Page 78 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

“You know Cali is kind of terrifying, right?” Kieran’s head flopped to the side to look at me, a sheepish grin on his face.

“Never to me or Rynn.” I grinned back at him before it slid off my face. “I’m guessing you’re aware of Rynn’s situation?”

He gave me an apologetic look. “It’s been making the rounds of the rumor mill for a while now. People are saying that she is refusing to join the Alpha Pack. Others are saying they are the ones refusing to let her join.”

He reached out and slipped his hand into mine, and I nestled further into him. The sex was mind-blowing, but so was this.

Kieran added carefully, “I don’t know Rynn all that well, but I don’t believe she’d refuse to join the pack, and I see no reason why they wouldn’t want her. Rynn is bloody brilliant and has that whole lithe and wild werewolf thing going on. It’s super hot.”

He grunted when I elbowed him hard, and then he gave me a pouty look which I ignored.

“Don’t worry,”—he leaned down and kissed my neck, making me shiver—“I have a thing for a certain curvy-as-fuck Moroi.”

“You’d better,” I muttered.

He nipped my neck playfully, sending all my thoughts scattering until he looked at me with a self-satisfied smile.

I scowled. “Oh, get over yourself.”

Kieran chuckled. “I don’t know what’s going on between Rynn and the Alpha Pack, and you don’t have to tell me. Butthere are a lot of rumors flying around about the growing tension between the three Velesian Orders and a general discontent against the Alpha Pack and how they’re handling things… and Rynn’s name has come up.”

“Rynn and the Alpha Pack are kind of a hot mess,” I admitted. “I can’t go into details without checking with her first, but to answer your original question of why I was so pissed off earlier… Rynn is going to sneak onto Fervis territory to investigate an old human settlement.”

Kieran jackknifed into a sitting position, jostling me to the side before his hands clamped down on my arms.

“You can’t let her do that!” His eyes were wide with panic. “The last couple of attacks have been in Fervis land. They didn’t even want to let the Alphas in to look at the scenes. Apparently, they’ve upped all patrols on their border.”

“Shit!” I hissed and echoed Kieran’s abrupt movement to a sitting position. “There’s no way Rynn didn’t know that when she announced her ridiculous plan!”

“The Fervis are still pissed that the Narchis chose to ally with Avala instead of them. Rynn wasn’t the only one from Narchis chosen to join one of the Avala packs, but she was the most prominent because she’s going to the moons damned Alphas!”

“I know! Why do you think I lost my shit earlier?!” I choked on the words. Now that my bloodlust had calmed down, panic was starting to override the rage.

Strong arms pulled me into a hug, and I wrapped myself around Kieran with tears streaming down my face. I hated crying, but whenever I was feeling any sort of overwhelming emotion, tears were inevitable. Especially if I couldn’t scream at anything.

Kieran knew it bothered me, so he didn’t comment, just silently wiped them away while holding me tightly against him.

“Are you sure you can’t talk her out of it?” he asked softly.

I shook my head against his chest, not trusting myself to speak just yet.

Kieran sighed. “Rynn is stealthy and good at remaining unseen. Remember when we used to play hide-and-seek as kids? None of us could ever find her.”

I sniffled. “Carmilla was so upset that one time Rynn stayed outside in the woods all night when we couldn’t find her. She insisted that we put a time limit on the game after that.”

Kieran maneuvered me until I was sitting in his lap and tucked me against his chest again. “I’m not any more thrilled than you are about Rynn going into Fervis territory, but we’ll just have to trust that she knows what she’s doing and that she’ll be okay.”

“And if she’s not?” I whispered.

“Then we’ll unleash Cali on them.”

I craned my head to look at him but found his expression unreadable, which was a little unsettling. “Honestly, I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”

“Kidding.” He kissed me softly on the corners of my mouth. “Mostly.”

Chapter Nineteen

Samara

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