Page 3 of Ransomed to the World
Licking her lips, Annora gave him her most seductive look, peering up at him from under her lashes, hoping they could sneak away from the others. “Mason, why don’t we go—”
“Here.” Willa tossed her a bag, and Annora barely dodged out of the way, narrowly missing getting hit in the face.
“If you want to carry a bag, you can carry mine.” The hedge witch smirked and sauntered away to join the others at the head of the trail, while Annora fumed and glared at her back. Willa was worse than all the guys combined.
If Annora didn’t know better, she’d swear the bitch was cockblocking her.
Willa’s green eyes sparkled, casting Annora a smug looked over her shoulder.
Annora caught every one of the guys watching her hungrily…until she narrowed her eyes at them. Then they all turned away, conspicuously busy with something else.
Like they’d asked Willa to protect their fucking virtue or some shit.
Mason stiffened, then heaved a sigh and carefully lowered her to the ground, kissing the top of her head before collecting all three bags and striding away without a word.
That’s when she knew her suspicions were correct.
Well, two could play at this game.
If they were determined to drive her insane, she would return the favor.
It was only fair.
When Willa learned they were leaving, she’d insisted on coming. No way was she going to be left behind.
Not that the girl had much choice, since her coven demanded she accompany Annora wherever she went, the asshats no doubt insisting on regular updates.
Thankfully, Annora managed to talk Terrance and Kevin into staying at the house to keep things organized while they were gone. The wolves were both too weak for the trip, and she refused to have their deaths on her conscience. They’d survived too much to lose it all now.
As the rest of their caravan pulled up, Annora sighed and put her hands on her hips as Loulou and her wolf pack emerged from the remaining two vehicles. She counted a dozen wolves and one little bunny rabbit. While Annora had tried her damnedest to warn them the trip would be dangerous, the wolves insisted they owed her a debt.
Then there was Loulou.
The bunny refused to let Annora go alone—and what Loulou wanted, Loulou got.
Annora couldn’t help but grin at the sight of her friend chatting a mile a minute at the wolves, floating from one to another with her boundless energy as she rambled on about how wonderful it was to be out in nature.
Until she smashed the first mosquito that tried to land on her. She pulled her hand away and frowned at the carcass with a sneer of disgust.
For all that she was a shifter, Loulou had never been out of the city.
Annora wandered closer to her friend as the wolves organized their gear and scurried away, glad to hand off the duty of watching Loulou to her. “I told you not to come.”
Loulou rolled her eyes and wiped the remains of the bug off on her jeans with a grimace. “And I told you, no way was my bestie going on another adventure without me.” She wiggled her fingers and grinned. “Four rabbit paws—consider me your super-duper good luck charm.”
Loulou darted away to direct the guys on how her luggage needed to be handled before Annora could protest that this wasn’t a vacation. The wolves dutifully nodded at the rabbit, giving her their complete attention, but Annora could see they were all about ready to burst out of their skins to get away. Not that she blamed them. Loulou in chatterbox mode was a force to be reckoned with on a good day.
She saw the trip as an adventure.
Annora wished she could see it the same way.
It felt more like a trial that if she didn’t pass, she risked not only her life, but those of her mates and friends as well.
Failure was not an option.
Preparations were underway to present her to the phantom world.
She had two weeks remaining to complete her training before she’d be called in front of the council and publicly claimed by her father. That was only half the problem. If she survived, she’d then have to enter the banished lands—a place that was considered deadly to phantoms like her—and convince the reapers to release Daxion from his mating mark. If she failed, the asshole would hunt down her mates and kill them.
