Page 40 of Betrayed Mate

I hated feeling weak, but he was right. I wasn’t back to full health, and I hadjustlost almost everyone. Maybe the stress had somehow disconnected my human and wolf sides and they wereboth trying to survive, which was making me feel weird things. There were so many possibilities I wasn’t sure of the cause. Maybe it was a combination of everything.

The four of them glanced at me periodically, making me feel as if I were under a microscope, so I did the one thing that made the most sense to me at the time.

I lay in the back seat and closed my eyes, trying to block out the world. I needed rest…a break from the pain, stress, and demands that my body and mind kept making.

Before I realized it, I drifted off to sleep.

“Just because they wanted us to come here doesn’t mean that we should have,” Ryker said tersely. “I hate giving them the illusion of control over us.”

“Man, you know it’s not like that,” Kendric grumbled. “When I told Raven everything, she said it would be best if we came here and talked to them in person. Besides, it’s a free place to stay for a few nights, and we’re low on funds.”

I tried to open my heavy eyelids but struggled. I wanted more sleep, but the conversation I was hearing had me concerned.

“What are they going to say abouther?” Xander whispered, and I guessed he was talking about me.

Gage sighed. “Who knows, but we’re about to find out. I still think we should’ve woken her to let her know where we were heading. It’s not right.”

Theyweretalking about me. My eyes flew open, and I sat up. Then my entire world froze.

Fuck no. This had to be some sort of nightmare. There was no good reason for the four of them to have brought mehere.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Iblinked several times, hoping that my mind was once again playing tricks on me. However, I recognized the oaks of the forest I’d run by so many times, and then Ryker took a turn down the dirt road that led to the place shifters were forbidden to go unless invited by the vampire royal.

Each time I tried opening my mouth, no words would form and soon, the royal vampire house on the outskirts of Shadowbrook towered before me.

Even though I’d never seen it before, rumors of the opulence of this house had spread throughout the supernatural world because of the splendor but also because of the way it was guarded. The queen was over a thousand years old—one of the oldest rulers in vampire history—and wards had been placed around her estate by witches who’d owed her favors during the nine hundred fifty years she’d reigned.

The essence of magic pulsed past my skin, and an iridescent sheen seemed to roll over the lawn, faintly lighting up the dark night. Together, it enhanced the Victorian sensibility of the stone mansion that stood in front of us. Dark green slanted roofs jutted above each window of the top floor, faint golden light peeking through thin white curtains.

A matching stone driveway seemed to go on for miles until it circled in front of a square porch with stairs leading up to an arched entryway. A dark stone statue of a gorgeous woman with long flowing hair towered in the center of the circular drive…and I suspected that it was of the queen herself. Even in stone, she was stunning.

No one but the royal wolf-shifter pack had ever ventured here, and even then, it was only once a year for the centuries-old tradition that kept the peace between wolf shifters and vampires. Something that had been established about three hundred years ago by the queen herself and one of the strongest shifter alphas who had ever lived, though the disdain and mistrust between our two species had never truly gone away.

My stomach dropped. I’d be surrounded by vampires. Though not as strong as wolves, they were fast, and here we weregreatlyoutnumbered.

“What the fuck are we doing here?” Had the vampire queen learned what they’d done to Simon and somehow forced Ryker to bring us here? “And why didn’t you wake me up before pulling up to the fucking front door?”

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve heard you cuss that much the entire time we’ve been around you.” Gage’s head popped up in the middle-row opening. His expression was relaxed, like nothing was amiss. “And here I didn’t think I could like you any more than I already did, you little spitfire.”

Ryker slammed the car in park and snarled, “Shut up, Gage, before I make you.”

Of all the things to be upset about, Ryker was focused on Gage?

Kendric glanced over his shoulder. “There’s nothing to worry about. We aren’t in danger.”

My mouth dropped open. Was I experiencing some demented nightmare? “We’re surrounded by vampires!” Whatthey’d done to Simon must have been haunting me for me to have a messed-up dream like this one. The fact that I clearly felt guilty and thought I should be punished alongside them, despite me being the one who freed him, spoke volumes.

“I told you we should’ve woken her up sooner.” Xander crossed his arms and frowned. “If I were her, I’d be upset as well.”

At leastheunderstood, but the fact that he didn’t seem upset about it himself made the world spin around me. “If someone doesn’t explain what the hell we’re doing here, I may actually lose my damn mind.” I pinched the inside of my wrist, hoping that would shock me out of whatever sort of hell we were in and pronto. Sharp pain radiated from my wrist, but I remained sitting in the car in front of the vampire queen’s house. Awake.

I never should’ve agreed to rejoin these idiots. I should’ve gone with my gut and left them behind despite Ryker’s appeal.

“There’s no need to be alarmed.” Ryker sighed.

I could see him roll his eyes in the rearview mirror.

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