Return to Kadenburg (19 page)

“You’re welcome,” Presley offered him a small smile as
she returned to the fridge, rummaging through it for the fourth time that day.
She’d been eating a lot, which was a good thing. He wasn’t an expert on the
topic, but he knew that eating and providing nutrients for the infant growing
within was a good call on her behalf. Presley would make a great mother.

Speaking of mothers, Mrs. Bamey had been watching him
like a hawk all morning and afternoon. It seemed like he couldn’t even excuse
himself to go to the restroom without her hovering nearby. He appreciated the
thought, and he really did like the idea of Liam’s mother being so protective
of him….but there was still something that didn’t add up.

She hadn’t spoken of Rutley. Not once did his name
leave her lips as she prepared breakfast. Not once did she ask if he’d heard
from him yet as she folded the laundry of twenty something ursithropes. Not
once did she recommend calling the hunter as she fixed the beds and swept the
floors. For a woman who could easily continue her daily routines during a
stressful time, she sure did have a way with forgetting about an important
person.

That’s probably what caused Dimitri to do what he did
as he sipped at his tea. Mrs. Bamey entered the kitchen with a bowl of peeled
potatoes between her hands, and he didn’t give her the chance to pretend he
wasn’t there.

“Mrs. Bamey, where’s Rutley?” He asked.

The older female sighed, her shoulders slumping
slightly as she shook her head.

“I told you, dear. We haven’t seen him in days. He
left on the night you got hurt and he hasn’t been back. I’m certain it has
something to do with his father.”

Dimitri frowned, his eyes moving to Presley briefly
before he focused his attention on Mrs. Bamey’s back again.

“Did he say anything?” He questioned, tapping his
fingertips against the rim of his cup.

“No….I don’t remember much from that night,” Mrs. Bamey
glanced at him over her shoulder. “It was a very overwhelming night for all of
us, Dimitri. I’m sure that he had a good reason.”

Before he had the chance to ask anything else, she was
gone from the kitchen again. He pursed his lips together, frowning.

“You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?” Presley
asked after a few moments.

Dimitri lifted his eyes to meet her emerald gaze. He
nodded.

“I’ve not heard anything,” She frowned. “But if you
want….maybe I can ask Lorcan.”

He tilted his head to the side, studying her. She
seemed to be genuine in her statement, and he figured it was his best shot in
solving the mystery.

“You would do that for me?” He asked.

“Well you did save my life,” The blond female smiled
again, shrugging her shoulders as she gripped her own cup of tea between both
hands. “I owe you.”

Twenty
Two

S
he’d made a promise and she intended to keep
it. Things had calmed down in Kadenburg for the time being, but there was no
guarantee of how long it would last. Presley knew that Breslin would be back,
and they had to prepare as much as possible for his return.

Lorcan was right when he said she was different from
other ursithropes. She was able to detect everyone’s emotions. She could feel
what they felt, and that wasn’t always a pleasant thing. Her uncle was still
avoiding her aunt like the plague, and they both put off feelings that made
Presley depressed or angry. She didn’t like feeling either of those when right
now was supposed to be the happiest time of her life.

Well, as happy as it could be given that a crazed
werewolf wanted to breed with her to create monster hybrids and then kill her
off once he’d done so.

So twisted,
she thought with a roll of her
eyes. She had other things to think about anyway. She promised Dimitri she
would try to get some information out of Lorcan about Rutley’s sudden absence,
and she knew that it would potentially involve probing his mind; even if he
didn’t want her to.

She had noticed the tension between the Bameys as
well. Mrs. Bamey had thrust herself into housework and Mr. Bamey wasn’t being
very social anymore. Well, not that he was very social to begin with, but he
was being especially quiet these days. Lorcan, on the other hand, had become
surprisingly more involved with welcoming the ursithropes back to Kadenburg and
helping them get settled in.

She didn’t really mind that Uncle Arnold was allowing a
few families to stay at their place, but she did miss home. Everyone kept
telling her it was safer for her to stay with Lorcan-and truth be told she
couldn’t imagine being away from him for very long-but she did miss her bedroom
and the hot water heater that never ran out when she took showers. Ugh. What
she would give for an hour long bath!

Rubbing her hand against her stomach, Presley made her
way outside to search for Lorcan. She knew he was nearby; she could feel him.
He was completely focused on whatever he was doing, and that could’ve ranged
from working on his car to teaching the younger ursithropes the best way to
kill a werewolf.

There were several small cubs in the area now, and they
only made her that much more excited about welcoming her own into the world.
Lorcan
still
didn’t know about the baby…..

