Chapter 15

AURORA

I clenched my phone in my hand.

“Missing?” I asked. “What about Mrs. Melville?”

“Who, the nanny?” Grandma Augusta asked. “I have no idea.”

I bit down on a retort. I hated when wolves acted like wolves who worked as pack servants were expendable, but my grandmother wasn’t the kind of woman who would know the “help.”

It was one of her less charming qualities.

I closed my eyes and wished desperately that I had my wolf, that I could reach out over a pack bond and find them.

But I didn’t. All I had was a cell phone. I sent panicked texts to the kids and Evander, then to Trajan.

The twins are missing!

He texted me back a moment later. The Blue Ridge wolves are settled. I’m coming.

I ran downstairs. My heart was beating a million miles a minute. My thoughts raced. Where could they be? Why are they gone?

Who would have done this?

There was only one person who might hate me enough to want my children gone.

Lilliana.

I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to slow my racing heart as I went down the stairs.

I would call Lilliana, make her tell me everything, get on a plane back to Europe. I’d figure this out. I would…

Just as I reached the door, someone knocked.

Distracted, I pulled it open.

“Hi, mommy!”

My mouth dropped open.

The twins were on my doorstep. Evander was right behind them, with Mrs. Melville next to him.

I gasped and dropped to my knees, holding my arms out for my children.

They ran to me, and I hugged them close, breathing in their sweet scent. Then I pulled back to look from them to Evander.

“What is going on? Why are you here?”

Evander glanced around then stepped inside, pulling Mrs. Melville in with him. The older woman straightened her gray bun and greeted me nervously. “Hello, Ms. DeVere.”

“Hello,” I said. “I’m so confused. What’s going on?”

“Whose cars are in the driveway?” Evander asked. “I thought it was just you and Trajan here.”

“It was until this morning,” I said. I glanced down at the children and cleared my throat. “Dane has decided that his partner needs more security.”

“There are Blue Ridge wolves here?” Evander said. He lowered his voice and whispered, “Shit.”

“Mommy, Evander said a bad word!” Tristan gasped.

I wrapped my arms around both my children and picked them up. I couldn’t stop hugging them. At the same time, I was terrified that Piper or another of the Blue Ridge wolves would see them and ask what two children were doing here.

“Come upstairs,” I said. I mentally filled Trajan in on the situation, and he met us in my suite of rooms. We all went inside, then closed and locked the doors.

“What the—” Trajan glanced at the children, then closed his mouth. “What are you doing here?”

What I have to say can’t be said in front of the children, Evander said into my mind. He had some strains of Alpha magic, so he could talk into my head when he had to. His face was deathly serious.

At the same time, Seraphina yawned. “I’m so tired, Mommy. We spent hours and hours on an airplane!”

I nodded, hugged Tristan and Seraphina close one more time, then set them down. “Mrs. Melville, through those doors is another room. Maybe you can go and get the children settled?”

Hurriedly, Mrs. Melville took the twins through the sitting area where we were and into a secondary bedroom. It wasn’t set up for children, but I was already running things through my mind, figuring out how quickly I could make that happen.

“Tell us,” Trajan growled at Evander.

Evander nodded, pacing back and forth. Unlike Trajan, who could be still as a stone when it suited him, Evander never stopped moving.

“Someone tried to poison them,” he said.

My heart started to race again, like it had when I thought they were missing. “Poison?” I whispered.

Evander nodded. “Luckily, Mrs. Melville scented it in their food before she fed it to them.”

If I had a wolf, I would’ve transformed right then and there and torn something apart.

“Did you find out who it was?” I asked. Because I knew.

Evander and Trajan exchanged looks. They’d also become good friends since I’d introduced them to each other.

“We don’t have any evidence,” Evander said carefully. I didn’t rage often, and I knew it was making him nervous.

I started pacing. “Grandmother will have to listen to me about Lilliana this time. She attacked the twins!”

“She’ll demand proof,” Trajan said. “If you accuse her again and she wriggles out of it like she did last time, your grandmother will disown you.”

I made a wordless sound of rage. Lilliana had been the bane of my existence since the DeVeres rediscovered me. At least the Reeds had been hateful to my face. Lilliana preferred to smile, then stab you in the back when you weren’t expecting it.

Someone knocked on the door of my rooms. Startled, I gestured Evander to get out of sight, then went to open it.

Piper stood on the other side. She smiled apologetically.

“Piper, how can I…?” I trailed off.

Dane loomed behind her.

In the other room, one of the children started to cry.