Page 113 of Family: Posy 4

"Yeah, Ash. You're being a bad boy today," Cole snickered. "One more strike and Princess Bossy Pants gets to punish you."

"Oh, yes, please!" he chirped, which made me giggle as I dug further into Wyatt's chest. "I'm always up for being under Princess Bossy Pants!"

"Baby, are you up for being under me?" I heard Gisela ask, and my blush spread to my ears and down my neck to my chest.

"Yeah, we're, uh, just going to, um, go," Luke said awkwardly, "because I don't even want to know, and Ela sure as hell doesn't needanymore ideas for the bedroom."

Turning my face a bit to peek at them, I saw him hustling Gisela away as she complained loudly, and all of us burst out laughing.

14: More Secrets, Lark?

Posy

The reception was scheduled to go until midnight, but I reached my limit at ten. The unending social interaction, too much rich food, a dozen or more turns around the dance floor, and I was ready to call it a night.

At my request, Ash walked me over to tell the queen good night, then we headed for the door.

"I'm such an old lady," I grinned up at Ash. "Ready for bed at ten on a Saturday night."

"Then I'm an old man," he joked. "I'm so ready to crash!"

"Make sense since we're only about half an hour away from your usual bedtime. Where are the others?"

He raised his hand and pointed to Mason, Cole, Wyatt, and Jayden, who were clustered around the king. All of them wore serious faces as they talked and I wondered what was happening, but didn't want to interrupt them.

Besides, I was falling asleep on my feet.

"I'll tell you about it later," Ash said as I snuggled under his arm. "Let's get you back to the guest house, okay?"

"Yeah." I covered my mouth as a yawn snuck up on me. "Sounds great, waffle."

After he linked them that we were leaving, Ash led me out of the reception hall and toward the car park. Mason said they'd get one of the pages to run them home later so that we could take Ash's SUV. I was so grateful for that, not feeling up to the four-mile walk to the guest house. The half-mile trek through the garden togetto the car park was more than enough.

Nuzzling my face into Ash's ribs, I smiled and took a big inhale of his scent - only to freeze as another scent wafted in with it. It was only for a second, and I couldn't place it, but I knew it from somewhere.

And it waswrong.

It shouldn't be here.

It belonged in a windowless room, nothere.

Frozen in place, I clung to Ash, who dragged me along a step before he realized something was up and stopped walking.

"Princess? What is it?"

I shrugged as I tried to convince myself I was imagining it.

You're being ridiculous. Kendall Briggs is dead, and that isn't his scent anyway.

Still, something about this shifter's smell took me right back to that dark room.

Lark? Do you recognize it?

My wolf didn't answer. Didn't even stir.

Worried as well as scared now, I tilted my head and tried again.

Lark?

---