Page 46 of Happily Undead in Dark River

His big body blocked entry to whoever was standing on the other side. “Aren’t you going to let me in, Pierre?” A smooth, cool voice asked. A voice I didn’t recognize but should have. “Move,” she said, and Ghost frowned, but moved to the side. Brody’s mom strolled into the house like she owned it, her posture regal that it was easy to see she was the daughter of an Alpha and the mother of another. She oozed power, but not to the same degree as Nell, and definitely not the same amount as Brody.

I looked down at my outfit and scowled at Ghost. I was pretty sure this was payback for all the Annie matchmaking I was doing. Kelly walked stiffly in behind her mother, her eyes screaming apologies and her body tense. She mouthed, “I’m sorry,” behind her mother’s back, and I gave what I hoped was a forgiving look back.

“Death Dealer. I thought it was time we spoke without my mother or son around to interfere.”

I held my head high, although my tightie-whities were covered in orange Cheeto dust prints.

“My name is Raine. Maybe we should start there.” I tried to channel my own take-no-shit mother at that moment. If I expected an 'only if you call me Antoinette' moment, I was going to be very disappointed. She merely sniffed and sat down in Brody’s chair. Damn, this political posturing thing was about as subtle as a brick to the face.

“Fine. I wanted to come and say personally that I had nothing to do with the destruction of my son’s house. I would never endanger him like that.” She smartly omitted the fact that she didn’t give a fuck if I lived or died, but the subcontext was there. We all got it.

“And the Ash arrow?”

She looked at me, her eyes glinting. “What of it?”

I gritted my teeth. “Did you have something to do with the ash arrow that was aimed at my head?”

She scoffed. “If it had been me shooting arrows, I would not have missed.”

It was official. I wanted to punch her in the head in a very violent manner. I gave her a very cold smirk, doing my best to channel the cold menace of X. “Well, congratulations. If that’s all, I have some very pressing engagements that I have to attend.”

“Final round of Jeopardy?” she sneered.

Kelly made a strangled noise in the back of her throat, like she was wondering if she yelled for help if anyone would save her mother before I ripped out her throat. I looked at Ghost, whose face was completely blank. A canvas that said the woman in front of him wasn’t worth his emotions. Hell, I might have been reading a little much into that, but I liked to think he was on my side.

I shook my head. “No. All the shit you are talking is making me gag. I need to go and vomit.”

Kelly sucked in something that may have been a gasp and a burst of laughter or may have been her choking on her own tongue.

Antoinette got to her feet, her cold face suddenly heating with rage. “Listen to me, you parasite. If you opened your eyes, you would see that my son almost died because of you. If he spent more time here being an Alpha to his people, rather than fucking some cheap cunt in a town filled with Death Dealers, he would have known that there was a coup being incepted. If he hadn’t been indulging in necrophilia, he would have been able to crush these malcontents with the force they deserved before it had even reached this point. You are a drain on his very life force, and you will never be anything but a drain. You will never give him an heir, you will never properly lead this Pack as an Alpha Mate. You will never be anything more than an irritating threat to everything we’ve achieved here. Do us all a favor and crawl back into the coffin you came from, Corpse.”

With that, she whirled and left, and I stood there dumbfounded.

I finally summoned up the right words. “Well, even as a bloodsucking corpse, I will still be more important than you, you pompous old hag!” I screeched after her, even though the door had slammed shut at the beginning of my epic comeback.

Kelly shook her head, never taking her eyes off me. “I’m sorry, Raine. She’s wrong. About everything. Just don’t let her get inside your head.” With that, she chased after her mother, though how that creature spawned the good-natured Brody and Kelly was beyond me. She was a freaking piranha,

I looked at Ghost, who’s face was stormy. “Hey Ghost, what’s ASL for ‘Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, bitch’, in sign language?” I asked, and he just nodded his head and did a gesture in her direction that needed no interpretation.

Fuck it. I was going back to bed. Bullshit takes it out of me and now I needed a nap.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Iwoke up in the middle of the day, which was odd. Normally, I slept like the dead. Har har. I rolled over and pouted when Brody’s side of the bed was cold. I rolled out of the blankets and went to check if he was still around. I didn’t know how long his meeting with the Protectors would go for, but I put pants on just in case it was they’d reconvened to the living room. Ghost would have a fit, and Brody would get all growly, which I found stupidly attractive. On second thoughts, maybe I would leave my pants off.

Grinning to myself, I walked toward the kitchen, but I couldn’t hear any other heartbeats. Boo. When I reached the living room, I could hear Brody’s voice as he strolled up the driveway from the street. I grinned. If his business was over, I might convince him to have round three – or was it four – for the rest of the afternoon.

I opened the fridge and pulled out a can of whipped cream. Yeah, this would definitely help with the convincing. I turned, smiling, as the heartbeats reached the room.

“Hurry the fuck up, they're almost here,” an unfamiliar voice whispered, then I was being electrocuted from the inside out.

It all went black. Again.

I snappedback to consciousness screaming. Unlike the last time I woke up from being unconscious, which was only a freaking week ago, I drifted gently from the blackness with a peaceful feeling of being surrounded by my Mates and lovers. This time, I woke to what felt like my flesh was being melted from my bones with a blow torch.

I screamed, but it was muffled by cloth stuffed halfway down my throat. Luckily I didn’t need to breathe, or I would have been dead. Still, I tried to scream for help around the rag.

“You can quit the screaming, bitch. You aren’t even on Pack land anymore. No one can hear you scream. Hell, even if someone could, they wouldn’t give a shit.”

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