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I felt my eyes widen at that.
Shite, Uncle Adryan is on his way here now?
“Yer cousins I could handle. But fooking Adryan? Lass, he’s a ruthless motherfooker, and Kane and Sebastian are just as dangerous as he is. Why do ye think he put them as his righthand males—”
“They are the most levelheaded and rational-thinking males I’ve met thus far.” Mam had no problem cutting off my father to speak over him. And she was the only one who even dared, or had the power to do that to the ruler of the Scottish Lycan clan.
Ouch. That had to be a stab at my Da’s ego right there.
“I’m no’ going tae even respond tae that, Luna. Adryan is even more brutal than I am. He’ll tear Luca limb-from-limb and let Ainslee watch just so she can see who she has in her corner.”
“I’m not going to stand here and have an all-out war break out within the Lycan factions simply because you're all too protective.”
Da scoffed. “Sweetling, I’m no’ overprotective. That wolf is fucking insane. Do ye really want our little Ainslee tae even be in the same room as him?”
My mother exhaled, and I could tell she was tired, not just in the literal sense either.
“Banner, that’s where you’re wrong. She’s not our little Ainslee anymore. She’s a grown woman.”
I brought my knuckles down on the door before I could stop myself, knowing that whatever dispute they were having was the least of our worries. We could deal with my uncle and cousins flying in from America when they were here.
Right now, I just prayed like hell I was wrong about Ainslee... even though I knew I wasn’t.
The doors swung open a second later, Da’s massive body blocking out everything behind him.
“Caelan?” His brows pulled down. No doubt he was confused as hell on why I was at his bedroom door so late. “What’s wrong, son?” He was shirtless, a pair of worn jeans slung on his powerful thighs, his short dark hair disheveled.
When I didn’t answer, he inhaled, his nostrils flaring as he no doubt took in the scent of my worry.
“I went tae check on her, and she’s no’ in her room,” was all I said.
“Banner?” my mother said from inside the room. There was only a second of the sound of material shuffling before she was standing behind her mate, looking at me and then looking up at my Da. “What’s wrong?” She wrapped a robe around herself before tying it around her waist as she moved Da aside to level me with a hard stare. “Caelan, what the hell is wrong?”
Before I could respond, I heard and then scented my brothers coming toward us. About fucking time.
“I went tae her room tae check on her. She’s no’ there.”
“Ainslee?” Lennox asked.
“She might just be walking the estate, unable tae sleep,” Tavish said next.
But I could hear in his voice that he didn’t really believe that.
“She might be in the gardens,” Lennox replied.
“Fook,” Da said before turning and storming back into his room to grab a shirt that hung over a chair. He put it on quickly and then grabbed his cell phone that was on the bedside table.
We were all silent as he punched in a couple of numbers and then put it to his ear. When the person—Cian no doubt—on the other end answered, he barked out orders, telling him to check the grounds, that Ainslee might be outside.
“I donna fooking care about anything else except making sure she’s no’ with Luca. Put extra eyes on him now.” There was a moment of silence before my father cursed again, disconnecting and shoving the cell in his jeans pocket.
“They’ve had eyes on Luca this whole time, but he retreated intae the forest and has been quiet for a bit,” Da murmured to himself as he stared at the floor. “He hasn’t come back tae the wall.” He looked up with knitted brows, but that soon transformed into rage.
It was clear Da was trying to work out the problem, trying to talk himself out of the fact that maybe Luca wasn’t with Ainslee. But if Luca was, we all knew he probably wouldn’t stay on the property. There was no way he would have. He’d take her as far as he could, knowing we’d do anything in our power to keep her away from him.
Da was out of his room and striding down the hallway in a matter of seconds. He made quick work to get to Ainslee’s room. I knew he wanted to double check for himself.
“Ainslee!” he roared out. “Lass!”
We all knew she would not answer.
“Come on, lass!” His voice boomed across the hall, bouncing off the walls. It was a deafening sound.
It was a sound of a worried Lycan father.
He checked Ainslee’s room again, and then we were hauling ass down the stairs and toward the front door.
