Page 64 of Those That Defy the Realm

Thankfully, my father talked her round. And they are thrilled that the main reason I want to stay is to be with the two people I’m completely in love with.

I have no qualms admitting that to myself now, haven’t done so for weeks. In fact, I’m pretty sure my wolf decided with certainty they were it for me the first time all three of us were together. For it’s not just a flippant I’m in love with both Henry and Claire, it’s more that my soul could no longer function in this realm without them kind of love. I often catch myself calling them my mates in my own thoughts.

I have yet to trip up and say that out loud, but with each passing day it’s getting more challenging. I’m biding my time, however. Fully aware that even though both of them are now giving me signs that they are committed to this relationship, I don’t want to lay it all out there too fast and scare either of them off.

Claire especially.

She still seems to have moments where I can almost see her head telling her to act a certain way, or wish she could take back the sentence she’d just said. I hate that another person gave her this paranoia, this much self-doubt. I want to hunt this Declan down and introduce him to my jaws.

However, Henry and I are succeeding in undoing the damage that fuckwit left our girl with. Someday I hope to see it erased entirely.

“Hey, have you seen Ash?” Ty’s voice halts the murdery train of thought.

“Yeah, he’s under the desk.” Claire betrays the hiding spot I’ve taken to curling up in as she works. Today, she’s at the ranch to order the furniture for the main house. I’ve come to realise that if I’m in my wolf form, she doesn’t order me away as she works.

The first couple of times I tried to keep her company, I stayed in my human form but apparently, I talk too much and she can’t work.

In my wolf form, however, she allows me to stay as long as I keep quiet. It’s zero hardship to lounge around and pray for the odd belly or head scratch as she goes about her tasks.

Stretching before I stand, I pad out from my cubby under the desk and look up at Ty, cocking my head in question. If he doesn’t need me for anything important, I’m not shifting back.

“Sorry, I need you to come with me for a bit,” Ty says. “Your mother and Agent Morris are getting heated and I need some back up.”

Okay… this could be interesting to see.

Shifting, I quickly give Claire a kiss before following Ty out the door and upstairs to where their temporary office is still set up. “I didn’t think there were any meetings today, other than Henry going through one of his research projects with Mitch.”

“There wasn’t anything scheduled but I got a call from Theodora saying that Agent Morris’s team aren’t pushing hard enough, then Morris video calls me and I, probably naively, decided to put them on the same call. Rory and I have been sat there for the last hour whilst they battle it out.”

“What are they arguing over?” I ask as we reach the top of the stairs.

Ty sighs. “It seems your mother wants Agent Morris to put more resources into tracing the vampires we still haven’t been able to locate since the war finished. And not just those missing in action. She wants a full-scale genealogy analysis done to see whether there are any more vampires like Rory.”

“You mean those who had vampire parents and didn’t know it?”

“Sort of. Rory's parents didn’t even know they were vampires from what we can tell. Her grandparents on both sides must’ve placed their kids in care during the war and not disclosed their true natures. Or the orphanages that took them in decided to hide their identities when the war was lost so that the children weren’t put to death like the rest of the vampires that were caught.”

“How does this help with Froan getting legal propriety over its judicial system?” I ask, confused. The work was no doubt important, but surely the citizenship took priority.

“I don’t know, I was hoping you could make sense of it and help them come to a compromise.” Ty opens the door and immediately my ears get overwhelmed with the two females talking over one another. They’re not full-blown rowing, both too professional for a complete breakdown in communication, but it’s close.

Rory sits behind the screen that I can’t yet see, her eyes darting left, then right, and back again and an expression of deep concentration on her face. She’s fiddling with her bottom lip between her fingers as she clearly tries to follow the conversation which is taking place so fast it takes me a second to actually discern the words being said.

“We need to add to the numbers. It’ll carry more weight to get the legislation through,” my mother argues.

“I think you’re wrong. Keeping this within the Froan pack for now is the better course of action. Less chance of the press getting wind before we’re ready.”

Ty and I move around the desk and Rory gives a relieved looking smile to us as we join her. As there are only two chairs I go to stand behind them but Ty quickly picks up his mate and places her in his lap instead, leaving a chair free for me.

“Ash, thank the gods,” my mum spots me immediately. “Can you please fill in Agent Morris on the plan I suggested to you a couple of weeks ago. I assume her team has failed to communicate the work that you’ve been doing.”

Ah, shit. I immediately wish for the ground to swallow me, or for any excuse I could use to duck back out of the room.

“Mother, so glad to see you. I don’t know why we call when we could video⁠—”

“Ash, don’t change the subject.”

“I’m not,” I pout. “I’m simply starting the conversation with pleasantries, as you brought me up to do.” And also buying myself some time to remember the exact details of the discussion I had with my mother a week or so ago, the one where I got her to agree to me staying in Froan without any of our pack as support.