Page 37 of Freed Wolfsbane

When I plop down, I give Vale a warm smile before noticing the two burly dudes standing next to him. One of them has brown hair streaked with gray at the temples, dark eyes sparkling with mirth, and a knowing smirk on his face. The other has mocha skin, close-cropped brown hair, and his muscular arms crossed over his chest. Unlike the other guy, his brown eyes are narrowed on me as he silently assesses me.

“So this is her?” the gray-haired one asks with a hint of laughter in his voice. I’m not sure if he’s laughing at me or a joke I’m not in on. Either way, his jovial demeanor makes it hard to be offended.

Vale doesn’t take his gaze off me when he responds. “Yes, Sam, this is Briar Wylder, my sons’ mate. Bee, this is Sam and Jesse, my betas. How are you feeling? Are you sure you should be out of bed?”

I let out a soft groan. “Not you too, Uncle Vale. As I told Malachi, I’m, like, ninety-five percent healed. There’s literally no reason for me to be cooped up in bed. I had enough of being confined the past few weeks with the Knights.”

Vale’s eyes soften when I mention the facility. “We’re just worried about you, Bee, that’s all. You gave us quite a scare, one I don’t think my son is going to forget for a while.”

“None of us are going to forget it. Ever,” Bastian mutters as he stares at the thick blue rug under Vale’s desk.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper as I reach out to squeeze his hand.

Bastian intertwines our fingers and gives me a small but genuine smile. “Don’t apologize, sweet girl. It’s not your fault, but I hope you understand why we’ve all been crazy worried about you. Kai’s also a mega control freak, and it grinds his gears not being able to control what’s been happening to you.”

Some of my irritation drains away as I snort at Bastian’s apt description of Malachi. He has an almost obsessive need to be in control, but I know it comes from a place of love. I can’t help my small smile thinking about Malachi telling me he loves me.

“She looks like almost a carbon copy of Evie, minus the hair,” Jesse comments, his voice gravelly.

I look up at him in surprise. “You knew my mom?”

He dips his chin. “I did. She was a good woman. I’m sorry about what happened.”

“Me too,” I croak past the lump in my throat that thoughts of my mom always cause.

“Was there something you two needed?” Vale asks when the silence stretches as we all get lost in our thoughts.

“We just came to catch up with you. Although, I was wondering if you have any updates on the Ryker situation?”

Bastian coughs to hide his laugh at my opportunistic digging.

While we’re here, I might as well get some of the information Malachi won’t share with me. He thinks it’s too stressful for me to know what’s going on. What he doesn’t understand is that worrying about what Ryker is doing is so much more stressful than actually knowing.

“Has Kai not been keeping you updated?” Vale tilts his head in confusion as he waits for my answer.

“He’s been pretty worn out from the whole thing, so he doesn’t want to talk shop when he comes home,” I lie smoothly. Although the lie is definitely undermined by Bastian’s shit-eating grin that widens at my attempt to get the info any way I can.

Vale arches an eyebrow at me skeptically. “Uh-huh. I’m not sure I believe you, but I don’t have any good reason to keep you out of it. Lord knows you’re as stubborn as your mother and will find a way to be involved regardless of whether we want you to be or not.”

My smile is bittersweet. I love hearing ways that I’m like my mom, but it’s hard not having her here to see it herself. “You’re not wrong.”

Sam barks out a laugh before he walks around to perch on the front of Vale’s desk next to Bastian. “We’ve had conflicting reports about where Ryker is and what exactly he’s attempting to do. Some place him on the East Coast, while others put him in southern Europe. Right now, we have two teams, one in each location, trying to see if we can verify any of our intel.”

I nod along, wishing I were on one of those teams. Maybe I can convince Malachi to take me with him tomorrow. “What’s the plan when we find him? Any ideas on how to stop him from expanding the curse?”

Jesse presses his mouth into a thin line, his face grim. “We capture him if we can, kill him if we can’t. No. Our only hope right now is to find him before he can make it worse.”

“What about the stuff we found in Bayeux? Nothing in it was helpful?” Frustration bubbles up at the fact that we wasted time and fell into a Knights trap for nothing. What was even the point of going to Paris and Bayeux? I thought it was supposed to give us the answers we needed to fulfill the prophecy.

Apparently not.

“Oh, shit.” Bastian looks at me with wide eyes. “We totally forgot about it all in the chaos of the Knights taking you. Kai hasn’t even translated any of the stuff we found.”

“Really?” I breathe, feeling like I’m on an emotional roller coaster with my hopes being dashed and lifted one after another.

“Yeah. You’re a genius, pretty girl!” Bastian bounces in his seat as he looks at me like I’m the best thing he’s ever seen.

A laugh bubbles up at Bastian’s enthusiasm. “I’m guessing you and Xander don’t know enough Latin to get started on the translation?” It’s been weeks since I’ve even thought about the stuff we found at the church, but I’m now antsy to get it all translated. It’s agonizing to wait even another minute, but I know we probably can’t do anything until Malachi and Saint get back.

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