Mated to the Alpha and His Beta

Zane

“Why should we trust anything you say?” | asked the vampire that Katie had called Braden. “Aren’t you the vampire High Elder Gustav warned us about?”

Gustav had visited us and told us a vampire had been spotted in the place we’d found Katie yesterday, but we hadn’t heard anything else about him ever since Alice fell pregnant.

Why all of a sudden had he reappeared? And almost at the exact same time that Katie had arrived?

“Am | already hallucinating or something?” Braden asked weakly. “Why are you two acting like you don’t know who | am?” He looked from me to Xander while Katie watched us curiously.

“Because we don't,” Xander said it like Braden was crazy. “Why would we know a vampire?”

Braden coughed out an incredulous laugh. “Maybe because | helped you save your mate’s life?”

What the f uck was he talking about? He really was going crazy already

“Alice?” | asked. “Don’t tell me you knew her, too.”

Braden tried to push himself up to sitting, but he groaned and slumped back down. Xander walked over

and tugged him up roughly by the shoulders.

“Thanks for that,” Braden said, wincing against the pain. “And no, I’m not talking about Alice.”All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

He looked from Katie to Xander then back to me. “Why is everyone pretending like Lanie doesn’t exist?”

My heart dropped to my stomach. Katie made a strangled gasping noise. Even Mason seemed to perk up

out of his catatonic state at the mention of that name.

“How the f uck do you know our daughter’s name?!” Xander demanded.

“Your daughter?” Braden asked, his face a mask of confusion. Tim talking about your m

But before any of us could ask questions, Monroe’s voice carried in

am the bou

“Alpha, Beta,” he said gruffly. “High Elder Gustav is here to see y

you.”

All the color drained from Xander’s face.

Speak of the f ucking devil.

Gustav wanted the vampire problem dealt with, but there had to be Council-regulated ways of doing it. And | was pretty d

those ways.

da mn sure that having Xander’s rogue wolf ba stard brother maul him wasn’t one of

“S$ hit, what do we do?” | asked.

“Is everything alright in there?” Monroe called.

“We have to go out there,” Xander said.

“Yes!” | called. “All fine. We'll be out in a moment.”

Katie looked terrified. “What’s a High Elder? What's he going to do? Is he going to kill Braden? Will Mason get locked up?” Katie was spiraling. This wasn’t good.

“We need to go take care of this,” | said. “Can you watch Stella?”

“lll watch her,” Gabriela said.

When did she come in?

| passed Stella off to me..

“Ma, we

explain,” Xander began, but she held her hand up. “Go see Gustav. The twins are safe with Mindy. And in the meantime, wash your hands. You stink

| cast one last glance around Katie’s mess of a room before Xander and | dashed into the bathroom, scrubbing our hands raw. “We just ask what Gustav wants and get him out of here as quickly as possible,” Xander said.

He was trying to stay calm, but his voice was frantic

Our eyes met in the mirror and we both nodded.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Orion was gone, Gabriela would surely kill us later, and we had a dying vampire stowed upstairs.

Just perfect.

We walked through the splintered doorway where Monroe was waiting, bouncing on the balls of his feet anxiously. | could tell he wanted to know what had happened.

“We had a little disagreement with Mason,” Xander waved his hand toward the door disn

working through it.”

Monroe narrowed his eyes for a brief moment before walking us downstairs to meet Gustav

room.

When he heard us enter, he spun around, his all-white robes flowing behind him. An angry frown

his already heavily lined face...

S hit. He was mad at us, and we hadn’t even spoken to him yet.

“What can we do for you, Gustay?” Xander asked, keeping his distance.

Clearly, he didn’t want Gustav sniffing out any whiffs of vampire that might have floated down from upstairs.

re

He clasped his bony hands behind his back.

“Your father sent me here, Xander. He tells me you've broken one of the Council’s most important rules...” 3/3