Page 18

CHAPTER 18

brIAR

“I need to get out of here,” I growl as I hop up from the bed and pause “Supernova” by Nic D.

I’ve been stuck in Malachi’s bedroom for the past three days, and I’m going stir-crazy. Even Rory visiting me two days ago only temporarily alleviated the monotony. As soon as she left, I was right back to being so bored I could scream.

The jagged slash on my torso has healed to nothing more than a silvery scar. It still hurts every once in a while, but I’m pretty much good as new.

Yet, Malachi still thinks I need to be bedbound. While he and Saint get to go out on recon missions with the mages, I’m stuck here with Bastian or Xander as a babysitter. Bastian drew the short straw today and has been keeping me company. While he’s been doing everything he can to keep me entertained, there’s only so much to do in one room.

Bastian’s eyebrows rise. “Where do you wanna go, pretty girl?”

“I don’t care. Just somewhere. Anywhere that isn’t here.” I throw my hands up in exasperation.

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure I can make that happen.” His full lips tilt up into an amused smile. “While Malachi would kill me if I took you outside of the house without him, he’ll only be mildly furious about us roaming around the mansion.”

I roll my eyes at Bastian. “Ask me how much I care about his opinion right now.”

“I’d guess somewhere around not even slightly.” His quip earns him a laugh. Bastian’s eyes soften with affection as he watches me. “I know Dad’s been wanting to see you, so you wanna take a field trip to his office?”

“Sure.” I shrug, because anywhere is fine with me. Plus, I do want a chance to catch up with Uncle Vale. He’s been by to check on me a few times, but he never stays long. He’s pretty busy and hasn’t wanted to cut into my recovery time.

Practically running over to the closet I share with Malachi, I grab the first pair of pants and crewneck I find. I pull on my faded jeans, black sweatshirt, and matching boots in record time.

When I emerge from the closet, I see Bastian standing by the door, ready to go. He doesn’t bother changing out of his sweats or faded light blue tee. He’s more comfortable wandering around in casual clothes than I am. I feel so underdressed being in public in sweatpants or a sleep shirt.

Taking his offered hand, I walk out of the room for what feels like the first time in forever, even though it’s only been a few days. While I can admit that Malachi was right that I needed to rest to heal, he seriously overestimated how long was necessary. The jerk won’t believe me that I’m fine now and left me behind when he went out to find Ryker today.

“So, I assume you’re not about to faint or anything if you’re wanting to walk around?” Bastian looks down at me, his emerald eyes shining with concern.

Huffing a laugh, I shake my head. “As I told Malachi, I’m fine. I don’t need any more time to rest. What I need is to get out there and start fixing the shit show I caused.”

Bastian’s jaw tightens, and he squeezes my hand in reassurance. “We’ve been over this, pretty girl. It’s not your fault that you shifted for Ryker. It was a shitty situation, and you did the best you could.”

Shrugging, I look away from him, not wanting to talk about it right now. He doesn’t push the issue as we walk in companionable silence down the grand staircase and through the Wyldhart keep. We wind through a maze of hallways before coming to a stop in front of a reddish wood door with “Alpha Wyldhart” engraved in gold across the center.

Bastian raps his knuckles on the wood twice.

“Come in,” Vale’s deep voice calls.

Bastian pushes open the door and leads me into Vale’s office. We walk across dark floors past a large window that looks out at the pine forest to an imposing natural wood desk in the corner. Sinking into one of the green velvet armchairs in front of the desk, Bastian gestures for me to sit down next to him.

When I plop down, I give Vale a warm smile before noticing the two burly dudes standing next to him. One of them has brown hair streaked with gray at the temples, dark eyes sparkling with mirth, and a knowing smirk on his face. The other has mocha skin, close-cropped brown hair, and his muscular arms crossed over his chest. Unlike the other guy, his brown eyes are narrowed on me as he silently assesses me.

“So this is her?” the gray-haired one asks with a hint of laughter in his voice. I’m not sure if he’s laughing at me or a joke I’m not in on. Either way, his jovial demeanor makes it hard to be offended.

Vale doesn’t take his gaze off me when he responds. “Yes, Sam, this is Briar Wylder, my sons’ mate. Bee, this is Sam and Jesse, my betas. How are you feeling? Are you sure you should be out of bed?”

I let out a soft groan. “Not you too, Uncle Vale. As I told Malachi, I’m, like, ninety-five percent healed. There’s literally no reason for me to be cooped up in bed. I had enough of being confined the past few weeks with the Knights.”

Vale’s eyes soften when I mention the facility. “We’re just worried about you, Bee, that’s all. You gave us quite a scare, one I don’t think my son is going to forget for a while.”

“None of us are going to forget it. Ever,” Bastian mutters as he stares at the thick blue rug under Vale’s desk.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper as I reach out to squeeze his hand.

