Chapter 55: Chapter 54

Zane | unlocked the latch to Alice’s door just long enough to slip inside.

| understood why Xander had locked her in, but that didn’t mean | agreed with his methods.

Knowing Alice, the more we pushed her, the more pis sed she’d get. We needed to know where she'd been last night, and |

wasn't leaving until | had answers.

| found her sprawled out on the bed, her cheeks and eyes still red from shouting and crying.

When | entered the room, she sat up, her eyes filling with tears again.

Oh go ds, here we go, my wolf complained.

For once, | didn’t shut Blade up. Now that | was wise to Alice’s manipulation tactics, | was starting to realize that he’d been right about her all along...

She'd act all sweet and hurt, and then use me to get what she wanted.

Not today.

Alice held her arms out as if pulling me toward her, and | reluctantly joined her on the bed.

“Oh Zany, you came back for me,” she whined.

Not that f ucking nickname again, Blade growled.

| took a deep breath, but | could feel the hot fury bubbling in my veins already. That name really did grate on my last f ucking, nerve.

She reached out and ran her finger down my arm. “Xander was being so mean to me,” she pouted. “He doesn’t understand me like you do.”

“Alice, we have to know where you were last night. It’s not a hard question.” | searched her face for some sign that she was getting close to cracking. “You're doing this to yourself.”

She climbed up off the bed and stood in front of me, breathing heavily through her nose.

“| can’t believe you're trying to tell me Xander was right to lock me in here!” She waved her arm around the room, and | had to stifle a laugh.

We were inside a luxury bedroom, and outside these doors was a whole-a ss furnished apartment with anything she could possibly need. Alice was locked inside a f ucking castle.

now.”

“Maybe | wouldn’t have done the same thing,” | admitted, “but you can’t keep getting away with this s hit, Alice. You’re a Luna Was that even true anymore? We’d all but decided we wanted Lanie, anyway.

And with Alice out of the way, we could have her any way we'd like, Blade growled and pawed at my chest.

Go ds, Lanie was making us both crazy.

Alice planted her hands on her hips. “F uck being a Luna.”

Before | could blink she was diving out of the bedroom and straight toward the front door.

But | was faster, stronger.

| sprinted out and dived in front of her before a finger could even touch the k nob.

“Back the f u ck away,” | snarled.

She cowered, her eyes shining again.

“Don’t make me do something I'll regret, Alice.”

| stepped toward her slowly and she backed away, step by step.

“Im gonna ask you one more time,” | said, my voice rumbling with my wolf’s fury. “Where were you last night?”

Alice stopped and puffed out her chest.

“If you really must know... | was with Xander’s dad.”

Lanie “Elder Aldon...”

| stepped away from Braden and wrapped my arms around my body, protecting myself from Aldon’s death glare.

Braden pulled off his flannel and threw it over me just as Aldon approached. The gesture made me tingle.

“l asked you a question, Lanie,” Aldon said, jutting out his pointy chin. “What's going on here?”

| crossed my arms and co cked my hip. “You have eyes. | think you can tell for yourself.”

Braden scoffed behind me, and Aldon’s wolf flashed in his eyes.

“| don’t appreciate being spoken to that way.” His voice dripped with wicked satisfaction. “You’ve gotten yourself into some pretty deep s hit here, and | can sure as hell make it deeper.”

If | didn’t comply, | knew I'd be pushing my luck.

What even was the punishment for being caught with a vampire when | wasn’t even supposed to know they existed?

| guess | was about to find out.

“Look, whatever you're going to do to me or yell at me about, can we just get it over with?” | asked him.

But it wasn’t Aldon who piped up next, it was Braden.

“Yes, Aldon. Let’s get it over with, shall we?”

1 whipped around to look at Braden, and an amused expression crossed his face.

“Wait... you know each other?” | glanced from him back to Aldon. His fists were clenched at his sides.

“Oh, yes,” Braden said, “We go way back don’t we, Aldon? Unfortunately for me.”

“That’s enough, Braden,” Aldon growled. He reached into his pocket and unearthed a small pouch.

“Or what?”

Aldon reached into the pouch and held out a small handful of sandy-looking powder.

“What the...?” | asked.

Braden jumped forward and threw out his arms. “Don’t do this, Aldon-*.

But he was cut off as Aldon took a deep breath and blew the powder straight into my face.

And then everything went dark.