Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
He lifted his chin. “Remember that phone. I am a spectacular wit when one is bored.”
There was that grateful smile again. “Okay.”
“Good.” Mr. Tom nodded. “Sweet dreams. Bedbugs biting and all that. Monsters under the bed. Don’t let limbs hang over the edges. Etcetera.”
“Riiight…” Master Jimmy drew out with a goofy smile.
The father was waiting on the couch in the living room, a magazine open on his lap, but he was clearly too tense to be reading it.
Mr. Tom didn’t bother to engage him as he reached the bottom of the stairs, something that clearly flustered the man. No comment came, though, as Mr. Tom headed for the door, feeling anticipation through many of the Ivy House bonds. The team must be getting ready to head to the shifter compound.
Mr. Tom wouldn’t be joining them, of course, even though he could arrive in time. He wouldn’t even be leaving the area and would merely hide the car and then return to sit on the ground below the boy’s window. The miss had convocation business to attend to. Mr. Tom would guard her child.
NINE
Jessie
Nervous tremors made me shiver as we headed to the meetup with the resident pack. Terrible fears plagued me. The battle at Kingsley’s was still so fresh. Our losses weighed too heavily on my mind for me to relax.
Austin drove the souped-up sports car I had gotten him before we headed to Kingsley’s. It was a flashy, fast thing that we’d gotten to impress my ex-in-laws. It would serve us much better in this situation. With a car like that, there would be no question that Austin had means and our convocation was successful. We just wouldn’t mention that the funds had come with my house.
Our team followed behind us, heading to what satellite imagery had revealed was a sort of office complex with a sprawling parking lot all around it. We’d gotten directions to assemble near one of the buildings, and while it hadn’t been specifically requested, Austin had told them how many people they should expect. He wanted to be open about the power we had at our disposal so they wouldn’t feel threatened in any way.
Based on the confrontation he’d had with the shifters earlier, Austin assumed this was all just a formality. That we might even be making a useful connection.
I was mentally preparing for war.
I couldn’t help myself—my mind automatically jumped to the worst-case scenario.
We slowed as we rolled down a dimly lit road on what was probably the very outskirts of the pack’s territory. Los Angeles had a bunch of little suburban neighborhoods scattered all around and often melting into each other. It was hard to tell where one ended and the next began.
Austin pulled into the parking lot of the meetup, an office complex, this building exactly the same as its neighbors except for the sign posted out front. No business names were posted next to the four suite letters. High bushes ran between the buildings, stopping at the edge of the parking lot. A few vehicles were parked away right and left, Dicks and Janes not all having left their place of work for the day, but there was not one car in front of the building in question.
We’d been told to take the parking spaces farthest from the building and walk toward Suite A. While the rest of the crew did use those spaces, Austin parked at an angle right in the middle.
He took his time adjusting his gold, gleaming cuff links with the diamond studs, another thing he’d brought to show off for my ex-in-laws. His tailored suit screamed rich while the cut and style softly purred posh. His watch was a gift from me, which I’d given him at the same time as the car on the perfect date I’d tried and mostly succeeded in taking him on. He looked every inch the part of a successful alpha, or so he said.
I wore a suit as well, something we’d had to go out to buy earlier. I’d brought clothes for a dinner party, not for a big boss meeting. My suit didn’t fit as well as a tailored suit would’ve, but the alterations Mr. Tom had made with a ten-dollar sewing kit would have to do.
“This is the part of shifter life you haven’t experienced yet,” Austin said, releasing his car door and waiting for it to swing upward at an angle. They were kind of annoying to get in and out of, but they looked very cool. “Glitz and glamour and swagger while subtly threatening to kill the other party if things go south.”
We’d had mage dinners like that, and the gargoyle dinners weren’t too different, but none of them had the subtlety shifters used with their body language. I’d be out of my league where communication was concerned.