Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(56)

"We'll find out everything we need to know tonight," Roel said from the backseat, and I turned in my seat to look at him.

"Keeping you safe is the most important thing right now, Mena," Brad said, and my gaze locked on him.

"Go back!" I shouted. Heath kept driving. Nobody said anything. "Heath, I gave you an order to go back."

"I can't," Heath said, and I glared at him, waiting for an explanation. He fidgeted in his seat, before saying more. "We physically can't do anything that might put you in harm's way, Mena. The spell the witches did for Phoenix has taken effect now. Anyone who contributed to it can now sense when you might be in danger, even before you know it. Any other order you give will be followed without fail. I'm sorry. We just assumed Phoenix would have told you about it this morning or we would have said something."


I thought back to the morning's events with Phoenix. The breakfast he had prepared, the story about his parents and then our argument had taken up all our time together until Alex had shown up. If I hadn't begged him to tell me the story he might have possibly informed me of what he had done the night before with part of my pack and my wolf's boyfriend. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. I really, really did. I did not want to be upset with him for something else. It seemed like he was always screwing up. Was he trying to? I honestly couldn't make myself believe that.

"Maybe you should believe it, Mena," the wolf said. "He's obviously all wrong for you."

"I don't need your input. Let me talk to my pack and try to figure this out."

"MY pack, Mena—"

"I'm pretty sure we're in this together."

"I'm happy you finally realize that."

"Don't forget that you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me."

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Marc. I just got us a promotion immediately after the fact."

"You didn't kill him! I did!"

"Please be realistic, Mena. You could never have pulled that trigger on your own."

"He cheated on me and hit me, and then tried to kill me. I don't think you know me as well as you think you do."

"Mena?" Heath said.

"Huh?" I jerked out of my inner monologue conversation with my wolf and blinked at him.

"I said… you aren't mad at us, are you? We only did it to give you more protection. They are supposed to tell us tonight which wolves in our pack mean you harm. That's one reason why there was no point in going back. There probably would have been more than the four of us could handle, and Phoenix threatened to castrate us if you even had a scratch on you when we got back to his house." His expression brightened as he shifted his body toward me, but he kept his eyes on the road. "And that's a pretty sweet compound he has, isn't it? I would have never suspected the High Vampire to live there. It looks totally normal until you get downstairs."

I shook my head. "I'm not angry with any of you. I just wish everyone would stop keeping me in the dark about everything. I am the Alpha, aren't I?"

"You're the best Alpha we've ever had, Mena, or we think you will be," Brad said.

"And stop listening to everything Phoenix says. I have in no way given him permission to give any of my pack orders. I will settle this with him later, and if he tells you to do anything else, you are to tell him that he needs to clear it with me first. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the three said in unison.

"Ugh," I said.

Brad punched Roel in the arm. "Don't call her ma'am! She doesn't like it, douchebag."

"You said it, too, asshat!" Roel said as he punched Brad harder than he'd hit him, and then the guys started laughing and scuffling in the back seat.

I put my hand over my eyes and shook my head. "Dear God, I'm surrounded by children," I mumbled.

Heath chuckled. "Neither of them are under a hundred years old. I think we could assume at this point that they aren't going to grow up."

"That's what I'm afraid of," I said, but I couldn't stop myself from giggling. Despite the tragic things that had happened to me in the last week, I was the happiest I had been in a really long time. I felt comfortable with these morons. They had accepted me as their own, placed me up on some sort of pedestal, no questions asked. I didn't deserve to be a Queen, but that's how they treated me, like I was their Queen, their family and their friend.

I loved them, even the ones who hadn't accepted me as their Alpha.

Phoenix is wrong about love. Love doesn't destroy people. It keeps them together. It keeps them alive. It helps them succeed.

"You're not going to change him," the wolf said.

I sighed in exasperation. "What makes you so sure? He has already changed for me more than he ever thought he could."

"Because he knows that if he falls in love with you his heart won't be able to bear seeing you with anyone else. We've negotiated, Mena."

"Alex…"

"Yes… Alex."

"Do you honestly think he is just going to be fine with me seeing Phoenix? Do you even plan to tell him who you really are?"

"I do plan to tell him… when the time is right."