Soon
, she reminded herself.
I’ll tell him
very soon and then we can celebrate.

It was hard to think about doing such a simple,
Urseth-given right when they were trying to prepare for battle. She’d met so
many new ursithropes from all over the world. When Mrs. Bamey said she’d sent
out the call, she wasn’t kidding. They were literally from everywhere; Russia,
Canada, Alaska, China, Wyoming, India, Asia, the Andes, and many more places
that she couldn’t even pronounce.

Some were nicer than others, but it worked the same way
with humans, didn’t it? They couldn’t all be pleasant to be around, but at
least they had a mutual interest. Werewolves were the enemy and Breslin Connor
was number one on their list. Apparently, no one was fond of the idea of
Breslin taking over Kadenburg. It didn’t matter if half of them had never left
their home countries before now; they all had great respect for Kadenburg and
regarded it as sacred ground. No one would take away what was rightfully
Ursithrope territory.

Presley did take comfort in it. She was glad their
numbers had grown so significantly in such little time, yet she was still
bothered by the small stuff and she had a great desire to fix what she could on
her own.

Being an empathetic ursithrope meant that she could
sense his sadness whether he wanted her to or not. He missed the hunter. She
missed him, too, actually. Rutley was always a nice guy to her during their
school days, and he provided comedic relief at the most opportune times.
Whatever had happened on the night Dimitri got shot….everyone needed to get
over it, and fast. She didn’t like feeling the wolf’s anguish on top of
everything else.

She found herself in the garage before long, and all
she could see protruding from beneath the midnight blue Chevelle was Lorcan’s
legs. She could hear metal clinking against metal and he grunted. He was lost
in concentration.

She cleared her throat.

With one good push, Lorcan zoomed out from beneath his
car, lifting his eyes to meet hers with a smile.

“Hey, Darlin’,” He said as he sat up quickly, wiping
his oily hands off on an old rag. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I noticed,” She laughed gently, hugging her arms
around herself as she stepped closer. The smell of gasoline and grease hit her
nostrils, causing her to make a small face as she glanced around. “Are you
very busy right now?”

“I’m never ‘very busy’ when it comes to you,” Lorcan
stated, pushing himself up from the ground. He towered over her, giving
another small smile as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with one of his
forearms. “Is everything okay?”

“Kind of,” She replied honestly, tilting her head back
slightly so she could peer at him. “I was hoping we could talk about
something.”

Lorcan quirked a brow, and even though he was covered in
grease and sweat, he was still the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen in her
life. Her heart fluttered and her pulse quickened as he rested his hands
against her shoulders.

“I don’t like the way you said that,” He admitted in a
softer voice. “Is it something bad?”

Presley lifted her small hands to rest against his rock
hard chest, taking delight in feeling the muscles twitch beneath his t-shirt.
She shook her head slowly.

“It’s not
that
bad,” She promised. “I mean….I
suppose it depends on how you look at it.”

“Uh oh.”

“No uh oh,” She laughed. “I just needed to find
something out for a friend. Is that so terrible?”

Lorcan’s hands traced down her arms before he gripped
her hips, pulling her against himself as his head dipped down for a kiss. He
pulled away after a moment, studying her.

“It depends on the friend and what you need to find
out.”

“Well…..”

“You can talk to me, Pretz. I’ll do my best.”

“Okay, fine,” She sighed, wondering why on earth it
felt so
wrong
to invade his mind for the information she wanted. She
thought it would be easy, but her inner bear disagreed with her antics; that
stubborn beast. “I want to know what happened on the night Rutley left.”

“Rutley?” Lorcan’s eyebrows shot upwards on his
forehead as he stared at her. “Since when do you care about things like that?”

She huffed, immediately tugging her lower lip between
her teeth.

“Since Dimitri’s feelings started soaking into my body
like water in a sponge,” She frowned. “I feel
everything
from
everyone. If I could just figure out how to make him semi-content, it would
take a great deal of weight off my shoulders.”

She gave her very best pouty face, batting her lashes
as Lorcan’s jawline tensed and relaxed. She could get through to him-she just
knew it.

“I’m not really supposed to talk about it….” Lorcan started
hesitantly.

“
Pleaaaaase?
”

He sighed.

She smiled.

Gotcha,
she thought with a sense of pride.

“All I really know is that my mom walked in on Dimitri
and Rutley in a questionable position,” He finally said. He kept his voice
low, as if he were afraid of someone else hearing. Truth be told; anyone
could’ve been listening in. Freaking ursithropes and their super bear hearing.

