Escaping Monsters - Rita Stradling Page 0,67
all of him and all of you too, Declan,” I said. “You guys are the ones who told me I was all of your mates.”
“That may be true…” Declan held up his hands. “However, it doesn’t mean that I won’t take you on a date that makes you forget that Lucas ever got there first… or that he took you out at all.”
I sighed and patted Declan’s cheek. “I don’t want to miss Lucas, so I’m going to head out to the living room.”
My heart did a little flip as I found Lucas already standing by the kitchen island. He was facing the burbling coffeemaker, and the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the air.
He looked back over his shoulder at me and shot me a smile. “You’re up early.”
“I wanted to catch you before you were off to work.” Butterflies took flight in my stomach as I leaned into the counter next to him, and he pivoted to hand me a cup of coffee. Our fingers just barely brushed as I took the mug from him, and even that light touch had my heart skipping. My crush on the reserved older veterinarian was growing every day, so much so, I was starting to feel a little embarrassed about it.
“I seem to remember that we were going on a date tonight, and I need to confess that I haven’t been able to get a dress yet.”
Lucas’ smile faded. “About that…”
Seeing his expression, my butterflies died a quick and swift death. I nodded.
“I really want to take you out on a date, Teagan, but not if it risks your safety,” Lucas said the words gently, but firmly.
“Yeah, of course.” Tears formed in my eyes, and I blinked them away rapidly. It felt so ridiculous to feel upset about Lucas canceling our date with everything that was going on, but I hadn’t let myself get excited about anything for so long, and I really wanted to spend an evening with the veterinarian. I tried to laugh. “I was being silly.”
“Hey.” Lucas set down his coffee mug and reached for my hand. When I wrapped my fingers around his, he squeezed gently. “There’s good news though. Jasper dropped by early this morning, and he says he has an update for all of us. All he would tell me is that Oliver Hunt is alive and in Grayhaven, but he might be less of a problem for us.”
“Jasper is coming back this morning to update us?” I asked because Jasper had pretty much vanished off the planet. The only trace of him I saw was the money that kept appearing in my bag.
A scraping sounded at the door downstairs, and there was a quiet thud before Jasper walked out of the stairwell completely naked.
I had already seen Jasper’s body in the darkness of the forest and up close when we slept together, but seeing every inch of him in all his scarred and beautiful glory was something else entirely. Jasper’s blue eyes met mine, and he looked me over quickly before pacing into his room and emerging a minute later with a pair of jeans. Chad and Declan were close behind him as if called.
“Where’s Ace?” Declan asked as he glanced around.
“He should be here at any moment. I couldn’t give him a ride home, so he spent the night at the bar with a stack of books doing some research.” Jasper crossed the room and leaned into the counter beside me. His hands wrapped around my mug, and he raised it to his lips and took a sip before setting it down.
“Everything okay?” he asked me. When I nodded, he looked between the members of his pack before focusing back on me. “Oliver Hunt was just imprisoned by the demons, and they’re deciding on what they are going to do with him. Even though I informed the demons that Oliver had a track record of violence toward women, they still allowed him to pay for the room by feeding their succubuses in private. The demon I talked to wouldn’t tell me what Oliver did to the succubus, but from their reaction, it was extremely violent. They’ve taken him into their compound off the fairgrounds and say that we likely won’t see Oliver Hunt again.” Jasper sighed. “I’m not convinced, but they haven’t moved him in six hours. We’ll monitor the compound in rotating shifts until the demons confirm that Oliver is dead.”
Lucas and Declan seemed to know exactly what to do, because