What the fuck?
Alarm bells blared in my head, and I rushed to ask, “Who? We need to know.”
With a groan, his head fell back against the pillow, bouncing as he rubbed his face harshly. His voice was muffled behind his hands as he answered, “I don’t know names. All he said was that he needed me to take an empty seat to have a majority of the board.”
Holy shit. Majority of the board? I had a suspicion that Jeoffrey had people fooled about who he was, but this sounded like way fucking more than that.
Dropping his arms out to the side, he added, “When I made the decision yesterday to stay with him, I was going to try to play the dutiful son to get information and bring him down eventually, but with the way he seems to be spiraling, I feel like we don’t have a lot of time until he makes a move.”
“Is he trying to take over the board?” I asked pointedly, dread pooling in my stomach at the thought.
Another ping.
Daddy Dracula:????
Andrei stared at me for a beat before answering, “Without a doubt. Because I never really understood why he pushed me so hard to take a spot on the board. At first, I thought it was just to make him look good, but after what I heard yesterday, the pieces are falling into place.”
This was so much bigger than what I thought Jeoffrey was capable of. I mean, seriously, why the hell would anyone align themselves with him? Drake was a great ruler from what little I’d seen. What was there to gain from a shift of power?
I rubbed absentmindedly at my forehead, unsure of what to tell Drake before muttering, “Dammit.”
Because life wasn’t complicated enough already, right?
Dropping my hand back down, my fingers flew across the screen as I typed out my response.
Alina:No, don’t alert anyone else to what is going on. But you and Lo need to come to DIA. Tonight. Lincoln and I convinced Andrei to let us back in, and he has some information that you need to hear.
Daddy Dracula:Are you okay,Comoara?
Alina:I have to admit, I’m a bit overwhelmed right now, but I’m okay. Play nice tonight, please?
Pushing a swath of hair behind my ear, I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and nibbled on it as several scenarios for how tonight could go wrong raced through my mind. It would be the first time I had all three of my mates together since accepting all of the bonds, and I wasn’t sure my heart could take it if they were still at each other’s throats. I was reaching my limit on the amount of patience I had for their bickering.
Daddy Dracula:For you? Anything,Comoara.Meet in the training room at 6:00. Too many ears in the dorms.
A soft smile tugged at my lips as relief washed over me. Lincoln had already demonstrated a new-found tolerance for Andrei, and now that I had Drake’s word that he’d be good tonight, the only thing left for me to worry about was how Lincoln reacted to Drake. Baby steps…but I’d take all the wins I could get right now with them all but marking their territory with me.
“What’s he saying?”
Tucking my phone back into my side pocket, I rolled onto my side, tucking myself against Andrei’s warmth. He lifted his arm, running his fingers along the outside of my arm, and as doubt and fear crept up into my mind about whether it was smart to let him back in, I forced myself to breathe through it and let it go.
It wasn’t fair to him to say I forgave him just to turn around and be distrusting and guarded. Saying one thing and then acting another way would only make this harder to work through.
Say what you mean, and mean what you say, Alina.
Lincoln’s words to Andrei echoed back through my head.Just because someone finds it in them to forgive, doesn’t mean that they’re going to forget the pain you caused them.
Truer words had never been spoken.
Reaching up to rest my hand over Andrei’s heart, I traced random paths over his shirt as I caught him up on the pertinent parts of the conversation.
He responded with a simple‘okay’before growing quiet once more.
I reached out through our bond, expecting to find nothing there, but found I could sense the emotions running through him. It sparked a small kernel of hope in my chest, that he would let me in.
“You don’t have to keep your walls up with me, unless that’s something you need right now,” I whispered.
His fingers paused on my arm for a moment before resuming their brushing. “The mental bond always felt like the most intimate part of our connection,” he breathed out. “There’s a bunch of shit going through my mind and heart right now, and it wouldn’t be fair of me to overwhelm you with that so quickly after everything that’s happened.”
