Page 176 of Claimed

She rushes to the passenger door of the truck.

Phew.

***

We pull up to a warehouse behind some shoddy-looking fences in an area that looks mostly neglected and abandoned, perhaps, and more than a little sketchy. We’re in a city, I don’t know which one, but it’s not a nice part of town at all.

This building has spraypainted graffiti. There are two white vans outside as well as a couple cars and a newer pickup truck with a small camper on the bed of it.

After we pull up, my brother jumps out and gets on his phone. It’s windy out and he’s got his hand over the ear that the phone isn’t against as he speaks, obviously trying to hear the person on the other end of the line better. And he’s standing far enough away that I feel relatively confident he won’t hear us talking, so I softly ask, “The brew?”

“Brewing,” she says.

Relief sweeps through me.

“Good job,” I whisper.

“He won’t be able to shift?” she whispers back.

“I’m guessing not for at least a day or two. Maybe more if you put it all in and he drinks it all.”

“Good,” she says softly. “How fast will it work?”

“Probably depends on how much whisky he drinks. It took straight away when we ran trials in Silver Hills. But that was on betas. I don’t know how long it takes with an alpha. Is he your fated mate or did he make that up?” I ask.

She snickers, but doesn’t look back at me. We both stare ahead and my heartrate picks up speed as I watch a garage door in front of us opening slowly.

“Oh, heisfated to me all right. This is my karma, I suppose. But not to worry.”

“Not to worry?” I parrot.

“If this doesn’t go your way in there today,” she says, “if you don’t make it out of there, just know… Iwillshift to wolf form after he drinks that so I can shift and rip his goddamn throat out.”

The door is all the way open, and I see five women standing there, speaking to Wyatt. He turns around and heads our way.

As he roughly pulls me out of the back seat of the truck, one of the women is staring at me with a very big smile on her face. And my blood suddenly chills as I take in that smiling woman, especially her eyes.

She looks like she’s in her late forties or early fifties. She has long silver and black highlighted hair, wears a long, gauzy black tunic and leather tights with motorcycle boots. She’s wearing a lot ofsilver and gemstone jewelry. And with those gray eyes. She looks like a younger Mimi Young.

“Nice to meet you, daughter-in-law. I’m Soleil.” She looks like she’s stifling a laugh. Her gray eyes are dancing with mirth. “Let’s go inside, shall we?”

What? What!?!

“Move it,” Wyatt grinds out to me, wrenching my arm painfully, then calls out to Sherry. “Sherry! Get your ass in here.”

She follows. My legs are shaking as I walk in, trying to fathom this development.

The other women who range in age from my age to around Soleil’s walk ahead, saying nothing. Two of them are dressed similarly to her. One is dressed in jeans and a western style shirt with a cowboy hat. The youngest woman has a high blonde ponytail and wears yoga clothes. All five smell human and most of them have that familiar witch scent about them that Erica and her sisters carry, but while the younger blonde one carries a strong scent of witch, it’s very faint on the others.

We’re escorted deeper into an open, empty warehouse area to a set of double doors, one of which is propped open with a small wedge of wood. On the other side are multiple doors and a large room that’s set up like a living room. Offices have been converted to living spaces. Cartoons are playing on a television, and I see the back of a curly little head of dark hair that I immediately recognize. She smells different, but it’s her!

“Halla!” I exclaim.

Her head turns and I see she’s got a bowl of popcorn on her lap. She sets it down and immediately runs to me, throwing her arms around my waist.

She smells like she’s shifter and human!

“Momma’s here, Stacy! She’s here!”

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