“Oh, no,” Theo said dramatically, turning over, so he was hovering over me. I laughed tiredly and rubbed my hand over my bottom. “Come here and let me look at it.”
“Theo,” I said happily, hiding my face behind my hands.
“What?” He looked at me innocently. I shook my head at him and kissed him quickly. He skootched back and grabbed a blanket from the edge of the couch and covered us with it. He set his arm out on the ground to put my head on.
We laid on the ground, too tired and lazy to make it up to bed. We slept there, sunlight streaming in through the windows, curled up on the hard floor, my head on his arm, and his hand on my backside.
It was dark outside when I was woken up as Theo shifted his body, apologetically looking at me while he moved his arm. I grumbled incoherent words and shook off the sleepiness.
“Come on, you can go up to bed,” he said, blinking heavily.
“You aren’t coming?” I wiped my mouth, hoping I didn’t drool on him while I slept.
“Gabriel just mind-linked me.” He shook his head. “Albia just came to him and said she knows where Saskia is.” I stood up and fixed my clothes.
“I’m coming with you,” I said, following him to the kitchen.
“You don’t have to,” he said, smiling, as he grabbed an apple from the fridge. I closed the door and got his attention.
“Hey.” I reached up and grabbed his chin. “We’re a team, you and me. We stick together, alright? Everywhere you go, I go.”
“Everywhere you go, I go,” he repeated, kissing my head.
Wolfsbane
When we arrived at Gabriel’s packhouse, it was deadly silent. Theo opened the door hesitantly and stuck his head in before me. We wandered in slowly.
“Theo,” Reese greeted. We turned and noticed him coming out of the kitchen with a glass of water.
“Hey man, where is everyone?” Theo asked.
We trailed after Reese, who took us to the hospital wing where Verona was sleeping. Eli was in the same place, in a chair next to his mate, holding onto her hand. Everyone looked up as we entered, nodding a silent greeting.
Reese handed the glass of water to Olympia and stood next to her shyly. Pilar was sitting on a windowsill behind Gabriel, arms wrapped around his shoulders. Sloane sat in the corner, violently knitting something that unraveled every time she moved her fingers.
“Where’s Albia?” I asked quietly.
“In the pack cells,” Gabriel said, not looking up from his stare with Reese.
“The cells?” Theo asked in outrage. “Why is she in the cells?”
“When you hear her story, you’ll understand,” Eli spat. His face was murderous, but he kept the same gentle grip on Verona’s hand.
“Will you take us?” Theo asked his younger brother. Gabriel nodded, turned and kissed Pilar, and then led us out. We climbed down two sets of stairs into the basement and then through another dark corridor.
I clutched Theo’s hand in mine.
“Through here,” Gabriel told us. He pushed through a set of doors. Two warriors stood guard, allowing us to pass freely. There were cells along the walls; classic metal bars and cement floors held only Albia.
She was curled in the corner, tears wetting her cheeks. Her hair was messy like she ran her hands through it multiple times, and she was scratching her wrist incessantly. Her head snapped up as we entered. She bolted to the bars, grabbing onto them before hissing and dropping her hands, burning from the silver.
“Theo, please,” she begged, wiping her cheeks. “You’ve got to believe me. I never wanted any of this to happen.”
“What did you do, Albia?” he asked softly. She looked down, scratching her wrist again.
“I was only trying to help at first,” she began. “Saskia came to me and told me she wanted to help people find their mates because she had lost hers. She told me, ‘the Weston’s deserve to have their mates.’ Then she asked me to get clothes with their scents on them and bring them to her.”
“When was this?” I prodded.
“Just after the war. I met her outside pack grounds and gave her the bag of their clothes.”
“And?” Gabriel prompted angrily. She looked down again, breathing heavily.
“And then she called me. She said that it wasn’t right that we lost our mates.” She stopped and looked up at me, her jaw jutting forward. “She said we never got a chance to be happy. So, she wanted me to help her get revenge.”
“On?” Gabriel prompted again.
“All your mates.”
Theo growled loudly and instinctually put his hand in front of me, pulling me back behind him. I allowed him to.
“It isn’t fair,” she shrieked. “You get your mate, and you kill mine before I even get to say two words to him!”
“Albia, Reed was insane.”
She growled lowly at Gabriel.
“He was my mate,” she growled again. Then she paused and looked down sadly. “But then she said she wanted to get revenge on Gabriel and Reese and Eli, too, and I didn’t want to do that!”
“Why?” Theo asked.
“Because Rush was the one who gave the order to kill her mate and brother.”
“Rush was the Alpha?” I whispered under my breath.
“So, she tries to kill our mates?” Theo asked, stepping closer.
“She said ‘if we can’t have our mates, they don’t deserve to have theirs.’”
Theo was fuming. I rubbed his back gently, trying to keep myself calm as well.
“I realized she was crazy,” Albia said frantically, grabbing fistfuls of her hair. “She came back to the packhouse two weeks ago and threatened to kill me if I told anyone what we did.”
“So, where is she?” Theo asked.
“Her plan was to bring all the girls back here once she found the third one but those men, they were in on her plan to get revenge on you all, and she owed them
