“Yes, I did tell Oliver and my brother and your dad, some of the details. Some I’ll take to my grave.” I let that just sit there. He’s right, they don’t deserve any answers from me. “I’m tired, I need to sleep and hopefully Jena doesn’t need me in the middle of the night. Big changes like this set off her nightmares.”
“Let Mateo handle it, that’s his responsibility now.”
“Oh, so you would have me turn my back on people I care about, just because someone else is capable of doing the job too? Great leadership skills.” I don’t even care that I am being a b*tch, they deserve so much more.
I walk past them into the hallway where Wyatt is leaning against the wall. “You good boss?”
“Yeah. Who’s on after you? You’ve been up far longer than necessary.”
“It was supposed to be Jena, but for obvious reasons, we covered her shift. I’m good Midge, Nathaniel will adjust the rounds for the next couple days. Go get some sleep, we need you on point for this magic sh*t. You now have both your witches here and once Gentry’s all healed up, assuming Nikolas will let her, the three of you can figure out this pentagram bullsh*t so we can take on Mike. That asshole has a beating coming his way.”
“Get in line warrior. There are several of us who have dibs on that beatdown.” Dakota says from far too close behind me.
“With all due respect, Alpha, handled your Barbie b*tch problem yet? No? Good to know. Just so we’re clear, Midge’s whole team is aware of the things she went through before arriving at Warrior camp. And obviously the bullsh*t that is still going on, because that skank is still here f*cking with her. Neither of you were there when we found Midge and Jena after THEY SAVED THEMSELVES. If anyone has dibs on Mike’s beatdown it’s them. Handle your pack first.” He shoved past the twins.
I’m surprised they let him. I just walked forward, Wyatt could handle himself and he started that fight. Clearly lines are being drawn again, and it shouldn’t make me happy, but it does.
“MATEO! PUT ME DOWN!!” Jena screams. I get to the end of the hallway, just in time to see my brother start up the stairs with Jena over his shoulder. “Skylar! Help me with this. Your brother is being an asshole!”
“Skylar, if you come anywhere near her, I will forcefully mark her right here. You are coming with me woman, stop fighting.”
“WHAT!! Get your f*cking hands off me.” She thrashes more.
“You are going to get us both killed if you don’t stop moving.” My brother is so calm.
“Sky!?” She looks down at me, propping herself with her hands on his butt.
“No, I don’t think I’m going to help you out of this one. You are safe and need to hear him out at least.”
“Some friend you are. Lil!!”
“She is not going to help you either. None of them are.”
We all make it to the second floor landing. I turn to go to the room I share with just Lil now. Mateo grabs me with his free hand.
“Thank you.” He whispers and then kisses me on the forehead.
“I am not going to side with you in any arguments, jackass.” She grumbles at me.
“Perfect! That means you’ll side with me.” Mateo laughs and I smile at her indignation.
“Goodnight you two.” I ignore the twins as I walk away and I can smell Oliver in the hallway, but for some reason I’m a little irritated at him too after the conversation in the Luna’s office. He doesn’t deserve my own insecurities lashing out at him so I head in and close the door quickly.
“Well, that was an interesting end to the night.” Lil laughs at me. “What did the twins want?”
I walked over to grab clean clothes so I could shower. “They wanted to know what could be done to make Jena accept my brother.”
Lil laughs hard at that. “Have they met her? No one really ‘makes’ Jena do anything, or you for that matter.”
“Shut up.” I laugh at her. “We’ll see how tonight goes. He had to haul her upstairs and I refused to save her so she won’t be super happy with me tomorrow.”
“We can worry about that tomorrow. I think her mate will help her, she’s just scared. At least it’s your brother and not some rando. She can stay here when this is all done. She has a place to call home now. I think when all of that sinks in she will be okay.”
“I know she doesn’t want to disappoint him if she can’t have kids though. Mike really messed her head up with that.”
“F*ck Mike. Better yet, let your brother f*ck Mike right out of her.” She laughs again.
“Seriously? You had to put that thought in my head? I don’t want to think about my brother like that.”
“It’s better than the alternative.” I just groan and head for the bathroom.
I slept okay considering Jena was on another floor of the house. I got up early despite going to bed super late and decided to help Lenny with getting stuff ready to take to the school for the wolves Robbie brought over. Lil is already gone, I assume either on surveillance duty or running a patrol.
Three scents hit me as I approach my door. “Are you all going to shadow me now?” I ask irritated, opening it.
“Hey, to my knowledge I didn’t do anything wrong, so explain or relax, Bitty.” Oliver crosses his massive arms, tattoos flexing making him look like the scary protector he is.
“It’s nothing. I’m not in a great mood this morning, sorry.” It’s the best he’s going to get right now, because I still feel the unhelpful sensation that he is only here with me by force.
“We wanted to tell you that we finalized everything for our dad’s celebration. We didn’t want to do it on Mateo’s birthday. Reggie agrees.” Cam starts.
“We are going to do it in the morning and want you to sit with us and mom. I think other than mom, you were his favorite person and you should help us send him back to the Goddess.” Kota finishes the statement.
I had the very dark thought ‘I already did’ float through my mind, but I am keeping that to myself. I don’t want them to have more ammo for thinking I’m a traitor now. Instead, I said “Sure.” Then walked past them, down the stairs and headed toward the kitchen. Elena is there helping to get things ready to take over to the school. She said she could add some things to their food to counter some basic spells that were probably cast on them.
“Here’s some breakfast Skylar, eat up. No more losing weight for you.” Lenny scolds me and I roll my eyes playfully at her.
“Okay! I’m here to help!” I groan as the screech filters in from the front door. I head over to Elena and Lenny packing up totes full of supplies as far from the hallway entrance as I could be. “What can your future Luna help with today?” She asks, walking in the room like we aren’t in the middle of preparing for war.
