Chapter 167: Chapter 166

Zane “Hell no. There’s gotta be another place we can stay, | said.

Not only were there three very small babies with us but also three men who were in love with the same f ucking she-wolf. The place would explode into chaos in about two seconds I'm not sharing a f u cking bedroom with these two.” Mason tossed his head toward us.

Lanie bit her lip an d looked nervously between all of us.

“There’s a couch and floor space,” Braden said. “How you split it up isn’t my problem.”

He started pulling luggage off the top of the car, including mine and Xander’s suitcases. A small spark of warmth bloomed in my chest imagining Lanie packing them for us.

“And there’s no other place you can go, so don’t ask again,” Braden said. “I had a witch cast a protective spell on the cabin anda small area of the land surrounding it. There’s an impenetrable dome around the whole thing.”

“How do you know about this place?” Lanie asked, looking around with wonder.

s real?

| looked around, too, but couldn’t see any sign of a spell. How could we trust that it that it was re “This is where I’ve been living while I’ve been spying on the Council's little hybrid project,” Braden explained. “That way if they ever found out what | was doing, I’d have a place to hide out.”

He still hadn’t been especially clear on what “spying” meant. | had to assume he’d tell us everything we needed to know eventually, but it still seemed s tupid to trust him in the meantime.

Xander looked over at me. “You think he’s bul Ishi tting us?”

| shrugged. “Hard to say. | can’t sniff out a lie on a vampire.”

How convenient for Braden...

Xander stepped forward, crossing his arms. “Who cast the spell around the house?”

“Rhiannon, actually,” Braden answered.

they know What the f uck? Since when did each other like that?

“We met during the Great Wars,” Braden answered as if I'd asked the question out loud. “That’s how |

know Gabriela, too.”

Xander’s eyes narrowed. “Now you're just saying random bu Ilsh it,” he spat.

don’t know “He’s not,” Lanie said. We all turned to look at her. “Braden knows my mother, too. | don’t know why, but he does”

Lanie rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at her lips. “We were all work she-wolves during the Great Wars. The testing they’re doing now on Innocent hybrids started all the way back then.”

Wait a minute...so the Great Wars weren’t just a power struggle between factions of shifters. it was also about checking the Council’s power?

“That’s all a story for another day perhaps,” Braden said.

But Xander wasn’t ready to move on. “So in the wars..my mother was fighting for good?” he asked quietly.

Braden nodded. “She has been all along, even though your dad’s a royal a ss hole.”

Xander’s head dropped suddenly, and an emotion rolled off of him, so strong it was like a punch in the gut for me, too.

Regret.

Gabriela was doing her best to protect the weak, and we’d chased her away.

| looked over at Lanie. Her face was clouded with sadness. She was feeling his hurt, too.

“Well, I'm sure you're all tired, and the sun’s about to come up,” Braden said, changing the subject. “I'll be out here while you sleep. You can move safely around the cabin and as far away as that cluster of trees. You'll be able to feel when you've gone out of bounds.”

He pointed to a group of trees about twenty meters in the distance. It was better than nothing, but still not enough space for wolves to run and burn off energy. It would be a miracle if we didn’t rip each other’s heads off within the first day of staying here.

We all shuffled inside, already crowding the living room with our luggage and the three bassinets.

| moved into the bedroom and discovered it was even tinier than it looked from the outside, with barely enough room for a bed. Great.

Lanie walked up behind me and looked over my shoulder. “Da mn, it’s small,” she said.

| huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. You should take it,” | told her.

She didn’t argue with me. Her lids were heavy and her eyes were bloodshot. We all needed sleep.

| walked back out to the living room where Mason was starting a fire while Xander stood over him, watching awkwardly.

Thankfully, all the babies had stayed asleep after we moved them from their car seats.

“You think she'll sleep in there with Mason?” Xander asked me silently as | entered.

“Yeah, probably,” | answered. Did | wish she’d pull the two of us into that room with her instead? Yes. |

liked imagining us all piling into the small bed together, bodies pressed up against each other. But | knew that wouldn’t happen.

| grabbed a blanket from the couch and spread it on the floor, then | laid down without another word. Behind me, | could hear Xander settling in on the couch.

Then Lanie stepped out of the bedroom and toward Mason, taking him by the hand. 2/3 The last thing | saw before my eyes closed was her leading him into the bedroom and shutting the 8881.