Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Trent sat up, his gaze going stony. “Nicole was pregnant. Jamie had gotten her pregnant, and they’d just found out.”
“Well then Jamie should have protected her. He should have wrapped Nicole up and figured out where you were and hidden with you.” All I could think about was how nice and safe and happy Frelsi seemed to be.
“Kelsey, I couldn’t have handled them. And I wouldn’t even have known what to do with a bunch of humans on some of those planes we found ourselves on. Keeping Lee alive was hard enough. We didn’t have a home most of the time. I have no idea what we would have done with a human infant. Gray did the best he could. I know we think he knows everything, but he was as lost as I was when you were gone. He was trying to protect your family the best he could. And me. He knew if Myrddin put Jamie or Nate up for public execution, I would have come running. I would have done it for you. Gray made sure that didn’t happen. He made sure I could do the job I needed to do without worrying that I was letting you down.”
I shook my head because this whole situation was fucked up. “He’s working with Lucifer. With the literal devil himself, and you think I’m not let down?”
Trent’s eyes went steely. “I didn’t have a fucking say in that, Kelsey. Gray does what he thinks is right, and most of the time he doesn’t ask for my input. Do you think I wasn’t upset? He didn’t consult me or I would have told him we would find another way. But quite frankly, at the time I was dealing with traumatized children and the fact that I had no idea if my mate was alive or dead, and I was holding on by a fucking thread.”
I was handling this all wrong. I was losing my shit when Trent needed me to totally keep track of it. I took a long breath. “That is not a being I want in our lives. Lucifer Morningstar is as bad as it gets. I didn’t want Gray working for his father, much less for Lucifer. How much damage is already done? Fen won’t call him Papa.”
Trent stood, and I knew he was upset with me because he started to look for his clothes. “Fen sees the world in black and white. He doesn’t understand that Gray was trying to protect us all.”
I had to point out some truths to my mate. “There are bounties on the kids’ heads, so he didn’t do a good job of it.”
“He made certain Myrddin didn’t send demons chasing us across the planes. As long as we were off plane, we were safe.”
I stared at him because I didn’t need to say a thing. Why the fuck hadn’t they stayed off plane, then?
He shoved his legs into jeans, every movement a testament to how much I was annoying him. “You try to deal with a Green Man, a wolf king, a latent vampire, and Zoey Donovan-Quinn’s daughter and see how long you can keep them from coming back to fight for their home and their people. I had to raise those kids. Me and Sasha. We’re not sit-on-the-sidelines types. We had to teach them how to fight, and we always knew we would have to come back. Do you understand what’s been going on here? What he’s done to the other supernatural creatures? How many of us he’s killed? He wiped out packs who wouldn’t submit to him. Both here and across the globe. You know that pack in Italy you used to run with? It’s gone. He wiped them out with a snap of his hand once he had some real power. You would have me cower and hide while my people—your people—are dying? While the great packs that my son should be leading are suffering? Well, my mate, I guess you don’t know me as well as you should, and this reunion doesn’t mean what I thought it did.”
I was fucking up and hard. I’d been so careful around Fen, but I wasn’t giving Trent any of the same consideration. He was my safe space and I let him have my every unfiltered opinion, and maybe that worked when I was there with him all the time. But there were years and years between us, years where he’d changed and I hadn’t.
Years for him to idealize me.
I could prove him wrong about that in a few seconds.
Insecurity came down like the gates of a cage snapping into place. He’d waited for me, and I suddenly wasn’t sure I was worth it.
“I’m sorry. I’m not handling this well.” I didn’t want to be so angry. He didn’t deserve my anger. Honestly, until I talked to Gray and got his perspective, he didn’t deserve my anger either.