"At least you can still listen," Theo growled when he arrived back in the same spot in Suicide Forest where he had seen David last.
His cousin glared at him. "I have always listened."
"Oh that's right. It was the talking that was the problem," he said.
"I didn't tell her that. I didn't tell her you were whoring around with humans. She assumed it. I would never…"
Theo lunged at him, knocking him off his feet. It was just enough of a push to get him to shut up.
David remained as he had fallen—sprawled out on the ground, glaring up at the cousin who was like a brother to him. No, Theo was more than that. He was his best friend.
"Forget everything I told you about it, Dave. It doesn't even fucking matter. How dare you make it seem like…"
"I didn't! I didn't even open my mouth. She reads me!" David shouted back. "You know I wouldn't do that to you."
Theo's chest was heaving from anger as he stared down at David, running his words over in his mind. "She reads you?" He repeated. "What does that even mean?"
"She reads me… without me even speaking. I don't know how to explain it. It's a twin thing." He pushed himself up into a sitting position and brushed the mud from his hands.
"Oh, so you were just thinking that I've fucked a lot of women? How is that better?" He snarled.
"Goddes, no," David grimaced, his voice catching at the disloyalty that was assumed.
He would never do that. He would never expressly think that. It was complicated the way thoughts worked and even more complicated the way Gia interpreted his. He could have simply thought of… of Theo making out with a human and Gia could easily make that into something entirely different.
"You know how she is… she makes assumptions. She makes things bigger than what they are. She gets up on her high horse and gallops off into the distance without so much as a glance back at the rest of us," he gestured with his hand toward the distant horizon as if he was watching her ride away.
Theo huffed, the truth of Dave's words sinking in. Gia was certainly like that. He was right. Perhaps it was more innocent than how it sounded after all. It made more sense. He didn't want to believe that David would talk about him that way, because that wasn't the Dave he knew. That wasn't the character of a future Beta.
"You never told me she reads you." He was still glaring at Dave, but his anger had softened. The threatening Alpha aura was gradually receding.
"You think I want anyone knowing that?"
"I guess you're right," Theo grunted, offering his cousin a hand and lifting him from the muddy ground. "Fine. I forgive you. Who else knows about the tree?"
David frowned. Really? He just forgave him that easily and now they were on to the next topic?
"Did you tell your parents? Does Aunt Greta know?"
"No," David sighed. "I wasn't going to risk making you even angrier."
"Thank the Goddess." Theo patted him on the shoulder and turned to look at the tree. Yep, he was officially forgiving Dave. If Greta or Sam had found out, this whole situation would be fucked.
"Is your mom beside herself?" He asked.
"Of course she is. I told her we were in Suicide Forest earlier," David muttered only to have Theo shoot him a renewed glare. "I also told her that Gia is fine. That I could tell. You know… because of the twin thing. And I told her that I would find her and not to worry. And she doesn't want to worry dad about anything extra these days of course, so… easy peasy. As long as we get my sister back, that is."
Theo scoffed and glared into the black cave under the ancient, gnarled tree. That was going to be the trick alright.
"What's in there?" Dave asked, following the line of his gaze.
"Fucking vampires," he said.
"What?" His cousin's mouth dropped open for the second time today looking at that tree. "Your mate is a vampire? I thought maybe a fae, but a vampire?"
"No. She's not a vampire," he said. "But she's in there. And I don't know what to do about it. And now…" he sighed heavily. "Gia is in there, too."
"Goddess, Gia," David groaned, running a hand down his face miserably. If there were a worse scenario, he couldn't think of one.
Theo's eyes suddenly snapped to his cousin's. David said he thought Theo's mate may be fae. That might actually help explain why she was being kept in Gray Vale. Fae and vampires were natural enemies. If they had captured her or were using her as some kind of hostage…
His brows pinched together at the possibility. Was his mate fae like his mother? It would make sense, wouldn't it? It was at least the most promising theory at the moment.
"How are we going to get her back?" David asked, hoping there was a plan.
"We are not going to do anything," Theo said. "I'm going in there to find her. You are going to stay here, and you aren't going to let anyone know about this tree or this cave or this portal. Or about my mate. Or the vampires. Okay? It could literally mean the end of our pack, Dave. I mean it."
"I hear you," David nodded. "Is there a good chance you will find her?"
"Of course," he slapped David's shoulder and sauntered toward the tree like this would be no problem at all. He was lying of course. "But… uh, David?"
"Yeah Thelonious?"
"If I don't come back out… if it takes too long. Tell them anything but the truth, okay? Tell them Gia and I were abducted by aliens if you have to. But don't tell them the truth."