Tristan continued, “I know you are hurt and upset, but Jase is freaking the fuck out. Is someone going to show up and put Addison into a state like Sierra is in right now?” I thought about it before answering, “I don’t know what her reaction would be. She wasn’t hurt as badly as Sierra.”
I hummed, “It happened more than once… but one time she took an unexpected punch, and she I fought them together. Since they didn’t know I was with her… another time I made sure she didn’t come outside. So… it’s… I don’t know the answer… I could guess, but….”
Tristan gasped interrupting me, “You answered me.” I asked, “Did you not want me to? The fact you asked me a question…implied you wanted a response.” Tristan rushed to answer, “Of course I wanted you to answer. I just didn’t know if you would.”
I reasoned, “I wasn’t the one with communication problems, Tristan. Alpha Kyle put it in a letter that I was Alpha Commanded not to link the pack. So… no communication problems here…. Not being as smart as thought… sure. That was definitely a problem I had.”
Tristan argued, “Ladybug, you are a genius. That’s not really debatable. We did talk to you, kind of. Actually, no we didn’t, we just thought we were.” Yeah, I’d talked to Jason too, but apparently it wasn’t him either. I never saw him though.
I replied, “You saw the person pretending to be me and didn't know it wasn’t me. Did she even talk like me?” Tristan admitted, “No, she didn’t rant like you do. It was just the…” I sighed, “Compulsion. Yeah… I got it.”
Tristan apologized, “Ladybug, we are so sorry. We were told you got an etiquette coach too.” I knew they were sorry. It just didn’t make it hurt any less. He continued, “It was all fucked up and you never stayed on the phone for even five minutes. We were begging for scraps in your life.” I nearly flinched.
I replied to my brother, “I got homesick…and you know that. You also weren’t the only who begged. I practically begged every single member of Red Run to talk to me or let me come home. I appealed to every Alpha in the pack and was rejected. I pleaded with Everly, Landon, and even Uncle Duncan. So…I get the begging for scraps comment.” In my very soul
Xander didn’t understand what being safe meant to my friends, but his words made me fall deeper for him somehow. We all hugged and everyone cried. They left and Xander popped us back to his office. Freya snorted, “Rhea said they were elected to ask me about our other friends.” That didn’t make sense.
I linked Tristan, “I answered you over link….so… you could’ve asked me yourself instead of having Elise do it.” Tristan replied, “I wasn’t included in the vote. They thought Elise had the best chance of getting an un-snarky answer.” Fair enough.
Logically, Elise was the best choice if they didn’t know that I was willing to answer my brother over link. Dalton being angry worked for me. What he wanted was simple enough. I wrote it down for him and gave it to him.
That Warlock would be easy for Dalton to kill, and Paige… well she would absolutely have sex with him after she found out. One, she wanted to already, and two… she wanted that Warlock dead. She just didn’t want to be the one who killed him.
Nor did she want the Resistance to do it. Why? Well… I hadn’t figure that out yet, but Dalton had no rules to abide by. Dylan might have a point on the fact that paralyzing people was my move. Freya said, “It’s not a point, it’s one hundred percent accurate if they’ve pissed you off.” Fair.
I was surprised Xander’s family didn’t know about me fighting Claire yet. Tristan linked me, “What did you do?” I answered, “Put a wannabe ladder climber in her place after she challenged me with her friends and hurt Xander. She even claimed she was going to be his chosen Luna…she’s lucky she’s breathing…let’s be honest.”
My oldest brother snorted, “I’m shocked she is.” Yeah…well…I could’ve killed her and I wanted her to suffer. All ranked siblings talked about ladder climbers….but Beta families did the most work to get rid of them because we watched out for the Alpha family.
Tristan smirked at me. Meanwhile, Jason looked back and forth between us. Dakota asked about my other friends. Freya laughed, “They know you have a list.” It was logical, since I had Beta blood. Freya asked, “Are we handing it over?” I answered, “Yes, I’ll give it to them.”
Far be it for me to prevent names being crossed off my kill list for me. They decided they wanted anyone who hurt their mates on the list. Ok, that made the lists all longer. Everyone was looking at me with that look again which made me uncomfortable.
Cayden stepped in because… of course he did. Was my new state of being nervous permanent? It felt like that was my emotion more often than not, now. I couldn’t help but worry about the upcoming conversation.
Was Xander going to be mad? I didn’t have a choice about joining the Hunters, and I did use it to help people. That had to count, right? Xander said he accepted me as I was. What if he doesn’t let me explain and….?
Freya interrupted, “Hey, worst case scenario Melanie Jane McAlister calm down. Mate wants us, and he will understand. You did a good thing. I’d be more worried about him finding out how you used to fight in the Undergrounds. You know that’s going to be HELL when they all find out. From literally everyone.” I closed my eyes knowing she was right.
I replied, “Maybe they don’t ever have to know.” Freya teased, “You are optimistic about the strangest things.” It was possible they wouldn’t find out. I’d have to say the odds were low, but there was a chance. Plus, they didn’t need to know my name in the Undergrounds.
Unless I ran into someone I knew from the Undergrounds, and they called me Swiffer… the odds slightly up ticked in my favor of them never finding out. I asked Cayden where we could go for privacy, but my dad wanted to me stay.
Umm… no. I barely wanted Xander to know they made me work with Hunters…. even though I didn’t really work with them. I kind of did... but not really. I was absolutely not telling my dad that. It was cowardly, but I’d rather Xander tell them than me.
My mate could probably do it succinctly whereas I’d be all over creation with my words. I’d probably confuse everyone into thinking I did actually work with Hunters... when I didn’t. Plus, Cayden had to say I was his source… Didn’t he?
That seemed like a Cayden decision thing because, I mean… I guess it was my choice to be an anonymous source, but he’s… yeah let’s just go with it being Cayden’s choice. Freya snickered, “You are funny.” Cayden opened a portal, and we stepped through to an office.
Holy crap on a cracker. This was Cayden’s office! The pictures of him and Cassie everywhere gave it away. We were in the Hackura realm. I’d always wanted to come here. Xander said he could show me around.
I mean… I did know my way around, technically speaking. The Hackura realm was in one of my holographic maps on ILYX so… I could pretend not to know? Freya snorted, “Something tells me you’d give away you knew where everything was.” Probably.
We needed to leave anyway since we had other things to do. This was all Clay’s fault! Did someone always have to ruin everything fun for me? I could’ve seen the Hackura realm if he hadn’t shown up … for real, and not through a map.
Xander tickled me until I was almost crying because I was laughing so hard. I managed to explain the situation. My mate didn’t look surprised though. Cayden cut in saying directly what I did with no rambling.
How did Cayden do that so succinctly? I am a genius. Why the hell couldn’t I do that when nervous… or upset…. or mad… or excited? UGH! Xander believed me about not working with the Hunters. It felt like a weight lifted off of me.
