Welcome to Halfling House: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Briarmoor Chronicles, Book 1) by Victoria Vassallo

Author:Victoria Vassallo [Vassallo, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria Vassallo
Published: 2024-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Icouldn’t shake the heightened anxiety that had blossomed after the previous day’s encounter with Gabe.

Throw in the headache from another night of unproductive power practice, and I felt like I was a bunch of electrified nerves, too frantic to function together. Sleep had eluded me, although the same couldn’t be said for Storm.

Shifters were supposed to have the ability to sense moods and emotions, but she didn’t seem to have that power yet. She’d pulled me out of bed and downstairs for her morning playtime with Gabe without a second thought, my nervous energy fuelling all my movements because I couldn’t stomach a cup of tea.

The fear refused to let me go. Even Mason noticed the heightened level of stress pumping through me, his lumbering frame settling beside me, placing his hand on my leg to slow the nervous tapping I had going on.

“No tea?” he commented. “The world coming to an end today, is it?”

“Something is.” I gave him a small smile, my thoughts split between the unexpectedly pleasant feeling of his hand on my thigh and the tension that littered every single cell of my body. It was the first thing to disrupt the pure anxiety that had been racing through me all night and morning. “Gabe saw Zane yesterday.”

“How’d that happen?” he asked, curiosity brightening his eyes. “You’ve done a pretty good job keepin’ all of them apart—well, except for Storm. But you didn’t have much choice in that.”

“Yeah, so Zane …” I rushed through the whole story, trying to sound like less of a clumsy mess than I’d been at the time. By the time I’d recounted it, Mason’s chuckle had become a proper laugh, although he did his best to hide it behind a cough. He politely covered his bearded mouth with his hand, the shade of his skin varying from a darker brown to a lighter tan where the calluses had formed from his work at the fire station and on the house.

“Gabe’s pretty understanding,” Mason reassured me. “So even if he didn’t believe your story, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“I’m not sure about that.” I grimaced. “Clara and I had to leave a lot of places before we were able to find a home here. And it’s only been successful so far because we haven’t had much to do with anyone. The thought that our home depends on whether Gabe keeps our secret …” I drifted off, looking over at Gabe with Storm.

“Anyone?” Mason looked at me, his gaze more serious than before. “I like to think I’m a bit more than that.”

“You know what I mean, Mason.” I put my hand on his. It hadn’t left the spot on my thigh, and I didn’t want it to. “I knew I could trust you from the moment I met you.”

And I’d never had to spend a second worrying about his integrity and commitment to helping us at Halfling House—not that I could tell him that.

“But Gabe …” I released a sigh.

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