Brayden waved her off. “We have a guy who forges papers. You’ll have your license and top-notch training from me.”
My eyes bugged. “A fake license?”
Maddy nodded. “We live forever unless killed. How do you think we get by without fake IDs and diplomas?”
This situation had officially completely overwhelmed me.The room swam as dizziness washed over me.
“Whoa.” Brayden slipped around the counter and caught me as I stumbled backward.
His arms came around me and I looked up at him, terrified. “I don’t know that I want to live forever.”
The lopsided grin he gave me was so sexy I nearly died. His eyes roamed over my body and the tiny, short crop top that Maddy had loaned me. “I certainly hope that you will.” His voice was smooth and deep and I was going to pretend to faint every day if it meant he would catch me.
“Oh, I hope she’s Lena.” Maddy cleared her throat and Brayden pushed me away as if I were made of fire. The trance he had over me broke then and I shook myself.
“So she’ll quit school and apprentice with me at the animal hospital.” Brayden started to pace the room, ignoring the fire that had just built between us.
“She’ll move in,” Maddy added, and Brayden pointed to her.
“Oh yes, there’s no getting around that,” he said. “And she’ll need to quit the bar too. That place is crawling with—”
“Stop it!” I screamed. “I’m going to school and I’mnotquitting the bar!” I shouted and felt power burst out of me. It was like a momentary energy drain, only for a second, and then I felt normal again. The chandelier over the dining table swung and rattled, all the crystals shaking, and we all fell quiet.
“Okay.” Maddy held out her hands to me. “Stay calm or you’ll skin us alive.”
I whimpered at her words and Brayden shot her an angry look. “Don’t scare her like that.”
Did I just make the chandelier move from over here? My breath started to come out in ragged gasps.
“She’s having a panic attack,” Maddy observed.
I needed air. Why was it so hot in here? I stumbled through the living room and to the back wall of windows and threw the door open wide. Gasping for air, I bit back the tears that threatened to spill over. What was happening to me? First I got bitten and turned into a werewolf—not too bad and probably better than rabies—but now I was immortal and some mysterious Greywolf with powers I couldn’t control. Oh—I forgot the reincarnation part.
I didn’t ask for this! I don’t want this.
Brayden’s face swam into view and he gripped my head in his giant hands. “You’re okay. We’ve got this,” he told me. There was confidence in his voice and that calmed something within me, but I was still reeling. The touch of his warm fingers on the sides of my face, his breath washing over me, it all did something to settle me.
“I’m scared,” I whimpered, holding his gaze.
Compassion crossed his face and his blue eyes flicked to my lips. He cleared his throat and let go of my face, stepping away. Maddy had come outside and was now standing behind Brayden. He flicked his head inside and widened his eyes as she followed him indoors. I was right behind him and closed the door behind me, getting a secret vibe from him. He watched me, and only once the door was fully closed did he speak.
“Maddy, cancel my surgery. We’re going to see the Elder Fae,” he declared.
Maddy’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “I’m sorry, what?”
I remembered about Brayden saying the trees had ears and now wondered if that was why he’d waited until I’d shut the door. I’d hoped he’d been joking last night but clearly not.
“Who is the Elder Fae?” I asked, my panic attack forgotten now that I had new information to chew on.
“I think he can help you,” Brayden said, but Maddy snorted.
“Or kill her! She’s totally untrained,” Maddy interjected, and I froze.
Wait,killme? Why was I involved in this?
“No, he could hide her power so that if the Fae Lords find her they will think she’s Lena whose connection to her power has been severed,” Brayden said.
“This is giving me a headache,” I piped in. “Can we talk to me like I’m actually here?” I growled. “Because I am.”
