Okay. Be safe.
I will. No more hiding as a wolf in the cages. And find out what the Hoels are up to. There’s too much bad shit going on around them.
I’m already on it.
Good. I love you.
Je t’aime, cherie.
With the clunk of the tires over the cattle guard, the bond shut down. It took my breath away, and I ached to turn the car around. I found a spot to park in front of the house, and noticed a figure sitting on the top step.
Luciana.
I didn’t have the desire to talk to her, not even a little bit. Especially when I was still smarting from the absence of the mate bond. But I couldn’t ignore her.
“How was Rosa?” She said the name with more than a little venom as I got out of the car.
“Enlightening as always.” I shut car door with a slam. The guys and Claudia got out and came to stand beside me. Luciana looked from her son to me and back again. I wasn’t sure what was going through her mind, but I didn’t want to know.
“I’m sure it was.” Luciana paused long enough that it became a little awkward, but I couldn’t look away from her gaze before she broke away. The werewolf in me wouldn’t allow it.
It took longer than I would’ve thought before her focus shifted to Daniel. I didn’t look at him, but I could almost feel him stiffen beside me.
Whenever I left here, I made a promise to myself to take Daniel with me. He might be her son, but he wasn’t anything like her. I didn’t know what went on at home, but whatever it was, I didn’t think it was good.
“Is there something you wanted, Luciana?” Claudia asked.
She grinned then. “I searched your room, Teresa. I’m sure the mongrel in you will know as soon as you enter, so I thought I’d give you a little warning.”
I clenched my hands, trying to maintain control. The idea of her pawing through my things was more invasive than I could stand. “What gives you the right to go through my things?”
“I’m the leader here. I’m the one in charge. As long as you’re on my grounds, I’m allowed to make sure you don’t have anything here that I need to confiscate.”
I laughed. This whole conversation was absurd. What was this? A summer camp? Did I need to hide my candy bars under my mattress? “And what items would be forbidden?”
“That’s for me to know.”
Right. “You just wanted to go through my things, didn’t you? Try to force a vision. I get it. I’ve been there before.” I might have to tolerate her while I was here, but once I was gone, I was going to make sure this bitch went down. All I wanted to do now was go to my room and make sure she hadn’t taken anything…or left anything behind. “If you’re so worried about me and what I might be doing, why don’t you come ask me?”
“I don’t worry about you. I’m merely protecting my own. You might be the next leader, but I’m the leader until I die.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Simple. As long as you’re here, the pack is weaker.”
“I can leave any second.”
“Then leave. Give me the excuse.” Luciana smiled. She knew she had me, and the second I stepped foot off the compound without her permission, she’d be skipping off to war.
The woman was infuriating. I’d thought I was the center of her plot, but now that I knew what Dastien was going through, the truth was clear. Screwing with him disturbed the whole pack, and he was such a powerful alpha that his unease would be rippling through the pack bonds. The Weres were tied so closely together that everyone would be hurting.
The entire pack structure was weakened.
I was exactly where Luciana wanted me to be. I couldn’t go back to the pack—at least not yet—without starting a major shitstorm. But every moment I stayed here made my pack more vulnerable.
This conversation was over. I pushed past her, not caring that I almost knocked her over. I opened the door and stormed inside the house, taking the stairs two at a time up to my room.
It reeked like Luciana—cloves and something sour. I opened the windows, AC be damned. I needed the scent of her out of my room or I’d never get to sleep.
I threw my keys on the nightstand and started systematically going over the room. I opened myself up to visions, but besides things with various visitors, Mom, my cousins, and Grams, I didn’t get anything good. Nothing that even hinted at Luciana.
If her visions were like mine, then she needed to touch things to see anything. So how had she managed not to seep anything of herself into the room?