My skin began to crawl, and not in the itchy way it had been before, but in the “my stomach was churning and something wasn’t right” way.“Pull over,” I told Atlas when we’d already passed the vehicle.“No,” he retorted.Fine. I didn’t need his permission before when I’d jumped out the window, and I didn’t need it now.Though I hadn’t considered that last time the jeep had been stopped before I’d leapt onto the road…I heard Amy’s shocked gasp and Atlas snarl my name, but there was nothing I could do once I’d committed to exiting the jeep one way or another.To my surprise, I didn’t fall into a heap of arms and legs, knocking the shit out of my body like I’d expected. I somehow managed to land gracefully on my feet, then kneeled quietly in the tall grass at the side of the road.Atlas hit the brakes, but I wasn’t paying attention to the jeep. No, my sights were set on the van still on the side of the road. I could faintly hear a child crying and two men arguing.“You fucking moron!” o

I could see the boy giggling in Elena’s arms as she seemed to keep talking to him until he pointed up ahead.Amy turned down a street and he pointed again.Houses began popping up, and I saw a few curtains flutter, but nobody came out to see who was creeping through their neighborhood. Interesting.Thanks to not having a top on the jeep, I caught Silas frown at Elena, then shake his head. He must have gotten lost. Not surprising, considering he was maybe six years old.Elena looked back at me, and I could see the frustration in her eyes, but when she turned back to Sammy, she was smiling again as if everything was okay.How could anyone have thought this woman would pass for a murdering witch? That had been Jacob’s first mistake. His second had been trying to trick me into doing his dirty work.I glanced back at the guy I had tied to the metal floor of the van. “Where did you take the kid from?”“I’ll tell you if you promise to kill me quickly,” he pleaded, snot and tears covering his

I choked on a laugh. “If you’ve done something? I thought I’d done something. You weren’t around much yesterday when I expected you to be, and I don’t know. I just… Well, I’ve never had a friend, so I don’t know. Just ignore me. It’s dumb.”Her bright eyes stared directly into mine, and she glared. “Elena. Don’t you ever say your feelings are dumb. I won’t tolerate that kind of bullshit. Not in our friendship. Even if you’re not seeing the situation fully, what you feel matters. You matter. Never be afraid to speak your piece. That’s the only way to build a true friendship. Something I hope you and I will have one day.”Emotions burned at the back of my throat. “Seriously? I thought you were only here because you felt like you had to be and that you’d probably be gone just as soon as your obligations from the visions were met.”She waved a flippant hand. “Hell no. Not unless I need to be for reasons beyond my control. I haven’t had a vision in years. Learning about you in the weird wa

My hand came down firmly over her right cheek, but not enough to leave a bruise. The sound was drowned out by Elena’s gasp. Though, if I was reading the situation right, it wasn’t because of pain. Nowhere near that.“You bastard,” she hissed, but there was a slight moan lacing her words.I spanked her again. “Keep it up. I can do this all day.”“Fuck you,” she spat, moving out of my grasp, and then she was shoving me until I was lying on the bed and her knees pinned my arms down.Her move wasn’t anything that I couldn’t get out of, but given her ass was settled over my hardening cock, I decided to see what this innocent, mouthy woman was going to do next.“Fuck me?” I challenged. “I didn’t think you were being literal.”She took in our compromising position, then raised her hand, but I blocked her attempt to punch me in the jaw.“Uh-uh. I don’t think so,” I said, then I flipped our positions. Violence wasn’t what I was in the mood for.Regardless of the voice in my head telling me tha

“All things considered, yeah. I’ve wanted to find a life beyond Earth and Emerald for years. Sure, I could have gone without being kidnapped, but the end result is going to be the same.” I added a wink, trying to lighten the heaviness around us.“How do you know things will be the same?” he asked with a tilt of his head.“I just do. Something about all of this feels right.” I paused. “Not like Lia’s intuition or anything, but being here doesn’t make me nervous like I’d expected it to after everything I’d heard about this House.”Atlas’s eyes darkened. “What do you know about your parents?”That was a swift change in conversation.“Nothing,” I answered. “Well, besides the fact that there was a woman I assume was my mother who left me at the coven when I was a baby.”He looked away and nodded before turning back to me with a softer look. “About earlier. Do you know much about mates?”I knew enough. Or at least, I had thought so before he’d asked me. Once I’d learned what I’d considered