“I’m Maya,” I confirmed, crossing my arms defensively feeling like I was somehow in trouble.
“My name is Darren Wilks, I am from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, this is my partner Bradley Hawkins.” They both flashed badges. “Would you mind if we spoke for a moment? We’ve been trying to reach you but it seemed you weren’t in school yesterday.”
“I wasn’t,” I confirmed, “what do you want to talk about?”
“How about we find a classroom so that we can sit down—”
I sighed in relief as Anani’s electrical scent wrapped around me and a dangerous noise came from his throat. My lips pulled into a smile as I looked down at his muscular wrist, my hair tie I’d left on my desk, officially in his collection. I had noticed him doing it the other day and I fully supported it. Mostly because I had started randomly taking t-shirts and other comfortable things they owned. My bed was like a comfortable nest of blankets, pillows, and whatever shirt I would wear to bed that night that reminded me of them.
Huh. That was a bit bird-like wasn’t it? I nearly smiled at that because the concept of actually being a shifter was setting in. Now, if I could only figure out how to actually shift.
“Gentleman,” Henry’s voice was dark and annoyed, “this is against protocol, what are you doing here?”
Ledger intertwined his hand with mine, Bradley looking at the twins and I in confusion. Probably because the group of us were intertwined so closely together.
Darren spoke, “We figured that this would be the easiest time to speak to her.”
“It’s not,” Henry growled, “use the contact information given for our family lawyer. She isn’t talking to either of you and if you don’t leave now I am going to be making a call to your bosses explaining how the FBI was going to have to deal with charges of harassment. Is that clear?”
Bradley sneered, “This is fucking ridiculous.”
Darren inhaled shaking his head before looking at me, “Maya, I hope that you will give us a chance to talk. We are just trying to figure out what happened.”
Instead of responding I stared at them blankly until they left, leaving me feeling exhausted in the wake of it. After their car pulled away, we walked down the school stairs towards Ledger’s car.
My eyes searched the parking lot as that odd feeling of being watched hit me again. Maybe that was because of the FBI? Or it could be because of my father. I hadn’t seen or heard from him though. Was it too much to wish he had disappeared?
The car ride was quiet as Henry spoke in low tones to what I assumed was their lawyer. Ledger drove and I curled up against Anani as my fingers played over his tattoos on his hands. I wasn’t clear why I found them so attractive...but I did. I found them really, really attractive.
Anani muttered a curse as we pulled towards our estate and found several media trucks parked outside. I nibbled my lip, unsure I was fully ready for this. I had no idea what to expect and this had the possibility of making things far worse than before.
Heads turned toward us as we stepped out of the car, instantly categorizing that there were four trucks and about twenty something people. Marco stood on the steps talking casually to them. My eyes narrowed on a woman that was a bit too close but she didn’t seem to be interested in him anymore than the man across from him. Plus, I had to admit, she was quite a bit older than both of us. Not that I would judge that, I was starting to realize that love wasn’t very good at limiting itself. I mean one of my mates was over two hundred years old.
“Hey,” I chimed as people greeted me. My eyes on Marco, watching as his smile grew.
“Hey, honey,” he kissed my temple as I turned to the woman next to him.
“You must be Maya,” she assumed, her soft brown eyes sweet.
“I am,” I smiled and put out my hand, “it’s wonderful to meet you.”
Marco chuckled, meeting my hand, “Kelsey from the LA Times, one of the only stationsactuallyinvited here.” Some of the others shifted uncomfortably as I looked around.
“I’m glad you're here,” I said sincerely before looking up at Marco, “where is Bella?”
“Upstairs in your room, the others are getting changed for the interview.” He explained as the other boys moved past me and I followed them up.
“I’ll be right back,” I assured and sighed looking around our large upstairs, glad to have space to get ready for whatever they would ask.
“See? That wasn’t bad,” Ledger smiled.
“That was part of it?” My eyebrows went up.
Anani laughed as Henry walked next to me towards my room. I mumbled in surprise as Atlas and Sai both looked up from where they sat on the bed with Bella jumping between them. The entire room was filled with clothing and two older women, talking quietly amongst themselves as Croy seemed to be listening to them while playing on his laptop. I could always tell when he was listening to others, even despite being slightly distracted, because every so often his eyes would flick up towards them or his head would tilt in their direction.
“There she is,” Atlas chuckled and I jumped into his arms practically at the same time he buried his head in my neck and I relaxed against him. Sai held Bella up as I kissed her nose.
“Where is my kiss?” Sai narrowed his eyes looking broody and grumpy.