Oh, he was pissed he’d had to bend his will to another? A chuckle left my throat before I could stop it.
Brayden’s head whipped in my direction and he scowled. “It’snotfunny.” The animalistic tone wiped the smile right off my face and I swallowed hard.
“Be nice to her!” Maddy snapped. “It’s not our fault you aren’t feeling macho now that you had to kiss the Amarok’s ass.”
The steering wheel creaked and groaned as Brayden sped across the Interstate.
“I am very macho,” he said through gritted teeth.
Maddy sighed. “Of course you are. I didn’t mean that.”
“I could wipe the floor with his ass,” Brayden growled. “He used to work forme.”
That was interesting, but I knew better than to ask.
Maddy and I stayed silent the rest of the drive while Brayden was lost in his anger bubble. When he finally pulled up to my house I nearly wept with joy.
I looked at Maddy. “Thanks for everything,” I told her, and then urged her to move, but she swallowed hard, looking at Brayden.
I glanced back at the alpha and he was watching me with a stormy expression. “I’m sorry, Averly, but I can’t let you live with your mom now that I know how powerful you are and that Silas will be after you. You would be constantly in danger, and quite frankly probably get your mom killed.”
My mouth popped open. “What?”
How dare he threaten my mother’s safety just because he wanted to keep our little pack together.
“Silas could come back and—”
I cut him off. “And I’ll shoot him again. I’m going inside to see my mother and sleep in my bed and then go to work and that’s that,” I growled, feeling my wolf come to the surface.
Brayden’s jaw clenched. “I forbid it.”
I burst out laughing, and because we were all sitting in a truck cab together I basically laughed right into his face. His eyes went yellow, and grey fur puffed out of his neck.
“Let her go,” Maddy warned and opened the door, stepping out to give me access to the outside.
I shot Brayden a glare and stepped out of the truck.
“Be careful, okay? We just care about your safety,” Maddy told me. “I programmed our numbers in your phone last night while you were sleeping. Call anytime.”
I nodded and then walked into the house, only pausing to take one look over my shoulder to see Brayden’s yellow eyes glaring back at me.
I had no belongings since Brayden kidnapped me from the hospital, but my mom thought I was camping, so hopefully she didn’t notice when I walked in with no backpack or sleeping bag. Using the code, I let myself in.
“Averly, is that you?” my mom called from deep in her bedroom at the back of the house.
“Yeah, let me put my stuff away.” I slipped into my room and peeked a look at myself in the mirror.
Not bad. My face didn’t scream “I’m a werewolf,” so that was good. I also noticed that I only felt a little bit lonely without Brayden and Maddy here. Not nearly as bad as I’d thought compared to what I’d felt in the hotel room. Further proof that I was going to be fine living without them.
I stepped out into the living room and my mom was there with open arms. “I missed my baby!” She tackle-hugged me and I chuckled, squeezing her tightly. As an only child raised by a single mom you couldn’t get a much closer bond. My mom was my person and I’d missed her. It killed me that I couldn’t tell her what had happened with me. She pulled back and looked me over. “How was the camping trip? Why didn’t you invite Leah? She came by and seemed a bit bent out of a shape about it.”
I winced. “Yeah, I gotta call her. It was a spur of the minute thing with new friends. I’ll invite her next time.”
My mom nodded, raising an eyebrow. “Is one of these new friends a boy?”
I had to make a decision here… I was going to be spending time with Brayden and Maddy, there was no way around that, so I might as well tell my mom a little bit about them so when I hung out with them it seemed normal.
I nodded. “He’s a doctor actually, and has a sister, Maddy, who is around my age.”
