“Willow is healing, but we’re still not having much luck getting Shawn’s mother unbound, and she’s progressively getting worse,” Trip told her.
“Have you asked Leilani to try and undo it?She’s a guardian,” El mentioned knowing they probably had already thought of that.
“We did, but she didn’t have a clue how to undo it.She’s supposedly calling the other guardians, but nobody is answering.”
“Why don’t you believe her?”El asked, taking note to Trip’s use of the wordsupposedly.
“Leilani has told a lot of lies.Who knows what’s true.”
“I understand that, but I don’t see what keeping Shawn’s mother bound is doing for her now?”
“Who knows, but the guardians don’t seem to let anyone else know what’s going on until after the fact.I don’t trust any of them,” Trip said.
“I agree,” Shawn tuned in.
“I don’t know what I think of my guardians, the whole thing seems silly.The whole reason they took me was that they thought if you all found out I was pregnant, you would try to harm the baby.”
None of them immediately jumped to tell her there was no way they would have ever harmed the baby.
“Persia told us that,” Shawn explained.
“Ridiculous right?”
“Nothing is ridiculous when it comes to you,butwe can at least agree that it’s not something any of us would consider now,” Trip said.
El paused with her fork halfway to her mouth.
“Seriously?”she choked.
She put her fork back and down and glared at them all.
“We’re being honest with you, El.That’s something we’ve all always tried to do is be honest.Would we have gone through with anything, I can’t be sure, but I know we all would have certainly thought about it in those first few days,” Trip said looking at the other guys for confirmation.
El tried to think rationally.There was no point in being mad at them for something that didn’t even have the chance to happen, but she was struggling.The thought of anyone hurting her baby infuriated her.Her lion and panther both growled in agreement.She blew out a frustrated breath.
“El,” Marcus said softly reaching out to cover her hand with his.
“I know, I know,” she said back a bit impatient.
“Okay, let’s talk about something else so that I can move on.What’s another problem on our list?”
“Ryan’s a problem, but none of us are sure where to start there.Shawn’s mother is another issue, and one I think we’d all love to solve quickly.We also need to figure out who else in the Pantera knows whom El is and that she’s pregnant.That little posse that jumped you at the cabin certainly wasn’t everyone.”
The room felt heavy after Trip weighed in on everything.
“Not to add on, but how is Willow doing?”El asked.
“She’s almost fully healed.Adam’s refusing to let her even so much as roll over for the time being, but she’s doing well,” Shawn answered.
“I guess that’s a positive to focus on.That and we got you back on two legs,” El said, hoping to add some brightness to the room.
“Yes, we have managed to solve some issues.One of which, your mother,” Marcus brought up what El had been hoping to ignore.
“Yeah, surprise there, huh?”She said sarcastically.
“How are you handling that?”Trip asked.
“To be honest, I don’t know.At first I was angry—really angry— Then curious, and now I think I’m still a little bit of both, you know, and everything else in between.”
