“Chris vouched for the coven and has known about us for years,” Petre explained.
Cool.
I went to the first lady in line and studied her. “So you’re cool with us being vampires and shifters?”
“Yes, of course,” she lied through her teeth. I didn’t need the skills I knew others had, but Cerdic busted her, snorting.
“Ah, lass, no point in lying when we know you’re full of shite,” he filled her in.
She sighed. “Fine, of course I’m freaked out. Vampires and shifters are real. I’m going to need more than a few hours for that, and to see how you really treat people. But, you’re the only chance my kids might have at a future, and this place is about to implode. Donny has a lot of followers, and he’s not the only fucked up faction here. Chris did all he could, but his group can’t be everywhere always.”
Everyone watched with bated breath as to how I would handle it. I glanced and saw two teenage boys standing with her, giving me leery looks like they were worried I was going to hurt their mom.
Instead, I smiled. “It took me more than a few hours to accept it as well, and I turned out to be one.” I stepped back and gestured towards the buses. “Thanks for being honest. You can have guest privileges with my coven while we see if this will work out. Just know if you can’t accept it, we’ll ask you to leave.”
She blinked at me for a moment. “That’s more than fair, thank you.”
“If anyone’s ever not fair with you, I want to know about it. I don’t allow that shit in my coven and everyone knows it. One of my husbands will be checking in often, and I promise you that they take it seriously too.”
“We’re sort of programmed to be the police of the coven for our leader,” Cerdic admitted. “We can sense misdeeds and more from humans.”
“Why would you need to sense that?” one of her sons asked.
Oh shit.
Cerdic knew how to handle it though. “Because it helps us know who to punish too. The only time I don’t feed from a shifter who offers, I drink from bad humans. The last several were murders and rapists who were terrorizing a settlement. I felt the evil, got confirmation they were truly bad, and took care of them. The settlement might not have known it was me, but they were grateful those guys were gone.”
The kid looked over his shoulder and then back at Cerdic. “Too bad you weren’t here to handle some of the assholes who harassed Mom at times. Call it religion all you want, but it’s just harassment to me.”
“On that we agree, lad. Anyone harasses your mum, and you come see me. I’ll handle it, you have my word.”
“Cool.”
I smiled at Cerdic as they headed off to the bus.
He did a double take when he caught me. “What?”
“Nothing, just… It seems like forever ago we were at that place, and that’s how you met me. That guy was such an asshole.”
“Yeah, but you showed him, and that place was much better off for it,” he praised, leaning in and giving me a quick kiss. “And so will this place. It’s what you do, Inez.”
“Help settlements?”
He shook his head. “No, you make things better, my love. That’s all you do is make things better for everyone you can.”
Well dayumn, talk about a compliment to make a woman swoon. It was the bandage I needed right then too, to help push me down the path we were on as things had gotten so messed up lately.
We ended up having a dozen buses packed with people who were willing to try and accept us, and some were actually completely fine and didn’t care at all. It gave me hope tomorrow could be better.
For a lot of us.
The End
THANK YOU for reading this book!!
Thank you so much for coming on Inez’s journey with me. I woves all of you lots for your continued support and wanting more of my books. I’m sorry for the long delay between books this time and I’m hoping there will be a announcements of more releases soon. If you want more of Inez, please leave a review. It really helps me out to know which series people are looking for more from and it’s encouraging to get back to series when people are excited for more. I appreciate the time it takes and hopefully you guys love Inez as much as I loved writing about her!!
Erin
Find A New Series To Love…
Accidentally Wolf: Seraphine Thomas 1
Gives New Meaning To Workplace Injury
Special Agent in Charge, Seraphine Thomas, lives for her job at the FBI. One of the youngest female agents with her own team, she thrives in undercover work to make the city she loves safer. But Sera’s on-track life is thrown into chaos when she’s attacked during a bust gone bad and is left figuring out what it means to be a werewolf.
Right away, she learns that she’s more powerful and able to do things that she shouldn’t be able to do so quickly after her transition. The rules of her old life don’t seem to apply to much now that she’s a shifter, and knowing who she can trust is even more complicated.
When she’s transferred to a special branch of the FBI made up of paranormals policing others of their kind and given a promotion, things start looking up—until her abnormal level of power creates a list of enemies for her before she’s even learned who her allies are.
Upended Life: Artemis University 1
My name is Tamsin Vale and my life is about to get real… Really complicated and ridiculously dangerous. Which is
