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Rafe was knocking on the fucking window. WHY?!

“Are you done? Let’s go,” his brother growled.

Fee’s eyes widened and then she let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a groan.

“Un-fucking-believable,” Theo muttered as Phoebe climbed off of him, leaving him painfully hard and wildly frustrated.

And to think he’d actually cared about helping this son of a bitch.

His brothers were a fucking nightmare.

Chapter Twenty-Six

A single pissed-off werewolf was one thing, but two was a whole different matter.

Theo had not stopped grumbling since they’d adjusted their clothing and got out of the truck. And even though Rafe had been the one doing the very unfortunate interrupting, he didn’t seem to be in much better spirits. Fee knew that neither brother was thrilled about returning home, but Rafe had already done it a few times. Theo hadn’t set foot on his pack lands in a year. He only ever met with his mother on neutral ground. He was terrified. Fee could feel it from here, the tension in his body, the vibrations under his skin. She could smell his fear.

Their sexy encounter in the truck had apparently only kept him “calm” for a very brief moment and only while she was still sitting in his lap.

But oh, how he had looked at her in that moment. Like she could fix his entire world.

“I just wanted to thank you,” Ruby said, startling Phoebe out of her thoughts. The other woman had dropped back, not able to keep up with the long werewolf strides. She walked slightly ahead of Fee on the narrow snow-covered trail and spoke over her shoulder.

“Thank me for what?” Fee asked, guilt already settling in her stomach.

“For helping to look for Lena.” Ruby pushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She was dressed mostly in black: black jeans with a black hoodie, but all tucked beneath a red cloak. The poor human looked like death warmed over, which was Ruby’s typical style, but she looked extra pale and tired today. She hadn’t bothered with her iconic red lipstick, a fact that made Fee more alarmed than anything else. She’d never seen Ruby without it.

The weather wasn’t as cold as it had been this morning and the snow was starting to drip from the trees. They were all trudging along slowly through the slush. The journey would have been quicker with just wolves and a nymph, but they couldn’t very well leave the human behind.

“Oh, you don’t have to thank me for that,” Fee said. Mercifully, Ruby had to turn around to navigate a fallen tree, and Fee was spared having to face her. Snow melt dripped from the branches above, a cold drop landing on the back of Fee’s neck. She shivered and dug her fingers into the moss-covered tree as she climbed over it.

She had the sudden urge to disappear into the safe shadows of the woods. She could do it. Make her way home unseen and unheard by everyone. Nymphs did it all the time. Blended in with their surroundings.

It would be so easy.

Theo turned at that exact moment as if he could sense it. As if he knew she was about to bail. His gaze met hers and she faltered. She couldn’t leave him now. The least she could do was stick around until the end and own up to her part in all this. She let go of the tree and caught up to Ruby.

“Of course, I do,” Ruby said, huffing a little as the path they followed wound up an incline. “You didn’t have to help but you did, and I really appreciate it.” Ruby’s voice was choked with tears and once again Fee was glad to not be looking her in the face while she spoke.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Ruby asked, eventually. “I mean, if she’s with Knox. You don’t think he would hurt her, do you?”

“I know he wouldn’t.”

Ruby looked up at her quick reply, the woman’s dark gaze meeting her own. “How do you know?”

Fee shrugged. “I just do. I don’t think you should worry.” She blew out a long sigh, so close to just telling the woman the damn truth about why she was so sure.

“Easier said than done. It’s just…” She peeked out of her hood and again she looked so worried, so exhausted, like being apart from her twin was leaching the energy from her body.

“I had this vision of her being taken, and now I just keep waiting for another one. Anything to help find her, you know? And nothing. Just the grove dream. Sorry about that, by the way.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It feels like my fault. The whole ‘don’t kill the messenger’ thing feels very real at the moment. I don’t want to be responsible for delivering bad news.”

“So then, maybe the fact that you can’t see anything is a good thing,” Fee said. She was met with an incredulous stare. “I’m serious. Maybe the fact that she’s fine means there’s nothing you need to see right now. Maybe your visions are for … emergencies only.”

Ruby opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to argue, but then snapped it shut. “That kinda makes sense,” she said after a few minutes of silence. “Thanks.”