“Yeah, there is that,” Lina agreed. “She’s a damn good cook.”
“I think I gained five pounds during our last visit,” Jan said.
Elain sipped at her coffee to buy her a few minutes. “Have you seen anything happening between my mom and dad with your visions?”
Lina shook her head. “Nothing yet. Doesn’t mean I won’t.”
“Oh.”
Lina laid a hand over Elain’s. Elain immediately felt a wave of tender concern from Lina. “I wish I could give you an answer about that.”
“He’s got the hots for her,” Jan said.
“What?” Elain asked.
Rick nodded. “From what I could see with my own two male eyes,” he said with a glance in the rearview mirror at Lina, “he really likes her.”
“You think so?”
“Elain, please don’t get your hopes up,” Lina said. “Let nature run its course. I know it’s natural to want them to end up together, but don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.”
“Will Lacey be able to tell me anything?”
Lina shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask her if she’s had any visions. We’ll be there in a couple of days. Try to enjoy the trip.” She offered up a playful smile. “Admit it, you were jealous when I first walked in and hugged Brodey, weren’t you?”
Why lie? “Yeah. It was like this instinctive wave washed over me. Sorry.”
Lina laughed. “No problem. I would have done the same thing, probably. But seriously, are we okay?”
Elain smiled. “Absolutely. For the first time since I met the guys, I feel like I have a girlfriend I can talk to about all of this.”
“I know what you mean. I have friends, but I can’t talk to any of them about the unusual stuff, you know? I actually lost a couple of friends when they realized I was with both Jan and Rick.”
Elain hadn’t even thought that far ahead in the equation. Not that she had that many friends to worry about. Acquaintances, sure. Coworkers? Lots.
Well, former coworkers.
What Elain hadn’t counted on was not missing work. She had been convinced she would be bored silly and ready to beg Ain to let her get a job by this point.
She wasn’t.
Sure, she’d miss her men over the next couple of days, but the adventure of having her parents and new friends keeping her company, as well as meeting new people, overshadowed that.
The thought of going back to work now was a nearly alien thought. Not that she wanted to lay about, either.
Children…
No, she didn’t need to think about children right now. She needed to think about getting through this new batch of bullshit and the wedding before thinking about starting a family.
Jan and Rick might as well not have been in the car for all the attention Lina and Elain paid them as they bounced from one topic of conversation to the next. By the time they stopped for their next bathroom break, Elain knew she and Lina would likely be friends for life.
Feeling a little guilty that she’d abandoned her mom, Elain walked over to her car as she and Liam got out. “How are you guys doing?” Elain asked.
Carla smiled. “We’re fine, honey. Enjoy your time with Lina.” Elain didn’t miss how Carla glanced at Liam. “Your father and I are talking.”
Elain and Lina spent the next leg of the journey riding with Kael and Zack. Elain quickly discovered she liked both men. By the time they called it a day, they’d made it to Virginia. After agreeing upon a place for dinner, they found a hotel. Elain roomed with her parents, sharing a bed with her mom.
As she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, she couldn’t help the smile on her face.
Marston felt nervous. He’d intended to get closer to the Lyall house, but despite getting there early in the morning, it seemed he’d missed his opportunity. He parked on the road outside their driveway and, using a pair of binoculars, studied the yard again. Three of the cars that had been there yesterday were now gone. And he knew from observation that two of them had belonged to the dragons.
Damn.
Something had happened, but he wasn’t sure what.
He drove back down the road and parked near a convenience store anyone leaving the Lyalls’ had to pass to get into Arcadia. After several hours and spotting no one, he drove past the Lyalls’ property again.
The cars were still gone.
He knew Micah Donovan was holed up there with his new mate. Donovan’s truck hadn’t moved from where it’d been parked for several days. And that was a wolf he didn’t want to mess with any more than he wanted to tangle with the Lyalls.
He followed one of the Lyalls to town when he left the house to run errands. To the feed store, hardware store, groceries. No sign of the Pardie bitch.
Later that afternoon, another of the brothers, he couldn’t tell them apart from a distance, drove into Arcadia and went to a plumbing supply store. Again, no sign of their mate.
He strongly suspected she’d left the property with the dragons. Unfortunately, he had no idea where they went.
Returning to his hotel room, he knew he had to rework his plan, quickly, before Abernathy started crawling down his neck for results.
Chapter Ten
The next day, they all got up and moving and headed out, eager to be on the road. They made good time, stopping only for food, gas, and bathroom breaks for Lina. When they stopped that night for dinner and hotel rooms, Lina called Lacey and told her they would see her the next day.
They awoke early the next morning, ate, and got moving as quickly as possible without wasting any time. Elain nervously looked forward to meeting the Seer. Lina had told her their last visit had been nearly a year earlier, although they talked by phone almost every week.
Elain had never been to Maine before. From listening to her men talk about it, she wasn’t sure what to expect. The Clan compound was more a small, rural town area than an armed fortress. The entire area, while on the coast, was also heavily wooded. Elain and Lina rode with Carla and Liam for the last leg of the journey.
“Not much has changed,” Liam softly said from the front passenger seat as he stared out at the passing landscape.
“How long has it been since you’ve been here?” Lina asked him.
He turned to look at them from the front seat. He wore a sad smile. “Too many years. I used to have several friends in this Clan. I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t want anything to do with me now.”
Lina patted him on the shoulder. “You’d be surprised. Don’t count them out.”
“Do you know Lacey?” Elain asked him.
“Not as well as her own Clan. I’ve met her a couple of times at Gatherings. Not sure if she’ll remember me or not.”
Lacey lived on a rural country lane in an old wood-and-stone cottage fronted by a white picket fence. In the front yard, beds of late summer flowers were still holding their own against the arrival of autumn. Large pots of flowers and herbs dotted the front porch.
As they parked their cars, the front door opened. A large, shaggy black dog bounded out the door and down the front steps, followed by an older woman Elain assumed was Lacey. When they got out, the dog made the rounds of the newcomers, his tail fiercely wagging his whole rear end.
Lacey walked down to meet them and gave Lina a hug first. “Hello, dear. It’s so nice to see you again. I’ve missed you.”
“Me, too,” Lina said. “Who’s this?” She reached down to pet the dog. It stood nearly as high as her waist.
“That’s Jasper. He seems to have adopted me. He showed up one night a couple of months ago after a storm. No one claimed him, so he’s mine. The vet says he thinks he’s part Bernese mountain dog.”