I smile at the thought, both of us lost in the beauty of her feisty little girl for a second.
Dinah shakes her head and blows out a breath. “It’s the lounge, Sin. Matriarch is pretending like everything is fine. But I don’t think it is. You know Stur, Cena and Mack’s son?” she asks, and I nod. “He went missing last week.”
My brows dip with concern. Stur’s mom, Cena, is pretty frail, and he helps take care of her. He’s not the type to just run off.
“When his parents reported it to Matriarch Denali, she didn’t seem surprised by the news. She also didn’t seem like she was in a hurry to figure out what happened to him. She just kept saying that she was sure he’d turn up.”
I sit back down in my chair and try to think through why my mat would have reacted so out of character. She doesn’t allow anyone to fuck with her lounge. Not out of a sense of love or devotion, but because it makes her look weak, and that’s something she won’t tolerate.
“Right after the meeting with Cena and Mack, Matriarch Denali was seen on the phone yelling at someone. Then she just hopped in a car and disappeared for the rest of the day. Stur showed up two days later looking exhausted. He told everyone that he met a girl, but no one believes him.”
I shake my head, not believing that story either. Stur is the nicest, most responsible kid I’ve ever met. He wouldn’t just run off to go chase tail and leave his mom to worry.
“Cena called me a couple days ago,” Dinah goes on. “She asked me to make him a sleeping draught. When I asked why, she started crying and told me in confidence that Stur had been taken by Alpha Fitz’s lounge and held for ransom. There was no girl.”
My eyes widen in shock, terror and worry pumping through me as the pieces of the puzzle slip into place.
“Stur told his mom that the Fitz lounge claimed thatourlounge owed them money. They’re going to keep taking members of our lounge and hurting them until we pay what’s owed. Stur told his parents that Matriarch and Patriarch Denali made him swear he wouldn’t say anything, or risk him and his family being kicked out of the lounge.”
I stare at her, openmouthed.How the fuck could my mat and pat be so cruel and selfish?I mean, I’ve always had my problems with them, but I never knew them to be bad alpha leaders of our lounge.
“Stur has been having nightmares since he got back, and Cena was hoping I could help him get some rest. He looked bad, Sin,” Dinah says, shaking her head. “Cena swore me to secrecy, but I have an awful feeling that what happened might not be over. I knew I had to come talk to you. Do you know what’s going on?”
I run a tired hand over my face and try to rein in my anger. I’m not sure what exactly to tell her. I’m still waiting for Zen’s guy to get me all the details, but I have the overwhelming urge to warn Dinah, especially if the lounge is in danger. Mat and pat are clearly trying to keep everything quiet, but that’s putting the lounge at even more risk. They can’t protect themselves if they don’t know what’s going on.
I blow out a breath. “You know how I thought getting locked up in here would void the contract my mat and pat signed with Alpha Bowen?”
Dinah nods, leaning in toward the streaked glass as I get ready to drop all kinds of information bombs on her.
“Well, unfortunately, I discovered that there was another aspect of that deal, which no one told me about. It seems my mat and pat got the lounge mixed up with some debt. Alpha Bowen was settling it as part of the agreement he made for me.”
Dinah brings up a hand to cover her mouth as her face morphs into shock and then confusion. “So it’s true. Our lounge does owe money. But how?” she asks, just as puzzled by this information as I was.
I shake my head, at a loss. “I’m still piecing that together. It’s a bit difficult from here, but I should know all the details soon. I’m not sure how it happened or even how much, but my mat and pat both confirmed it when they came to visit. It seems that Alpha Bowen isn’t going to uphold his end of the contract until my mat and pat uphold theirs.”
I pause, and the next words I have to say feel like a hot coal searing my throat. “Dinah...I don’t think the lounge is safe right now. I was hoping to get the details and then figure out a plan, but if another lounge is taking people…” I trail off, but my meaning is clear. No one is safe.
“I have to tell the lounge,” Dinah announces hollowly.
“Yes, but you also need to be careful about who you tell and how,” I warn her. “My mat clearly wants this whole thing to be kept under wraps. If someone tries to call her out, she’s going to exile them and scramble around to shut people up. You guys can’t afford to have forces attacking you from the outside while also dealing with attacks from my mat within. You know what she’s capable of,” I tell Dinah, and her gaze grows dark as she nods her head.
Dinah’s parents were kicked out when she was young. She was raised by an aunt and uncle still in the lounge, and we all grew up being told her parents were bad and we should hate them. Dinah and I learned when we were teenagers that the story we had been told when we were little wasn’t true. Dinah’s mat was going to challenge mine, but my mat exiled her before she could.
We didn’t tell anyone, too afraid to suffer the same fate, but we’ve always wondered how many stories out there like Dinah’s exist because of my mat’s underhanded and power-hungry ways.
“How are they doing?” I ask softly, not liking the pain and anger in my friend’s features.
“Mom and dad are good,” she says with a smile. “Maybe Tark, Verity, and I will take an impromptu vacation out to visit them until our lounge is safe again,” she tells me.
“That’s a good idea.”
I’m so glad that Dinah was able to track her parents down and that they have an amazing relationship. I’m glad that she can go somewhere and be safe with her family, but her words haunt me.
Until the lounge is safe again.
The sentence runs through my mind on a loop, and I have no idea when it will happen or how to make it possible. If I had known my lounge was at risk, I would have never left. I would have tried to find another solution, but I’m in Nightmare Pen now, and I have to figure out a way to do something from here. I need to find Zen.
“How are you doing in here?” Dinah asks, pulling me from the plans I’m putting together in my mind.
