Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
I cleared my throat.
Nyx snapped up. He turned to me and did something I never would’ve expected in a hundred years.
He smiled. “Mom, she’s up. She’s okay.”
“Wonderful news.”
“I gotta go. I’ll call you back.” Ending the call, he rushed over to me, dropping down beside me on the bed. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”
I goggled at him like he was crazy. “Am I alright? How do I feel?” I repeated. “Did you get hit with a shovel too? What is with all this care and concern?”
He snorted, rolling his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I be caring and concerned? Trust me, the air is clear between us, Daze. Now that I know everything.”
I stiffened. Nyx heard what I said to Badr while he was in the process of murdering me. I’d forgotten that little tidbit.
“Why did you call your mom?” Apprehension gripped me. “Did you tell her what I said?”
Nyx shook his head, surprising me. “I called her to save your life. The academy nurse mysteriously died.” He flashed me a knowing look. “So I needed Mom to walk me through making the medicine you needed. She’s a healer.”
I nodded, accepting that. “What was in that medicine? How did she know it would work? Has this happened to other wolves before?”
“Yes.” Nyx picked my water jug off my nightstand and poured me a glass. “There’s a reason fates separate to let their bonds degrade instead of blowing it up like you did. One is letting an ice cube gently melt in your mouth. The other is crunching it and breaking your tooth.
“Mom said she’s come across wolves that weren’t ones for patience and blew up the bonds instead. Almost all of them died.”
“Died?!” I blurted, shooting up. “I didn’t know that. Why did no one ever say that could happen!”
“Plenty of fucking people told you never to swear on Luame. This is on you.”
Growling, I took that damn water and dumped it right on his lap. “Asshole!”
Inexplicably, Nyx laughed. Cool as ever, he plucked the blanket off the adjacent bed and wiped his lap. “All right, fair enough. Now isn’t the time for I told you so.”
“What does this mean for me?” I demanded. “Am I okay now? Did you give me the medicine in time?”
Meeting my eyes, Nyx shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know? Does your mom know?” I craned my head, looking where he left his phone. “Let me talk to her. Let me—”
“There’s no point.” Nyx grasped my shoulders, gently guiding me back onto the pillows. “What I gave you was for the pain, and only for the pain. You’ll be able to function now, but as for whether or not you’ll live, that’s up to Luame. She’s the one punishing you for rejecting your fated mate. Only she can decide to spare you.”
“Well, she will,” I cried. “She has to. She knows what I have to do and how important it is. She won’t stop me because I rejected that great thumping jackass.”
He shrugged. “She might.”
I bit my tongue, wanting to snap at him, but I couldn’t. Nyx was right. Luame just might. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Take the great thumping jackass back.”
My eyes bugged, then narrowed to slits. “Oh, I see what this is.”
“What?”
“You’re working with Paxton. You’re trying to trick me into making him special and important again, but it’s not going to work!” His brow arched at the shout. “Let me talk to your supposed mommy—if that was even her. Let’s see what she has to say about this cure.”
“Sure,” Nyx replied, giving me another shrug. “You can talk to my mother—”
“Good. And if anything she says is different from what you’ve said—”
“—after you talk to me.”
My jaw snapped shut, because it was clenched.
“No, Volana, you don’t get to do that. You know that I know. I heard everything and we need to talk about it. This affects me too. It affects all of Wolf Nation! Why didn’t you tell us all from the beginning?”
I sniffed. Flipping over on my side, I gave Nyx my back. “I think you’re forgetting that except for Castor, you guys were all complete strangers to me before that night. You expected me to trust you with my deepest, darkest, most dangerous secret? The secret that got my boyfriend killed. The secret that ruined my life and will destroy my future if I don’t stop it. The secret that puts my daughter in danger beyond your wildest nightmares.
“I was supposed to share that secret with five randoms because why? You’ve got cute smiles?” I snorted. “Please, spare me your unrealistic, hypocritical expectations. That night, after what I did to Castor, I had to get away fast. There wasn’t time to stop for a chat.”
“But afterwards,” he protested, not letting it go. “You were running all over the dominions for an entire year, telling everyone else your plans for world domination while we rotted in that suburb like a bunch of clueless jerks. Would it have killed you to drop by at any point in the last twelve months and tell us what was going on?” He rounded the bed, kneeling down to meet my eyes. “Tell us that the alpha council has gone fucking mad and are about to kick off a genocidal campaign that would make that mundane monster Hitler blush!”