Barely Winging It (8 page)

Dultyn
turned to see Nix take her hands in his. “You won’t be cooped up so much while
you’re there. There are many of us there, including some of the other mates who
you could talk to. There is room to move around and have some privacy. Please
come back with us.”

Bronya
didn’t say anything—she hadn’t since
Dultyn
first met
her—but she nodded her head in answer, which brought out a relived sigh from
Nix, who no doubt wanted to keep his mate safe and close.

An old truck pulled into the parking lot and parked
beside the pack’s car. Slate appeared next to him.
“Their
pack.
They’ve come to clean up this mess. More should be arriving any
time.”

“Nix, go ahead and take
Bronya
out to the car,” Enzo instructed. Nix nodded and steered his mate outside.
Dultyn
moved aside for them to pass. Enzo grabbed a couple
bags. He stopped and looked up at
Dultyn
before heading
out to the car. “Slate and Matteo have things in hand here. Go ahead and fly
back to the house.”

Dultyn
nodded and watched the beta load the bags in the trunk of his vehicle. Looking
back into the room,
Dultyn
saw pack members cleaning
up the mess. The dead bodies were being readied and wrapped to be taken away.
Slate was forcing the prisoner to help scrub the blood of his co-conspirators
off the walls. There was nothing left for
Dultyn
here.
Turning back into the rain and making another look around, he leapt into the
dripping air and headed for the pack house.

He reached the house before the others. Entering, he
could still smell the lingering scent of his mate, and a heavy dose of despair
still hung with it. Substantial regret pulled a growly groan from his aching
chest. Causing that despair wasn’t intentional. It was regrettable that
fleeting moment caused her so much anguish.

“
Dultyn
.”
The quiet greeting filtered through his thoughts.
Looking up, he saw
Alphy
.

 
“Alpha, I ask
for forgiveness for my actions earlier and rest assured I will make it right.”

Alphy
looked like he understood. “I am curious what do you plan to do?”

“Claim her. But I need to talk with her first. I don’t
want to wake her if she’s asleep, so I was going to leave a message for her to
wake up to. Uh…” Feeling self-conscious that he was falling short, he asked, “What
do you think?”

Alphy
seemed to ponder it for a moment before answering. “I’m relieved to hear you
decided to mate her. I’d go with claiming first. She would still welcome it, so
don’t feel shy. You can talk after you get the bond in place. She was in a bad
place, compounded when you left instead of talking with her.”
Alphy
held up his hand to stop
Dultyn
from saying anything,

“I also know about your clutch. Bogdan and Stelios
told a us a little bit, and though I don’t know everything that you had to
endure during that time, I can understand why you mistakenly thought keeping
your very young mate safe from that was the way to go. I know I’ve done some
pretty bad things while in the military, that sometimes haunt me, and I
wouldn’t want my mate to know those things for those same reasons. However,
when it interferes with your relationship with your mate, it needs to be faced.
Understand it isn’t your past that had her on her knees in pain tonight. It was
you turning your back on her. She’s a tough girl, so she won’t stay down about
this. I know she made a poor decision that hurt you, but just remember that
you’re a team destined by fate. So long as you are beside her, she can handle
anything and vice versa.”

Their talk was cut off by the sound of a vehicle
pulling up.
Dultyn
excused himself and headed off to
find paper to write a note for his mate. If he couldn’t claim her tonight, at
least he could put her mind at rest that he planned to, just as soon as he woke
from roost. He certainly didn’t want her in any more pain, or to have any more
misunderstandings.

“Oh,
Dultyn
.”

Dultyn
looked back at
Alphy
to hear what he had to say.

“That package you’ve been waiting for finally arrived
today. It’s in the office.”

“Thank you.”
Dultyn
felt
excitement flood him. That package was his birthday gift to his mate. Now would
be the most perfect time to give it to her.

Heading into the office, he was careful not to disturb
a sleeping Ryker. The package was very large but also right next to the door.
After getting a piece of paper and a pen, he had no troubles picking up the
large, crated box.

He headed to the dining room. Just as he entered the
room, his two fellow gargoyles entered it as well. “Would you like help with
that?” Stelios asked.

“Yeah, sure.”
Once
Dultyn
removed the
gift, he set it against the wall and stood back to look at it.

“Wow, that’s pretty amazing,” Stelios said, and Bogdan
agreed.

Alphy
,
Enzo, Nix, and
Bronya
made their way into the dining
room. All stood around the gift and admired it.

Alphy
gave a whistle of approval. “She’s going to love it beyond words,
Dultyn
. You did
good
, man.”

With similar comments from the others,
Dultyn
felt pride slightly warm his chest, pushing out
doubt that she wouldn’t like it. After sitting at the table and writing his
letter, he took the gift and letter up to Havana’s room. With a bow, which he
had ordered with it, adorning the gift, he leaned it against the wall and
inserted the letter into the strap of the bow, and silently crept out. He had
debated to kiss her at least on her head, but he didn’t want to disturb her.
All could wait just one more day. With a final look to the woman he had loved
since he met, he closed the door quietly and slipped back out to the barn.

Obscured by clouds or not, he could feel the pull of
the sunrise. With it being so close, he wouldn’t have time to do what he wanted
to do to her, and he didn’t want to rush it.

With the sun rising, his change began. He made sure
his pose froze in the only way he could think to convey all the different
feelings he had for her and his promise for their possible future as his skin
hardened and greyed. Slipping into his daily hibernation, his final thought was
of hope that she would visit him today while he roosted.

