Chapter 443

My head snapped up. “Holy shit.”

My mom furrowed her brows, and Carly turned to me. “You said a bad word.”

I winced. “Sorry, baby.” I patted her head. “I’m just excited.”

She looked at the jumbled letters. “Is this what we were looking for?” She scrunched up her little face and then looked back at me. “I don’t understand it.”

I laughed. “It’s a code. I’ll teach it to you.” I pulled out a random paper and flipped it over. I wrote the alphabet in two lines, matching the letters on top of each other. A over N and M over Z. “Then you just swap the letters.”

By then, my mom was staring over my shoulder. “That’s it?” She looked down at the code and then back at me. “But that’s child’s play.” She looked at me. “He used that to hide his secret?”

I laughed. “Yep. And it is. It’s the way Rick writes secret notes with Abby. I’m assuming he did it this way because he assumed no one would think of a code this simple.”

“For something this important?” She looked down at the paper, then back at me with confusion and a little bit of worry on her face. “It is important, right?”

I laughed again and nodded. “This is everything.” I leaned over and kissed Carly’s face.

“Ew.” She giggled as she wiped the pretend spit from her face. “We did it, though? You got what you needed?”

I smiled. “We did!” I jumped up to my feet, pulling Carly with me, and then I swung her in a circle. “Wohooooo.” She squealed as we spun, and my mom started to laugh. Toya and Wendy ran into the room and stopped on the edges to watch Carly and me spin.

“What’s going on?” Wendy chuckled as Carly giggled.

“Carly and Mom helped me solve the big issue about Vince.” Wendy’s eyes widened and Toya’s mouth dropped open.

“Swear you say.” Toya ran over and swung Carly from me. “Did you save us, baby girl?”

I laughed as Toya swung her into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. Carly squealed again, and then we dropped to the ground. Wendy walked over and snagged Carly’s hand. “Well, since you saved the day, you get to pick what we have for lunch and dinner.”

Carly cheered as Wendy led her to the kitchen.

Toya looked after them, and I watched her face go from proud to serious as she turned back to me. “This is what you needed for his servers?”

I nodded and felt my face split. “And it’s perfect timing.”

“Why do you say that?” My mom came closer to us so we could talk low.

“Because I just ‘broke’ up with Brandon. Shannon and he showed up for a final showdown in front of the pack. Now all I need to do is get the king to allow me back to daddy’s pack lands, and then I can hit them and disappear.”

Toya and my mother looked at each other for a second, then turned back to me. “I thought you were going to wait for the mating ceremony?”

I stretched my neck. “Can’t, not anymore.”

My mom grabbed my hand. “Why? What aren’t you telling us?”

I sighed, but then my stomach growled, and I winced. Toya turned to me. “Are you eating properly?”

I groaned. “There is too much going on.”

Toya smacked the back of my head. “You screamed at me for the same bullshit excuse during school. ‘It doesn’t matter if you have training, class, or anything else. You need to feed your body, your wolves. Or else you can lose control.’ I think that was it… right?” She leveled me with a look, and I winced.

“Yeah.” I sat down on the couch and looked at the paper scattered around the floor.

“Then you need to come clean.” She came over to my side. “What’s going on?” She bumped her shoulder into mine. “You are normally on top of food.”

I looked down at my hands, and I shook my head. “It’s stupid.”

My mom sat on the other side of me. “Baby, nothing that is affecting you this much is stupid.”

I looked at her, and then back at Toya. “You will think it’s stupid.”

She chuckled. “Absolutely not.”

I took in a breath and blew it out before starting to pick at the side of my nails. “It’s Rowan.”

Toya tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

I focused on my fingers as I blurted everything out. “I can’t wait until the mating ceremony because I am coming into a heat. Erubus has been visiting Nix and Megan, and they have both fallen for him, which is causing the heat. I was pissed because I like Thoth, maybe love him, but then daddy spilled the beans that he magicked the guards at the building to keep Rowan’s letters from me. I went and got them this morning and read one. And he said he loved me.”