Mated to the Alpha and His Beta

Lanie

With the California King bed set up in my bedroom, there wasn’t much space for anything else. It gave us all room to sleep together, though. Mason on one side, Xander and Zane taking turns snuggling up to me on the other. | held back a giant grin at the memories of the first night we'd all had plenty of room.

Life was good.

So good that | had to pinch myself.

We didn’t talk about Zane spending the night with Rhiannon, but since then, we'd all fallen into a great little domestic routine. Night time snuggles and delicious sex. Morning coffee and taking care of our babies. Meals around our big table with laughter and most of all love.

| couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming, no matter how many times | told myself i was only because things were so wonderful that | was being paranoid. | didn’t know what was on the h orizo only that it felt dangerous.

There was no denying that any one of a hundred dangers could be heading toward us.

We had our twins back with us, but that didn’t change the fact they’d been stolen in the first place, or that the people who'd taken them had others locked away in the hybrid facility.

The thought of other pups being subject to whatever the f uck was going on in there... made my stomach

tense and twist.

| smoothed the new comforter and plumped the pillows on the giant bed. From outside the room, | could hear Zane and Xander both ribbing Mason. One of the babies laughed along with them. My heart swelled, and

I sank onto the edge of the bed.

The Council had to know where we were. They had spies everywhere, and it wasn’t like me having a

cottage in Stillwood had ever been any kind of secret.

What were they waiting for?

It was too much to hope that they were simply intending to leave us alone. | was a hybrid, and so was my

daughter. Even if they didn’t want me for some reason, they would probably want to do something with Stella.

| put my hand over my heart as it seized, imagining my precious daughter being taken from me. | knew if | called my mates in to comfort me, they would, but for the moment | wanted to bear this burden alone. | didn’t want to destroy the peace we'd found over the past few days.

Instead, | opened myself to the Goddess, hoping she’d guide me. | waited, steadying my breathing and doing my best to focus. Nothing came. No words of comfort or assistance. | didn’t feel abandoned... just felt nothing.

Frustrated, | let out a heavy sigh.

going on. | knew it was Xander’s job, not mine, to check in, but we still hadn’t figure out exactly Mason as co-Alpha would mean. We couldn't avoid that forever.

Just like we couldn't avoid the fact that Malachi had killed Orion.

Avampire killing a wolf broke the treaty.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

War was coming. Was that the bad thing | kept sensing whenever | tried to let myself relax and lean into our happy little family? But war was something that would affect everyone, not just us, and the twinges that kept poking me definitely felt more personal. It would be a few weeks before Rhiannon discovered she had not gotten pregnant. That could be it. My Luna intuition would be highly attuned to that situation, which was about as personal as it could get.

“Lanie?”

The knock on the door had me jumping up. | busied myself with the bedclothes that didn’t need smoothing. | put a smile on my face and turned toward Mason in the doorway.

“What are you doing in here, sweetheart?” He came inside and half-shut the door behind him.

“Admiring the bed. Feels like | got a good night’s sleep for the first time in a long time.”

He eyed me. His Alpha energy flowed around me. There was no lying to my mate.

“Something's wrong,” he said. “You want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Let me rephrase that. Tell me what’s wrong,” he said so sternly that my nipples peaked.

We'd spent hours making love in this very bed, all of us together, and | didn’t think my body was ever going to stop craving them. Masons nostrils flared as he scented my arousal.

“Nothing wrong with that,” | murmured with a grin.

He shook his head. “Never. But something is going on with you. Your eyes are shadowed. You say you

slept, but did you, really?”

| sighed, knowing | couldn’t keep my real feelings a secret from him, or any of them. “Let me grab a cup of coffee and meet you in the living room. | do have some things weighing on my mind, and | guess we should

talk about them.”