Chapter 222
Zane
The instant that knock came at the front door, my wolf went on high alert. Whining, he paced and
pawed.
I had to forcibly push him lower. The only reason nobody else thought anything of it was that all of their
wolves were reacting the same way.
Gabriela moved through the living room so fast, none of us could stop her. She wielded a plastic
spatula in one hand and a b utcher knife in the other. Neither would be better weapons than her own
wolf’s claws, but I got the hell out of her way.
“You all stay back,” she said. “Take care of those babies.”
“As if we wouldn’t,” Xander grumbled through the link.
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Fear radiated off Lanie in pulses. I moved closer to her with baby Stella in my arms. She didn’t try to
take the baby from me, but leaned close to run her hand over $tella’s head. Lanie’s wolf flashed in her
eyes.
All of us tensed as Gabriela peeked through the front window to see who was on the porch. She visibly
tensed, then relaxed, at the sight. She looked over her shoulder at us.
“It’s Rhiannon.”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAs another knock rattled the door, Gabriela opened it and stepped aside to let the witch enter. My gut
roiled at the sight of her, and Lanie looked up at me.
“She helped us,” she reminded me in a low voice. “Without her, we wouldn’t have the twins back. You
don’t
have to like her, but we should be grateful.”
I barely kept my lip from curling. I wanted Rhiannon gone, out of here, far away from the woman and
the
man I loved, and the pups we were all bound to love and protect. Most of all, I wanted her the hell away
from
me.
“Zane?” Lanie’s mind probed mine.
I subtly tried to shield myself from her, but it wasn’t working. As a Beta, there wasn’t much I could do
against the innate power a Luna could wield, and even though she was still new and didn’t know how to
access all of her gifts, Lanie was so much stronger than she thought herself to be. She knew
something was
wrong.
“Not because I’m the Luna,” she thought at me. “Because I love you. What the hell is going on? Why
are
you trying to stop me from sensing you?”
Mason looked toward us, and I felt a tentative touch of his attempt at listening in. Him, I could block,
and
I could tell it annoyed him by the way he grimaced.
“You can all just put your teeth away,” Rhiannon said sharply. “Oh, what big eyes you have and all that
b ullsh it. Nobody followed me. I have a potion that alerts me if someone did.”
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someone else a transmogrification potion, and this is only someone who looks like her?”
The witch put her hands on her hips. “Why by the stars would I do that?”
“Because you’re a witch,” Xander put in. “And you hate wolves. You were quick enough to insist that
Lanie be the one to use your potion to get into the facility. Maybe the plan all along was for her to end
up getting killed. Maybe ‘Rhiannon’ never really wanted to help us at all.”
I always had Xander’s back, but it felt good to know that he would always step up to have mine, too.
Even
if he had no idea why I was so desperate to get this witch the hell out of here. Even if I knew that if he
ever
found out, there’d be hell to pay.
I’d have to face that if it happened. For now, I stepped between Lanie and Stella and the witch. “Prove
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmit’s
really you.”
Gabriela tutted softly. “Zane, we can all smell that it’s her.”
“We can smell a witch,” I countered grimly. “That doesn’t mean it’s the one you’ve all asked us to trust.”
Gabriela’s wolf flashed as her lip curled back to show her dropping canines. I knew I’d shocked her with
my disrespect. Xander’s mother and I had always gotten along.
Rhiannon drew herself up. She had no wolf inside her, but her eyes flashed with something. Her lips
quirked into a small smile.
“Fine. I’ll prove it to you. And only you,” she added with a sharp glance around the rest of the room
before
she settled her gaze back on mine. “You come outside with me, and we’ll have a little…chat.”
S hit. I’d stabbed myself in the back.
“Zane?” Lanie said aloud, her voice tense with suspicion. “Does this have anything to do with the
invisibility potion?”
Xander’s head swirled. “I’m sorry, the what now?”
We’d been so caught up in our interpersonal dynamics Lanie and I hadn’t told him all the details of the
escape.
“Zane,” Lanie repeated, this time in a harsher tone.
Rhiannon smiled, backing up toward the door. “Yes, Zane. Come outside with me, and I’ll prove that I’m
exactly who I say I am.”
I had no other choice.
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go.”