“Oh?” Presley’s eyes widened as she stared up at him in
disbelief. Rutley and Dimitri in a questionable position…..it could’ve meant a
number of things, really. Mrs. Bamey was just as old fashioned as anyone else
in Kadenburg. For all she knew, the woman could’ve walked in on them holding
hands or hugging. Still, Presley knew that Liam had only been gone for a
little over a month and she could understand why Mrs. Bamey would be upset
about it.

“They weren’t doing anything
bad
,” Lorcan added
rather quickly. “I mean…she didn’t tell me what they were doing exactly, but I
know it wasn’t
that
,” He put emphasis on the word ‘that’, as if saying
‘sex’ was a bad thing.

“So Rutley just left?” Presley asked, trying to piece
the puzzle together. “I mean, something else must’ve happened for him to just
go. He’s just as involved with this mess as we are….it doesn’t seem like him
to just disappear.”

“I know,” Lorcan sighed. “But he’s gone and I’ve not
heard anything from him. I’m not sure how to approach the situation because my
mom is really touchy about it. Whatever happened that night, it’s affecting
her more than she’s letting on.”

“So much drama,” Presley shook her head, leaning in to
rest her ear against his chest. She listened to the strong pounding of his
heart, allowing it to calm her mind. She could feel his love for her and it
was soothing. “I won’t know how to act when things are just…..normal again.”

Lorcan laughed, and the deep rumble vibrated against
her ear as he squeezed his arms around her. “Do you really think things will
ever be ‘normal’ again?” He asked curiously. “I mean, now that you know the
truth about what we are, doesn’t your definition of the word change a little?”

“Of course it does,” Presley replied, lifting her head
to gaze at him again. “But it’ll be nice to just focus on us.”

“Oh,
really
?” Lorcan smirked, seemingly amused
with the thought. “And what will we focus on, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” She shrugged, pulling away from him.
“Maybe getting a place together?”

He gazed at her thoughtfully, cocking his head the
opposite way as his brown eyes sparkled. Yes, that was the Lorcan she knew and
loved. The one with the boyish grin and the heated gaze that made her heart
want to stop. She bit her bottom lip as he approached her again, his hands
falling to her hips and tugging her against himself roughly.

“So you want to move in together?”

She nodded slowly. “If you do, I mean. It’s not
something that has to happen.”

“Are you kidding me?” He scoffed. “I’m not exactly
liking the idea of being apart from you, you know,” He cupped her cheek, and
she didn’t care if his hand was dirty. She missed his touch when they weren’t
close. She knew that she wouldn’t fair well if they were ever separated.
Being coupled with him was a
very
serious deal for her. “Of course I
want to move in together,” He whispered, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
“I want to do a lot of things with you.”

Her eyes slid closed as she felt the warmth of his lips
tracing over her forehead. He kissed her temple, burying his nose into her
hair.

“I was thinking we could look at that old house down the
road. You know, the one with the pretty yellow shutters on the windows?”

“That place?” Lorcan wrinkled his nose. “But it’s
hideous.”

“It’s beautiful!” She argued with a smile. “Besides,
it’s got, like, four bedrooms and a big backyard. We could get a puppy,” She
teased.

Lorcan rolled his eyes. “I may consider a cat but
we’re not getting a dog, Pretz,” He kissed the tip of her nose. “And why do we
need such a big place to start off with? Jim Proffitt has a one bedroom house
for rent a few miles down,” He found her lips, kissing her sweetly. “We can
start off small, and then if we ever decide to have kids….”

Presley’s heart dropped into her stomach. An icy chill
crawled up her spine as she pulled away from his lips, staring up at him in
uncertainty.
If we ever decide to have kids…..

“What’s wrong?” Lorcan asked,
his brows drawing together as he rested his hand against the back of her neck.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Presley blinked, swallowing her tears back into place.
She was
not
going to cry right now, and most certainly not over that.

Stupid pregnancy hormones!
Her mind screamed as
she blinked rapidly. And here she’d been worried about how to tell him,
without taking into consideration that he may not have wanted a baby right now
at all. Oh Urseth.

“Presley?”

She hadn’t realized it until he spoke her name again,
but she was clutching his shirt so tightly between her fingers that her
knuckles were turning white. She released her grip on him, gulping down air as
she stepped back once more.

“I-I’m sorry,” She whispered, shaking her head. “I
don’t know what’s wrong with me right now.”

“Something’s bothering you,” Lorcan frowned. “I can
feel it. What’s wrong?” He didn’t let her get too far. His arms wrapped
around her again as he pulled her in, bending his knees enough to be at eye
level with her as he tried to catch her gaze. “Talk to me, Baby. What’s
wrong? What did I say?”