[Echo]There was a lot to worry about lately. With the strange darkness in the area and goodness only knows what other strange magic was in the air, I was having trouble with my sleeping. Maybe it was just nerves, but I was having nightmares. I was really worried, though.  Harmony was training with the warlock, Rhett, in order to learn how to kill the darkness. I wished this was something the triad could take care of, but there were some things we couldn’t do together. Rhett insisted that only Harmony be the one to take on the darkness. He rubbed me the wrong way. I had met Rhett twice more since I took Harmony to meet with everyone and I didn’t like how he flirted with me. It annoyed Victor and Gray. If not for seeing him flirt with Talia and Phoebe the first time he came over, I would have thought that it had been his goal to make them mad. He certainly didn’t seem to be worried about their anger, though. It made me wonder just how strong Rhett was. Victor had called him over to arrange an agreement with him like the werewolves had. If we didn’t bother him, he wouldn’t bother us and he had the ability to wander the territory without being hassled by vampires, once they knew what he was. I was shocked to see Rhett’s strange clothes and barely registered his words until Gray growled at him. I thought he was just being nice, but Gray didn’t growl at just anyone. He wasn’t jealous because he knew the only other man in my heart was Victor. I couldn’t love anyone as much as I loved them. Gray growled when Rhett made some sort of comment about bees and flowers that I didn’t quite understand. Once I realized he was being flirty and insinuating things, I turned bright red and left the room. I didn’t really like Rhett. He was masking something about himself and used abrasiveness to hide it. Normally, I would try to talk to someone to get them to open up to me, but that wasn’t something he wanted. He was aggressively flirty in order to get me to leave him alone. Harmony told me he wasn’t as bad when he was teaching, but the first few minutes of each visit, he was a little over the top. Cam wasn’t as growly and possessive as Gray was. That was the difference between a common wolf and an Alpha blood wolf, though. He didn’t seem to like the flirting, but he claimed my sister in other ways. Lisa, Wendell, and I worked on cleaning up the house. We did a deeper clean a couple of times a month, but today was a fairly light day. All of us missed the days when we could open the windows to let fresh air in without chilling the house. Having someone else to help made the daily chores go faster and we ended up with more free time. I spent a lot of time learning another language. I didn’t like the idea of going to classes, so I used the language learning app that I downloaded when I moved in with Victor. He would talk to me in Spanish for a while every night and I would work on answering him. Before she went back to living with Bellamy a few weeks ago, Talia would sometimes join in the conversation.Her home was in Spain and it was one of the languages she spoke as well. Talia told me it would be important for me to know every language spoken by the vampires in the region, that way they couldn’t say things behind my back. She reminded me of how catty vampires could be. Talia told me it would be harder when I moved on to dead languages. Victor was always nice to me when I messed up, but I was learning quickly. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be when I had someone to practice with. Victor wrote out a list of all the languages he spoke and I would be learning all of them. I didn’t know if I was smart enough for that, but Victor and Marius said I would definitely be able to. We were taking it one language at a time. After lunch, I sat down with one of Victor’s books about supernaturals. I had met a lot of different supernaturals, but I was still learning. There were so many different fae in the world and so many different species of shapeshifter. Now that I was more healed from my past, my senses had increased and I could tell the difference between different sorts of supernaturals. Except Rhett. He was the only one who didn’t have a distinct scent for me. He just smelled like a human. I studied for a couple of hours, then went to turn on the heated blanket for Victor. I loved how much earlier in the day Victor could wake in the winter. He and Gray were getting along a lot better now and there wasn’t nearly as much bickering between them. Gray was still very moral and vocal about it. He had some problems with Victor’s solutions to issues in the territory. He really didn’t like Rhett coming over and always wanted to be there if Victor was planning to invite him. At first, Victor took offense, thinking Gray was implying that he couldn’t keep me safe. It took them some time to talk it out and understand the other person’s position. When I refused to sleep with either of them until they worked it out, was when they both decided to stop being so stubborn about it. Some people thought I was lucky to have two mates, but they were both stubborn and bullheaded at times. It could be frustrating to play mediator between them, but they were both still working through prejudices they had about each other’s species. I tried to be understanding, but it made me tired a lot of the time. Nothing worthwhile was