling things longer than you've been alive, baby."
I looked at her hand over mine. The amber of her rings. The steadiness of her grip.
She was going to handle things alone, in this house, with Marcus and Priya and whatever Gregory Reeves decided to do next. She was going to do it without knowing why I'd run, without knowing what I knew, without the full picture.
In my first life, I hadn't understood that the danger wasn't just Callum. It wasn't just Priya. It was the whole structure they moved inside, Gregory's design, Marcus's cooperation, years of setup I'd walked through blind.
I looked at my mother and thought, not this time.
"There's something else," I said. "About Marcus."
Her hand stilled on mine.
"I think he knows more about what Priya does than he lets on." I kept my voice quiet. Even. "I think the way he protects her isn't just a father being blind. I think it's a father who knows exactly what his daughter is and has decided that's acceptable."
My mother's face did not move. But something behind her eyes shifted, slowly, like a key turning in a lock she hadn't opened in years.
"That's a serious thing," she said.
"I know."
"Do you have proof?"
"Not yet." I held her gaze. "But I'm going to."
She looked at me for a long moment. Long enough that I heard the clock on the wall, the hum of the fridge, the distant sound of Priya moving around upstairs.
Then she nodded once. Just once.
"Go pack," she said. "I'll keep my eyes open."
I was halfway up the stairs when my phone buzzed.
Unknown number. Local area code.
I stared at it. Let it ring. Let it go to voicemail.
Thirty seconds later, the voicemail notification appeared.
I played it with the volume low, pressed to my ear.
The voice was smooth. Older. Unhurried. The voice of a man who had never in his life needed to rush because things had always moved at his pace.
"Miss Cole. My name is Gregory Reeves. I apologize for the early hour. I simply wanted to wish you a happy birthday personally. I have a feeling we'll be speaking soon. Take care of yourself."
The message ended.
I stood on the stairs and looked at nothing and understood something I hadn't fully understood until this moment.
He'd already gotten my number. Before his man even knocked on our door.
Gregory Reeves hadn't sent someone to introduce himself this morning.
He'd sent someone to tell me he already knew exactly who I was.
- Writer
