Chapter 63

-Dante-

Two weeks had passed, and I still couldn’t really get used to my new life. A life without fear. Killian’s bases were gone, burned to the ground, and Lena’s research was safely stored in Ben’s secret vault. The Taylor family was gone, and their legacy had been ended. No more rassawolves.

Except for me.

Lara and Tanya took the cure, and there was no sign of the beast in their blood. They had called me once to let me know they were able to turn back to normal werewolves now. That was great news. That meant we actually had the cure now – if I ever needed it.

Ben was studying Lena’s journal. He was determined on finding out if my life as a rassawolf could be prolonged. I guess that old man was having a hard time letting go of his research. He seemed happy, so I wasn’t going to stop him. It was different for him now that my life wasn’t on the line anymore. He honestly seemed glad to have something to do. Chase and I would eventually start helping him with it, but for now, we just wanted to take things easy and enjoy our new life together.

It didn’t even matter to me that much. I was willing to let go of the beast if we started running out of time, but right now, I just didn’t want to make any hasty decisions. We still had years to decide what to do. Maybe the beast could become useful at some point. Who knew?

We’d had other issues to deal with during the past couple of weeks, anyway. My parents being the biggest of them.

Since my father was a well-known businessman, we needed a good, solid plan to make sure I wasn’t jeopardizing the supernatural community, nor draw any unwanted attention to myself. I couldn’t live the rest of my life without them, and even the idea of having to hide my identity was exhausting enough.

That night, Chase teleported me into their backyard, where no one could see us. I’d been preparing myself to meet them for these past two weeks, but I was still a nervous wreck. An emotional one at that. I peered over my shoulder and received an encouraging smile from Chase.

“It’ll be fine,” he whispered before retreating into the shadows.

I took a deep breath and turned to face the backdoor. God, how many times had I sneaked in through that very same door in my younger years…?

I pushed the memories out of my head and knocked on the door. The lights were on, so they had to be still awake, but I had to wait for a moment before I saw movement behind the curtains. It was Dad. He was probably wondering who could be knocking on their back door so late at night. He peered past the curtains and saw me.

He froze. I waved at him, trying to smile and not start crying on the spot. Dad hurried to open the door and again froze to stare at me.

“Hey, Dad,” I muttered.

“Dante…?” he breathed out.

He looked so much older than I remembered… He had a lot of gray in his hair and several new wrinkles on his face. People said I looked a lot like him, though he was a bit shorter than I was.

“How…? Where have you been?” he asked in a whisper, stepping outside, looking like he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“It’s a long story,” I told him. “Can I come in?”

He didn’t reply to me. He flung himself around my shoulders and started crying. I could hear the words, my boy, repeated several times between his sobs. I obviously couldn’t keep myself together, either.

And then Mom appeared in the doorway.

“Dante?” she spoke my name like she was afraid of it. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, Mom,” I sniffed.

She pushed Dad out of the way. She, too, was in tears by the time she wrapped her arms around me. She seemed so fragile… She was a small woman, but now she looked even smaller.

“I missed you guys so much,” I whispered. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“What happened? You were kidnapped?” Dad spoke, trying to get a grip of himself.

“Let’s go inside – I have a lot to tell you,” I said.

Our good, solid plan? It was telling the truth. There was no other way. If I came up with a story that I was kidnapped, the police would get involved and the mountain of lies would grow so big I wouldn’t be able to keep it together too long. Besides, I didn’t want to hide my true self from my family.

If they didn’t believe me, then at least people would think I had gone completely mad and ran off into the woods for months. Cops wouldn’t be interested in that. They’d look into Lena’s disappearance with a closer eye, but they had nothing to tie her death to me. Then I could go back to Chase, start my new life with him, and not worry about any of this.

We sat down in the living room, and they kept giving me worried but teary glances.

“Okay, this is going to sound so, so crazy, but I need you to believe me. I need you two to keep everything I’m about to tell you a secret as well,” I began.

“What?” Mom coughed.

“Where have you gotten yourself into, son?” Dad asked with a frown.

“What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath. “I was kidnapped. By Lena.”

“What?” Mom breathed out, but dad didn’t look like it surprised him.

“Dad?”

He shook his head, looking angry all of a sudden. “I knew it. I knew it,” he just repeated and stood up. “There was something off about that woman!”

“You knew?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t know, but I had my suspicions. She was just… There was something off about her,” Dad said.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. She’s dead now,” I told them, and they turned to look at me with bewildered eyes. “And I escaped.”

“Where did she keep you? We need to call the police right now!” Mom said, also standing up, but I gestured for them both to sit back down, which they did – slowly.

“Like I said, everything I’m about to tell you, you need to keep as a secret. No cops. No media. Nothing.”

“But they need to be brought to justice!” Dad said sternly.

“There is no one left to be brought to justice,” I said quietly. “They’re all dead now.”

“But…” Dad frowned.

“Did you…?” Mom asked carefully, not finishing her sentence.

“It wasn’t all on me,” I muttered. I had a pause to take a breath before I could continue. “This may sound completely crazy, but they turned me into a werewolf.”

I stared at them. They stared at me. But the way they both looked at me… I crossed arms and leaned back in my chair.

