“Great, just what I need, more crazy bitches in my life,” Peri muttered. “Thanks for your time, Tyler Reed. You were incredibly unhelpful, but that’s not your fault. You’re a dominant male and therefore mostly useless without your mate.” She gave him a bow that was not at all respectful and then flashed.

Peri appeared in the grove of her realm and saw that her mate was waiting for her. She immediately started pacing, not even glancing at Lucian.

“How did it go with the Missouri Alpha?” he asked her in that calm way of his.

She shot him a glare.

“That good?”

“What do you know about The Order of the Burning Claw?” she asked, not acknowledging his question.

A low, deadly growl rose up from his chest when he took a step toward her. “At one time they were radical, dangerous, supernaturals who loathed humans. I thought they had dissolved.”

“You and me both. Who was the leader of it?”

Lucian shook his head. “No one ever knew.”

“I’m really getting sick of evil pricks being able to stay under the radar. It’s beginning to really grate on my nerves.”

Peri filled him in on everything she’d learned from Wadim and Tyler.

“Why not tell Vasile?” Lucian asked her.

“I need to know what we are up against before I alert the pack. If I tell him, someone else will find out. I swear Jen has an army of little house mice that gather intel for her,” Peri grumbled. “Then these wolves will find out that we are on to them. We might not hear from them again until something bad happens. I want to know who is behind all this. I need to know if the Order really is still active. Or maybe it’s been revived after all these years and these wolves are responsible. Regardless, I have to know. You know how much I hate being treated like a mushroom.”

“Treated like a mushroom?” Lucian cocked his head at his mate.

“Kept in the dark and fed bullshit,” she barked.

Her mate just shook his head. “Where are you headed now?”

“I suppose it’s time to pay a visit to the wayward wolves of Oceanside.”

“You just said you didn’t want them to know that we are on to them,” said Lucian.

“Exactly. I don’t want them to know that other wolves are on to them. I don’t want Vasile and his pack to go charging in all growly, bitey like,” she responded. “If that happens, then the rogue pack probably all ends up dead and we learn nothing. But if I go, then they know something bigger is at work. Perhaps, they think the high fae are investigating them. Then they get desperate, maybe make a mistake. I have resources that Vasile doesn’t have, resources that could help me catch these rebel wolves when they do slip up.”

“What resources?” he questioned.

“Pixies.” Peri grinned.

“That’s encouraging,” he said deadpan. “Perhaps, I should go with you on this one. I don’t want you around a bunch of rogue wolves. Even the great Peri needs backup and who better than her mate.”

“No way, Jose. No growly, bitey, remember? We’ve gone over this, Lucian. It won’t come to fighting, and, even if it did, these reprobates wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”

Lucian walked up to her and placed a hand on her cheek tilting her face up to look at him. “Be careful, please.”

“I’m always careful,” she scoffed.

“No you’re not,” he challenged. “You’re impulsive, hot tempered and—”

Peri cut him off. “The next words out of your mouth better be sexy as hell or so help me, Lucian—”

He interrupted her rant with his lips pressed firmly to hers. Peri groaned as she submitted to him and leaned closer to his strong body. It felt like it had been forever since he’d held her in his arms.

When he finally pulled back, he held her face in both of his hands. He was gentle, as though she was made of glass. “You are amazing. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want you in danger. Please be careful. I love you.”

Well, how can a girl not oblige when he talks like that?

“I love you,” she reciprocated. “I will be as careful as the task allows.”

“That will have to be good enough,” Lucian murmured against her lips as he pressed them once more to hers.

“Come back to me soon. I have need of you.”

Peri loved how honest and open he was with her. Lucian didn’t waffle about, he simply told her how he felt and what he needed. There was no guessing game, no wondering, and it was refreshing.

“Then you shall have me as soon as I’m able.” With one last kiss she flashed, leaving her mate and the shelter of his arms. Sometimes being powerful sucked.

Chapter 13

“I didn’t think that I had a future. I had accepted that my fate was set. One day, I was certain, I would die at the teeth of my captors. But out of the darkness, you charged in—a mighty wolf, rescuing me from evil. I was destined to be yours. And in the short time I’ve known you, I’ve come to want to be yours. There are so many unknowns, yet I feel that as long as you are by my side, I can stand before anything life has to throw at me and not fall.” ~Bethany

Bethany wiped the sleep from her eyes as she focused on the closed door. She’d locked herself in the bedroom, unwilling to face Drake once he returned. She was still angry and she was still reeling from all the information Jen and Jacque had shared with her. She didn’t know how she could look at Drake without blushing from head to toe.

Bethany vaguely remembered hearing the door to the suite open and close last night, but she didn’t know if Drake had attempted to get into the room with her. She wondered if he was angry with her, if he’d come looking for her after she’d stormed from the suite? A tiny part of her felt bad for leaving him the way she did, but the rest of her felt justified. He’d been acting like an ass hat—that had been Jen’s description. Bethany had said that he’d only been being a jerk, but Jen said male wolves were never something as minor as a jerk. She said they are always at least an ass hat—that was the lowest level of jerkiness they were capable of. It only got worse from there, unfortunately. Then she’d said a whole bunch of other descriptive words that Bethany decided she’d save for only the most severe of situations.