Bastian intertwines our fingers and gives me a small but genuine smile. “Don’t apologize, sweet girl. It’s not your fault, but I hope you understand why we’ve all been crazy worried about you. Kai’s also a mega control freak, and it grinds his gears not being able to control what’s been happening to you.”

Some of my irritation drains away as I snort at Bastian’s apt description of Malachi. He has an almost obsessive need to be in control, but I know it comes from a place of love. I can’t help my small smile thinking about Malachi telling me he loves me.

“She looks like almost a carbon copy of Evie, minus the hair,” Jesse comments, his voice gravelly.

I look up at him in surprise. “You knew my mom?”

He dips his chin. “I did. She was a good woman. I’m sorry about what happened.”

“Me too,” I croak past the lump in my throat that thoughts of my mom always cause.

“Was there something you two needed?” Vale asks when the silence stretches as we all get lost in our thoughts.

“We just came to catch up with you. Although, I was wondering if you have any updates on the Ryker situation?”

Bastian coughs to hide his laugh at my opportunistic digging.

While we’re here, I might as well get some of the information Malachi won’t share with me. He thinks it’s too stressful for me to know what’s going on. What he doesn’t understand is that worrying about what Ryker is doing is so much more stressful than actually knowing.

“Has Kai not been keeping you updated?” Vale tilts his head in confusion as he waits for my answer.

“He’s been pretty worn out from the whole thing, so he doesn’t want to talk shop when he comes home,” I lie smoothly. Although the lie is definitely undermined by Bastian’s shit-eating grin that widens at my attempt to get the info any way I can.

Vale arches an eyebrow at me skeptically. “Uh-huh. I’m not sure I believe you, but I don’t have any good reason to keep you out of it. Lord knows you’re as stubborn as your mother and will find a way to be involved regardless of whether we want you to be or not.”

My smile is bittersweet. I love hearing ways that I’m like my mom, but it’s hard not having her here to see it herself. “You’re not wrong.”

Sam barks out a laugh before he walks around to perch on the front of Vale’s desk next to Bastian. “We’ve had conflicting reports about where Ryker is and what exactly he’s attempting to do. Some place him on the East Coast, while others put him in southern Europe. Right now, we have two teams, one in each location, trying to see if we can verify any of our intel.”

I nod along, wishing I were on one of those teams. Maybe I can convince Malachi to take me with him tomorrow. “What’s the plan when we find him? Any ideas on how to stop him from expanding the curse?”

Jesse presses his mouth into a thin line, his face grim. “We capture him if we can, kill him if we can’t. No. Our only hope right now is to find him before he can make it worse.”

“What about the stuff we found in Bayeux? Nothing in it was helpful?” Frustration bubbles up at the fact that we wasted time and fell into a Knights trap for nothing. What was even the point of going to Paris and Bayeux? I thought it was supposed to give us the answers we needed to fulfill the prophecy.

Apparently not.

“Oh, shit.” Bastian looks at me with wide eyes. “We totally forgot about it all in the chaos of the Knights taking you. Kai hasn’t even translated any of the stuff we found.”

“Really?” I breathe, feeling like I’m on an emotional roller coaster with my hopes being dashed and lifted one after another.

“Yeah. You’re a genius, pretty girl!” Bastian bounces in his seat as he looks at me like I’m the best thing he’s ever seen.

A laugh bubbles up at Bastian’s enthusiasm. “I’m guessing you and Xander don’t know enough Latin to get started on the translation?” It’s been weeks since I’ve even thought about the stuff we found at the church, but I’m now antsy to get it all translated. It’s agonizing to wait even another minute, but I know we probably can’t do anything until Malachi and Saint get back.

He gives me an apologetic smile and shrug. “Nah, languages are Kai’s thing. The gene must’ve skipped Xander and me, because we both suck at them, especially old people ones like Latin.”

“You’re in good company.” Other than Phoenician, which isn’t even me knowing it, I can’t speak any other languages. It’s all Dido, who probably has forgotten more languages than I’ll ever know.

“Do you need my assistance, child?” Dido asks. I probably called her to me accidentally by thinking about her.

No, sorry. But thank you, Dido. For everything. She’s been instrumental in helping me understand my wolf, me getting out of the facility, and even helping me process my messy emotions. I hope she knows how much her help means to me.

I see her smile in my mind. “It is my pleasure, Briar. I am so proud of the woman you’ve become, and it has been an honor to help you on your journey.”

Her kind words make me feel choked up. I wish I could help her as much as she’s helped me.

I’ll find a way to free you of the reincarnation curse. I promise, I tell her impulsively. While I have no idea how I’ll keep my word, I’m determined to find a way. After we figure out how to keep Ryker from destroying all shifters, of course.

