Page 56 of Silent Secrets

Hadley

Ihum,feelingwarm—almost too warm. Keeping my eyes closed as I’m not ready to wake up yet, I push at the covers only to realize that what I thought were covers are actually arms. I’m wide awake then as I try to figure out where the hell I am and who I’m in bed with.

I jerk up into a seated position, eyes wide as I look around me. There are twin groans as I disturb the other bodies in the bed, and then someone is pulling me to lie down once more.

“Sleep, Addy,” Caiden murmurs as his arm snakes around me and he buries his face in my neck. “It’s too early, baby girl.”

I face Kai, who is blinking at me on my other side. A soft smile lights up his face that I easily return, but it quickly slips into a frown. Why the hell am I in bed with Caiden and Kai? A glance down tells me I’m still fully dressed, so I probably hadn’t slept with them the night before—I mean, obviously, I’d slept next to them, but we probably didn’t have sex.

My head is heavy as I try to remember the night before. Had I been drinking? I try to think about what I last remembered.

I know that we’d been watching movies and then they’d walked me to my room… and yet, I’m not in my room now.

Almost immediately, the scene from the night before rushes back to me and I gag on a sob. “Oh, fuck…”

“It’s okay, angel. You’re okay.”

Kai leans forward until his forehead presses against mine.

“But… my room. I…”

Caiden pulls me more firmly against him. “You don’t have to think about it.”

I snort. “I’m not the type to just bury my head in the sand, Caiden. Tell me what happened.”

Caiden grumbles as I sit up once more, pulling away from him, but Kai looks proud. I’m not sure that the bed is the right place to have this conversation, but I enjoy being between the two of them—something that I try to not dwell on too much.

“What do you remember, angel?”

As I try to recall the night before, I can feel my brain fighting me and I know that it was bad. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to recall the night before. The two of them dropped me off at my room and I’d decided that I’d head straight to bed. But there had been something in my bed—on the wall. Everywhere.

“Oh, gods,” I gasp, hand flying to my mouth as my eyes blink open. “Why would someone do that?”

“We think it was a message.”

Caiden growls, glaring at Kai. “Maybe we didn’t need to start with that information.”

I suck on my teeth as my eyes narrow on Caiden. “So you think you should keep information from me?”

“That’s not what I said!”

I hum, turning my attention back to Kai. Even knowing that Caiden isn’t saying that he wanted to keep the information from me, it still feels like it. I don’t need to be protected—I don’t know how many times I need to make that clear. If I’m to be their queen, I need to be able to take care of myself. Or at the very least, be able to understand what’s going on around me.

What I definitely don’t need is a man trying to protect me from the truth because he thinks I’m too weak to hear it. And I won’t put up with anyone who thinks that’s the way I should be treated.

“Tell me, please.”

“Did you see exactly what was in your bed?”

I shake my head because all I remember is a large shape and blood—so much blood.

“Did you see the message on the wall?”

Again, I shake my head. I mean, I’d seen that there was something on the wall, but I hadn’t seen what it was. I missed so much last night when I’d lost my shit.

“There was a dismembered cougar in your bed. It typically represents leadership, and paired with the message on the wall, we think it was a threat—a warning—that you’re not worthy of becoming the Fae Queen.”

“What was the message on the wall?” I’m proud of the fact that my voice only trembles slightly and I somehow manage to swallow back the bile threatening to spill from me. If my hands are shaking, what can I say? I’m freaking the fuck out.

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