We make our way to the kitchen. Grayson holds a jar of honey in one hand, a loaf of bread in the other. She steals both from him and takes a seat at the table. Grayson’s low laugh mingles with my own as he divvies out dinner onto the plates.
“Where’s Silas?” I ask, watching as she pours honey onto a small plate, then rips into the bread. I expected him to be back by now.
She points down the hall with her honey spoon. “The stalkers are outside.”
“Stalkers?”
“Ghost arrived just as I got back. He and Silas are having a private meeting,” she scoffs, the idea of them talking without her clearly a source of annoyance.
“Want me to get rid of him?” Grayson asks her. “Say the word, love. I’ll have the birds eating his decomposing body by morning.”
“Isn’t that cannibalism?” Mona muses.
Grayson mutters under his breath about how much he doesn’t care as he digs into his dinner.
“Mona, you called him a stalker. Has he been bothering you? Following you?” I ask.
Grayson adds, “I can make him leave, if you want. Just saying.”
She looks at us with so much earnestness. Her bright blue eyes are the clearest they've been in days, so much brewing behind them. But she shakes her head no and stuffs a piece of honey-soaked bread into her mouth.
“So… are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Grayson asks between bites, trying and failing at nonchalance. Mona refuses to talk to us, to share her burdens, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying.
She chews slowly. On purpose, because she usually swallows her food practically whole, like a starving wolf. She’s stalling, but eventually admits, “I can’t get her out of my head. She’s everywhere. Like a song on the radio. There, constantly.”
“Ingrid? Andrea’s mate?”
She nods, then shakes her head. “It’s… all of them.” Her scent wavers, almost like her omega is reaching out for us, begging for help.
“You can talk to us, Mona. Don’t carry this alone.”
She sucks in sharp, ragged breaths. “It’s just… I told you things are getting clearer. The visions, I mean.”
We both nod. Ever since Ghost taught Mona how to deepen the visions, it’s like a fucking valve opened, and it’s stuck in theonposition. I want to kill the fucker for that alone, but he’s also the only one who might actually be able to help her.
“Last night, the witches started a new ritual. What they did with Lily and Silas. They lock an alpha and delta into a room together. I fell out of the vision when the chanting started, but I know what’s coming. I-I—” she hiccups, suddenly overwhelmed by it all. Grayson pulls away from the table so abruptly, I’m sure the legs leave scratches in the floor. She’s wrapped in his arms moments later, and I’m cradling her hands, thumbing her wrists. Gray and I both purr, and the rumbling vibration helps her calm enough to breathe normally.
“I didn’t tell Andrea. I couldn’t. I didn’t see Ingrid and Sam yet, but… it doesn’t matter. It’ll be them soon. I don’t understand why she’s doing this. There’s just so many of them. What if Deidre gets what she wants? Grayson, what’s going to happen to these girls?”
Gray’s eyes meet mine, but he wraps his arms around Mona and holds her while she sobs into his arms.
Silas comes in a minute later. Surprisingly, Ghost is with him.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Grayson hisses, lashing out for no reason, because that’s what we’re reduced to.
Silas doesn’t take the bait. My eyes flick to Ghost. He’s watching Mona with an unreadable expression on his face. Why is he here right now? To give her more lessons, to make hermore vulnerable to all this chaos? There’s nothing she can do to save these people, but she’s being forced to watch their horrors unfold.
Grayson tucks the crown of her head beneath his chin. “I’m taking her to bed,” he snarls, then lifts his tiny mate in his giant arms and carries her up the stairs.
Silas takes Gray’s seat. Ghost hangs back, hovering, watching Mona disappear.
There’s something going on between them, and I don’t like it. I don’t like that he’s disrupting her sleep, her mental health.
I stalk toward him, my voice dropping to a whisper. “What did you do?” My fingers curl into claws at my sides. “Whathave you done to my mate!”
He drags his attention from her retreating form to me. “What do you mean?”
My alpha growls, and I point toward Mona. “You did something. You spent the day with her, helping her with her magic. You broke the dam. Whatever you did, she’s completely overwhelmed. It’s all rushing at her. She can’t control it.”
