Chapter 30

Eric decided to go spend the rest of his day at his parents’ house when he returned to Fairbanks. The thought of staying indoors and brooding in his apartment didn’t seem like fun to him, so he had left his place immediately after dropping his backpack on his couch.

“To what do we owe this August visit?” His mother laughed when she met him at the front door.

“Stop being dramatic, Mom. I was here last week,” he said and bent down to give her a kiss and a hug. “Where’s Dad?” He asked as he approached the kitchen.

“At the trading post, of course. Where else would he be?” His mother asked. “And why aren’t you at work today? Don’t you feel well?”

“I’m fine. Got a break from work.”

“Thank goodness! You seemed to be on a mission to work yourself to death. I’m glad you finally came to your senses.”

“I didn’t ask for a break. Gary thought I needed it,” Eric said in tone that showed his displeasure for his employer’s decision.

“Bless him,” Bianca Brown smiled even though she could see how pissed off her son was about getting a break from work. “Gary is such a wise werewolf, looking out for my boy as if you were his.”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Spare me,” he growled.

“Is that my favorite brother?” Erin Brown asked, entering the kitchen to join Eric and their mom.

“I am your only brother,” he said and accepted her warm hug. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back in school already?”

“Nope. Next week,” Erin replied and went to ransack the fridge.

“Are you hungry, dear?” Bianca asked Eric.

“Obviously,” Erin said from inside the fridge.

“Not you, dear. I was talking to Eric.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Eric said. “Thanks.”

Bianca chuckled. “I remember a time when I wouldn’t dare ask you that question because you were always so hungry and constantly eating.”

“Those were the glorious days of my youth,” Eric joked.

“What are you now, an elder?” Erin asked, dropping a tub of ice cream on the kitchen table.

“Is this what you’re having for lunch?” Bianca asked with a frown.

“Nope, it’s a pre-lunch meal,” Erin replied with a grin before grabbing a spoon from a drawer and dashing out of the kitchen with the ice cream tub. “Laters, bro!”

“That child is eating her way to diabetes. It’s a miracle she’s not obese with the way she eats,” Bianca complained.

“It’s a phase. It will pass,” Eric said.

“What about you? When will this phase pass?”

“What phase?” Eric asked, puzzled.

“This grumpy phase. What happened to you, Eric? You used to be so cheerful and full of life, where did that part of you go? Why do you look so…disturbed these days? What’s going on?” Bianca asked her son tenderly.

Eric didn’t want to lie to his mother, but he didn’t want to tell her about his recent shenanigans with Aubrey either. He wasn’t ready to talk about that yet, because even he didn’t understand what was going on.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” he said sincerely. “But I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Ok,” Bianca said, not wanting to push him to open up to her, seeing that he wasn’t ready to talk about his feelings yet. “If you say so.”

He hung around until his dad came home in the evening, and then he had dinner with his family. It was a satisfying experience and he felt comforted, being with the people he loved the most at a time when he was feeling quite shitty about his love life.

It was way past 9 p.m. when he finally left his folks house to go home. On a whim, he decided to drop by at Gary’s place and have a talk with his boss about resuming work sooner than planned. This whole break thing wasn’t working for him, and he was already tired of it, no thanks to Aubrey and her fake/real boyfriend.

When he got to Gary’s house, the housekeeper informed him that his boss wasn’t home, but Eric was welcome to wait for him if he wanted to. He agreed to wait and went straight to the study to chill. When he got in there, he saw an open file on Gary’s desk and curiosity made him take a closer look—it was a new litigation case that he hadn’t seen before.

So, the old devil got a new case, didn’t he, Eric mused with a wry smile. Well, I’m taking this one, whether he likes it or not.

He sat down at Gary’s desk and began to read the document intently. As he read, he thought he heard a tinkling sound outside the closed window, but he ignored it. Probably a stray animal looking for something to eat in the dark yard. Suddenly, a loud crash sent him flying off his chair and he landed heavily on the floor with the sheets of paper still in his hand. A gang of commando-looking guys dressed in all black gear dove in through the broken window and ran towards him with weapons drawn.

“What the—" Eric began to say but his question was cut off when one of the commandos shot him in the neck. He felt a sharp pain pierce his skin before his vision went black and his mind shut down completely.