Free Web NovelChapter 45: Five Against One
Val escorts us back through the maze of timber corridors and open living spaces, managing to walk backwards for half the journey while continuing an entirely one-sided conversation with Jax.
The house feels even larger now they’re here. By the time we reach the huge lounge with its enormous stone fireplace and sofas the size of small countries, I feel wrung out. Emotionally. Physically. Spiritually. Probably medically.
She picks up on it, pauses beside me before leaving, reaches out and brushes my hair behind my ear in a gesture so unexpectedly affectionate my chest aches.
"See you soon, cousin." The smile she gives me is warm enough to melt glaciers.
Then she’s gone.
Jax watches her disappear through the doorway. "Ooh, I really like her." He drops into an armchair and points after her. "Badass betas, am I right?"
Corrian rolls his eyes. "She cares for our girl, please try not to annoy her, pup."
"And why not?" Jax grips at imaginary pearls. "Annoyings what I do best."
"Because she looks like she’d stab you." Leo grumbles.
Jax looks delighted. "Perfect."
Normally, I would have something sarcastic to say. Instead, I’m sitting rigidly on the edge of the sofa trying not to vibrate apart. An entirely new, ugly and possessive shadow twists and turns near the surface. My imagination’s conjuring images of them touching someone else, when those two men hinted at it, at them liking Val. I like Val. She seems so awesome. I know she’s full of good and can be my friend. It makes absolutely no sense. I’m thrilled they’re getting along, I really am.
So why is some feral little creature living inside my ribcage ready to start throwing furniture?
Bubbles of pressure increase and pop, increase and pop. Over and over. There’s too much for the room to hold, less oxygen to consume from the energy pulsing through the room. I have to snap my jaw open to pop my ears.
Vaela walks in, Raulf follows. freёwebnovel.com
The shift among the guys happens all at once.
I’ve spent enough time around Alpha males now to recognise dominance when I see it, but this feels different. Vaela isn’t trying to dominate anyone, she simply exists, and the room rearranges itself around her. The energy pouring off her prickles as static electricity across my skin, we are moments before a storm.
Ezra’s shoulders lock. Corrian subtly steps forward. Leo’s jaw tightens. Even River becomes unnaturally still. Nobody growls. Nobody challenges her. They just watch her the way predators watch another, bigger, older, predator capable of killing them.
Vaela still has the broadsword strapped across her back as her dark eyes land on me first. She studies my face, then nods.
"At least you’ve stopped projectile vomiting."
"Personal growth." I paint an arch in the air with my hands as if the words are sparkling there.
One corner of her mouth twitches before she turns toward the five men and the temperature in the room drops ten degrees.
"So," one word in, and her feeling about them is clear. "You’ve been keeping what is potentially one of the most powerful wolves in our history, hidden away in your little house."
They don’t react, so Vaela folds her arms and continues. "A prophecy fulfiller. A wolf who, due to tragedy and betrayal, couldn’t receive the education they needed from childhood. So entered adulthood an untrained hybrid bloodline."
Growls rumble into the room now, she ignores them. "And you decided not only to take matters into your own hands, to collect and keep her, but then, what? Just never bother passing that information along, or at the very least teaching her what she actually fucking is."
My hands fly to my ears as she bellows the last words. Her voice is so loud and commanding I expect to see spit flying and a red face. But that volume and tone has taken her no effort at all. She’s still completely at ease.
A much deeper growl, from Corrian as he dares to step forward. "We were handling—"
Vaela flicks two fingers through the air, cutting him off with barely there dismissal. "No."
He stops moving, but doesn’t step back.
"Dumb Alpha boys, caught up in all the talk of ’fate’ and wanted to get your knots wet before putting Fiorenca first."
The silence that follows is brutal. She lets them sit in it. My jaw hangs open as I wait for even one snippy come back from Jax. Nothing.
Her gaze hardens. "To top this entire shit show off, you allowed my niece to run."
Niece. This absolute behemoth of an Alpha, this woman who carries a broadsword and the fire of her ancestors. My saviour all those years ago, is my Aunt?
She takes a step forward. "Allowed her to travel across the country alone."
Another step. "Allowed a rogue pack to track her."
Another. "Allowed her to be chased through the street, like a dog."
Rogue pack, that’s who chased me. I’m flooded with the sounds and smells of when River reached me, hid me behind that car. I’ve had every opportunity to ask who Greg and the others were, but no capacity to receive the truth. My stomach plummets to my feet.
"And from my information, when you eventually did find her, she was days from death thanks to malnutrition." She stops a breath from Corrian. "How could these things have all been avoided, I wonder?"
I can only stare, my pulse hammering so hard my vision’s blurred around the edges as the reality of what she’s saying struggles to settle into place. I think about the motel room. The vomiting. The shaking. The mental breakdown. The exhaustion that made walking feel impossible. The stranger in the diner. Could have all been avoided if they had just spoken to Vaela?
I’ll deal with the five of them later. All the info she’s dumped is layered under two very important words my brains latched on to. Prophecy fulfiller.
Slowly, I raise my hand. Nobody notices, so I raise it higher and clear my throat. Seven sets of eyes swing toward me.
"Sorry." My voice sounds alarmingly small. "What prophecy, exactly, am I meant to fulfil?"
