Page 92 of Obsidian and Frost

It wasn’t exactly like me to stand down.

“They’re good,” I told her, gesturing at Buzzcut and Peroxide trapped within her shadows.

“How do you know?”

I sucked in a breath. “My mom sent them.”

Creswynwas the name of the refuge that she’d hidden me away in shortly after my vampiric abilities had surfaced and my true hybrid nature had come out. It was something that had caused a whole lot of havoc among our pack—and beyond, to be honest. War had broken out within and other packs had even used it as an opportunity to attack a pack in the midst of a civil war.

And many had been hunting me then, until my mom had formed an alliance with some key vampire clans in exchange for a stake in her power as Alpha, and a way to hold peace and stop the wolf attacks of smaller vampire clans that had been happening at the time. And, yeah, they’d also liked the idea ofher having a son who was kind of like a supercharged vampire with my wolf abilities along for the ride as well.

Over the years, long after I’d no longer needed to be secluded atCreswyn, the name of that place had become a codeword of safety between us.

“Why?” I asked. “Why does she have you watching me?”

Velra dropped her shadows and Gilded Guy walked to the other two, joining them. Velra moved beside me, eyeing them with a whole lot of scrutiny, still tensed and at the ready.

Peroxide answered, folding his big arms across his chest and informing me, “Rhyza is unreachable for the next several days, so in that time she wanted to ensure you were protected.”

“Unreachable how?” I asked.

“She’s in closed-door meetings with the Shifter Stabilization Unit.”

What?She hadn’t told me that. For years now she hadn’t left her home that was located in the middle of nowhere. She’d basically been a hermit ever since she’d retired and left pack life behind.

And now she was suddenly at a political and high-level supernatural governance summit?

The Shifter Stabilization Unit had been the Lupan Stabilization Unit until recently, when the Dracoryn Realm had gone to war and new leadership had been installed to force out the tyrannical rulers of House Titanus. Those who’d suffered under their control had left the Realm—dozens of them. So the leader of the Unit, Jaxon Silver—and now Vorzyr Titanus as well—had needed to update their mandate to include other shifters, not only wolves.

What the fuck was going on?

“About what? She’s not part of the political landscape anymore. She’s removed herself from it all.”

“Things alter, evolve,” Buzzcut said.

Rather evasively.

She’d sent them, and I knew my mother, I wouldn’t get anything out of them—at least not freely. And the fact they were here at her request and her allies meant I wasn’t going to try to extract information using harsher methods.

But, shit, she could be incredibly cryptic, especially when it came to protecting me. It either meant that she was in transition with whatever had drawn her back to wolf politics, that she was still gathering information regarding what had led to her sendingprotectionmy way,orshe already had the full picture and didn’t want me to be made aware in case Iwent off the deep end. In all fairness, I had responded that way in the past whenever a threat had come our way. Not only was it in my nature, but it was my fucking right to protect her and myself, and anyone I cared about, from an act of aggression or a threat against us.

“All right,” I said. I reached out to Velra and laid my hand on her shoulder. She’d been incredibly quiet during all of this. “We’ll head back to the Academy now. Guess I’ll be seeing you around.”

“She wishes you to continue operating as normal, focusing on Wraeven and your studies,” Gilded Guy told me. “Don’t concern yourself with this. It’s being handled.”

“Of course,” I forced myself to respond. “I have no doubt with my mother’s involvement.”

They each gave me a chin lift, then nodded politely at Velra.

“Let’s go,” I told her.

She didn’t protest or resist, just turning with me as we headed away.

But as soon as we were through that magical barrier wherein they could no longer hear us and vice-versa, she eyed me as we trudged through the forest. “What are you up to?”

“Me? Up to something?”

“You don’t back down. That’s well-documented.”