ever easy, though. I also saw them growing as friends. Gray’s family accepted Victor as easily as they accepted me. His grandfather had even stopped being as much of a jerk. The new sense of safety and security in the region was a big part of that. He was seeing how much better it was to have peace between vampires and werewolves. My alarm went off, letting me know it was time for Victor to start waking up. I went upstairs and curled up in bed with him. I had been waiting because I didn’t want to accidentally fall asleep. For some reason, I’d been getting really tired lately. I figured it was because I didn’t have as much to occupy me as I did back when I lived with my siblings and fake parents. Now that I was truly free to do as I pleased, I was more relaxed. “Good evening, Princess. Did you have a good day?” Victor asked when he woke up and started stroking my shoulder. “It was okay. We got all of our chores done. What are we doing tonight?” I asked. “I have to meet with the vampire who will infiltrate the community we are investigating. They will be here shortly after dark. Did you want to sit in?” “Sounds kind of boring,” I giggled. Victor chuckled. “It may be that, but we have a duty to our people to make sure they’re safe. A few vampires have disappeared and we need to find out what happened to them. Are you feeding me tonight, or will it be bagged blood?” “Bagged blood. I don’t want to be even more tired when I have to be around a strange vampire. Are you okay with that?” I asked. “Of course, Echo. You need to stop asking me that. I will always be alright with your choice. And you’ve been a little bite shy for the last month. Are you having nightmares again?” With a sigh, I cuddled on his chest. I never wanted to be a burden to him and Gray, so I kept things like that to myself. I was a lot less likely to let Victor bite me when I was having dreams or flashbacks. Usually, they wouldn’t say anything unless I talked to them before. I knew I was supposed to tell them, but it was still hard. When I went to my counseling sessions, I would talk to Link about it. He told me he wouldn’t tell anyone else unless it seemed like I was going to hurt myself and he encouraged me to talk to Victor and Gray. Even though it had been almost a year since I came to live with Victor, I was still not fixed. I thought it would be a lot easier, but everyone else said it would take a while. Part of me hated not being healed already. I felt like I was failing when I wasn’t all better. “Echo….” “I’m sorry. Winter was always harder for me and the stress of whatever is going on is making my anxiety worse. I’ve been having bad dreams a lot lately. Sometimes, if I start drifting off, I think I can hear some of the vampires that used to feed on me. Maybe this is why I’m so tired lately,” I admitted. “No vampire will ever hurt you again. Would you like me to see if Dennis can help with your dreams for a while, just so you can get some adequate rest?” Victor asked. “Do you think he would? I’d appreciate it.” “How about if we cuddle for a little longer and you take a half-hour nap? I’ll call Dennis and see if he will come meet us tonight. When you get up, we’ll go downstairs for my meal. Does that sound okay?” I was already under the blankets, curling against him and breathing him in before he finished talking. He chuckled and rubbed my back as I let myself drift into sleep. In my sleep, I could hear the quiet murmur of Victor’s voice. It comforted me. Nothing could get me if Victor was there. A while later, Victor started stroking and kissing my face gently. I felt a little more rested, but I wanted to keep sleeping. He started gently prodding at me as I clung to him and grumbled, hiding my face from his kisses. “Come on, sweet Echo. We have much to do this evening. Dennis says he’ll come after our meeting to help you with your dreams and I want you to go to sleep early tonight. You need to catch up on rest,” Victor said as he tried to pry me off. I wanted to be persistent, but I felt myself waking up more as I fought to stay asleep. I hated the idea of losing time with Victor and Gray tonight, but it had been a while since I got a full night’s sleep. Reluctantly, I let Victor out of bed and got up. He went to get ready for the day while I pulled myself off the comfortable mattress. We went downstairs and he got his blood for the evening. Gray came home at six in the evening, while we were setting up for meeting the vampire who was coming. He came into the office and gave me a kiss before he went to shower. Ever since he started working for Rock, that was his habit. He would kiss me hello and go shower. Wendell was cooking dinner. She would normally eat with us since Lisa had dinner with her mate in the guest house. Lisa was excited for the other houses to be finished so she and her mate could have the guest house to themselves. Wendell slept in one of the rooms in the house. Lisa and Neil shared the guest house with the pack warriors who were still with us and the rogues who were learning the job had tents set up outside it. I worried about the rogues out there in the cold with only tents, but all of them assured me that the tents were more than enough. Secretly, I thought they were excited about the houses Rock was building as well. Rogues tended to stay tight-lipped about things they were looking forward to.