I never should have let myself believe that any of this was going to work out the way I wanted. It felt like the ground had opened up beneath me and swallowed me up so that I couldn’t see anymore, or even breathe enough to catch my breath and scream. Nothing that happened the last few weeks meant a damn thing now. I read through the file, again just to be sure. I knew I was right to despise them. I’d always thought they were opportunistic bottom feeders, but this… this was beyond anything I could have imagined anyone capable of. Not only could they have killed her, but I’d almost died twice, and so had an innocent wolf. She could’ve been a walking death sentence to everyone around her when she first got here. Worse than that was the lie that started all of this and ripped everything good in my life away from me now. They couldn’t be brought back into custody fast enough for me or my wolf. We were going to kill them. It was just a matter of when and how

I was relieved to see Blake and not Nathan or Dmitri sitting there watching me sleep. He gave me a cheeky grin when I got dizzy from sitting up too fast, and he laughed when I stuck my tongue out at him. “So, how much trouble am I in this time?” I tried to smile, but I knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. “I think you’ll have to define ‘trouble’ before I can answer that,” it had to be a good sign that he was still smiling and sounded a little jovial. “Did mom and dad ground me to this room? This suite? The house? Or are they packing me up and shipping me off to boarding school in hopes that I’ll change my wicked ways and be the good girl they raised me to be?” his good mood was contagious and I couldn’t help but be a little over dramatic. “I don’t think you’re anymore grounded than you were before,” he grinned, “but I don’t know if that is because of interpack politics or because they don’t think they can do more than observe rather

                I’d started to think that he wasn’t going to show his face at all. Sophie’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning when he stepped through her doors. “Dimi?” her chair fell back on the floor, she stood up so fast. I couldn’t help but smile, watching her run across the room to tackle him. “I thought you said you couldn’t…”                He cut her off, “Someone helped me free up just enough time to visit with you for a little while before I have to get back to work.” He gave her a hug, looking at me over the top of her head. She kept an arm around his waist as he walked her back to the table, as if she was afraid to let him go. He picked her chair up for her, pushing it in as she sat down. “Good morning Selene,” he didn&rsq

                The goddess wearing my face looked at each of the twin as if she was trying to determine each of their worth, ‘Even after all they’ve suffered us to endure?’ She shrugged nonchalantly, the movement looking strangely elegant on her. ‘We cannot just create a mate for each of them out of thin air, not unless they’d like to wait a few decades.’                “What about all of the female shifters, they don’t have mates, can’t we just…” I waved my hands around like I was pairing them up with new mates.                She laughed softly, ‘Of course they have mates,’ she patted me on the head, like a small child. ‘

I waited for Sophie to close the doors behind her, before I headed off to find an unoccupied room. “We need to finish our talk, if you don’t mind.” I nearly had a heart attack when I heard his voice beside my ear. I hadn’t even heard him leave his parents’ suite, the sneaky bastard. “No. It’s late and I’m tired,” I complained, turning to face his bright blue eyes. “You’ll either have to hope you can fall asleep and dream with me still or wait until morning, Dmitri.” I stepped aside to put some space between us. “This can’t wait,” he pivoted with me, leaving the gap between us, but also stepping in the way so that I couldn’t just pass him. He opened the doors to his own suite. “After you,” he gestured to the room beyond. I stood there staring into the dark room as I debated with myself about what to do next. It felt like I was about to cross a line one way or the other, and yet no matter what choice I made, I knew that the conversation