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“Me too,” Kimber added. “You can fill us in when you get back.”
Knowing that April had her very large husband, a vampire, and a wolven staying with her made me feel confident leaving her and the baby here with a possible traitor lurking in our camp.
Peach checked outside and no one was around, so we piled in my Jeep and headed to Dani’s place at the second camp.
Winnie held the door open as we entered, and my eyes went wide with the amount of people in the room.
To my right, Erik leaned against the beige wall by the hallway, his arms crossed snugly against his body, and Ravage was in the kitchen drinking a beer, his normal radiant smile absent.
To the left, Drag and Dani were sitting in matching recliners. Her expression worried as she rocked the baby. Lane was on the brown leather couch across from them and gave me a nervous smile before turning his attention elsewhere.
“What’s up, Marcus?” he shouted. “How’ve you been?”
“Much better since I get to see your sexy ass.”
I ignored the men being men and took a seat on the floor, leaving a space on the couch for Peach and Marcus. A few seconds later, Lyric sat next to me, and playfully nudged her shoulder into mine. When my gaze met hers, I could see the yearning she carried for Winnie. I nudged her back, bringing a small smile to her face.
The room quieted and the air surrounding us seemed to thicken, becoming stale. Not in an unclean sense, more like there were lots of secrets and worries about to be thrown around like confetti, but in a wearisome kind of way.
Attempting to stay calm, I focused my attention on Winnie since he was always chill, but that was a horrible plan. His hands were shaking as his eyes darted around the room, bouncing across each person before they landed on me.
“Your uncle’s a freak.”
My anxiousness got pushed aside by confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“We saw Ben at the Venom compound,” Erik said, uncrossing his arms, his posture stiffening. “Winnie thinks he’s not human anymore.”
I opened my mouth but memories of feeling inadequate had stolen my words.
Despite him being my uncle, Ben and I had never developed any true familial connection. Being the younger of the two brothers, he was second in command in the Venom society, below my dad in rank. Like some leaders, Ben issued orders with no respect for us, yet demanded our obedience, especially from me, as if he were royalty.
During my childhood, he’d say my father failed their bloodline since he’d never had a son, and other hurtful things within earshot. He’d also say that he should be the one running Venom in the future, not me. Whenever it happened, my dad would casually brush it off and switch to a different topic.
The moment I turned sixteen, I was determined to win my uncle’s approval. I trained harder than anyone else and even attempted to shrink my personality to fit into a tiny box just to make him happy. My hard work was in vain since Ben continued to hate me.
By the time I’d reached eighteen, I stopped caring what he thought of me and began to stick up for myself. Obviously, my tendency to speak my mind along with what he called “disobedience” led to frequent arguments and created tension during family events.
About two years ago, my uncle decided to step down, pushing Marcus into second in command, and Sorin into third rank. According to my mom, Ben had left because he moved to a Venom location in another state, stepping down to a fourth rank commanding officer position, which never made sense.
Why would someone so power hungry want to be lower ranking?
I’d never fully understood why he made that decision or why he hated me. I was just grateful that he was gone . . .
Until now.
Lyric nudged me, reminding me to answer Erik, but fear had halted my words, and I slowly shook my head. “What?”
“When we snuck into Venom—”
“I heard what you said, Erik, but what the hell is my uncle doing here?”
Winnie dropped one knee to the floor, making eye contact with me. “Listen, I can’t answer that question, but I can tell you something bigger is going on. VRC is making some kind of super hybrid or something. Your uncle smelled like a vampire and a wolven blended into one, which is something Ravage said he’d never heard of before.”
“Me neither,” Peach added. “And I’ve been around the longest.”
“And I might as well rip off the bandaid, Sage Stick. He also—”
“What?” I asked again, since apparently my brain took a leave of absence.