She gives me a sad smile. “If anyone can do it, you can, child. But I doubt there is a way as I have searched for thousands of years.”

With all of us working on it, I know we’ll find something. I want you to get a chance to be with your mates again.

“I would like nothing more.” Dido looks away but not before I see a tear drip down her cheek. Scrubbing a hand over her face, she turns back to me with an arched eyebrow. “Perhaps you should focus on stopping the descendent of Aeneas first?”

I can’t help my snort at her kindly telling me to get back to work. Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll get on that. Dido gives me a mildly exasperated smile before she fades out of my mind.

When I focus back on the room, Vale, Sam, and Jesse are chatting amongst themselves. Bastian is on his phone, but his head snaps up when I look at him. “Talking to Dido?”

Blushing, I duck my head when I realize I zoned out for who knows how long. “Yep. Sorry I spaced out for a bit.”

“You’re good. We were only discussing all the top-secret stuff about the Ryker mission you’ve been dying to know, so you didn’t miss much.” Bastian nonchalantly lifts his shoulder and flashes me a carefree smile.

I gape at him for an embarrassingly long time before realizing he’s joking. Glaring at him, I try to maintain my serious expression as his grin widens, but it’s pretty hard to stay annoyed with Bastian. Giving up, I let a small smile peek through.

Bastian and I talk with Vale and his betas for a while longer until they need to go take care of pack stuff. Pushing out of my chair, I stretch my arms over my head. Vale stands up from his seat and walks over to me. He opens his arms, and I step into his comforting embrace.

He squeezes me tight before his deep voice rumbles, “I’m getting too old for all you’re putting me through, Bee. Do an old man a favor and stop being a lone wolf. Let us help you for once.”

Huffing a laugh into his starchy button-down shirt, I nod against his chest. “You’re not that old, but I can do that.”

As reluctant as I am to admit it, Vale’s right. Trying to solve everything on my own just causes more problems. When my mates worked together, they found me, rescued hundreds of shifters, and shut down an entire Knights facility. When I tried to solve things on my own, I got kidnapped by the Knights and gave them the key to expanding the curse.

I’m so scared of losing anyone else because I know it’ll shatter me. I try to keep them safe by handling things on my own. But I only put everyone in danger when I don’t accept help. The only way we’ll stop Ryker is by being a team and tackling this together. Squeezing my eyes shut, I vow to do better.

After a long moment, Vale’s arms drop away, and I step back. I smile tentatively at his betas. Sam gives me a genuine grin in response, while Jesse simply dips his chin in acknowledgement. With one last wave to Vale, Bastian and I walk out of the office.

Bastian snags my hand in his and starts leading me back through the mansion. “Where are we going now?”

One of these days I’ll figure out the layout of their massive house. Probably.

“Back to the room. I’m sure I can find something to keep you entertained until Kai and the mage get back.” Bastian waggles his eyebrows at me suggestively, and I giggle. He smiles at me like he just won a million bucks, instead of just making me laugh.

We walk in comfortable silence for a few minutes until we reach the massive staircase that leads up to the bedrooms. “Hey, pretty girl?” Bastian asks.

“Yeah?” I tilt my head back so I can look at him and see him wearing an uncharacteristically vulnerable expression.

He tugs on my hand until I crash into his front. Wrapping an arm around my back, he uses his other hand to tilt my chin up so I’m looking in his captivating dark green eyes.

“I love you. I’m pretty sure I was half in love with you when you shared awesomely gruesome fun facts about Rome with me.” I let out a watery chuckle at that, and Bastian gives me a heart-melting smile. “Your integrity, kindness, selflessness, empathy, and everything that makes you the amazing woman you are just sealed the deal for me. I’m so fucking sorry I was an idiot and waited to say it until now. I should’ve told you the moment I knew. It shouldn’t have taken losing you to make me pull my head out of my ass and tell you how much you mean to me. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, though, pretty girl.”

“Oh, Bastian, I love you, too. From the very first day, despite your hot-and-cold routine, I couldn’t get you out of my head. Your knack for lifting me up when I’m down, understanding the fucked-up parts of me no one else does, being able to make me smile more than I ever thought possible, and really everything about you made it impossible not to fall for you. But you have nothing to be sorry for, okay? You told me in your own time, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

His face lights up at hearing me say it back, but he shakes his head when I tell him he did nothing wrong. Shrugging, he says, “Agree to disagree.” Then he swoops in for a quick kiss. I wrap my arms around his neck to hold him to me, wanting to make him believe me that he has nothing to be sorry for.

As I deepen the kiss, arousal skates up my spine. I start rocking my hips against Bastian until he stills them with his hands on my ass. When he rips his mouth away from mine, I see the same need I feel reflected back at me in his emerald eyes. “We’re not doing this here,” he rasps before he hoists me into his arms and climbs the steps two at a time.