AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Havana frowned, sure she’d heard her wrong. “Say what?”
“Sometimes it can help to have one more night with an ex just to burn out old feelings. It’s kind of like tying up loose ends, I guess. It gives me a sense of closure.” Bailey shrugged. “It’s just something for you to think about.”
Havana scrubbed a hand down her face. The idea held too much appeal for all the wrong reasons. “I don’t think it would give me closure. I think it would make it harder for me to move on.”
“Going cold turkey doesn’t always work out so well. Sometimes it’s better to wean yourself off something.”
“Maybe. I’ll think about it. But not right now. I’m too tired, I need sleep.” But with the terms “one last night,” “burning out old feelings,” and “sense of closure” floating around her head, it was a while before Havana finally drifted off.
Watching two little girls moving in sync on the dance pads, Havana smiled. The rec center’s video arcade was pretty popular among the kids and teens. The walls were lined with various machines. There was everything from whack-a-mole and claw cranes to air hockey tables and zombie-killing games.
Glowing screens and neon lights cut through the dimly lit area. The smells of popcorn and other concession foods laced the air. So many sounds filled the large space—dings, bleeps, chimes, shouts, revving engines.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stick close to home for a few weeks?” asked Madisyn, holding the stuffed toys her daughters had won before they’d headed for the dance pads. The pallas kits, Yasmin and Regan, were utterly adorable. They were always singing and laughing with each other. A fight often broke out between them at some point, though, and those fights were never pretty.
Havana replied, “If you think my going to the shelter would draw trouble to it or make the people there uneasy, I can skip going until they feel better about it.” Madisyn worked at the homeless shelter for loners and had once been a loner herself before mating into the Mercury Pack, which was closely allied to the Olympus Pride. “But if not, I’d rather keep teaching the self-defense classes. The residents may need the techniques now more than ever.”
“No one has expressed a problem with you being there,” Makenna cut in. The she-wolf was Madisyn’s co-worker and part of the Phoenix Pack. Tate’s cousin, Mila, had mated a Phoenix wolf years ago, so the pride considered them allies, too. “The people who take your classes are worried for you, and they think it’s awesome that you overpowered your attacker—it gives them confidence that the moves you teach can actually work.”
“Then I’ll keep teaching the classes,” said Havana.
Madisyn gave her a grateful smile. “We appreciate it. Just so you know, I passed on the cougar’s confession to my pack mates—they’re going to see if they can locate Sinclair and Gideon. We want to find Keziah, like, yesterday. She’s such a nice kid. Dawn feels bad that it never occurred to her that Keziah had been taken. But we’d all just assumed she didn’t want to stay at the shelter.”
“We keep telling Dawn she has no need to feel guilty,” said Makenna. “But she’s not hearing us. My pack intends to help, too—they’re utterly pissed about this. I guess the reason Gideon is targeting loners is that it’s unlikely any flocks or clans or whatever will go look for them or wish to retaliate.”
“He’s obviously comfortable in that belief, because otherwise he would have checked that I wasn’t under anyone’s protection,” said Havana.
“I was thinking the same thing,” said Aspen. “There’s no way he’d have chosen to add you to his collection of loners if he’d known he’d be tangling with the Olympus Pride. I mean, I know he didn’t give Rupert or Sinclair any info that could expose him, but Gideon had to know there was a chance they could have discovered something.”
Havana nodded. “He’s been careful so far, which is why he’s managed to stay largely under the radar and convince a lot of people of his death. I can’t envision such a careful person doing something as stupid as to, in a roundabout way, challenge a pride of pallas cats.”
“Word about the auction is spreading far and wide,” said Aspen. “So Gideon probably knows by now that either Rupert or Sinclair told you about it. He’ll be on pins, wondering just how much you know.”
Havana sure hoped so, because she liked the idea of him sweating and fretting. The bastard was going down, and whoever helped him with his auctions would go down with him. And soon. She’d make sure of it.
Corbin sidled up to her with a sigh. “We may have a problem. Nothing major, just a minor complication.”
Havana frowned. “What’s that?”
“Ginny’s here,” he replied.
