Page 67 of Cryptic Dreams
She tended my wounds and asked many questions—questions she will have clearer answers to tonight—then shared her own connection to the movement I’ve been secretly organizing solo the last hundred or so years. Organizingactivelythe last hundred or so years, anyway.
It turns out I’ve dealt with both Zephyr and Orion’s parents rather closely, although I never knew them to have young. And learning Seth and Ophelia—my mate’s father and mother—as well as Bennett and Mesi—her cousin’s parents—were not only members of my inner circle, but had taught and trained those young well, was news to me.
My gentle breeze shared that our beliefs were instilled in them from the time they were able to comprehend them and their parents began teaching them in the ways of weapons and physical defense just as quickly, which shocked me to the point of anger. Something that seems to happen more and more frequently these days.
And that prickish behavior led to shouting about how I can’t understand why Zephyr sat by and allowed someone like thatIanto mistreat her for so long if she knew how to defend herself. All while I sent a slew of irrational text messages to Orion demanding to know why he never disclosed anything about his parents.
Of course, it all made sense.
Orion and Aries’s eagerness to be part of my group was due to preexisting morals and values taught to them as children, and the utter hatred Orion harbors for my sire as well as Hans is just as strong. And once that was explained along with the fact that he never disclosed because I’m a prick who never asked, I understood. It was all very clear and I even understood to a degree when Zephyr explained that she never took interest in participating with the Purists because it was a final request made by her father for her not to do so.
And that made me feel like a royal arse because now my sweet mate has no choice but to go against her sire’s wishes. Something she chewed me out for and I honestly don’t believe Zephyr fully understood why she was so mad about that, or my leadership role because I could feel her pride mixed with the many other things she was feeling, outside of the fear she harbors after my wounds anyway.
Which began the rollercoaster.
She was upset I had not told her and was refusing to accept our lack of communication prior to the last week or so as an excuse.
Angry that I would risk my life, noble cause or not, because once I filled the position of High Elder I could change things peacefully.
Zephyr became a raging mess when I explained that what happened to us was because my father ordered it to happen, my darling mate ready to march down to the nest and handle things immediately. She’s struggling to comprehend my relationship with my parents to be quite honest, the two-faced nature we three share along with a deep seeded hatred for each other all while keeping up appearances. Zephyr is unable to relate because of how close she was to her parents, and she finds it hard to accept that mine would really have us eliminated to secure their reign.
She will learn though.
Through it all, my mate also peppered comments about her affection and adoration for me, her flairs of irritation with my parents or my actions followed by a statement of how ridiculous it all was because of howwonderfulI am. And had I not been able to hear her thoughts, I would have been slightly concerned over Zephyr’s sanity because of her emotions that were so clearly all over the map.
Apparently having to bottle them up for so long, having no one but Orion to occasionally share them with has made feeling so many things in such a short period of time rather overwhelming to her. Something I understand, though despise, because my mate should have never had to hide who she is or how she was feeling in the first place.
So after one more lecture and solemn vow to never take a bullet for her again—useless as it may have been because I would gladly die for my mate—I convinced Zephyr to rest. And for the first time since she’s been living with me, she slept peacefully.
It did wonders for me as well, lying with my mate curled into my side, my arms wrapped protectively around her while Zephyr slept five hours straight without even the smallest of dreams rousing her. That made me actually begin to believe I may be worthy of her after all, that I may truly be the male my gentle breeze needs in order to be completely at ease and accept herself as she was so perfectly made.
Unfortunately, it was short lived because this afternoon when we woke and began getting ready to venture to Plasma for the meeting I couldn’t convince her to stay out of, I apparently poked a sleeping bear.
There is but one mystery left that surrounds my mate, one thing she did not explain yesterday before bed, and when I asked why she insisted on wearing her gloves to her cousin’s club, Zephyr slammed the proverbial door in my face once again. Whatever this attachment she has to the accessory, it is the only part of her I cannot access. Since we’ve yet to mate, my ability to read her thoughts only goes a little further than it does with everyone else and somehow my sweet mate is able to shield that from me with such ease, it has me on edge.
Which of course turned into an issue between us.
I continued to push my love to share with me and Zephyr refused adamantly until she eventually quit speaking to me altogether, and that has continued right up until this very moment.
I know there is much we have to learn about each other, many things we will discover over time, but we’ve discussed the most important and pressing matters save for that one. It is eating at me that Zephyr is either too afraid to share the obsessive need for the gloves with me, or she is simply refusing because of a much more severe reason, and it has me wound so tightly I could explode at any moment.
Secrets between us, at this stage of our relationship or further, simply will not do, but I’m so inept when it comes to relationships that I’ve gone about it all wrong and forced my mate to shut me out, even if it is temporarily.
And since this meeting has been called for the sole purpose of gathering information from my most loyal followers in order to get to the bottom of the threat presented to my mate that is currently not speaking to me, I fear I’ll go bloody mad before the night is through.
“All right, we need to be quick,” Orion says as he comes to stand behind his desk, his grey eyes dark and searching each of the five faces before us. “I know you weren’t given much time but I’m assuming you were able to get some sort of intel since Wraith sent up a flare.”
“Vehicles were purchased at a police auction two days ago,” Benji, a local mechanic at an all night shop and my underground weapon-smith, says as he drops a folder onto the desk. “I did the diagnostic and detail for them myself and started running info as soon as they were brought in. Seemed strange, not the usual models I see nobles or Counsel members buy.”
Orion nods as he flips through the contents of the folder. “Which supports the theory they had no plans to keep the vehicles long term. If they had, they wouldn’t have bought such generic models.”
“Models that were popular with human authorities at that,” Edith—yes,thatEdith—says, who also happens to be our spy-extraordinaire and owner of Clean Drip. “When Benji made mention of the purchase, I did a little digging.”
I watch her drop her own file on the desk and sigh internally, thankful as hell my team hasn’t ceased their work just because we held off on meetings and adjusted the way we are now going about things.
“It seems thecynghor mochhas purchased several vehicles from the last auction.”
With steady hands, I flip open her file and line it up with Benji’s, my eyes scanning what the two have found and how they coincide while listening intently. “Several is a bit of an understatement, now isn’t it?”
