Marked by the Alphas

Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Elara POV

Dumbstruck, I make my way back “home,” trying to reconcile everything that had just happened. I cannot.

None of what Braden had told me made any sense. How could I not know of the existence of vampires? Er, Masas Dima or whatever he said. Sure, I had no proof of anything he told me, but he definitely did not smell like anything I had encountered before, and that in itself was proof of something.

But if vampires existed, what about ... Oh, shit. What else was out there that I did not know about? And why do I know about it? Did my parents know about vampires and whatever other witches, unicorns, fairies, trolls, and – whoa! I am getting ahead of myself. Way ahead. I cannot even wrap my brain around vampires, let alone anything else.

“Calm down,” Lily snaps. “You’re starting to hyperventilate.”

I stop walking and sink to my knees, the damp earth and scratchy leaves on my bare skin centring me a little.

“You need to let me shift back,” Lily says. “We must try to get his scent off you.” freewёbnoνel.com

Lily’s words do not register with me until I look down and see that I am still wearing Braden’s flannel shirt.

Fuck. She is right. It is better for me to stroll back naked than to show up wearing a strange shirt with an even stranger scent. The last thing I need is more attention than I am already going to face after this morning’s absolute disaster.

Well, at least discovering that vampires exist overshadowed my humiliation momentarily, I snort.

“Get it together,” Lily snaps. “Someone is going to see us. Let me take over. Now.”

With a shake of my shoulders and a crack of my neck, I steel myself. I take off the flannel shirt and shove it under some leaves and behind a rock. Lily takes over, and the shift is even quicker than usual. She must have been anxious as hell to shake the Masas Dima scent off. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Lily rolls around in the leaves and dirt, but a part of me wilts inside at the loss of that spicy, musky aroma I did not realise had seeped into my nose.

“We’re safe now,” Lily says, but the words ‘it’s time to go back’ remain unspoken, and I am grateful for her rare consideration instead of being the battle axe she usually is.

“It’s now or never,” I sigh, pressing forward, and we trot out from the tree line, across the vast lawn of the mansion, and toward the front door. I might as well make an entrance instead of trying to slink through the back.

As if I could slink through the back. There is no way they did not have people watching for me.

“Elara!” Mindy bursts from the front door and runs toward me.

I desperately want to hug her, but the last thing I need is to turn into a blubbery mess. No way in hell will I let Kane, Axel, Alice, or any of their entourage see me cry.

Mindy and I reach each other, and she drops to her knees beside me, for once ignoring the fact that her pants might get dirty and spoil the perfect-looking image she always portrays. Her arms wrap around Lily’s neck, Lily rests our chin on her shoulder, nuzzling into Mindy’s neck and chuffs lightly.

At least she does not whine and lets Mindy know how upset I am. I do not think I can even take Mindy, knowing how hurt I am. But based on her actions, she does not have to be told.

“It’ll be okay,” she murmurs, stroking Lily’s neck. “I promise. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.”

Lily does not warn me that she is ceding control, and in the next second, I am sitting on the ground with Mindy stroking my hair. Thank goddess, wolves do not give a shit about nudity for the most part.

“And now I get to face everyone,” I say quietly, uncertain what else to say.

“Fuck them,” she murmurs in my hair.

“Come on. Let’s get this over with.” I stand up.

“You sure?” Mindy glances back at the front door, where a few guards are standing and watching us. “We could go for a walk or sit here a bit longer.”

I look at the guards; at least they had the decency to let us have our moment. My guess is that it has more to do with Mindy and who she is mated to, and less about compassion for me. The last thing these guys want to do is piss off Mindy’s mates, also known as their bosses.

I stiffen when Monroe and Maxim walk towards us, and I see their faces. They are not radiating sunshine – at all.

“Everything okay?” I whisper, looking at Mindy.

She gave me the slightest shake of her head, and at that moment, I realised just how much she had risked rushing out to meet me.

There is no way that her mates, Kane and Axel’s High Guards, would be happy with their mate being seen as overly sympathetic to an outcast. Well, at least that is probably how I was going to be considered now after being so thoroughly rejected this morning.

I nod slightly, standing up, straightening my back, and squaring my shoulders.

“Hello, gentlemen,” I meet their gazes head-on. “Let’s get whatever happens next over with.”