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Pretending like he didn't say anything, Erik slid into the car and buckled the seat belt. I decided to let his secret be and not bring it up. I wasn't in the best of moods anyway.
Staring at Erik for a moment I noticed he was actually quite handsome. He was a little rough around the edges and that made him mysterious and sort of sexy. One of his most attractive qualities was his strong chiseled jaw bone and cleft chin. That I was a sucker for.
Shaking my head to get rid of the developing thoughts, I closed my eyes to direct my thinking somewhere else. As I slowly opened my eyes, my house came into view.
Parked by the driveway, I built up the courage to ask Erik a question that had been gnawing at me since Sebastian told me everyone in the pack house were werewolves.
"Erik, what are Sebastian's intentions towards me?" I asked while leaning down to pick up my purse off the floorboard.
A smile grew across his face, and it lingered there for a minute before he placed his hand on my arm. "That, my dear, is a question for him."
I figured he would answer like that. The impression I got was that he couldn't speak freely on his own, and that didn't sit right with me. Sebastian held all the power and if he thought he could do that with me, he was wrong.
Opening the car door, I thanked him and closed it behind me. "Thank god I'm home." I whispered to myself. I couldn't take anymore surprises.
I carefully walked through the pitch black house until I found the light switch to help illuminate the way. Looking around, I couldn't believe my house’s resemblance to the pack house. It was like the same person built it, which gave me an idea.
Running up the steps two at a time, I busted through my bedroom door and slid into the chair at my desk. Flipping my laptop open, I pressed the on button and waited until the green light flashed to tell me it was turning on.
"I will find out for myself why these houses are the same," I declared.
Waiting for the Black Lace Historical page to load, I grabbed my pen and paper and went to work.
"Black Lace was founded in 1864 by young settlers Thomas and Loraine Cross. By 1920, the town had almost doubled in size but remained vacant. Handing the town down to his son and daughter-in-law Travis and Alexis Cross, the town was revamped and settlers began arriving. Two identical homes were built by the couple in 1950 due to their growing family. When the children were of age, the eldest would take over their home."
Scrolling through more of the archives, I was still trying to piece together the color scheme since I now knew why the houses were identical. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in finding anything else.
Scanning pictures that were dated May, 1950 did not help me as they only illustrated the houses in their area, which wasn’t of major significance to me.
Clicking out of the historical page, I looked at different newspaper articles written about the family, and surprisingly, there were a lot.
Down at the bottom of the "Black Lace Daily Newspaper" was a picture that was titled, "The Cross Family Now".
Standing in the picture were Travis, Alexis and their seven children. Three male children in the picture stood by their father’s right, all sporting jet black hair. Alexis stood next to her three daughters, each with identical striking jet black hair.
There was one child who stood out from the rest. This sibling had pure golden blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Enlarging the image, I immediately recognized his face: Sebastian.
Underneath the pictures were the names and ages of all the children. However, I zeroed in on the only one I wanted to see.
Sebastian Cross, Age 29. Date,1955.
I dropped my pen, completely flabbergasted. "How is that possible? That would make him, like, 93. He still looks the same."
Leaving the page up, I went into the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. Staring into the mirror, I gingerly touched all around my face that was still glistening. I was 32 and I could already see the little wrinkles starting to form around my eyes.
"Are werewolves not affected by age?" I asked myself.
I decided to wait until morning to bang on Sebastian's door, just to get him to tell me the entire truth. I plopped down on the bed in hopes this was all a dream.
By 3:00 AM, I was still laying in bed, insomnia getting the best of me. Figuring that I wouldn't be getting any sleep, I decided to go down into the basement to finish setting up the salon.
Tessa had drawn a beautiful design that we started developing immediately after I approved it. Walking down the old wooden steps, they creaked under my weight.
The basement was completely finished and had one large open section with two rooms off to the sides. The room on the left was the salon office where Tessa would be working every few days on the books.
The second room was the salon waiting room. I didn't want my clients feeling uncomfortable while others watched them, so I decided to separate the rooms. Overall, the room was very cozy with a TV, coffee maker and multiple couches.
Moving the large hydraulic chair from the wall, I placed it in front of the mirror. "Perfect," I grinned. Redirecting my focus to the vanity, I sprayed the mirror with a cleaner and began wiping the dirt and debris away.
When the mirror gleamed under the artificial lights, I bent down to put the cleaner back in the cabinet when I began hearing what sounded like footsteps. My eyes scanned the mirror as I looked for the cause of this sound.
My blood rushed through my veins and my hands were clammy. The cold breeze that surrounded my body sent shivers up my spine.
Finding the courage to turn around, a figure rounded the corner and came into view. Instinctively, my hands reached forward to grab the only item on the marble tabletop, but froze in mid-air due to a chilling voice.
“Don’t even think about it,” The woman interrupted, her talon-like fingers digging into the fleshy part of my wrist.
You've got to be kidding me. After all I have been through today, life decided that it was an amazing idea to have a maniac break into my house.
"I will release your hand if you step away from the weapon," She informed me calmly.
Lowering my eyes to the marble top, the only thing laying in my view was a razor comb.
“As if a razor comb could be a weapon.”I silently snorted.
"Who are you?" I asked nervously. I really didn't care much to find out, I just wanted her out of my house.
Swiping the comb off the vanity, the woman finally let go of the death grip on my arm. Rubbing away the throbbing pain, I took a step back to open the space between us to get a better look at her.
"My name is Miranda. You don't know me, but you will very soon. I will make this short and straightforward. You have one week starting today to get yourself marked and become the Luna of the Black Lace pack. With you in power, you will talk your sweet little mate into releasing the rogues from their cells and deliver them to me."
"To be what and who?" I asked, confused and puzzled.
"Don't play coy, ignorant fool. You have one week."
Gathering my strength, I straightened up and puffed out my chest. I was tired of the people in this town expecting me to bow down and submit to them.
"Or what?" I asked smugly.
"Your mate dies."
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