Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
“Yes. He’s mine.” No hesitation, the truth a song inside her.
“Then go, find the answer so you can both settle into the pack.” A pause. “Though I have a feeling your Psy would do anything for you even without a bond. Be careful with him, little sister. He might look tough, but when strong men fall, they fall all the way. You’re his weakness.”
Throat thick and the need to go to Ivan a pulse inside her, Soleil nodded before she joined Nathan. She’d expected the ride to be a touch awkward, since even in a high-speed vehicle, it was a long drive. But Nathan had a warm and easy presence, and he didn’t feel the need to fill the air with chatter, so she could just look out the window and think about the man she’d never expected but who she refused to give back.
Soon enough, Nathan was pulling up at DarkRiver HQ. “When you’re ready to go home, just come back here,” he said. “You’ll be able to catch a ride with whoever is heading toward the territory next.” Familiar dark blue eyes on her, this pair tempered by age and experience. “Do you drive? We can assign you a vehicle.”
She shook her head, made herself say it. “My parents died in a crash. I was trapped with them.”
Expression gentling, Nathan brushed a hand over her hair. “Then don’t worry about it. You’ll never have a problem hitching a ride with a packmate. Now go drum some sense into your Psy, and if he annoys you, you come to me.”
Soleil suddenly understood what it must feel like to have a big brother. “Thanks, Nathan,” she said, already a little in love with this man who’d been a stranger yesterday.
It was only after leaving his vehicle that she realized she didn’t have Ivan’s address. Her cat rolled its eyes and told her to go left.
Farah appeared beside her as she walked. “So,” her friend said, “you don’t need me anymore, do you?”
Soleil’s eyes burned. “I’ll always need you,” she whispered, knowing that the Farah-shaped hole in her heart would never fill. “No one will ever take your place.”
“I know. I’m the best.” Hooking her arm through Soleil’s, she laid her head down on her shoulder, her curls tickling the side of Soleil’s face. “But you’re not fractured anymore. You’ll make new friends—you’ve already begun.”
Soleil couldn’t speak, but she reached up to touch that ghostly face.
A lopsided smile as her friend came to stand in front of her, Farah’s big brown eyes full of mischief. “Love you, Leilei. Go wrangle that sexy man of yours.” She winked. “Do everything I would do.”
She was gone a heartbeat later, her voice held like a precious jewel in Soleil’s heart, and the sadness of losing her settling like a thing old and weathered inside her. No longer was it a loss sharp and stabbing, and she even found herself laughing softly as she thought of the trouble Farah had gotten her into over the years.
God, she’d miss her best friend.
It was about ten minutes later that she found herself walking up the steps of an unfamiliar home bracketed between other narrow, old-fashioned homes of the same period. She didn’t know which period, architecture far from her strong suit, but she thought it might be well over two hundred years ago.
The security system at the door, however, was top-notch and required a voice and retinal print for access. So she pressed the doorbell. When Ivan didn’t answer the buzzer, she went to the security panel and scanned her palm. As expected, it was rejected—but it brought up the menu she wanted, which listed other ways access could be gained, should the scanners be down.
Please enter numerical code.
She began to type in a code below the flashing red instruction. She wasn’t even thinking about it … until the instruction turned green to signify she’d passed that stage of entry.
Security Question #1: First name of eldest cousin.
Her fingers flew over the touchpad, typing out Canto, a name she’d never before heard in her life.
Security Question #2: Grandmother’s home.
Soleil typed in: The Sea House.
Security Question #3: Where is she buried?
Soleil hesitated, a dark—and heavily masculine—wave of sorrow sweeping over her, then typed in: Nowhere.
Access granted.
A click, as the door lock disengaged. All the hairs on her arms standing up, she stepped through, then pushed it shut behind her. She should’ve been afraid of what was going on, the depth of their half-functioning bond, but all she felt was a certainty that this was where she was meant to be, urgency pounding at her.
She’d come into a small entryway, a narrow corridor to her right and a set of steep steps directly in front of her. “Ivan!”
Silence.
Her heart thunder, she began to climb.
Chapter 33
Ivan, call your grandmother.
—Ena to Ivan (20 July 2083)