Mine! - 53. Mine! Part Two Chapter Nineteen

The bed shifting woke me up and the smell of coffee brought me out of the lazy doze I wanted to linger in. I stretched and groaned. “Coffee.” My voice sounded like a half-crazed zombie calling out for brains, but that wasn’t too far off. I sat up and Ritch handed me a cup, the coffee black as tar and just like I liked it.

“The coffee from last night was cold so I made a new pot.”

“Thanks.” I took a long swallow of the steaming richness, the bitter flavor curling my tongue. “It’s perfect.”

Ritch smiled. “Your phone alerted earlier. You didn’t twitch, and I wasn’t sure if it was locked, but then mine beeped with a text from Kraig. I didn’t know you gave him my number.”

I nodded. “Deke makes sure he has a directory of everyone’s number. Remember, I put all the important numbers in your phone. That included my family’s.”

“You know, I never would’ve imagined being with someone who was related to the alpha’s mate.”

“Pfft.” I made a noise and waved my hand. “Deke’s a good alpha, but he’s been part of the family for a long time before he mated with Kraig. I’d say he’s like a brother, but then that would be really messed up.”

Ritch snickered. “I hope you aren’t accusing your alpha of something like incest.”

“Don’t tell them I said that.” I narrowed my eyes. “Or I’ll get revenge.”

His eyes widened. “Ooh. Revenge. Sounds scary.”

I absolutely love the fact that Ritch was actually playing along. Not too long ago he would’ve been cowering in fear, afraid that I would do something to hurt him. That just proved how much trust he developed in my promise of safety.

“Maybe I’ll put some salt in your coffee instead of all that sugar you like to add.” I folded my arms across my chest, casually lifting my cup and taking a sip of coffee.

“Now that’s a scary threat. Salty coffee.” Ritch put his empty cup on the nightstand. “Like you could ever bring yourself to ruin a cup of coffee. You treat it like it’s gold.”

“You’re already ruining it with all that stuff,” I countered. “Don’t mess with me or you’ll find out just how good at practical jokes I am.” I swallowed the last of my coffee and sighed. “So what did Kraig want?”

“Your mom wants everyone to come over for dinner, and Deke wants to meet with you afterward.”

“We can do that.” I looked at the clock. There were several hours before we need to head over to Mom’s house. “There’s a few things we need to do first.”

“Like what?”

“I noticed you’re wearing one of my shirts again. We can do some laundry so the clothes you have are clean, but we also need to do some more shopping. We can do it online so we don’t have to go into town.”

Ritch shook his head. “You don’t have to buy me anything else. I have enough.”

“No, you don’t. I know you’re used to making do with very little, but your life’s not going to be anything like how it was before. You just went on a dangerous mission, and without you and Christian, we never would’ve learned about the scientist’s camp. You drove when I couldn’t. And don’t think that I don’t understand how much danger we put you in, leaving you in those woods alone. You helped the streak, and now the streak will help you. You need things of your own.”

“Like what?” Ritch waved his hand in the air. “What else can I possibly need? You let me stay here for free. I have clothes, personal items, shoes. Hell… a phone.” His voice dropped, and I had to strain to hear him. “I’ve never had so many things I could call my own.”

It broke my heart, but I was determined to give Ritch a happy life from now on, so that he never had to say that crap again.

By the time we needed to go to Mom’s, the rain eased and the sun had come out. We decided to walk and get some fresh air. Just before we left, Ritch removed the bandages on my wrists. The wounds were much better, and I was glad to get the scratchy bandages off.

Dinner was awkward. Mom tried to pretend like everything was normal, and we all followed her lead, but there was a huge elephant in the room. Hell, it would’ve been less awkward if a real elephant was in the room.

Mom served us each some of her famous peach pie, and then she sat down in her chair. She stared across the table at the empty chair. “What are you going to do with him?”

Deke didn’t pretend as if he didn’t know who she meant. “That will depend on who he is and what he’s done. I will not allow the alphas to condemn him to death, because that would condemn you as well. I hope you haven’t been worrying about that.”

Mom pressed a hand against her chest. “I know you would never pass a death sentence on me, but I don’t know if I can live this way either.”

My hand clenched on my fork, and the metal edges dug into my palm. Kraig dropped his and jumped out of his chair. He dropped to his knees beside hers. “Please don’t say that, Mom.”

She cupped the side of his face. “I never want to leave you,” she said. “But—”

The front door crashed open. “Alpha! Alpha!”

Deke stood so fast his chair crashed backwards. He raced into the living room, and I followed right behind him.

A guard skidded to a halt in front of us, panting for air. “Alpha, we have intruders. Some of the prisoners have escaped.”

Our snarls echoed in the room, and I flexed my claws. Someone was going to die.