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Chapter Seventeen

“Are you having trouble tuning out the Daddies?” Khloe asked Molly.

Molly turned toward her new friend, realizing she was covering her ears. She lowered her hands. “I’m getting better at focusing on specific people, but yes, it’s hard. They’ve had some of the elders on speakerphone, too. So there are ten voices in the kitchen.”

It was almost more than Molly could tolerate. She was growing exhausted. She didn’t want to listen in on the men, but it was so hard to tune them out. It was like being in a room with dozens of conversations and trying to decide which one to focus on. But all of them were loud.

Molly was surprised when it was Olivia who leaned into the middle of the Littles to say, “Let’s plot something naughty. It will take Molly’s mind off the men. Besides, we need to initiate her.”

Everyone giggled.

Before Molly had arrived here today, she would have panicked at this suggestion, but Gavin had assured her it was okay for her to join in the shenanigans, so she was far calmer about the idea. “What kinds of things do you guys do to get into trouble?”

“Well,” Jezebel said, “the last time we were together…”

Molly was the one to interrupt with peals of laughter. She held up a finger. “You’re going to have to go back farther than that. I was already mated the last time you all got together. I know about the fingerpainting and the candy.”

More giggles from everyone.

“That’s so weird,” Leah exclaimed, holding her stomach. “We hadn’t even met you yet. We didn’t know you could hear us from a distance.”

“There’s no way the Daddies would let us paint. It’s too close to lunchtime.” Suzette tapped her lips, thinking. Suddenly her eyes lit up. “How about if we all hide in the closet so when the Daddies come to get us, they panic when we’re not here.”

Molly nodded, grinning. That seemed harmless. No one would get hurt. Plus, it would be a short-lived prank. Obviously the Daddies would scent all of them and easily find them in the closet. Their disappearing act would only cause a few seconds of nervousness.

Khloe turned toward the closet behind her. Instead of bothering to stand, she crawled quickly that direction and reached up to open the closet door. It wasn’t huge, but they would all fit in under her dresses if they stood really close together.

Under a round of hushed giggles, they all hurried into the closet.

Molly was on one end, pressed against Khloe. When they closed the door and stopped whispering, the immediate drop in noises caused Molly’s mind to calm some. She could still hear dozens of voices and sounds, but she was getting a break.

The interesting thing was she was the only one aware of when the Daddies would specifically find them. She could hear them putting the finishing touches on lunch and discussing the sudden silence coming from the playroom. They chuckled over the idea that the girls were undoubtedly quietly plotting.

Before they had a chance to come investigate, though, Khloe grabbed Molly’s arm tightly. A second later, she dropped to the floor, landing hard on her knees.

Molly gasped, uncertain what was happening.

Olivia was on the other side of Khloe, and she sprang into action, jerking the closet doors open. “ Daddy ,” she shouted. “Khloe’s having a vision.”

Molly lowered to her knees next to Khloe and wrapped her arms around her new friend so she wouldn’t fall and hit her head.

She’d never witnessed one of these visions before, but she sensed the total detachment as if Khloe had checked out entirely and had no control over her body. Her eyes were blank.

Distant chattering that hadn’t been there before filled Molly’s ears just as six frantic men rushed into the room.

The moment Felix tucked his arms under Khloe, Molly got down on her hands and knees and crawled out of the closet, under everyone, and between legs until she reached the hallway.

She jumped to her feet and ran for the front door. Before she could open it, though, all the air left her lungs as her Daddy wrapped his huge arm around her and lifted her into the air.

“Daddy, no. I need to?—”

He cut her off. “I know, Baby girl. I understand. You’ll go with Daddy, though.” He opened the front door and stepped onto the porch.

Molly squirmed in his arms, a sense of urgency consuming her.

The moment he set her down in the clearing, she shifted. She didn’t dare move. Her Daddy would put her in a two-day timeout if she didn’t stay where he could see her. It didn’t matter, though. She didn’t need to wander off. She’d only needed to get outside so she could hear better.

Molly was aware of Daddy standing very close to her, but she closed her eyes and tipped her ear toward the voices. She recognized one of the voices as belonging to the nicer bear shifter. The other voice wasn’t one she’d heard before, but she quickly determined it belonged to another bear shifter.

