AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He slumps back into his seat with a frown. “I can tell something’s wrong.”
Of course he can.
I avert my eyes and click the button to unfasten my seatbelt, shrugging the strap off my shoulder. “Sometimes it’s a pain in the ass that you know me so well,” I mumble, feeding his own line right back to him.
“A blessing and a curse, right?”
I glance over to see a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth.
Touché.
“Did you see something?” Madd asks hesitantly. “A vision, or…”
“Not a vision,” I cut in, stabbing my fingers through my hair in frustration. “More like a feeling. I promise I’ll tell you about it, I just need to talk to my mom and try to make sense of it first. I mean, the visions are one thing, but if I’m an intuitive like her, too?” I close my fist in my hair, tugging at the roots as I drop my head back against the seat. Squeezing my eyes shut, I blow out a slow breath, trying to settle my nerves. “I don’t know, this is just a lot,” I murmur.
Opening my eyes, I turn my head to face Madd. “I hate not knowing what’s going on in my own brain. I’ll feel better once I talk to her.”
“Okay,” he agrees, reaching for his door handle. He pauses before opening it, looking back at me with a brow arched. “So, just to be clear, this isn’t about you being pissed at me for making Tris hold you back today?”
I snort a laugh, rolling my eyes. “Oh, I’m still pissed about that. But this doesn’t have anything to do with it. We’ll discussthatlater.”
“Can’t wait,” he mutters, throwing open his door and climbing out of the Jeep. He circles around to my side right as I’m hopping down, capturing me by the waist and yanking me in to steal a kiss.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs against my lips, his hands sliding down to cup my ass.
“Get a room, you two!” Iver heckles as he walks up the driveway with my brother.
Madd pulls away from my lips with an annoyed grunt, his hands still firmly gripping my ass as he turns his gaze on them. “Good idea. Tris, can we use yours?”
Tristan frowns, but Madd punches him in the arm as he passes by us, my brother cracking a smile in response.
Guess it’s good to see those two getting along again.
Madd slings an arm around my shoulders and steers me to follow Iver and Tris up the front walkway to the packhouse, and from out here, everything seems peaceful.
That’s decidedlynotthe case when Tristan pushes open the door.
The four of us enter into total chaos, half of the council already here debating what to do about Javi and his pack’s request to join our alliance. The Raines’ beat us to the packhouse, no doubt shifting to their wolf forms and taking a direct route through the forest rather than taking the road around, so everyone inside is already up to speed and very opinionated about how to best handle this situation.
Through the shouting and bodies and sheer mayhem ensuing, I spot my mom leaning against the lower banister of the staircase, just standing back and taking everything in. I leave Madd’s side to make a beeline for her, a smile lighting up her face as she sees me coming.
“Can we talk?” I ask as I approach her, trying and failing to conceal the worry written all over my face.
“Of course,” she replies instantly.
I love that about my mom. She never hesitates to drop everything when one of her kids needs her.
Mom waves for me to follow her toward the back door, my heart beating a riot in my chest the whole way. It doesn’t slow to a normal cadence until we’re outside and she’s closed the sliding glass door behind us, sealing the raised voices of the gathered crowd inside.
“What’s up?” she asks as she turns to face me, eyes rounded in concern.
I blow out a breath and rake a hand through my hair, moving to step over to the sectional on the patio. This is definitely a sit-down type of conversation.
Mom follows my lead, and when the two of us are settled onto the cushions, I finally shore up the courage to speak. “I realized something today and I’m freaking out a little bit about it,” I admit, struggling to pull my thoughts together to put them into words. “Remember that kid who accidentally shot me during target practice, Luke Jenkins? I just remembered something about him. A feeling I had when I was around him a week or two before that happened.”
She nods slowly, her eyes locked on mine and imploring me to continue.
“I don’t really know how to explain it. It was just like this uncomfortable,ickyfeeling.” I grimace as I recall how I felt that day when I looked at Luke, like my skin was itchy and bile was crawling up my throat. “I didn’t think much of it at the time,” I continue, “and honestly, until today, I’d forgotten all about it, because it hadn’t happened again. I mean, I don’t remember having that feeling in the woods when he found me, or when he came by to apologize after. It was just that one time.”
