“Look, I am starving. Get your shit, and get out of my room. Last night was fun. Thanks for taking me on a ride of a lifetime.” I smart off and wink as I flee from my room, leaving an open-mouthed Shadow behind me.

When I get downstairs and turn the corner to the kitchen, Winter is already sitting at the table. She must be the only one up beside Shadow and me right now. Usually the kitchen is bustling with people if they aren’t hung-over. I study her, noticing she looks a bit pale. It worries me.

“Umm… Win… don’t take this the wrong way, but you look sick.”

She nibbles the toast that is on the plate in front of her. “I haven’t been feeling all that great. Pregnancy hasn’t been kind to me,” she answers with a sad tone that breaks my heart.

I move to the cabinets, grab a glass, get the orange juice out of the fridge, and pour her a glass. “Drink this,” I say as I hand it to her. “You should have already had a glass this morning.”

“Thanks. I think since I can’t keep my food down, it’s messing with me.” Her hand shakes as she reaches for it.

That’s understandable. Throwing up so much is hard on a woman, let alone a pregnant woman. I don’t really know if orange juice is good for pregnant women, but I know it makes me feel brand new if I have a glass every morning.

“Honestly, I haven’t been sleeping very well, and Braxx has been on edge since the day with the gun bullshit, and now this BDSM takeover. I know he’s worried, and I don’t want him to know that his stress is stressing me out.”

I listen to her. Winter doesn’t open up much about what goes on between her and Godfather. I get it, though, because they’re married. You don’t go sharing all your private feelings and emotions about something so personal.

“Stop stressing, Win. It’ll all be okay. I stopped worrying about lockdowns, takeovers, and all the other bullshit that comes along with being in an MC family, months ago. I got tired of it ruling my life. You need to stop letting this get to you, especially with you being pregnant.”

She looks at me, and I mean really looks at me, before smiling. “You’ve grown a lot over the last six months, Tea.”

My lips pull into a grin. “I know,” I say with a wink before pouring my own orange juice. I was so worried about her that I forgot to make myself one.

“Honestly, everything will be okay.” I open the cabinet and grab a glass while peering around the cabinet door. “You’ll see.”

When she gets up to put her plate into the dishwasher, she stops and stares at me. “You’re glowing.”

Shouldn’t I be the one saying that to a pregnant woman? Even though I have that thought, and even though Shadow ruined it this morning, I find myself cheesing like crazy at her comment.

“Last night…” I shake my head. “Shadow and I—”

I don’t go any further. I let her pick up on it.

“Really?” she asks in disbelief.

“Yeah, it was fantastic,” I whisper. “But he ruined it this morning by trying to hit me with the morning after talk. I cut out quickly before he could.”

She smacks me playfully on the arm. “Well, at least you got some.”

We start to laugh. God, it feels good to do that freely and not have to force it. Our laughter stops when, on the kitchen monitor hanging under the wall cabinets, we see a taxi pull up to the gate.

“Who could that be?” We say at the same time with confused faces. When a blonde haired woman steps out of the cab, Winter gasps.

“It’s my sister. At least I think it is,” she says as she bends to get a better look at the monitor. “Yeah, it’s her. I video chatted her last week. What in the hell is she doing all the way here in the United States? My husband is going to flip the fuck out. We have too much shit going on for more company. We’re already hosting Akela. Dammit!”

I follow her through the compound parking lot to the gate. This is unfuckingbelievable.

“Mace, hit the gate button,” she says to my brother who is on night watch duty.

“I was about to.”

When the gate slowly opens, Winter stands there as her sister comes into view. For someone who has only video chatted and never met her sister in person, Winter doesn’t appear to be too happy. I have no idea what is going on with her lately. She is not acting like herself right now.

“Sabine, what in the hell are you doing here?”

The blonde’s smile fades. Winter’s tone shocks her, but it shouldn’t. It is beyond rude to fly across the world and show up unannounced. At least Akela had a reason to come here. She hadn’t heard from her sister, and it worried her.

“Hello to you too, sister,” Sabine answers, her heavy accent lacing her English words.

From here, I can tell Winter is rolling her eyes at her sister as she palms her slightly swollen stomach. Something is definitely going on with her. She is usually friendlier than this and for seeing her sister for the first time in person unannounced or not she is acting cold and that is not Winter like behavior.

“If you must know I was involved in a scandal and our mother sent me here until it blows over,” she huffs out, rolling her suitcases into the compound. How long does she expect to stay here? By the looks of her bags, you’d think it was months!

“I don’t understand, she couldn’t send you somewhere else? This is a really bad time.”

I agree with Winter on this point. Right now, the club is under an enormous amount of stress. The last thing we need is for the reporters to get wind that a princess is laying low in our compound, especially when we have who knows how much illegal shit going on.