Page 12 of His Curse
Frankie also came back to life with a stronger intuition than before, one that seems to alert her when things are off balance.
Her OCD provided that prior to her death, still does because she's still very obsessive, but now it also alerts her to the balance between good and evil, when the scales tip one way or the other, so to speak. Which means the demon’s mate is far more in tune with me than I ever wanted anyone to be.
Frankie knows without seeing me when I've had my nightmare, and she somehow knows when a shift to theotheris approaching. It's been super helpful but also a little frustrating because she's grown more and more concerned as the frequency of my nightmares have picked up.
I hate that she worries so much but I also secretly love it because I'm closer to her and Zan, Vok, Andrej, really everyone in the core of the clan than I am with my own sister, and having any of them worry or care about me at all also caters to the need I have for it.
Pack mentality is bred into wolves and what Kai is doing, what he’s done, feeds it in a serious way. Which makes sense when you think about it since most apex predator shifters live similarly to wolves.
And it’s something Mary and I should have, but don't anymore.
It's not that I don't love my sister, I do, very much actually, but we've come to resent each other over the years, and when our parents were murdered by Cyril’s clan, something sort of broke.
She resents me for the way my shit has affected our life since West Virginia, and she even blames me to a degree for our parents’ deaths because we wound up in Ashland after the last pack we tried to join turned out like the rest.
Mary thinks if we never left the Moon Goddess pack, our parents would still be alive.
AndIfucking resentherfor all of that.
Mary is the reason I deal with theotherand all his sick shit, the reason I lost my mate, the reason every fucked up thing that's happened to me since I was in my fifties has happened.
I don't reallyblameher, but I sure as fuck resent her for it, especially since she so conveniently seems to have forgotten about how all this shit got started while taking zero responsibility for any of it.
So yeah, I love my sister, Ron, and their pups, but I resent the fuck out of her and we haven't been a pack since we were in our twenties.
I'm super close to my oldest nephew, though.
Ronny is a definite bright spot in that dark family shit and the closest thing I have to what would be considered a Beta for sure.
He’s the only real pack I have left.
Frankie frowns at me, cupping my cheeks as she searches my eyes harder. “Do I need to worry about you more than I already do?"
"No.” I lean forward and kiss her forehead then gently remove her hands from my face. "I'm fine. Just took a nap and woke up a little rough."
Something thumps me in the back of the knee, thankfully interrupting Frankie’s impending lecture about taking care of myself and relying more on them, and when I look, I smile again.
Odin, the blind and partially deaf goat, is head butting me and I'm not sure if it's so I acknowledge him, or because he can't figure out why his path is blocked. So I bend down, pick up the fucking goat and chuckle when he stiffens for a beat before he rests his head on my shoulder.
Apparently Odin just wanted some love.
"You hear from Andrej?" I ask Vok as I plop down on the couch next to him.
He shakes his head. “Not since this morning but that only came in the form of a photo of Daisy and Lily in our family’s previous den."
I nod, and scratch Odin's head. “So, not finding much in the way of any others?"
"Unfortunately, no. It seems Cyril was relatively successful in eradicating dragons."
"Almost,” Frankie says as she starts setting out food. "He didn't get our dragons and that's a step in the right direction, anyway."
"Besides…” Cora pulls the twins from their enclosure then plants one on each hip before she buckles them into high chairs, effortlessly manhandling those two as if they weren’t nearly half her size already. "If there are any dragons over there, they'll be hiding for sure. Civil war is scary as hell, especially if they didn't agree with Cyril and Ivan's plan. They'll find someone, I'm sure of it."
Zan unceremoniously flops onto the couch at my other side and throws an arm over my shoulders. “And if they do not, so be it. I admire Kai and all that he is doing but those of the utmost importance already call this land home. If his campaign is in fact in vain, he can at least rest assured in knowing they tried. They did all they could."
"Feeling a little emotional, are we?" I arch a brow and smirk. "That was too nice for you."
"Bah.” Zan waves a hand through the air dismissively. "Tis my soul. It has made me a sap."
