Chapter 287
Xander
We'd been pacing outside the bedroom door for an hour already. | was about to go in.
Zane held me back.
“She said she'd be out,” he told me calmly. “Whatever she’s doing in there, it must be important. Let’s give her a few more minutes.”
“She’s not researching homeschooling,” | shot back at him, pitching my voice low to make sure my mother didn’t overhear us. “Which means she’s not telling us the truth.”
“She will.” Zane gripped my shoulder and squeezed it. “Trust our Luna.”
My fists clenched. Of course | trusted our Luna with everything | had. But | could still sense her anxiety and unease and then a burst of exhilaration. All of it was tangling me up inside so much | had to go out to the front yard and shift to my wolf so | could tear around in circles for a bit.
him.”
“Run with me,” Hunter thought to Blade.
Zane stood on the porch, shaking his head. “You go. Mason's on the way back, and | want to be here for
Hunter had already gained control, but | forced a shift back to my human form.NôvelDrama.Org owns all content.
In all the years that Zane had been my Beta, sure, there’d been times when he’d refused a request, or even an order...if he had good reason. If he thought that | needed something different. And in all that time, I'd have to say he was right about his choices. This was the first time he’d ever denied me something | wanted or needed in favor of doing something for
somebody else.
Panting, naked, | stood in the front yard and thought about asking again. Demanding, this time.
I
Sharing Zane was something | knew | didn’t have any control over. It had been his choice. Also, it was something | felt deep in my gut was truly necessary for the family unit we'd created.
The one we'd all agreed to.
But until this moment, | hadn’t realized that sharing him would mean sometimes not having him give me what | wanted so he could give Mason what he needed.
Zane watched me calmly from the front porch. He said nothing.
My anger, disappointment, and irritation whirled around me.
Then the gentle pulse of Lanie’s Luna energy reached us both.
This only made me angrier, that both of them were working to calm me down, when all | really wanted
was hoth of them to just f uckinn do what | wanted them in dn
“We love you,” Lanie thought to me. “If you need to run, run. We love you, and we both want to help you, but that doesn’t mean just doing whatever you say because you say so.”
“F uck!” | growled out loud, clenching my fists.
They were right, and | knew it. But d amn, | didn’t like it.
Mason’s truck pulled up the drive and parked. He got out. His expression pretty much matched mine, full of darkness. He basically rippled with the effort of holding back his wolf.
“| need to f ucking get all four paws on the ground.” His words became a snarl as he stripped out of his clothes. It took him a second to see that | was already naked. His lips curled back over sharp teeth. “You want to run with me, brother?”
I did.
So we gave our wolves their power, and we ran.
Zane
Lanie’s hand slipped into mine as we watched the two angry Alphas shift and run into the trees. Her fingers squeezed mine lightly. She rested her head against my shoulder, so | turned to pull her into a hug.
She pushed her face toward mine for a kiss. “They'll be all right. We're all going to need time to adjust.”
“I've never denied Xander,” | said. “I get why he’s pi ssed, but...”
“He will get over it,” she told me, though her brow was furrowed. “Mason came back upset. Did you get any read on him about his talk with Asher?”
“Only that it went as well as it could,” | told her, hesitating for a second before asking, “What about your... research?”
“| wasn’t looking up homeschooling sites,” she told me with a small smile. “But | know you b knew that.”
long
“Yeah. That's part of why Xander was so pis sed off.” | sighed, turning toward the woods, but thi
ig gone. “It'll be good for him and Mason to bond with their wolves. Are you going to wait to tell m you were researching until they come back?”
“No. | want to talk to you about it first. I’m going to need you to Beta both of them through what | ha say.” Lanie sounded grim. “Because | already know they aren’t going to like it. Not at all.”
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