Page 62 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

Plague's eyes narrow, but he doesn't call me out. Just continues the story. "The hospital was small. Quiet. We heard familiar voices in the hallway."

"Valek?" Ivy asks.

"His whole family," I say. "Mom with a broken wrist, siblings, dad, the works. Turns out his mom was the cause of the emergency. She broke her wrist at some church bake-off because another lady sabotaged her or something."

Wraith huffs a soft laugh.

Ivy blinks. "You're kidding."

"Nope. Small-town drama at its finest," I say, grinning. "Anyway, his mom spotted us and invited us to dinner."

Ivy's eyebrows shoot up. "She invited you to dinner? The people who were stalking her son?"

"Well, she didn't know that part," Plague says dryly. "She thought we were concerned teammates checking on Valek after his family emergency."

Ivy winces.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I sigh. "I feel shitty about it too. But he seemed to understand why we tailed him."

"Uh-huh." Ivy's tone is knowing in a way that makes me want to crawl under the couch. "And how did dinner with Valek's family go?"

Plague clears his throat. "It was... manageable. His family was kind. Genuinely loving. His mother fussed over everyone, his siblings teased each other, his father told terrible dad jokes. It was⁠—"

"Normal," I supply. "Like, aggressively normal. Made the whole surveillance thing feel pretty shitty, honestly."

Wraith fingerspells to me. D-O-E-S… V-A-L-E-K… S-E-E-M… D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S?

"Nah," I answer him. "He was different. Softer, maybe? Still had that edge, though. And he hates Wade Kelly."

The mood shifts immediately. Wraith goes rigid. Ivy straightens, listening.

Plague takes over, his voice careful. "He made it clear he thinks Wade is a cruel piece of shit. I didn't get the impression they are secretly friends. Which means he either isn't an immediate threat to you or he's an excellent actor."

"Both could be true," Ivy says quietly.

Fair point.

Wraith signs something else, this time directed at Ivy. When he finishes, she turns back to us to translate.

"He's asking if Valek knows who I am."

Plague and I exchange a look. We've been dancing around this question since we got on the plane.

"Honestly?" I say. "Yeah. Probably. He knows we're hiding an omega. And he's smart as fuck. He’s seen you. He knows Wraith was with you in the tunnels. Put the pieces together about Wade, about the Demons, about why we'd be so protective..."

"Unless you were wearing a mask yourself, he knows," Plague mutters to her.

“Not a bad idea,” Ivy mumbles, her fingers tightening around her mug. "And he's downstairs right now."

"Yeah," I say, sighing. "In his room. Dude looked exhausted."

"We don't think he'll hurt you," Plague adds quickly. "Not our call to make, obviously, but... we played chess on the plane, and you can learn a lot about a person from how they play. My instincts say he's not a threat. To you, specifically."

"To us, though?" I grin. "Different story. He'd put us both in one of his bro’s pies if given half a chance."

Ivy manages a weak laugh. "Great. So I'm hiding in a loft above an alleged psychopath who may or may not be on my side while my abusive ex, who was once on a team with him, is plotting how to find me."

"When you put it like that, it sounds bad," I say.