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Kelsey
Hellhounds are super cute when they’re puppies, but don’t think that those suckers can’t trip you up.
Puff was following at my feet as I climbed the stairs up to Liv’s room. I liked to call it a room and not what it was. A magical prison.
Ever since Sasha had mentioned Liv’s problem, my gut had been in knots, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t because of the chicken wings. I’d started this pregnancy out with all the joys of nausea, but the past few days had seen a massive change. I’d gotten back to Frelsi and my appetite had come with me, and poor Eddie was trying so hard to keep up.
I wasn’t feeling that endless hunger now, though.
I felt annoyed because someone had left a hellhound at my place when she’d run off to yell at her parents. Oh, Evan hadn’t told me that was why she was dumping the cutie who sometimes farted fire, but I’d seen the look in her eyes. Also, she’d asked me where her mom had gone in a way that let me know she was irritated.
And she’d told me she was coming with me and that was that.
So Fenrir had overheard and talked. I couldn’t blame him for it. His hearing was really good and honestly, gossip was hard to not listen to.
“Yes. That’s exactly what she did. She walked straight into a vampire club.”
See what I said about gossip? I heard Liv’s voice and I stopped. She sounded so… She sounded like Liv. Since she’d put on all the leather and her boobs seemed to have magically gone cast iron, her voice was always so serious. Deeper than before. She had “I’m going to destroy the world” vibes.
My heart constricted because now she sounded like my friend.
“She barely knew what a vampire was.”
“Seriously? She just walked right in?”
I started hustling up the stairs because that voice sounded like my son’s, and what the hell was he doing in Liv’s prison cell?
Puff barked as I picked up the pace and then ran up ahead of me and stopped to make sure I was still coming, and then I nearly tripped and he yelped and I finally picked the little guy up and he started trying to lick my mouth.
Fen’s head poked out of the door that was freaking standing open. “Hey, Mom.”
Did anyone understand the meaning of prison cell? I might not have wanted to acknowledge Liv was in a holding cell, but we could at least keep the door closed.
“What are you doing up here?” I hustled, the puppy wriggling because he saw Fen, and Puff loved Fen.
Puff loved everyone. He was a terrible hellhound.
Fen gave me a heart-stopping grin. “Well, I’m finding out you were a little reckless in your youth.”
I finally made it to the door and saw Liv sitting in the rocking chair, looking totally comfortable and not at all like a woman desperate for a fix. She had a beer in one hand and sat cross legged in that way that reminded me how much yoga she did.
I wasn’t sure what was happening. “Is everyone okay?”
“Well, your reputation is taking a beating, but otherwise the wolf king and I are getting along swimmingly,” she said with a twist of her lips.
“Liv was telling me how you met Marcus Vorenus.” Fen winced. “I was curious because Pops kind of curses when the name is used, and Dad totally avoids the subject.” He brightened suddenly. “But she also told me about your high school years and how incredibly cool you were.”
I set the puppy down. He was calmer now, sitting at my feet. “I bet that’s what she said.”
How much had Liv told my son? Had she told him things I would definitely prefer he didn’t know?
Had she laughed about the night I tried to get out of my hideous life? About how the man I’d thought was my father abused me and neglected me?
All of the warnings I’d heard in the last few days came back to haunt me. I was vulnerable to her in so many ways, and I had no real way of knowing how far she would go to hurt me.
“I was telling him about the night you staked out a vampire club.” She snorted. “Staked out. That would be funny. You scared the shit out of me, and then we drank a bunch of beer and you ran when Marcus Vorenus crooked his little finger.”
