Chapter 61: Chapter 60

Xander | peeled out of the mansion, tires squealing.

Zane was in the big black SUV behind me with Braden while | drove my mother.

“You're really not going to tell me anything else about this mysterious place Lanie’s being kept?” | asked her.

“I told you, I’ve heard talk of it,” she answered curtly. “That’s all there is to say.”

My mother had agreed to direct us there, but she wouldn’t tell us what the place was or how she knew about it.

| was sick of my parents keeping secrets from me.

“It wasn’t a good idea to tell your father he couldn’t come,” my mother said, changing the subject yet again.

“He still won't tell me what the f uck he was doing out with Alice all night.”

My mother looked out the window, refusing to meet my eyes.

“lm sure he has his reasons.”

She was so strong and sure when she spoke to me, but these days when it came to my father, it was like she shrank down, becoming weak and powerless.

He wasn’t even the Alpha anymore, she didn’t have to listen to him or accept anything he told her.

“| don’t understand why you're letting him get away with this sh it, Ma. You would never give me that same grace.”

She turned to face me then, a pained look on her face.

“Maybe | expect more from you. You're a better man than he is, Xander.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She let out a deep sigh.

“There’s a lot you don’t understand.”

| stopped suddenly and pulled off the road.

“And whose fault is that?!” | growled. “You and my father named me Alpha without telling me a da mn thing about the Great Wars.”

“Why the hell are you stopping?” Zane asked through the mindlink as their SUV pulled up behind us.

“I'm taking care of something.”

| held my mother’s gaze.

“If you think I’m such a great person, then why keep me in the dark? I’m supposed to be prepared for anything. I’m supposed to protect my pack.”

| slammed my fist against the steering wheel.

“But | don’t even know what the f uck I’m protecting them from,”

“You will in time,” she said c ooly. “These things are delicate, Xander.

“Delicate?” My voice rose, high and vicious. “A High Elder came to me about vampires and | had to admit to him that | didn't even know they existed! Do you know how humiliating that is?”

A flicker of something flashed across her face.

Sadness? Regret?

“Admitting my ignorance like that doesn’t just affect my reputation, Ma. It affects you, it affects Father, it affects my mate..”

She breathed out a cold laugh.

“Please. Don’t pretend to care about Alice’s reputation.”

| narrowed my eyes at her. “We both know I’m not talking about Alice.”

She folded her hands in her lap and looked ahead out the windshield.

“| want things to work out with you and Lanie,” she said.

| opened my mouth to speak, then closed it again.

Lanie? My mother knew Zane and | were frustrated by Alice’s antics, but | hadn’t even begun to tell her how complicated things had gotten with Lanie and the mate bond.

| guess we were both keeping secrets from each other.

“You don’t want to be arguing with me,” my mother said. “You want to find her.”

We zoomed back off, eventually parking the car not far from a derelict building on the outskirts of the nearest human city.

It was small and all the windows were boarded up. Weeds grew tall and tangled all around the perimeter.

“This is where Lanie is?” Zane asked.

Braden wrinkled his nose. “Barbaric. Classic wolf shifter s hit.”

| rolled my eyes to keep from punching him in the face.

“Everyone shut the f uck up, and follow me. Quietly.”

Zane, Braden, and | crept up to the building under cover of darkness while my mother stayed behind in the car.

Just as we were approaching, the metal door at the front swung open with a great creak, and Aldon stepped out.

“I'm surprised it took you so long to get here.”

I rushed at him, stopping inches from his face.

“Where the f uck is my mate?” | roared.

Aldon held his hands up.

“Now, now Xander, she’s perfectly fine.”

Alow growl tumbled from my lips.

| wasn't interested in conversation.

“Where. Is. She?”

“I'm sorry to say this Xander.” Aldon’s brow wrinkled, and | felt my hear “There’s been a little complication with Lanie.”