Chapter 171
Estella? I had never heard the name before. Not once had he ever mentioned her, but I went still and cold at the hope and happiness that seemed to fill his voice. I looked over at him. He didn’t even look at me. He was star-struck, staring at her. She turned her head, and I saw a glint of silver in her ear.
She seemed frozen in his gaze, eyeing him.
“…’Dido?” She asked.
I clenched my jaw. What a stupid nickname. He should be offended. I was offended that she would talk to him so familiarly. She should be addressing him properly. Only me and his family got to call him by his first name. Who the hell did she think she was?
He burst into incredulous laughter. “I can’t believe you’re still alive. I—”
He stilled and turned, but it was too late. A vampire screeched and lunged out of from under a jeep, tackling Estella to the ground. Vanessa twisted, planting herself between Van’s unconscious body and them. She pulled out a gun but didn’t shoot. I crossed my arms watching her and the vampire tumble. Candido leaped over Van, over Vanessa, naked as the day he was born, toward where they had rolled. His gait was unsteady. Other people moved to help her, but I didn’t move.
Blood splattered across the ground. She cried out as the vampire cut through her clothes. Then, she grunted and flipped it over, pulling a shining silver blade out of somewhere and driving it between the vampire’s eyebrows with a sharp grunt of exertion. My jaw dropped open as the vampire screeched and shook. The blade of the dagger glowed bright red as the body went still and began to disintegrate. She tucked the blade back into her holster with a grimace before looking over at Cillian.
“I… was supposed to kill that one, right?”
Cillian lifted his shoulder. “Likely.”
She winced. “Sorry… if it helps. I think that one had been turned.”
Cillian chuckled. “It doesn’t, but no worries.”
Ian let out a low whistle. “You have trained her well.”
Cillian hummed and looked around. “I wonder what idiot didn’t think to check under the jeeps.”
Estella dusted herself off and grimaced at the scratch across her chest. “Damn. I just got this vest, too.”
She groaned. “Someone owes me a new vest!”
Candido staggered over towards her. Staring at her, reaching out to her. His eyes were focused on her. I could see the way he leaned towards her, desperate to touch her. She turned to him. Beneath the blood on her shoulder, I saw the glint of moonlight that seemed to grow brighter as they moved closer together. Candido’s mark began to glow like a star on his chest. My gut clenched.
“Oh dear,” Ian said softly. “What a development.”
Candido lunged forward, sweeping her into his arms and spinning around, laughing in a way that he’d never laughed with me. He sounded at ease and completely happy. She laughed. Her arms were around his shoulders, squeezing tightly as her legs swung around.
He slowed to a stop, and she cupped his face, drawing a hand through his hair in such an intimate caress that my heart clenched. I moved before I could even think about it. No one got to touch Candido like that. No one deserved to have Candido look at them like that, especially not some random woman allied with vampires! Neither Ian nor Cillian moved to stop me.
“You’re huge!” She cried, laughing. “When did you get so big?”
“I could say the same for you. I thought you’d be three feet forever.”
She scoffed. “Sad that you look like your dad, though. At least you got your mom’s eyes.”
He pressed his cheek to hers and nuzzled her, laughing softly. “And you took after your mom in spades. Where did your dad manage to sneak anything in there at all?”
“Resilience,” she said and pulled back. “By the moon, they’re not going to believe this!”
“They’re alive?” Candido asked, his eyes wide with hope.
“Of course,” she said and looked up at him, cupping his face. “I… I’m so sorry, ‘Dido… All this time. We thought… Everyone—”
“It’s okay,” he said, laughing. His voice was thick with emotion as I pushed past another pair of werewolves who seemed to be watching them in shock. The anger in me grew, burning through me. The jealousy. How dare she touch him so carelessly? How dare he hold her like that in front of me?
How dare he not even seem to think of me at all?
“I’m just glad that you’re alive, that you’re all alive. I never thought…” Candido cupped her face, pressing their foreheads together. She let out a low rumbling, comforting sound that made my stomach jolt with fear.
“Where have you been all this time, Estella? Why didn’t you reach out?”
Her eyes dropped to his chest, and she pressed a hand to his moon mark. It flashed silver. I stumbled over something as I rushed towards them. Fear welled up in me. It was too much. This woman, whoever she was, had to go. She couldn’t be here. She couldn’t be so close to my Candido. Just watching them felt like watching him with Sybil all over again. We were just now coming together. He was just starting to really see me as an adult woman.
I couldn’t go back to being his little princess.
I couldn’t go back to being just a child in his eyes. After tonight, after dancing with that guy, I knew that Candido was it for me. If we weren’t together there was no point to any of it.
I might as well have just died in the Wolf Fang pack.
No. No. No. It was all I could think. It was all I could focus on. His voice had changed, even the way he moved changed. They mirrored each other in some weird way. He was close to her, seemingly without thinking about it, seemingly without caring about what it looked like.
He wasn’t thinking about me. He wasn’t thinking about us, and that wasn’t okay. After everything that had happened tonight, his focus should have been on me.
“That’s a long story. You still like croissants? Mom opened a bakery, and—”
I made it to them finally and shoved them apart. “Get your hands off him!”
I snarled at her, planting myself between Candido and Estella. Estella looked at me then up at Candido before giving him a wry smile.
“Still making them crazy about you, hm? She seems a bit young.”
“Shut up!” I screeched. “You don’t know anything, so stay out of it.”
I whirled around at Candido who didn’t even look apologetic. He looked pissed off. Well, I was pissed off too.
“And you? How could you hug her like that in front of me?”
Candido looked at me with a flat expression. “Considering everything that’s happened tonight, a bit of joy is in order.”
“Joy?” I hissed. “We’re mates. I’m supposed to be your joy.”
Candido blinked at me as if he couldn’t understand what I was saying. “Hedy—”
“No!” I yelled, stomping my foot. “First you ignore me, and now you’re hugging some random woman out of nowhere naked!”
“We’re werewolves, Hedy,” he said. “The only reason you’re thinking nudity has to be sexual is because you only just shifted.”
“It’s sexual,” I growled. “It’s definitely intimate.”
Candido narrowed his eyes. “Not that I owe you any explanation—”
“You owe me—”
“Especially after you and Claire’s reckless actions have endangered us all tonight,” he seethed. “Estella is my oldest friend.”
I growled at him. “She’s a lot more than a friend from the way you were acting.”
“What are you talking about?”
“’Dido—”
“Stop calling him that!” I growled at her. Candido grabbed my arm and yanked me back toward him.
“Do not yell at her,” Candido said. “I’m not going to tolerate this, Hedy. Knock it off.”
I pulled at my arm. “I’m not a child! You can’t treat me like this.”
“You’re acting like it,” he growled. “Knock it off.”
My eyes burned with tears, and I kept pulling from him, hard, wanting him to let me go. Then, he did and I crashed to the ground. I whirled back to glare up at him, when he swayed on his feet. His eyes fluttered and fur rippled across his skin. He shook his head slowly. Did our bond hurt him when he was mean to me?
“’Dido, you’ve pushed yourself too far,” Estella said calmly. “You need to rest.”
I turned to glare at her, daring her to get closer. She didn’t even seem to acknowledge that I was a threat as she approached and pulled a blanket out from somewhere I couldn’t see. She came closer and I swore I was going to lung at her if she so much as touched him.