****

Saturday morning

The first thing Havana noticed, before she even opened
her eyes, was the smell of her mate lingering around her.
He was in my room!
What warmed her further was the scent she sensed
wasn’t anguish or even anger. It was the super sweet smell of extreme love and
adoration. The knowledge of this sped up her heart, and a thrill of excitement
heated in her veins.

Opening her eyes, she surveyed her room, hoping that
perhaps
Dultyn
roosted in here instead of the barn.
The stab of disappointment at his absence was interrupted when she spotted a
huge black and white picture by one of her favorite graphic designers. Black
lines swirled and streaked across the canvas in the detailed design of a bear that
she thought looked artistically like hers. Havana’s breath caught in her lungs.
She had to let it out slowly to calm herself to keep the tears collecting in
her eyes from falling.

Seeing a letter attached to the bow, Havana slowly sat
up. Reaching over, she retrieved it. She took another moment to let her eyes
fully take in the full view of the picture before opening the letter and
reading its handwritten message.

To my heart and soul,

Please forgive me for
mistakenly believing I was protecting you. I love you with everything within
me. As the artist said, “Only your heart can break your heart.” If you could
ever forgive me, I won’t hesitate to claim you any longer. Fate has perfect
timing. Just as knowing this gift was meant to be for your
birthday,
with it being late has given it so much more meaning. Fate brought us together
at this time in our lives. Now
is
the perfect time for us.

Yours forever,

Dultyn

A deep
warmth ached through Havana’s chest.
I
really owe him an apology for my embarrassing behavior.
Tears prickled at
the corners of her eyes as she admired the beautiful picture. She was never a
sappy sort of girl, but she had to suppose that being an adult now would bring
on a few changes, and to add to that, if anyone could elicit pesky sappy feelings,
it should only be your true mate. Warm salty tears wet her cheeks as she held
the letter close to her chest. She reached over for a tissue when her nose
started to run. Yeah, she’d only ever let her true mate bring her to this. Anyone
else she would kick their ass,
or better
yet, allow my mate to kick their ass and stand back watching his backside.

With an overly cheerful feeling, she quickly did her
morning routine and started to head down the stairs. Before she got to the
stairs, she passed the bathroom once again and stopped when she heard someone
retching. Shifters, or most
paranormals
rather,
didn’t really get sick, so she leaned into the door and took a small sniff to
scent who was in there. Smelling Slate’s pregnant mate, Katie, she relaxed a bit.
Still, she knocked lightly and spoke through the door. “Katie, are you all right?”

She waited patiently as she heard the toilet flush and
the sink come on. Soon the door opened, revealing an unmistakably nauseated
Katie. The acrid stench of her bile, though flushed, still wafted through the
air. The scent caused Havana to uncontrollably crinkle her shifter sensitive
nose.

With Katie looking shaky, Havana wordlessly wrapped
her arm around the smaller woman and helped her back to her room.

Easing her in bed, Katie looked up at her and gave her
an apologetic look. “Thank you. I’m not feeling well.”

“
Psh
, well yeah, that’s more
than obvious. You have morning sickness times three. Where’s Slate?”

Now lying on her side and holding her stomach, Katie
answered, “Another meeting with the inner circle. There was an attack last
night by the herd beta, on Nix’s human mate, at the hotel.”

“Please tell me they killed the bastard and Nix’s mate
is all right.”

Katie sleepily shrugged, “I haven’t been able to keep
up. I feel so sick.”

“I’ll send Seamus up to take a look at you. Even if it
is just morning sickness, you know he’ll want to keep an eye on you.”

“He’s so over concerned. I’m sure it’s just the normal
thing.”

“Yeah well if he doesn’t, your mate would be down there
in his face ordering every test anyways. Why not just save your mate the
embolism?”

The desired effect played out as Katie laughed at her
quip. “Yeah, ok, send him in.”

“Anything else you want me to get you?”

With a shake of her head, Katie’s eyes slowly closed
as Havana quietly exited the room. She trotted happily down the stairs and
nearly tripped when her mind suddenly took her to wondering if a gargoyle’s
mate had babies like a normal pregnancy or eggs, and how would that work?

Was she already thinking of having babies with her
mate? She hoped not, because she may be mating seriously young, for a shifter,
but she didn’t want any kids anytime soon. Then again, if
Dultyn
wanted them right away, she didn’t think she could deny him.
Damn it! Stupid mating
pull
!
Then again, if he had that much power over her, then she had just as much
over him.
That could be lots of fun!

Entering the kitchen where several people were already
seated at the breakfast bar, and seeing Seamus, she skipped up to him with a
giant smile. “Good pleasant morning to you, Doctor blood-be-gone.”

Standing next to him, Ryker spit his drink back into
his glass and choked. Seamus had to pat his back to relieve his coughing. “I’m
late for the meeting.
Laters
,” Ryker hurriedly said.
She smirked at him as he grabbed a muffin and retreated down the hall to the
meeting.

Seamus turned his attention back to Havana. “Good
morning, Havana, it’s good to see you feeling better. What can I do for you?”

“Katie has a brutal case of morning sickness, and I
told her, to save her mate from an embolism, that I would send you up to run
the thousand and some-odd tests that you like to keep yourself busy with.”

Seamus chuckled and nodded. “That would be just about
accurate. I’ll head on up there.” Slipping off the stool, he walked around and
retrieved a plate full of toast, a small amount of scrambled eggs, and a glass
of apple juice before heading upstairs.

Looking back at the dark skinned human woman at the
other end of the breakfast bar, sitting next to Gale, Havana smiled. “Hi.”
Sticking her hand out to the new girl, Havana introduced herself. “I’m Havana. You
must be Nix’s mate.”