Chapter 77: Inseparable

Daphne

My brothers’ office looks exactly how you would expect - that is to say, there are two of everything. Two big desks, two big leather chairs on wheels, bookshelves that lined the walls, laptops and printers, and a comfortable sofa set - with two big armchairs, one for each of them. On the wall between the two desks was a huge portrait of Bella, with one brother on each side of her, looking down on her with adoration. They had commissioned it from Rose DeIglesia, the famous artist who also happened to be married to the Vampire King.

The difference was that Wyatt’s side of the office was immeccably neat. There was nothing on his desk, except for his laptop, which was folded closed. All of the books on his shelves were arranged neatly, spines facing out, in alphabetical order.

On Byron’s side, it rather looked like a small, isolated tornado had blown through. There were piles of papers scattered across his desk top, and a pile of memos was resting on the keyboard of his open laptop. The books were thrown on his shelves willy-nilly, many of them stacked horizontally, instead of vertically.

A part of me twitched to go in there and put it in order, but I knew from past experience that he had a system, and as chaotic as it looked, he knew exactly where everything was. If I asked for a book on the historical treatises between wolves and witches, he could pluck it off the shelf without a moment’s hesitation. And Goddess help us all, if I cleaned it, he would moan for months that he couldn’t find his things.

We all sat in the office now, Byron and Wyatt each at their respective desks, Bella, perched on Wyatt’s, with baby Liam at the breast, and me, sprawled acorss the couch.

“King’s has disavowed all knowledge of any bear shifter named Kodi,” Wyatt said, rubbing his forehead. “Which is not suprising, since officially, they don’t exist at all.”

“Imagine a hit-man-for-hire company that doesn’t want to take responsibility for one of their employees,” Byron said dryly.

“I have a theory,” Bella said, pulling a sleeping Liam off her small breast and rearranging her shirt so that everything was covered.

“Well, let’s hear it,” I said from my prone position on the couch.

“Well, she botched the job with me, right? That was a multi-million dollar contract. Do you think King’s was just going to let her walk away from that mistake?” Bella slipped off the edge of the desk and came to the couch. I moved my feet so that she could join me.

“I guess an assassin rental company doesn’t f.uck around,” I agreed.

“Right?” Bella nodded. “I remember her talking with her mate, when they were debating what they should do with me, she said if they double-crossed Kings, they would send someone after them. Well what if they did just that?”

“Not following,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Well, she didn’t exactly double cross them, but she did fail to take me out. What if they did send someone, not to take her out, but to punish her for missing her mark and breaking the contract. What if they killed her mate?” She turned her big eyes on Wyatt, “You told me that a lot of wolves go crazy when they lose their mate. Wouldn’t it be the same for a bear?”

“I think it might actually be worse for a bear,” Byron said, his features awash with pity. “There are so few of them left anyway, finding a mate is like finding a needle in a haystack as it is.”

“Bruce was human,” Bella pointed out, “He wasn’t a bear.”

“Which would make him particularly vulnerable if King’s decided to come after them.” Wyatt pointed out grimly.

We all sat silently for a moment to digest that information. Kodi had tried to murder my best-friend and sister-in-law. If Bella wasn’t packing some weird supernatural defense system, she would have been found dead in a public bathroom inside the shopping mall. Given that the bear had been ready and willing to murder, it was a little hard to feel any sympathy for her. Given that she had tried to hurt Nate, I was ready to shank the bitch myself. However, when I tried to imagine the unspeakable pain of losing a mate, I did feel a little bit sorry for her. I mean, I could only imagine what would become of my brothers if anything were to happen to Bella. They would absolutely lose their s.hit. They might actually die of a broken heart, that’s how deep and strong the mate bond was. And when I thought about losing Nate… well, I could kind of understand why she had gone feral.

Kind of, but kind of not. If King’s had taken out her mate, that would explain her being bat-shit-crazy. It did not exactly explain why she had started hunting and slaughtering innocent college students. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to start hunting the King’s assassins?

“So what now? King’s isn’t going to take care of this problem, and we can’t just leave her to keep doing what she’s doing.” I asked impatiently. I wasn’t only worried about the student body at the university. I was worried about Nate. I had this nagging feeling in my gut that something wasn’t right, something was wrong, something was out of order. And I was anxious to get back to him.

“We’ve called a meeting with one of the Bear elders,” Byron said, twisting in his chair. “He’s coming down out of Canada to meet with us, should be here the day after tomorrow.”

Two more days of waiting. Goddess, that sounded like torture. I turned to Bella, “What about your father, can’t he do anything?” I pleaded. “He’s a king!”

Bella looked at me helplessly and stroked Liam’s back. “He doens’t have jurisdiction here, Daphne, you know that. He would only intervene if… well, if Liam or I were directly in danger and he didn’t think that your brothers could handle it.”

“Try to be patient, Daphne,” Wyatt said, his calm, soothing voice. That was the voice he had used on me when he came and sat in my bedroom and told me that both of our parents were dead, almost a decade ago. It was the voice he used on Bella when she was panicked and unreasonable. I really hated that voice.

“I need to go back to school,” I insisted, “You don’t understand! This is a very critical period, I’m supposed to be meeting with my advisor next week to discuss my thesis, I have a presentation to give that I’m not nearly prepared for and…”

“And you left your boyfriend back in the dorm,” Wyatt said flatly. “Which reminds me, we need to discuss your living arrangments, Daffy. There’s no way we’re going to let you go on living in an all-boy house!”

I stood up and gave him a narrow-eyed glare. “My living arrangements are not up for discussion, Wyatt, and neither is my relationship with Nate. Try to stay focused!”

Stomping toward the door, I paused with my hand on the handle. Before I pulled it open, I heard Byron mutter, “I think she’s focused enough for the lot of us.”

“Leave it alone, Byron,” Bella advised them, in a smooth, soft tone that brooked no-nonsense. “She’s a grown up, and she can make her own decisions now,”

“Yeah but–”

“No buts,” Bella said firmly. “Now, come take your son, I want to see if they need my help in the kitchen.”

I heard Byron shift in his seat, and pad softly across the floor. “Hey little man,” he crooned as he took the baby from Bella’s arms. “Wanna come hang out with daddy for awhile?”

When I slipped out the door, Bella was right behind me. She slipped her arm through mine, and tugged me toward the kitchen. “Come on,” She said with a smile, “Let’s go cook something; It will make you feel better!”

“You cook something,” I said with a grumpy face. The fact that I couldn’t cook, I couldn’t even boil water or chop a vegetable was common knowledge and frequent fodder for my brothers’ dumb jokes. “ You cook, and then I’ll eat it. And we will all feel better.”