She breathed a bit easier when she realized the two of them were both friendly.

“You say the wolves are all at Felix’s house?”

“Yes. I overheard Drow telling Firat. Apparently the two of them have been scouting the wolves’ movements. I swear one of these days the wolves are going to stop trusting us if those two idiots don’t stop fucking terrorizing them.”

“We need to put a stop to their idiocy once and for all.”

“Do you think the council would hear our case and take action if we requested an audience?”

“I don’t know, but we have to try. We can’t keep tracking those two assholes and running to warn the wolves. One of these days, Drow and Firat are going to evade us and rain terror down on a peaceful pack of wolves who do not deserve their wrath.”

“I’m not sure putting an end to Drow and Firat will do any good. They have amassed a following. Someone else will just take up their cause.”

“Then the council needs to address that problem, too. They also need to specifically assign someone of our own to keep tabs on those idiots.”

“Should we volunteer?”

“Probably.”

Molly tipped her head closer. Her ears were high, giving her the ability to hear every syllable.

Something was odd about what she was hearing, though.

It was strange. Muffled. She couldn’t put her finger on it.

And the speakers sounded like they were winded, as if they were running while they chatted. Why would they be running?

Movement to Molly’s right caused her to glance over as two wolves joined her. If she hadn’t been warned about Khloe’s size, she would have probably stumbled backward and fallen. Instead, she forced herself not to react. She nodded toward Khloe to acknowledge her.

The other wolf would be Olivia. She wandered around until she was facing Molly.

Damon and Felix joined in human form.

Felix spoke. “They won’t be here for another fifteen minutes. Molly, can you shift back so Olivia can see your human before she shifts?”

Molly glanced at her Daddy who nodded. She tipped her head one more time to make sure the two bears weren’t speaking again, and then she shifted.

When she once again stood in human form, so did Khloe. Olivia continued to stare at Molly for several more seconds before joining the other two in her human skin.

Molly felt like she belonged to an odd girls’ club. It was invigorating to be part of something bigger than her. After a lifetime of hiding in the corners, her face buried in books, trying to avoid anyone noticing her, she suddenly felt important.

She had so many questions. She asked the most pressing one first. “How do you know how much time we have until they get here?” she asked Khloe.

Khloe shrugged. “I don’t know. I just do. I can’t always tell exactly, but they’re moving, so I can sort of judge.”

Felix stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders.

Molly couldn’t blame him. If she collapsed like she had in the closet every time she had a vision, that would have to scare Felix to death.

Molly was surprised he didn’t insist she remain on all fours all the time.

And then she thought back on what she’d seen of Khloe so far.

The corners of everything in her room were padded.

She’d held Khloe’s hand on their way to her playroom.

Also, Khloe had been the first to sit when they’d arrived, and she’d done so in the very center.

She’d crawled over to the closet when they’d decided to hide, and she’d positioned herself between Molly and Olivia once they were inside.

It would seem she did have a dozen precautions in place just in case she had a vision.

Molly noticed Olivia had a good sense of where the other two were standing, because she seemed to look back and forth between them as they spoke. If someone didn’t know she was blind, they would probably never figure it out.

Olivia even reached out and easily clasped Molly’s hand. “I’m confused. You looked like you were listening to something. Who were you focused on?”

“Two of the bears. I think they were both good ones. One of them was the one I heard talking to a bad guy earlier. This time he was with a friendly sort.”

Olivia shifted her attention to Khloe. “Who is on their way here?”

“Thorn and Surge. Both friendly.”

Olivia turned back toward Molly. “But you heard them talking?”

“Yes. It was odd. I didn’t understand. Sort of muffled as if they were jogging. Are they coming this way in human form?”

Everyone gasped at once.

Molly stiffened. “What?”

“Holy shit,” Gavin muttered as he set a hand on her shoulder.

Damon set his palms on his mate’s biceps at the same time, so the six of them were facing each other in a triangle.

“Someone tell me what’s going on,” Molly insisted.

Olivia was still squeezing her hand. “I think you can hear them speaking to each other telepathically.”

“Telepathically? You don’t think they were speaking out loud?” That would explain the odd muffled sounds, but Molly shuddered at the thought. It was impossible to wrap her head around.