Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“As it should be, baby.” He leaned down and claimed my mouth in a deep kiss. “Wait here. I’m going to go down and help Kace and Zeke with cleaning up.”
“Holy crap!” I pressed my hand against my chest, my heart beating so hard it felt as though it would burst through my rib cage after he walked out of the room. I was pretty sure the clean up the guys would be doing involved some dead bodies. A month ago—heck, even a few days ago—I would’ve been horrified. But when you were surrounded by men who shifted into ferocious beasts and bad guys came to town to hurt you—or worse—a little bit of mayhem and death didn’t bother you so much. At least one of them was the sheriff and the other was the mayor. Nobody would come after Tane for the events of tonight.
10
Calliope
Even though I was on an adrenaline high unlike any I’d ever felt before, I didn’t move until Tane came back. Considering odds were darn close to one hundred percent that he’d just killed someone to keep me safe—and made sure I couldn’t see anything before, during, or after—I figured it was the least I could do. He wasn’t gone long, maybe fifteen minutes, but he headed straight for the bathroom to wash his face and hands—probably because cleaning up dead bodies was messy—before joining me on the bed. “I’m glad that’s over with.”
“There’s still one last thing to take care of,” Tane corrected, handing me his cell phone with a number I didn’t recognize pulled up. “When we called Link to let him know things were handled, he let me know that your parents want to talk to you. I was right about their phones, but Link was going to give them a burner so you could call.”
“Okay.” I climbed on his lap, wrapping his arms around me because I wanted him close for this, and hit the button to place the call.
It rang twice before my dad answered, “Calliope? Hold on a second so I can put this on speaker. Your mom wants to talk to you, too.”
There was a brief pause, and then my mom asked, “Are you okay?”
My eyes filled with tears at hearing their voices. I had to clear my throat before I could answer. “Yes, there was a little bit of an issue tonight, but Tane kept me safe.”
“And he’s the young man Larissa’s father told us about? The one you’re dating?” my mom asked.
I pressed my lips together to stifle my snort at her description of my mate. “Yes, Mom. I tried calling to tell you guys about Tane, but you didn’t answer any of my calls.”
“Yes, well, all things considered, we thought it was best not to draw any unnecessary attention to you since we thought you’d be safe at college,” my dad explained.
Since I’d put them on speaker right away, Tane was the one who replied, “Hello, Mr. Taft. This is Tane. Going forward, if anything comes up that might impact Calliope, I’m going to need you to call me. Link will make sure you have my number and email when you get your phones back.”
“Look, Tane. We appreciate what you’ve done for our daughter, but your relationship is new and—”
Tane cut my dad off. “This isn’t up for debate. She’s my responsibility now, and I can’t keep her safe—emotionally and physically—unless I know what’s going on.”
“I get that things have been intense this week, and you were a huge help in resolving our issue, but that doesn’t mean you get to take over our daughter’s life,” my mom argued.
“Very soon, your daughter is going to be my wife”—my eyes widened since he hadn’t proposed, although we were fated mates so it shouldn’t be a surprise—“so you need to get used to me being around because I’m not going anywhere.”
“Not without a prenup,” my dad muttered.
“And that’s the end of this call. I love you guys, but Tane is right. He’s going to be my husband, and nothing you say is going to change that. After everything that just happened, you should be thanking him instead of giving him a hard time. So after you’ve gotten your phones back from Link and you’re ready to do that, give me a call.” I stabbed my finger against the screen and tossed the phone to the side.
Tane brushed his lips over mine. “I’m sorry that didn’t go how you hoped.”
At some point, we’d explain shifters and fated mates to my parents, and they’d understand why things moved so quickly for Tane and me. Until then, they’d just have to deal. “Meh, today could’ve gone a whole lot worse, so I’m not going to complain too much. They’ll pull their heads out of their butts and get over it eventually. And if not, it’s not as though they’ve ever been super involved in my life anyway.”