Tears lined my eyes as I smiled at my mother. She may not have given birth to me, I never knew that woman, but this woman before me was my mother. I was stubborn and I wouldn’t have chosen to change anything about my life. Even though I had been through a lot, it made me who I was.

Kai slipped his hand into mine. ‘Can you give me this one thing? If I don’t capture Layla at the border, I will come home and we will go forward with the plan of using you as bait. I’m your Alpha and your mate. Allow me this one last time to try to protect you.’

I sighed. ‘Fine.’

Kai grinned.

“By the way, mom, I’m pregnant,” I told her, changing the subject to lighten the mood.

Her eyebrows shot up, mouth hung open. “Aurora! Wow. That’s wonderful. Will the baby be a …?”

I looked at Kai and smiled. My mom didn’t know about the witch race or that I was the Matefinder. We didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was. “Yes. The baby will be a werewolf.”

She looked a little frightened at that. “Oh, well, that’s good. Right?”

Kai went to the kitchen and held up a bottle of wine. “Let’s celebrate!”

I smiled.

“No drinking for you,” Kai told me and I frowned as he handed a glass of wine to my mother. Here we go, he was already taking away my wine. I growled.

Rebel

I awoke the next morning and reluctantly said goodbye to Kai and the crew that he was taking to Arizona. He left Max and Jai with me for protection. Both had their smells taken by the witches so they would be good guards for me and the others. I stood next to Max, waving them off and leaned in to smell him.

Max gave me an odd look. “What? I wore deodorant,” he stated.

I laughed. Max and I had a rough start and it made our friendship now that much sweeter. I would do anything for him.

“I can’t smell you. It’s weird,” I told him.

“Oh, that.” He gave me a small smile. “It’s pretty cool.” He shrugged. Max was normally a vibrant person, always inserting his opinion whether wanted or not. Lately he seemed off.

“You okay?” I asked as the troupe of cars drove away from the house and off to the airport.

Max and I were alone now as he seemed to consider my words. “You know in our culture, finding your mate is a huge deal. Huge. It’s everything we strive for.”

I frowned, knowing where this was going.

“Max.” I reached out to touch his shoulder. Watching the lines of pain dance across his face.

He shrugged me off. “No. It’s my fault! How stupid. She’s my mate! I should have had the mating ceremony. Opened our bond. I can feel her a little, but it’s faint and what I feel scares the shit out of me. I feel pain and rage and fear.” His jaw clenched, then he met my eyes. Yellow wolf threaded into his crystal blue eyes. “If Kai doesn’t fix this soon, I’m going rogue. I need to find her. I’m going crazy!” He banged his fists on the sides of his head.

My heart broke. I was the same way when Kai was taken by RAIDOS after Devon died.

All of a sudden, a huge wave of responsibility crashed over me. I may not have caused Tara and Sadie and the others to be taken but I could stop it. I could give myself up. Let them take me and then kill Layla and end this bullshit once and for all!

I could feel Kai probing my feelings so I quickly pushed them down but I would fix this, no matter the cost. Tara and Max deserved a future together after all that had been taken from him. I wouldn’t take his second chance at having a mate and a family.

I let my wolf come up to the surface and held Max’s gaze. “Max, I won’t be selfish.” Dominance oozed from me. “If there’s something I can do to get the girls back, I will.”

Max nodded. “I know that. That’s why I let you be second.” He swung an arm around me and we walked back into the house.

I laughed. “Hah! Let me. Whatever.” Shaking my head we entered the house and I was surprised to see Alek waiting for me.

Max glared at him.

“I wonder if I might speak with Aurora alone?” Alek asked kindly as he sat perched on my couch.

“Nope,” Max said immediately. Kai had left Max in charge of my safety. Freaking great.

I looked at Max. “Go for a run. I won’t leave the house.” It was an order.

Max pinned Alek with his eyes. “I will go for a short walk around the house.” My mother was at Emma’s helping with the baby and Jeremy was in the basement. We were alone.

After the front door clicked closed, I sat down on the couch opposite Alek. “What’s up?”

Alek sighed. “I feel that if I told you certain things, I would be betraying my kind. But I need to tell you something.”

Fear came over me and I sat up straighter. “Tell me what?”

Alek put his hands out. “Nothing serious. Just … vampire knowledge is kept very secret. If you are to truly defeat the queen, I think I must help you. Tell you things.”

I swallowed, relaxing slightly. “Okay.” Hell yeah, tell me secret vampire shit. I was slowly cataloging little pieces of information against these two. I had Prudence’s full name and now I was getting something on Layla.

Alek nodded. “I would kindly request you don’t share this information with Kai, the pack, or the witches.”

Not share it with Kai? “Okay. You have my word.” Kind of, I mean I couldn’t keep things from Kai.