Chapter 35: Chapter 34

Lanie After the High Elder left, | collapsed in my room, feeling totally wrung dry.

My brain was spinning with a million thoughts and questions.

It sucked being a she-wolf No one told me anything except where | should be and what | should be doing. Braden was the only person who'd told me anything useful lately, and even he hadn’t given me many details.

And what the f uck was all that about Alphas and Betas taking two mates? Now every she-wolf can feel like sl oppy seconds all the time!

H ooray for us.

And | didn’t miss that the High Elder had almost let something slip about a time when this had happened before.

Between that and my conversation with Braden, | was sure something was off about the Council, the Elders, all of it. These old guys were keeping secrets, and | needed to know why.

Was all this connected to the things they’d hidden about the Great Wars?

The things Braden was revealing to me painfully slowly?

Before | could thought-spiral anymore, Mindy burst into my room and | sat up so fast my head spun.

“Bitc h, can’t you knock?! | thought you were another one of those scary elders,”

I clutched my chest, feeling my heart banging hard against it.

“Sorry.” She winced. “Wow, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Thanks.” | rolled my eyes. “Rough day.”

She shut my door and came and sat next to me on my bed.

“| heard a High Elder came for you today.” She laid back, propping her head up on her elbow. “What the hell did he want?”

“You're not going to f u cking believe this, but the High Elder said | had to produce pups, too. Even though Alice is Xander and Zane’s true mate.”

| dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my eyes.

“How humiliating is that? | feel like their f u cking sex doll or something.”

“Well...” she said sheepishly. “At least the sex was good?”

| groaned. “Mindy! You know they’re in love with Alice. They went out of their way to make her their second mate. Obviously they didn’t agree...”

The look of pity she gave me made me want to rage.

“They're hiding s hit from us, Mindy. All the things they told us about the Great Wars growing up was a lie.”

She held her hand up. “Wait, wait, wait.. since when were we LEIKFY “The shifters aren’t the only ones who fought in the wars. There are other creatures out there, and Braden sald-”

| cut myself off abruptly and swallowed hard, praying she didn’t hear me.

“Ummm, who the hell is Braden?”

F uck “Just a guy | met when | was running through the woods burning off some steam the other day.”

| tried to sound casual, but the stinging heat climbing up my face said otherwise.

Mindy hit me hard on the arm.

“Ow!”

“Don’t ‘ow me! You slept with him, didn’t you?”

| shook my head emphatically. “Hell no!”

That was the truth.

Now, if she asked me whether | wanted to sleep with him...that might be a different answer.

“Is he an Alpha? What pack does he belong to?”

| knew she was only looking out for me, but | really wished she'd shut the f uck up.

“I'm honestly not sure. | didn’t ask.”

Mindy eyed me suspiciously.

“We literally just met. And we don’t talk about stuff like that! Please don’t tell anyone,” | begged.

“As if | would!”

I stuck out my pinky finger, and she wrapped hers around mine “| don’t want you getting in trouble with Maxim and Monroe. And I’m already in enough sh it with Xander and Zane.”

ant to know more about it, She sighed deeply. “Well, | don’t know what you’re on about with this Great Wars stuff, but if you want to you could always look through Xander and Zane’s library. The place is f ucking huge!

| grabbed her shoulders and kissed her hard on the cheek.

“You're a genius, Mindy!”

“You'll have to sneak in, though. | hear they really don’t like people going through their things...”

Xander If s hit was bad before, it just got a whole lot worse.

“What the f u ck was that with Lanie?” | rounded on Zane as soon as Aldon and the High Elder had left and Lanie was back in her room.

“| could hear her so clearly...” Zane looked dazed. “It was like we'd claimed her. Like we had a mate bond with her instead..”

2/3 Alice was already pis sed that she’d been chosen second, and now we had to break the news that the High Elder was commanding Lanie to produce pups, too.

Which meant more sex with with her.

“You're excited though, aren’t you?” Zane asked, but he already knew the answer. And | knew he felt the same way about getting her into bed again.

My mind was racing with thoughts of Lanie beneath me, inhalir her deep, heady scent. Her red, wet mouth on my hard co ck. Her raspberry nipples, hard with anticipation. Her tight, soaking ussy | was dizzy with need for her and with the sudden rush of knowing that I'd have her again. That | had to have her again.

| looked over at Zane, and his eyes were distant and glazed, too “How the f uck are we gonna sleep with Lanie again without Alice finding out?” he said, scrubbing a hand down his face.

| smelled someone enter the room and turned around quickly.

Alice Her eyes were wide and glassy “Tm sorry what?”