“This is going to be a lot easier to explain than I thought,” I said.

“Well…” Mom muttered, twisting her hands and glancing at Dad.

“I mean…” Dad shifted next to her.

“You know about supernaturals,” I said – it was clear as day.

“They turned you into a werewolf?” Mom asked. “Why?”

“No, no, no, no. First, we talk about how you two know about supernaturals,” I said. “You never said anything to me!”

“Well, you were such a chaotic boy… We have allies to protect,” Mom said. “We wanted to make sure you were able to keep a secret like that.”

“She turned you into a werewolf. Why?”

“Well, do I have a story to tell, but since you already know about our kind, there’s someone I’d like you to meet,” I said, standing up from the couch. “He’s waiting for me outside.”

They gave me curious looks before I walked out of the massive living room and returned to the backdoor. I opened it and called for Chase, who stepped out of his hiding place.

“They already know about our kind,” I informed him.

“Oh, that makes things so much easier,” Chase said and walked to me with a smile. “Do they know you’re bi?”

“They do,” I chuckled.

“Oh, even easier,” he said with a chuckle.

I walked him to the living room. My parents stood up, looking at Chase with curiosity.

“Mom. Dad. This is Chase – my boyfriend,” I introduced them.

“Oh! Hello, Chase,” Mom came to greet him, Dad in tow.

That was a very odd night. Chase and I told them almost everything that had happened during the months I’d been gone. It went as expected: Dad threatening to sue the entire world, and Mom being an emotional wreck.

It took a few hours to tell the whole story, so it was way past midnight when we were finally done.

But now I had questions of my own.

“How did you know about our kind?”

“We have different kinds of beings as our friends and business partners,” Mom shrugged. “We’ve always known about their world – that’s how you Dad and I met.”

“But you’re…?”

“We’re humans, yes.”

“Did you ask for their help to find me?”

“We did, but no one ever found anything. It was like you vanished into thin air,” Dad said, looking sad now. “We tried everything. We turned every stone, asked every favor and used every spell we could think of.”

“We thought you were dead,” Mom whispered.

“Lena must have hidden her tracks better than we thought,” I muttered.

“Well, she was working with Graham – he must’ve given her a lot of things to hide your whereabouts. As long as you were with them, you couldn’t be tracked by magic,” Chase explained.

“And when we moved to Ben’s…” I muttered slowly.

“He had shielded his home, too,” Chase ended. “That’s why no one could find you.”

“But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We stopped them without dragging outsiders into this mess. They are gone, and I am free again,” I said.

The fact that they already knew about us made things so much easier. We talked for so long that eventually, my parents invited us to stay over so we could continue talking the next morning. We took their offer. It was odd to sleep in my old bed in my old room, but I liked it. Especially since Chase was there with me.

In the morning, when Chase and I exited my room, I could hear my sister, Amelia, in the living room, talking to my parents. When we stepped in there, the emotional roller coaster started again. Apparently, she already knew about supernaturals, too. I was a bit upset about that, but taken the fact I’d completely freaked out when Chase told me he was a warlock, I was sure my parents made the right call by not telling me. I really wasn’t a mature guy before my kidnapping.

After breakfast, we came up with a simple story for the media and the cops: I’d been kidnapped, and last night I had managed to escape. I was in such a bad shape that I couldn’t remember where the place was, who had kidnapped me, and how I got home. Dad would deal with the media and the cops that same day, claiming I was now at home and being taken care of. That would be it. In the future if anyone ever asked me about what happened, I could just tell I had no memories of it. Only one lie.

We stayed with them for the rest of the day, but then we had to go home to Eru. My parents seemed like they didn’t want to let me leave, but I promised to come visit soon.

“We have a small vacation planned, and we’re leaving tomorrow,” I told them. “Once we get back after the weekend, we’ll come visit you again.”

“Oh, where are you heading?” Mom asked.

“To the mountains,” I smiled. “We made friends with the king of dwarves and he managed to get us a suite in their spa.”

“Oh, that sounds lovely,” she said with a smile, taking my hands in hers. “I’m so happy you’re all right now,” she whispered, and started crying again. “I’m so happy you’re back home.”

“I’m happy too – I really missed you all,” I said, trying to stay calm.

After the lengthy, emotional goodbyes, Chase was finally able to take us home.

“Nice – that went smoothly,” I praised him when we landed pretty softly in the middle of his living room. Our living room.

“Thanks, babe,” he smirked.

He was getting much better at controlling his powers, and we rarely hit a wall when he teleported us. “You’re learning fast.”

“I have a good teacher,” Chase chuckled. “When he’s not losing his mind.”

I laughed as well. Poor Roe… But he chose his own mridien.

I pulled Chase into a hug and kissed him shortly.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“I just feel so incredibly happy,” I said with a shrug.

“Things went really well with your parents,” he said. “I’m so glad they already knew about us.”

“Yeah, that really made things a lot easier,” I agreed.

He smiled at me and got up on his toes to kiss me again. Things would’ve started escalating quickly, but then Eru came to interrupt us. She purred loudly and made circles around our ankles, but still gave us the stink eye for leaving her alone.

