A grunt sounded behind me and I spun to see a naked Brayden in human form whack Silas’ wolf over the head with a chair.
The wolf went down, out cold. That had been my intent the entire time with the chair.
“Let’s go before he wakes up,” Maddy said. She too was human now.
I should get up, I should run out of the room. But I was stuck staring at Brayden’s naked backside.
“Come on, I’m right here,” Maddy growled, and I snapped from my trance and looked at her. She too was naked, not even bothering to cover herself. Reaching out, she ripped a tablecloth off of a nearby table and wrapped it around her like a toga. Brayden did the same. I got up, moving halfway across the room, when Brayden looked at the dent in the wall from my superhuman kick.
“She’s strong,” Brayden told his sister, as if I wasn’t there.
Maddy nodded. “All newly changed wolves are. Remember Francie?”
His face fell as if he wanted to believe I was more special than I really was. Hell, being his super-powerful reincarnated mate sounded cool. I didn’t even know what it entailed, but who wouldn’t want to be special? I wouldn’t mind being his long-lost mate—he was super hot—but it was apparent to everyone but him that I was just… me: normal Averly.
We exited the room and ran past a few hotel patrons who looked at us with raised eyebrows. Once we reached our hotel room, everyone dressed and packed up quickly. I probed the back of my head with delicate fingers and was surprised to find that it was already healing.
“Let me look at that,” Brayden said quickly. He pressed and prodded, but it barely hurt.
“Rapid regeneration. It’s just a flesh wound, you’ll be fine,” Brayden said, and then we all booked it to the car.
No one said another word until we were back inside Brayden’s brand-new truck. I squished in the cab between Maddy and Brayden while he drove.
“So every day until the tournament he’s just going to keep coming for us?” I asked finally. This was a flawed system. The Fae Lords were really starting to piss me off.
“Neither is allowed to kill the other. We’ll be okay,” Brayden said, as if that would calm me.
I couldn’t mentally survive a month of being attacked. That was the first I’d heard of him not being able to kill Brayden. There was a small comfort in that.
“Then what’s the point!?” I screamed, anger filling me up as he got onto the Interstate.
Brayden cast me a side glance. “To wear us down mentally and physically.”
I groaned. “It’s working.”
Maddy chuckled. “Toughen up, buttercup, you’ve been a wolf one day.”
I was slightly over Maddy’s truth bombs. “What do we do now?”
Brayden shared a look with his sister before staring back out at the open road. “We need to see the Amarok and ask him to officially allow you to be in my pack.”
Maddy shivered beside me. “I’ll stay outside, thank you very much.”
I chuckled.
Maddy cast me a serious side glance. “Laugh now, but when you lay eyes on him you’ll piss yourself.”
That shook the humor from my bones.
“Stop scaring her. He’s not that bad,” Brayden added as he headed north towards Bonner’s Ferry and Canada.
Maddy chuckled. “Maybe not to another alpha and Greywolf, but I can barely make eye contact without an unfounded fear settling over me and making me sick.”
Yikes. I straightened in my seat.
“What happens if the Amarok says I have to join Silas’ pack?” I asked. I needed the worst-case scenario laid out beforehand. It soothed my anxiety.
Brayden was quiet for a whole minute, and in that time I imagined a lot of terrible things.
