How lovely.
He turned back to Blair. “Stalking is essentially mental assault. A cat and mouse game. He’ll try to confuse you. Terrorize you. Isolate you. The end goal is to own you. To have the ultimate power over you. And if he can’t get that, he’ll instead seek to destroy you. That’s why you have to be very careful, Blair. Do not mistake him for some lonely, lovesick loser who’s more of a danger to himself than others. In this instance, the one person in the most danger from him is you—never forget that. Not even for a second.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Waiting in the front yard while Vinnie said his goodbyes to the Alpha pair, Luke curled an arm around Blair’s shoulders and pulled her close. Restlessness buzzed beneath his skin, making his muscles tight. Talking of the danger that lingered around her had left him as edgy as his pacing cat.
Luke scanned the entire cul-de-sac. One of the pride whistled as he washed his car. Another tended to her flowerbeds while chatting with her neighbor, who was drinking coffee. Although there was nothing out of the ordinary to note, Luke’s unease remained. It probably wouldn’t leave his system until the threat to Blair was gone.
“Well, that was intense,” she said, her voice low.
He glanced down at her. “The things River said spooked you?”
“I wouldn’t say they spooked me. But I guess I was guilty of branding my harasser a sick and pathetic—albeit dangerous—loser. I didn’t see that there was so much more to the gift sending and prank calling than simply getting my attention. I didn’t consider all the angles of the situation.”
“And so you’ll be sure to follow River’s advice?”
“Yes, I will. Starting with changing my number.”
Luke pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Good girl.”
“Well, it’s common sense to—” She cut off as her cell began to chime. Blair whipped her phone out of her pocket. “It’s Embry,” she told Luke before answering, “Hello.”
“I wish you’d told me about the email sooner,” said the Alpha, the cell’s volume setting loud enough for Luke’s enhanced hearing to pick up the words.
“I only received it the night before last,” said Blair. “And I genuinely did mean to come to you about it once I’d brought Luke up to speed on everything. Though I was worried you’d have insisted someone was either pranking me or merely trying to poke at Luke.”
“I would not have ignored or attempted to downplay this, Blair. Be very assured that I will look into it. I don’t believe that the email was written by one of the pack, but I’ll question everyone in any case.”
She narrowed her eyes, no doubt annoyed that he wasn’t open to the idea of his pack mates having some involvement. “You think they’d admit to it?” she asked.
“No. But I’m good at making people slip up.”
Blair didn’t dispute that, so Luke figured it had to be true.
“I hope you’ll call your mother at some point.”
“We’re not doing this, Embry,” Blair firmly stated. “Let it alone.”
A loud sigh. “All right, fine. Just let me say one last thing—she might have a funny way of showing it at times, but she loves you more than life, Blair. That’s one thing I can say with complete certainty.” With that, he hung up.
Blair returned her cell to her pocket as she looked up at Luke. “I take it you heard all that.”
He nodded. “Embry sounded edgy and tense. Maybe the email whipped off his blinders, or maybe …”
“My mother’s pressuring him to insist I return, and he knows that he has to first sort out the present situation and prove it’s safe for me to go back there,” Blair finished. “Yeah, I had the same thought.”
“But you’re not going anywhere, are you?” It came out sounding like more of a statement than a question.
“No, I’m not. Lucky you.”
His lips canted up. “Oh, I’m definitely lucky.” He dropped a soft kiss on her mouth.
“On a darker note, you need to be careful. Like you said, whoever’s harassing me will feel like I betrayed them. They’ll be angry with you for claiming me. They might target you. And yes, I know you’d prefer that than for them to focus on me. But I need you to be safe. Don’t make yourself a target to protect me. You’d ask the same of me.”
He sighed, unable to claim that she’d gotten it all wrong and he’d never intended to somehow goad the son of a bitch. His mate would know it for the lie that it was. “I’ll be careful.”
Just then, his father approached and announced he was ready to leave. Luke kept Blair’s hand in his as the three of them exited the cul-de-sac. As they walked along the street of stores, he kept a close eye on their surroundings; noted every pedestrian, checked every rooftop, glanced at the drivers of each car that passed.