Chapter 150: Chapter 149

Xander Lanie stood at the door, frozen by shock.

Her scent hit me a moment after she'd entered, and | wrinkled my nose at the same time that my mouth watered. The intoxicating smell of her sex mixed with the musky tinge of Mason.

That as shole had interrupted Lanie and me for the second time. I'd dumped my frustrations onto Zane, complaining that Lanie hadn't seemed head-over-heels back in love with me when we'd kissed.

Zane was upset, too. When we woke up and all of our memories were back, we were both rocked by an extreme surge of feelings for Lanie, like being with her again was the most important thing in the world.

But clearly, she didn’t feel the same way. Now here she was, alone with us again. And very naked...

“Here,” Zane said, offering her a blanket from the bed. She threw it around herself.

“Don't get too attached,” she said, nodding her head toward Stella, “We’re leaving tomorrow. Mason might join us.”

Tomorrow? What the f uck?

“No,” | said bluntly. “Where would you even go?”

“To see my family,” she said, biting her lip. | could tell that even just mentioning it made her emotional. “My mother and my sister.”

“We don’t want to tell you not to see them, Lanie, Zane said.

Speak for yourself.

“But we’re your family, too,” he continued.

“And Stella is mine,” | said, my voice rising slightly. “Why didn’t you tell us about her?”

Alice was pregnant then, but that didn’t mean we wouldn't have stuck by Lanie’s side too.

“| didn’t find out until just before the spell was cast over me,” she said, her eyes going unfocused.

She reached out for Stella, and | handed her over.

“It seemed less complicated if we could just start over,” Lanie explained, setting her down in her bassinet and rocking it slowly.

“But you u can’t turn off a mate bond like that,” | argued. “We loved you, and you left us.

H Her eyebrows shot up to her forehead. “Oh, that’s rich,” she whisper-yelled. “Have you forgotten that you didn’t choose me? You want me now that Alice is dead and no longer an option.”

She had no idea what the f uck went on with Alice. She wasn’t there.

Mason, My jaw clenched almost as hard as my fists.

“Don’t argue with her,” Zane warned. “It won't get you anywhere.”

“She’s saying a bunch of b ullsh it,” | growled. “I won’t take that.”

“Alice fooled us both,” Zane jumped in, attempting to calm me down. “If we’d been able to see beyond her, we would've realized immediately that it was you. It was always you.”

Her expression seemed to soften slightly.

“But I’m a hybrid,” she said. “Aren’t you worried that that puts you and the twins in danger?”

“No better place for a hybrid to hide out than in the arms of an Alpha and his Beta,” | said. “We can protect you like no one else can.”

Worry lines creased her forehead. She was considering it, | could tell.

“Your mother doesn’t seem to agree, Xander,” she said. So much for that. “She wants me to go while things with the Council blow over at the mansion.”

” F uck what my mother said,” | growled. “This family should stay together.”

“Careful there, Xander,” Zane warned. “Remember whose babies you're rocking to sleep every night.”

Shi t. It was only a matter of time before Mason put two and two together with the twins and the fact they. might be his. At least if he left with Lanie, he’d be away from them for a while.

“I'm going Xander,” she said assuredly. “I’m done arguing about it. I’m leaving tomorrow, and you're not coming with me.”