“Sorry girl,” Chase cooed and picked her up. “Now we need to start packing so we can just leave after breakfast. And you’re coming with us,” he told her.

“We don’t need much with us, do we?” I asked.

“We’ll probably stay naked most of the time,” Chase shrugged with a devilish smirk.

I couldn’t wait.

*****

I so wanted to get used to Chase’s way of traveling. We had our bags hanging on our shoulders and Eru in her container as we stood in the middle of the living room after breakfast the next morning. Chase took my hand in his, and a short moment later, we were standing in a corner of the reception of the dwarven hotel. No more long flights or sitting in the car for hours.

What a way to live. I had missed out on so much when I left Chase all those years ago.

The receptionist didn’t even blink an eye when we approached her. She gave us a wide smile and greeted us with our last names. I suppose it was easy to recognize us – there were only a few other humanoids besides the dwarves around.

As Chase checked us in, I turned to look out the windows. I could see the entire mountain range in the distance, and the House of Elders on top of the second peak. I really, really loved it there. There was an entrance to the shopping area inside the mountain right there in the lobby, so we didn’t have to step out even once if we wanted to go check it out.

This time we weren’t in a hurry, either. We’d stay there for four nights as simple tourists. Just a couple on their vacation. I couldn’t wait to explore the entire mountain during our time here.

We got our keys a moment later, so we grabbed our bags again and followed the receptionist’s instructions on how to get to our room. It was on the top floor. King Gregor was really spoiling us. A suite.

We found the elevator behind the corner and stepped in. Eru meowed in annoyance, patting the door of her container. We chuckled at her, and Chase promised to let her out as soon as we got in our room.

It wasn’t hard to find it. A short moment later, we stopped behind the door at the end of the short hallway, and Chase opened the door.

I nearly died on the spot, even though I had known what to expect. The entire opposite wall was a massive window, just like in the room we had on our trip to the House of Elders, which could now be seen on the left. And the room itself was just as gorgeous as a suite in a dwarven mountain could be. There was a fully functional kitchen on the right, a massive bed with big posts right in the middle of the room, next to the window, and a lounging area and a luxurious bathroom on our left. I walked to the door and peered in. The walls were covered in real vines, and there was a massive, round bathtub in the middle of it.

I turned around to take another look at the room. It was more like a garden than a hotel room. There were living trees, more vines on the walls, beautiful statues and paintings, big flowerbeds in each corner filled with pretty, exotic flowers, and it all had been decorated with dimly glowing rocks. I was sure the nighttime would be breathtaking in that place.

“Look,” Chase said, pointing up.

Half of the ceiling was made of glass to top it all off.

“This place is so beautiful,” I murmured in awe.

“I have the feeling this will be a very memorable vacation for our first one,” Chase said, giving me a gentle smile.

“Definitely,” I agreed, walking back to him. “I need to get a job so we can afford to travel to all these amazing places,” I murmured as I pulled him into a hug. “I want to see it all.”

“Well, you can always work in our shop – I’m sure Frank won’t mind,” Chase suggested.

“That actually sounds great,” I said truthfully. “I don’t think I can settle for a regular office job after this.”

“Then consider yourself hired,” he purred and kissed me.

“So, no more danger. We have the cure. Killian is gone. I got my family back. I’m officially living with you. And now I have a job as well,” I spoke. That bubbly feeling that had followed me everywhere ever since Chase bound me to him was intensifying inside me. “What else could I possibly wish for?”

“For a nice, hot bath,” he murmured.

“Oh, yes please,” I chuckled.

Half an hour later, we dipped our toes into the hot water in one of the private caves this spa had to offer. The cave was dim, but the stones at the bottom of the little pool gave us enough light to move around. My entire body relaxed immediately after I sat down in the water, and especially when Chase sat right next to me. I put my arm around his shoulders and pulled him tightly against myself.

I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I was content. I was happy.

“I can’t believe we got through it,” I whispered.

“I can – we are awesome at kicking ass,” Chase chuckled, pressing a kiss on my lips.

I laughed as well and turned to look at him.

“We made it,” I murmured.

“We made it,” he smiled.

“Thank you for never giving up on me. I would’ve given up without you,” I told him.

He placed his hand on my cheek. “I will never give up on you. You came back to me, and I will never let you go. Even death can’t take you away from me. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

I smiled, feeling emotional again. “I never should’ve left you. I won’t make that mistake ever again.”

“We are here now, and we are stronger than ever before,” he said quietly. “Now we get to start all over again – without danger or fear.”

“Yes,” I said and kissed him. “I can’t wait.”

He didn’t want to leave it at that. He climbed on my lap and pulled me back into the kiss, refusing to end it anytime soon. I was so happy. I was so incredibly happy that it almost scared me. But there was no room for fear anymore. And there was no room for the bad things of my past. There was only Chase and this new life I had with him.

I focused on him, his warm body against mine, his soft lips, his love… I had to admit, I could get used to making out in a hot tub first thing in the morning. This was a very nice way to start the day.

Another day in Heaven…

-The End-

Thank you so much for reading this story!

Having you here, supporting me and reading this little story of mine means the world to me <3