Yeah, so Casen, Sev, and Corinda thought that I was asleep while they had their little talk. They don’t realize how light you sleep when you’re a parent. The second that they started talking, I woke up. I heard everything. It was hella awkward. I really wish that Sev was part of the pack. I want to mindlink him about what just happened. He’s gotta be dying. I know I am. But after about 10 minutes of no more talking, I fall back asleep. —----------- I wake up when we stop to get something to eat. They got me a burger, fries, and a shake. Sev hands it to me, but after missing my mouth on several occasions and spilling my shake on the floor, they decide that I need to be able to see. Plus, everyone wants to get out and stretch their legs for a bit. So Casen gets me replacement food and we drive to a rest stop. They pull around the back of the building and lead me into the woods with the food. Once we’re far enough in, they take off the blindfold and I hiss as the sun
We have another three hours to drive. We stay quiet for the majority of the time, talking only occasionally. Mostly, we’re thinking about what Brandon had to say. Looking at it now, I really think that I told Case and Sevy…Sev, the truth about my feelings towards Brandon. It’s not him I’m attracted to, per say. I mean, he’s attractive, but he’s a werewolf. We’re all attractive. Shit, we don’t even get acne as teenagers. It’s part of the predatory thing that comes with being a wolf. Sleek and beautiful appearances attract better mates and put prey at ease. But that wasn’t what attracted me to Brandon. It is truly that he didn’t hold back when he called me on my shit. He didn’t treat me like I was this fragile thing. When Case tackled me in the forest, I felt the same thing, though it did go a little deeper because he was my mate. Now that I see the attraction for what it is, the agitation is gone. I just wish I hadn’t embarrassed myself like that. Likely, Brandon’s who
We drive through the night to the safehouse. I end up driving the whole way, feeling more agitated than tired. I still want to talk to Sev about what I heard him and Brandon talking about. I’m also worried about how he’s taking everything. He was so cold when we were talking to Corinda earlier and he barely said a word when we got back into the truck after talking with Brandon. He’s even closed down the link, putting up a mental barrier that stays in place even when he’s asleep. He’s starting to shut himself off from me the same way that Corinda has and I’m floundering. I feel so lost without him. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to depend on his comforting touch, physically and in my mind. I love him so much and I can’t stand the thought of him becoming this cold, unfeeling person. The only one that he seems to want to interact with is Brandon. I’m extremely jealous, but I can’t say that I don’t understand it. Brandon has only tried to help him the entire time that he
Jacob has a fretful night; almost as if he knows that Arya and I are on edge about meeting with CCS and Brandon tomorrow. “Shhh, Jakey. I know. I know. Ma and Pop are worried and you are, too. It’s ok, buddy.” I’m rocking him in the chair by the window. It typically works, but tonight seems to be the exception. We agonized over what we would have Jacob call us for the entire week before we went to visit Xander the first time. We knew that we would see Lacey and Isaac then and we were afraid of their reaction if we took to calling ourselves Jacob’s Mom and Dad. But they had thought of a solution when we came to see them. Jake would call Arya “Ma,” which is the Afrikaans word for “Mom.” I would be “Pop,” the name that both Isaac and I had called one of each of our grandfather’s. And when we spoke of Lacey and Isaac, they would be Mommy and Daddy. “What do you think is going on with him?” Arya asks, pitching her voice over Jacob’s thin whine. “I don’t know, Angel. I think
I slept like the fucking dead and am full of energy when Sev wakes me up at 6 the next morning. When I come out of the living room, I find Corinda putting the food away in the cupboards while Case packs a bag of extra clothes for everyone. That worries me. Does he think that they’re going to have to shift quickly? Why would they have to do that when this is supposed to be a friendly meeting? But at the same time, I know that I’m not going to be going home today, so this isn’t going to go as well as they had planned. We leave within half an hour, stopping to get food on the road a little later. Again, I’m blindfolded, which in all honestly, is starting to get really fucking old. I know that I slept most of the day yesterday but I’m all caught up on sleep now and ready to do something. It would be nice if I could at least look at the people I’m talking to. Corinda is a bit more friendly today and Sev and Case are definitely feeling a lot better. I wonder if they were able to t
“They’re being attacked!” Zak cries. “By what?” I ask, already feeling battle plans formulate in my head. “Witches. Three of them.” Charlie’s voice is strangled with the worry that I can feel rolling off of her. Dev hurries to the cockpit. I overhear him telling the pilot to find someplace to land now. We don’t want the witches to have access to our only escape route. We’ll land here and then shift and run to the fight. “Buckle up, everyone,” the pilot says over the intercom. “We’re going to land now.” We all sit, buckling our seatbelts. I look at the other pregnant she-wolves with us. When it was just meeting with Corinda, Casen, and Severn, I was all for them coming. Now? Not so much. “Ladies - “ I start, feeling my stomach do flipflops as the plane begins descending quickly. “Don’t even think about it Arya,” Kare says, her voice flinty and her eyes like steel. “We just went through this with our mates.” “Yeah, but that was when we knew exactly where the
Severn Brandon’s friend, Devin, uses his gift to heal the abrasions, cuts, and bruises I got from fighting the witches, but also replenishes my strength. “Stick with the witch on the left!” he yells to me, Casen, and Brandon. “We’re all going to team up and split ourselves between the witches.” “Got it!” Casen yells back and the three of us take off toward our designated witch. The two guys that had been fighting her take off and join other groups. She seems surprised that we are back and able to fight. That makes two of us. “Make a circle!” Brandon calls. We surround her and Case hits her with a blast of frigid wind so strong that it knocks her back and flecks of ice start to form in the air, pelting the witch with large frost covered shards. Cuts appear on her exposed skin and in her clothing. “Blasted cur!” she screams and throws up a wall of magic, blocking the wind. I cause the earth to roll beneath her, knocking her off balance and casuing her fall to the gro
Brandon moans in the backseat as we jolt over tree roots and take hard curves around trees. Each time, Case apologizes, but there isn’t really much that he can do. We had to get the fuck out of there. Those witches showed up out of nowhere and the one sacrificing herself to call the others…there was no way to know when they would show up and when a freaking oracle tells you to get the fuck out, you make tracks as fast as you fucking can. Casen rolls the windows down. He puts his hand out the window, opening it and curling his fingers in towards the himself. The cab of the truck fills with scents from throughout the forest: elm, squirrel, oak, blood, and incense. “They’re about five miles away, but they’re gaining fast,” Casen says. “The plane’s in that clearing right there,” the oracle says, pointing to a stand of trees about a half a mile off. The closer we get, the easier it is to see that there is a clearing and a plane at one end of it. Unfortunately, the trees are