AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay,” she said earnestly. “That’s good, yeah. Thank you.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “I love you.”
I nodded and got to my feet without answering.
That was the one lie I couldn’t tell.
Out in the hall, I found Denny leaning against the wall, waiting for me.
One up-and-down look at me must have told him all he needed.
“Dead end?”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Mostly. But not quite.”
* * *
The next few hours were exhausting as I kept Melony calm and waited for the authorities to arrive. For a time, I had to sit on the bed with my arm around her while she cried into her hands, just to keep her from getting too erratic. When Denny shoved me away and took my place, she didn’t seem to notice.
It would have been so satisfying to rage at her. To roar, put my fist through something. To shift into my wolf form and tear her apart.
But what good would it do? Who would that help? Not Melony, certainly. Not Ryder, either. It might make me feel better for a while but not for long.
Instead, I wrapped the doll back up in its blanket, the same way I wrapped Rylan so he wouldn’t kick his little feet free. When I handed it to her, she smiled again.
After that, she seemed happy enough to sit by herself, rocking her fake baby, lost in her fantasies of a motherhood she’d never be able to make real.
While she was distracted, Denny and I stepped aside and discussed our next moves.
“The Du Ponts’ is the place to go next, I agree,” he said. “The problem will be getting in. When we started this, and I told you we should exhaust all other possibilities before trying to infiltrate one of the old packs, it was for a reason. It’d be easier to steal the Declaration of Independence.”
“You think we could use her to do it?” I nodded to Melony, who was singing a lullaby to the doll. “Maybe, if I fake being her mate for a little longer…”
Denny scoffed. “If what she told you is true, she’s dealing with three blood curses. One that’s made her infertile. Another that’s gonna turn her feral someday, and we have no way of knowing when. And the third, I’m assuming, has left her nuttier than a jar of extra crunchy Jif. She’s a liability, Miller. Too unstable to count on with such high stakes.” He puffed his cheeks out to release a breath. “I’m amazed you kept your cool around her all this time. There’s no telling what she might’ve done otherwise.”
“Yeah, well.” I shrugged. “She’s hurt. Hurting. Or both. You haven’t met Quincy Houghton properly—not as an adult. But if he was my dad…” I shook my head as I imagined the manipulation Melony had gone through, the way Quincy had taken advantage of her madness and pumped her mind full of lies. “I dunno. I’d likely be off my fuckin’ rocker, too.”
“Huh.” Denny studied my face curiously. “You’re not the same man you were when we flew to Dallas. That man would’ve beaten Melony Houghton to a pulp for bringing us all the way out here over a toy dressed in his son’s clothes.”
I considered it. “Maybe so. I just don’t see how it would help anything. It wouldn’t get us anywhere, hurting her now.”
“You’re not wrong,” Denny said. “I’m just wondering what’s changed.”
I considered that, too.
Not my anger, certainly. It was still within me, trapped in my rib cage, searing just beneath the surface. But right now, it felt like it would hurt more to let it out than keep it in.
Not my disgust toward Melony, either. The thought of having to comfort her again still turned my stomach, even if she was too pathetic to hate.
“I dunno,” I admitted. “Felicity asked me to come here. To do this for her. To do it for our son. And since she asked…” A surprised laugh tore through me. “I think I could do anything just so long as she asked.”
“Goddamn. You really love her, don’t you?” Denny said.
The question sounded rhetorical, but some of the hurt in my chest lessened as I answered anyway.
“Yeah,” I said. “I really do.”
* * *
When Agent Cordova and her team arrived, Denny and I stepped out of the room so they could move in.
