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Nero clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We’re three alphas who share our borders. One pesky band of vamps can’t do shit.”
“You’re delusional,” Atlas snapped. “It’s on your head. If you want help, go to Reece. I’m not getting anywhere close to any vamps or Half-Bloods or whatever else this is gonna bring.”
“One day,” Nero sang as Atlas left the office.
Nero’s focus was definitely depleted after that. All he could think about was his mate and when he could see her again.
NINETEEN
VALENTINE
One thing was clear to Valentine.
Lilliane was not the same person she’d been a month ago. Oh, she still had the same brown hair, and she still wore the same clothes. But her addiction to lollipops was gone. Vanished. As was her little sister’s gusto for life.
Lil collapsed on the couch as soon as they walked into the cabin, and beyond spending a little too long in the bathroom, she hadn’t really moved from the couch.
“Are you hungry?” Val asked. “I can make you some mac ’n cheese.” Usually, that prospect would have been enough to make Lil jump to her feet and help out with the meal prep.
“Not hungry” was Lilliane’s only response as she turned to face the back of the couch with her eyes screwed shut.
For the first few hours, Valentine didn’t push. She let Lil rest and recover because she’d been alone with vampires for a month, and that would make anyone jumpy and just not themselves. But by the time dusk fell, Lil hadn’t eaten or drank anything. If she’d moved at all, Val hadn’t seen it.
“Okay,” she announced, clapping her hands together. “Enough. Up. You need to dosomething. This isn’t you.”
Lilliane waved her off. “Welcome to the new me.”
Valentine tugged at her sister’s arm and tried to pry her away from the couch, but to no avail. She pleaded and threatened. She blasted music Lil hated. She made mac ’n cheese alone and brought a fragrant spoonful to her sister’s mouth.
Nothing.
Valentine tried to go for the shock value and asked, “Who isLord?”
Lil flinched. “Who?”
“In your phone. One of your contacts is saved as Lord. Is that Nikolas?”
“It’s none of your business.”
Valentine wanted to keep pushing, but Lilliane wasn’t cooperating at all. Short of torturing her sister with ‘80s music and soggy toast and wedgies, Val was at a loss.
“Just tell me.”
“Let itgo, Valentine,” Lilliane snapped.
More frustrated than she’d ever been, Valentine grunted in frustration and threw her hands up. “Fine. Be that way. I give up.” She slammed the door behind her on the way to the front porch.
She angrily sat in her rocking chair, crossed her arms, and rocked the seat with so much speed it made a loud … and annoying …BANGevery time she rocked back.
She sat there fuming at her sister and all the effort and risks she’d put into rescuing Lil. It hadn’t been without consequences.
A man … a hot, handsome man whom she’d kissed … had seen her naked. A man Valentine was impossibly attracted to. One she wouldn’t mind spending more time with.
The same man knew way too much about her, and for what? So that Lilliane could spend hours on the couch like some catatonic slug who gave up on life?
It was almost insulting that Lilliane didn’t consider Valentine’s feelings in all this. What Val wouldn’t give to be back in Nero’s truck, driving around. Sure, it had been stressful to drive without knowing if they could save her sister, but those long hours in his truck had meant something.
Val would always keep those precious hours as some of her favorites, even with her nudity.
