Zane
“Hell no. There’s gotta be another ce we can stay, | said.
Not only were there three very small babies with us but also three men who were in love with the same f ucking she-wolf. The
ce would explode into chaos in about two seconds
I''m not sharing a f u cking bedroom with these two.” Mason tossed his head toward us.
Lanie bit her lip an d looked nervously between all of us.
“There’s a couch and floor space,” Braden said. “How you split it up isn’t my problem.”
He started pulling luggage off the top of the car, including mine and Xander’s suitcases. A small spark of warmth bloomed in my
chest imagining Lanie packing them for us.
“And there’s no other ce you can go, so don’t ask again,” Braden said. “I had a witch cast a protective spell on the cabin anda
small area of thend surrounding it. There’s an imprable dome around the whole
thing.”
“How do you know about this ce?” Lanie asked, looking around with wonder.
s real?
| looked around, too, but couldn’t see any sign of a spell. How could we trust that it
that it was re
“This is where I’ve been living while I’ve been spying on the Council''s little hybrid project,” Braden exined. “That way if they
ever found out what | was doing, I’d have a ce to hide out.”
He still hadn’t been especially clear on what “spying” meant. | had to assume he’d tell us everything we needed to know
eventually, but it still seemed s tupid to trust him in the meantime.
Xander looked over at me. “You think he’s bul Ishi tting us?”
| shrugged. “Hard to say. | can’t sniff out a lie on a vampire.”
How convenient for Braden...
Xander stepped forward, crossing his arms. “Who cast the spell around the house?”
“Rhiannon, actually,” Braden answered.
they know
What the f uck? Since when did each other like that?
“We met during the Great Wars,” Braden answered as if I''d asked the question out loud. “That’s how |
know Gabri, too.”
Xander’s eyes narrowed. “Now you''re just saying random bu Ilsh it,” he spat.
don’t know
“He’s not,” Lanie said. We all turned to look at her. “Braden knows my mother, too. | don’t know why, but he
does”
Lanie rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at her lips. “We were all work
she-wolves during the Great Wars. The testing they’re doing now on Innocent hybrids started all the way back
then.”
Wait a minute...so the Great Wars weren’t just a power struggle between factions of shifters. it was also about checking the
Council’s power?
“That’s all a story for another day perhaps,” Braden said.
But Xander wasn’t ready to move on. “So in the wars..my mother was fighting for good?” he asked quietly.
Braden nodded. “She has been all along, even though your dad’s a royal a ss hole.”
Xander’s head dropped suddenly, and an emotion rolled off of him, so strong it was like a punch in the gut
for me, too.
Regret.
Gabri was doing her best to protect the weak, and we’d chased her away.
| looked over at Lanie. Her face was clouded with sadness. She was feeling his hurt, too.
“Well, I''m sure you''re all tired, and the sun’s about toe up,” Braden said, changing the subject. “I''ll be out here while you
sleep. You can move safely around the cabin and as far away as that cluster of trees. You''ll be able to feel when you''ve gone out
of bounds.”
He pointed to a group of trees about twenty meters in the distance. It was better than nothing, but still not enough space for
wolves to run and burn off energy. It would be a miracle if we didn’t rip each other’s
heads off within the first day of staying here.
We all shuffled inside, already crowding the living room with our luggage and the three basss.
| moved into the bedroom and discovered it was even tinier than it looked from the outside, with barely
enough room for a bed. Great.N?velDrama.Org owns all content.
Lanie walked up behind me and looked over my shoulder. “Da mn, it’s small,” she said.
| huffed out augh. “Yeah. You should take it,” | told her.
She didn’t argue with me. Her lids were heavy and her eyes were bloodshot. We all needed sleep.
| walked back out to the living room where Mason was starting a fire while Xander stood over him, watching awkwardly.
Thankfully, all the babies had stayed asleep after we moved them from their car seats.
“You think she''ll sleep in there with Mason?” Xander asked me silently as | entered.
“Yeah, probably,” | answered. Did | wish she’d pull the two of us into that room with her instead? Yes. |
liked imagining us all piling into the small bed together, bodies pressed up against each other. But | knew that
wouldn’t happen.
| grabbed a nket from the couch and spread it on the floor, then |id down without another word. Behind me, | could hear
Xander settling in on the couch.
Then Lanie stepped out of the bedroom and toward Mason, taking him by the hand. 2/3
Thest thing | saw before my eyes closed was her leading him into the bedroom and shutting the 8881.