Chapter 32: Chapter 31

huff Zane Alice was staring at us like we both had two heads.

Tmn not gonna sit here while you guys act like weirdos. If we’re not going out, then I’m going to bed.” She stormed off ina “F uck,” Zander growled. “What the f uck happened?!”

“| don’t know,” | breathed out slowly. “We must've made a mistake during the mating.”

Zander paced back and forth, his eyes flashing as his wolf pushed to the surface, “What's the mistake? We bit her, she bit us. It’s not f u cking rocket science!”

I ran my fingers through my hair, clenching fistfuls in my hands.

“I've never heard of this happening before,” | admitted. “When you complete the mate bond, you have the mind link. That's it, end of story?

Except not for us.

“So we redo it tonight, Xander said simply.

I shook my head. “Alice is already pis sed at us for all the weirdness today. If she finds out the mate bond didn’t work, she’s gonna lose her da mn mind.”

Xander narrowed his eyes at me.

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

My mind wandered to Lanie. Just like it had when we’d taken Alice to bed. | thought it was because she was in heat but was there more to it?

“You don’t think it's because of her?” | asked Xander.

He didn’t need to read my mind to know exactly who | was talking about.

“We had mindblowing sex with Lanie, and maybe | was thinking about it with Alice, but we didn’t claim her. It doesn’t make sense.

“No, it doesn’t,” | agreed. “Is it because we took Alice as a second mate?”

Xander shrugged. “F uck if | know. This is all new to me.”

“It's new to everyone.” | sighed and threw myself onto the bed rubbing my temples hard. “The High Council are probably the only ones with answers, but it’s not like we can ask Elder Aldon right now.”

“Yeah, considering you threatened him and basically called him a se nile old man.” Xander smirked.

“F uck,” | mumbled under my breath.

It was true, we’d pis sed him off royally using that loophole. No way was he gonna help us out now.

Ahard knock at the door pulled us both out of our thoughts.

“Enter,” Xander commanded.

AHigh Guard stepped into the office.

“Alpha Xander, you're being summoned...by a High Elder.”

me.

Lanie Braden had once again left me hanging, assuring me he’d tell me more about vampires and shifters the next time he saw It's a very ugly story.

His words rang in my head, and | wasn’t sure how long | could wait for answers But | had to get back to Xander and Zane even if | was nothing more than their castoff mate. A means to an end with Alice.

| walked to a stream where I'd stashed another set of clothes and jumped in, reluctantly letting the water wash away any trace of Braden’s intoxicating scent, The last thing | needed was someone smelling anything funny and asking questions. If the High Council had kept vampires from us, then there must have been a good reason.

And if they found out I knew, something told me I'd be in more trouble than my “mates” were willing to pull me out of.

| took a deep breath, steeling myself before | entered the house, and my heart caught in my throat when | saw who was waiting for me on the other side of the door.

Elder Aldon was standing next to a tall man in a pure white robe.

AHigh Elder.

ew they wore I'd never seen one in person before, but | knew they wore white instead of the High Council’s traditional black.

They both whipped around to look at me.

S hit.

“So you're the one who is causing all this trouble...” the High Elder said.

Double s hit.

“You're the one I’m here to take care of.”

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