Chapter 17: Chapter 16

Zane If Lanie wasn’t pregnant with one of our pups, it would be a go d da mn miracle.

And if she was pregnant with one of our pups, it would be a go d amn problem.

Right now, everything was lose/lose.

We'd spent the rest of the night making love, all three of us wrung dry by the time the sun started to peek over the h or izon, casting golden rays of light through the windows and over Lanie’s sleeping form.

She was still asleep, and Xander and | were gathering our clothes.

“She’s going to hate us,” Xander whispered.

“It's probably for the best.”

He nodded and pulled on his T-shirt before walking out into the living area. | followed him, and we left Lanie’s quarters, standing in the hallway.

“We need to shower before we see Alice. She’s going to know regardless, and she’s going to be pi ssed as hell, but we can at least give her the respect of washing as much as we can off”

| scrubbed a hand through my sex-mussed hair, scratching at my scalp a bit. “Once we explain everything to her, she’ll understand. We did what we had to do.”

Xander’s lips settled into a grim line, a morose look taking up residence in every line of his face. “I hope you’re right. | can’t bear the thought of how much this is going to hurt her.”

“All this is for her. If she can’t forgive us and understand the motives behind our actions, then maybe she’s not the mate for us that we thought she was. Our Luna needs to show strength and resilience.”

Xander couldn’t have looked more surprised if I’d slapped him, and he raised an eyebrow at me.

“| know it sounds harsh, Xan. But if she can’t handle this, that’s another problem.” | shrugged and shook my head. “And honestly? | can’t even remotely think about that right now. We already have enough to deal with.”

“Agreed” Xander started walking down the hallway, heading toward our quarters. “All | want at this moment is to take the longest, hottest shower in the history of wolves, and burn this scent off me.”

“Ouch. That seems a little extreme.” | shoved my hands in my jeans pockets as we walked.

“It's the only option | have right now. If | don’t get her washed off me, I’m going to go mad with wanting to go back to her.”

| stopped walking, stunned by what he had just said.

Out loud.

I'd been having similar thoughts, and I'd tried to shove them out of my mind, blaming it on her heat.

But what if it wasn’t her heat? What if she truly was supposed to be our mate?

Even now, | wanted to go back to her bed and curl up beside her, see what her eyes looked like first thing in the morning when they were still drowsy and full of dreams.

Nope. Not going down that road.

She wasn’t our mate. Alice was. We'd known for two years that Alice was our mate.

From the moment we saw her, we hadn’t wanted anyone else. We’d literally only had eyes for her, as the trite old saying went Plus, even if | ever had second thoughts, it didn’t matter.

As Xander’s Beta, | had to have the same mate as him, regardless of my wants and needs.

Thank go d we both agreed on Alice.

Lanie | wasn’t surprised to wake up in an empty bed.

Not one iota.

But that didn’t stop the sting.

Part of me had hoped that them mating me last night meant that they had changed their minds about Alice, about everything, and that even though everything was going to be a mess, | was still their mate.

Well, | was their mate now. They had definitely marked me.

Over and over and over.

| stretched my arms above my head, my yawn turning into a groan as all of the over-worked muscles in my body cried out.

Including everything between my legs.

Hell, even my jaw hurt.

| got up from the bed and went to the bathroom, then brushed my teeth and threw on the robe hanging on the back of the door.

Padding out to the mini kitchen area, | hoped there was something in the cabinets or fridge. Finding the main kitchen and scouting out food-where | was likely to run into other people-sounded pretty miserable right about now.

Right now, | just wanted to sit with myself and my thoughts.

All eighteen million of them.

The ding of my cell phone rang throughout the living room, from where I'd left it on the coffee table last night.

| grabbed it and looked at the screen to find a text from Mindy.

Mindy: Gurrrrrrrrrl.

| laughed out loud. That meant about thirteen different things right now. All of them requiring more than a text back, so | called her.

“Tell me,” she demanded when she picked up.

“Tell you what?” | asked innocently.

“F uck you. Tell me.”

I let out a loud sigh. “Yes, we mated.”

“And?”

“And what?”

Mindy gave an exasperated groan. “Do not f uck with my emotions right now. You know dam n well what.”

“It was...amazing.” | bit my lower lip, contemplating not telling her more. “But | don’t know what happens now.

It was literally a ‘let’s get this over with thing” right before midnight, but then it became more?”

“What do you mean ‘more’?” Even though | couldn’t see her, | knew Mindy was biting her thumbnail.

“| don’t know how to explain it. When | woke up this morning, they were gone, though. So I’m not really taking that as a good sign.”

“Meh. That doesn’t mean much. They're the Alpha and the Beta. I’m sure they have a lot going on. Monroe and Maxim left early this morning, too. They have early training every day.”

“But you know where they went. Which means they told you goodbye when they left, | pointed out.

“You're overthinking it. I’m sure they knew they exhausted you with their sexual prowess and wanted to leave you to sleep and recovery so y’all could do it again today.”

| pursed my lips and scraped my index fingernail along the side of my thumb, a nervous habit I’d broken a couple of years ago.

“Something doesn’t feel right this morning, but | can’t put my finger on it.” | cleared my throat before changing the subject.

“Enough about me. How was your night?!”

“Oh my go d ,” Mindy gushed. “Max and Monroe are go ds in bed. I can barely walk this morning. The things they can both do with their tongues....holy sh it, | can’t wait for them to get back here and do it all again. I’m pretty sure I'll be pregnant in no time.”

“Are they good, though? Beyond the sex y times portion of things?”

| felt Mindy’s smile before she spoke. Best friends were like that sometimes.

“They are, Lanie. They really are.” She sighed. “I think I’m going to have a really good life with them. Like, | could fall in love with them.”

“Oh, Mindy. I’m so happy-”

Loud pounding on my door interrupted me.

“One second. Someone's at the door.”

More pounding, more urgently.

| opened the door a cra ck and peeked out.

Two officers of the High Guard stood there in uniform, serious looks on their faces.

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