Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“Stop!” I say, grabbing her around the waist and swinging her off her feet. “I need you to listen to me. We were following her. We know where she is. She went back to Baltair with him.”
“They’re going to try to ransom him to us for Patrick. It will be a trap. Fuck them. Fuck them both. I’m going to kill them.”
“Calm down. He’s alive. I have Baldwin watching him. She doesn’t seem to be hurting him at all.”
Ellie looks at me with wide eyes. “Did she put silver on him? I’ll kill her if she did. She refuses to acknowledge what she is. She denies she’s a wolf. It’s crazy. She’s crazy. Why couldn’t she just leave us alone?”
“We can’t go off half-cocked. We have to be sophisticated about this, do you understand?”
I look at him. “We have to be sophisticated? We have to be sophisticated? Why?”
We start to walk toward the car. Fortunately her mad dash through the woods actually was in the direction of the vehicle.
“Because Rainer thinks his son is missing. He thinks you are too.”
“He hasn’t worked out that the guy’s not coming back?”
“We don’t know. But it’s not a good sign that she’s taken Connor there. So if you want to come with me, get in the car, put a sweater on, and stop feeling sorry for yourself, that would be great.”
We get to the car and I get her dressed. Black jeans, thick boots, a dark denim jacket with a wolf patch on the back and a tank top underneath. She looks cute. She looks like trouble. She looks like she should look.
I put her into the car and I get in the driver’s seat, and I do my best to get us back to the little town where this stage of the saga started.
Ellie has questions.
“Why did we fuck first before you told me that my mother kidnapped my brother?”
I can see that we are going to bicker all the way there if I don’t find some way to distract her—and there’s no real way to distract her given how big the problem is. Margaret is a stone cold psycho.
“You needed it. I needed it. And an hour isn’t going to make a difference.”
“How do you know that? An hour is long enough for a thousand terrible things to happen. The world could end in an hour. You should have told me up front.”
“I did what I wanted to do, and what I thought was best. We’re going to get your brother back. He’s not in immediate danger, and if I thought he was, I would have had one of the ten soldiers I have stationed around that house storm it already.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I’m trying not to traumatize your brother. If we can do this politely, then we do it politely. She wants to see you, so I figure if we take you there, you’ll have the chance to negotiate with her.”
“Okay.”
Ellie
“There is something else,” he says. I can’t wait to hear this. All of the news has been so great so far.
“What?”
“Your mother is married to Rainer now.”
“Good for her,” I deadpan. “We killed his son, and got his body eaten by alligators. Do you think there could be some fallout from that?”
“I think it will probably be fine,” he says.
“Sure. Okay.”
After days of wildness, I am dressed and in a car. Feels weird. My thoughts are mostly going around in circles, centering around the fact that they do need me after all. I really can’t afford to not be around these people. Every time I take my eyes off them for more than a few seconds, terrible things happen.
“You’re pregnant,” Karl says on the drive.
“Yeah. Probably. Whatever.”
He glances over at me, piercing me with his good eye. “I need you to stop running away from me. I need you to start acting in a sane fashion. You’re going to be a mother. I don’t want to be chasing you around while you’re giving birth.”
I don’t have much to say about that. I know he’s right. I know I have to go to the city and be normal, and try to avoid the murder charge I am going to catch when I see my mother again.
“Yeah,” I say, picking at the fabric on my body. I’m so fucking aware of the clothing right now. Dark leggings, heavy boots, tight top that makes me feel all snug and contained.
“I love you,” he says out of nowhere.
“What?”
“I love you,” he growls. “So can you please stop being very stupid?”
“Fuck off,” I snap back. “I love you too.”
I fold my arms over my chest and the rest of the ride happens more or less in silence. Both of us are seething for different reasons.
“How did she take him? He must be so scared.”
“Baldwin saw it happen, but he was unable to intervene. She picked him up from school and just sort of… talked him into going with her. He’s telling me that Connor seems to like her.”