“You should try to get some sleep,” Dmitri’s hot breath tickled my ear as he tucked me against his chest; “There isn’t anything else we can do to prepare any more than we have already.” He was right. But even though I was thoroughly exhausted and my eyelids felt heavy, I couldn’t seem to close them and let sleep take me. I laced my fingers through the hand he had resting on my hip and tucked it under my chin, forcing his embrace to tighten around me. “You need to rest too,” I whispered over my shoulder. His soft, rumbling chuckle made his chest vibrate against my back as he held me. “That would be easier to accomplish if I couldn’t feel all the anxiety you seem to have been hiding from all of us all week.” I pinched off the emotional flow in our bond from him to me. “Don’t do that,” his deep gravelly voice sent a shiver down my spine. “I don’t want to be the reason you didn’
The incessant knocking kept either of us from asking each other how we managed to find ourselves out of the Aether, but in the same position we’d been in while we were there. I winced when Sophie’s voice interrupted my own thoughts, ‘I thought you wanted Alex safely tucked away in the vault first thing this morning?” ‘Give us a moment, we got a little distracted this morning,’ I had no desire to try and explain the truth to her when I couldn’t even explain it to myself. “Sophie’s here with Alex already, why don’t you go start a shower for us? I’ll help Sophie get her settled into the vault for the day and meet you in there in a bit.” “Selene,” his tone and expression told me that he wanted to make her wait. “We don’t have time to do this right now,” I argued. “We’ll make time later, for now, shower, please.” He let out a resigned sigh, “Fine, but we are going to have a discussion about this
I didn’t have time to chastise Dmitri for trying to purposefully upset Alexandria. We still had to show up to one last planning session with Caleb and breakfast with the rest of the pack house before the first guest was due to arrive. “We still have to arrange a time for the Thompsons’ request to say goodbye to their daughter; they’ve added a request for Alpha Selene to be there,” the fact that Caleb didn’t like any of that tickled me pink. “I’m not sure what use I’d be, other than to rile Candice up, but,” I gave our Betas a nod, “Sophie see where I can fit it into my schedule within the next week or so, please.”&nb
The next few days were just more of the same. Awkward wake up calls to get Alex tucked away for the day. Breakfast was becoming crowded, so we had to open another dining hall to make room for our guests. Sophie and I got the Lunas settled in as they arrived while the Alphas disappeared with Dmitri and Nathan. Jeanette was a bigger help to me than I thought she’d be. Letting her plan the social engagements for the Lunas freed up some of my day to handle pack business since Dmitri didn’t seem to be able to get away from the other Alphas. Only about half of them even brought their lunas with them. “What do we think of everyone so far?” Sophie flopped down on the sofa, eager to get the day ended so that she could let Alexandria out of the vault and be alone with her for the night. Nathan grumbled something incoherently; he was growing increasingly cranky every day that we hadn’t been able to fit in a sparring session to blow off steam and
The new schedule looked promising, especially since none of the Alphas arriving today were bringing their Lunas. With Sophie ushering them to their rooms, Dmitri, Nathan and I were able to catch up with all the paperwork that’d been piling up the last few days. They took care of all the appointments that needed to be handled in person so that I could meet up with the lunas at our community center after seeing Kalliope. “I’m surprised your mate hasn’t come down with you to finish grilling me about my time with the Vὅlsung,” Kalliope frowned at me, “or has he decided to abandon your promise to look for Alexandria?” I took a deep breath and folded my hands in my lap, “She actually prefers to go by Alex.” Kalliope’s face ran through a gauntlet of emotions that I couldn’t quite follow. Then she looked at me on the verge of tears and whispered, “You’ve talked to her? She’s alive? Is she okay?” “Yes, yes and yes,
Blake walked with me to meet Celeb and the Thompsons before heading up to Candice’s penthouse prison. “Do you think it was a good idea to show your hand, however little, to the lunas and their deltas?” I shrugged, “The most they could report is that I’m decently trained, and fast. I doubt any of them will say anything at all because then they’d have to admit that they tried a little training themselves.” “Maybe,” Blake sighed, “but if they do say something, it could make you look bad to the other Alphas.” I stopped walking and frowned at him, “Yes I must be positively evil to want their mates to remain safe and be able to defend themselves. People like Kelly and Sophie who have had no training can rely on their wolves to help them fight. Women without wolves are left completely defenseless. It’s senseless and reckless if you ask me.” “I’m not disagreeing with you,” he tapped his wrist to remind me that we
Dmitri sat astride one of three motorcycles parked out front of the guest house with a broad smile. “That took longer than I thought it would. She’s still alive isn’t she?” I frowned at him in mock annoyance, “As if Caleb would let me destroy his carefully crafted plan to make her death a public spectacle. I wasn’t even allowed to talk directly to her and tell her what a stupid cunt she was to ruin her last chance to talk to her parents.” “They didn’t look very upset when they left just now,” Dmitri cocked his head as if studying me, “What really happened up there?”&nbs
“You did better than I thought you would,” Dmitri watched me pull my hair back up after we showered and changed to meet the other Alphas for drink. I frowned at him over my shoulder, “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take that.” “You won Maxim over already,” he smiled, “I expected him to need a lot more than being yanked off his feet.” “Only a little over half of the Alphas are even here, and there’s still plenty of time for him to change his mind.”&