Lanie


    Packing up an entire life, including three little kids, was surprisingly easy to do with four parents, a grandmother, and two new friends to help.


    The sense of urgency Charlotte and Greyson had given us also helped.


    Still, the fact that we were all rolling up to a freaking vampire enve less than two days after the first minute I''d walked into that bar to meet Charlotte... I was still struggling to wrap my head around it.


    We''d decided to take our SUV instead of one of my mates'' trucks. I knew leaving them behind weighed on their minds, but they hadn''tined about it. My heart had ached as we drove away from the house I''de to love so much, and I hadn''tined about that, either.


    Our lives were changing so fast, there wasn''t time to worry about what we were leaving behind. It was taking all ourbined energies just to focus on the future.


    Isaae and ina were still sleeping, but Ste was wide awake and wide-eyed as she looked out the windows of the SUV. I understood her surprise. Sure, they''d told us it was an enve. They hadn''t said it was a freaking fortress.


    Insanely high walls of gray and brown stone rose highinto a clear blue sky unlittered by clouds. A set of huge wooden doors studded with what looked like iron bolts were closed in the center of the closest wall, while smaller, person-sized doors eut into the stone on each side.? N?velDrama.Org - All rights reserved.


    Not a window in sight, but I did spy a few of what looked like window slits in the stone. A turret rose in each corner, each with a lookout window, but we were too far away for me to see if anyone was inside.


    "Does a princess live here?" Ste asked in her sweet little voice.


    "Well, my little love, we are going to live here, and you re my princess. So I guess a princess does live here." I made sure to keep my voice cheerful, no hesitation or worry in it.


    I got out to stand next to the SUV and stare up at the massive stone fortress. My heart pounded, but my spirits were lifting. I opened myself to the Moon


    Goddess, waiting for herfort, and it entered me in what felt like rippling sparkles of silver.


    "Love? You okay?" Zane slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me close. He kissed my temple.


    I beamed at him. "This was the right choice. I can feel the Goddess moving through me."


    Zane''s smile looked a little wary. "Good to know."


    "You''re not convinced." I faced him, my arms around his neck.


    Gabri was helping Mason get the twins out of the SUV while Xander and Greyson talked next to the truck he and Charlotte had arrived in. Zane looked over at them all, then at me. He smoothed the hair from my forehead and tipped my chin upward with one finger.


    "I trust you. I love you. I believe in you, and our family," Zane said. "You''ll have to forgive me if all of this is taking some time to work through."


    We''d all been through so much over the past year, but it urred to me that Zane had endured the most. His deal with the witch still haunted him. He didn''t talk about it, but I sensed it in him during the small, quiet moments when he allowed his mind to dwell.


    Now, we had left before he could know for sure what had happened.


    And we obviously wouldn''t be reaching out to her to check in.


    There wasn''t time to ask him about it now, but I made a mental note to keep in touch with him, his feelings, his needs. Zane must have felt my curious probe, because his head tilted as he smiled down at me.


    "Luna, Luna, Luna," he whispered. "How lucky I am to have you."


    "Lanie!" Charlotte called to me with a wave, and the moment between me and Zane dissipated.


    Charlotte came closer and gestured toward the massivestone walls. "We''ll go through those small doors, there. Someone wille and bring in the vehicles with our luggage. Are you ready? We really should get inside."


    "Are we in danger?" I asked, rmed.


    She hesitated, then shook her head. "I don''t know, but I think until we are convinced otherwise, you should consider that unless you are inside those walls, yes. You are all in danger."


    "From who? From what?" Zane asked quickly. "The High Council?"


    Again, Charlotte hesitated before she sighed and looked to the sky. She looked past us, to the vast, empty skan ins. Mountains rose in the distance, their peaks snow-capped, but the ground here was bare and brown. When she returned her gaze to ours, her expression was shadowed.


    "Wolves are so insr, so isted...so ignorant," she added in a low voice. "The High Council did that to you all after the Great War, but it wasn''t always like that.


    What I can tell you is that there are threats that have nothing to do with your small wolf world. But for now, let''s get you all inside."


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