“Get out of my underwear drawer,” Rynn growled as she padded across the room towards me.
“That’s your top drawer.” I grabbed a sleeveless long shirt and tossed it to her when she reached my side. “You are a spy, and I am an asshole, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get along.” I grinned. “How do you feel about Selene coming to live with us?”
Those mismatched eyes stared at me for a long moment. She was still completely naked, but now she had damp hair plastered to her body, covering her chest. I didn’t let my gaze drop below her waist.
Finally, she huffed and shook her head. “I think you honestly mean that.” She pulled on the loose-fitting shirt and walked over to some chairs with comfy cushions set up in front of the balcony. I preferred to sleep naked, but I knew Rynn liked to sleep in soft shirts, thanks to checking on her periodically. Mostly to make sure Warrick hadn’t slit her throat in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t put it past him. Warrick had a single-minded obsession about eliminating threats, and he very much viewed Rynn as one. Lucky for her, he had another obsession that he deemed more important than everything else.
Anyone else.
“Will you go away after we discuss this?” she asked tiredly.
“Yes.” I moved to sit in the chair opposite her and sank into the cushions. “These chairs are ridiculously nice.”
“They’re my favorite part of my room. Them and the view.” Rynn smiled for a moment before it slid off her face, replaced by bitterness as she picked at a loose thread from a cushion. “I suppose I’m lucky you all chose a room that had them.”
“The room came with the view, but Cade actually moved the chairs in here.” I shrugged. “They were in his study, but he thought you’d like them for reading.”
“Oh.” Rynn chewed on her bottom lip. “To answer your question, I’m fine with Selene coming here. Remy and I spoke about it when we were getting food.”
“You’re close with him and his mate, yes?” I already knew the answer. Remy and Rynn were the same age and had grown up in similar positions in their packs. The only difference was that Remy got to stay with his, whereas Rynn’s pack decided she was a bartering tool. Aside from her family, the only people Rynn regularly sent messages to were Remy and Marie. Although she hadn’t been sending much lately.
Much to my annoyance, she only spoke with Samara during their visits. I assumed Cali occasionally joined them, but I didn’t know for sure.
“I’ve known Remy since I was eight or so, and Marie for almost as long.” She folded her legs up onto the oversized chair and snuggled further into the cushions, seeming to think over her next words carefully. “Remy thinks this is the best place for Selene to be. The safest place.”
That gave me pause. “Is she in danger with her current pack?”
While I knew a lot of Velesians, it was impossible for me to know all of them. We greatly outnumbered the Moroi and Furies, our population was somewhere around ten thousand. I traveled around the Velesian realm the most out of the Alphas, but I tended to focus on the highest-ranking packs and the lowest. The former to maintain relations with them and the latter to check in on how the most vulnerable of us were fairing.
It was my understanding that Selene had been traded to several middle-ranking packs. I knew of the packs she’d belonged to but hadn’t visited any of them in well over a decade. She was back with her birth pack now, and they were third in hierarchy across all the Fervis Order. They were a pack I was quite familiar with, but Selene hadn’t returned to them the last time I’d visited.
Selene’s father was the Alpha of that pack. Nicholae Rivera. He reminded me a lot of Alexis. Cruel and prone to aggression. Although there had never been any reports of abuse in his pack.
Then again, I hadn’t heard of anything between Alexis and Rynn either, but there was definitely something there. I hadn’t liked the way he’d been fixated on her. I’d seen Rynn face down Warrick without a lick of fear—something nobody outside of us did—but there had definitely been fear in her eyes for a second when she’d looked at Alexis. There was rage as well and actual hatred, but I knew what I saw.
The Fervis pack enforcer had done something to Rynn. Enough that it had left a mark. There was no point asking her about it, she wouldn’t tell me, but I’d find out. Partly because I felt an obligation to her since she lived with us, even if she wasn’t pack, but mostly because if Alexis had hurt her, then he’d likely hurt others, and his Alpha had no doubt covered it up.
One of the few times we directly intervened in pack politics was if they hurt their own. A phantom pain coiled around my right leg and squeezed. Alexis was a dead wolf if I learned he’d hurt Rynn.
“I don’t know the specifics around her situation,” Rynn said slowly, drawing my attention away from my thoughts. “But she’s been traded to five packs in the last decade.”
“Five?” My brows rose. “Gavril left out that little detail.”
“I realize you will view her the same as you do me—someone not to be trusted—but if we can at least make her feel safe here, perhaps that will be enough. She deserves to have a home.” Rynn looked out the balcony doors to the night sky. Her voice was even, but I could see the sorrow etched in her features.
A small part of me felt a little bad about that. Weird. I didn’t normally give a shit about people outside my pack.
Maybe because part of me knew Cade was right. We could have been more honest with her. Besides, I needed a way to get her to hate me slightly less if I was going to win this bet.
“The same applies to you, Rynn,” I said casually. “Just because you’re not one of us doesn’t mean you can’t be happy here.”
Until the day Warrick finally snapped and killed her.
“We both know that isn’t true.” She turned back to face me, and a small smile stretched across her mouth. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, Bas. My future is my own.”
I smiled back at her using my nickname. “Glad to know you think I’m pretty.”
She shrugged. “It’s the one thing you have going for you.”
