CHAPTER 388: THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING.

Lyla

Ramsey scratched his head, looking guilty. "I said I was going to tell you, but there wasn’t enough time..."

"Yet Elias, your new friend, seemed to know?" I could feel my anger building.

"Lyla, let me explain—"

"No." I held up my hand to stop him. "You cannot just do whatever you want because you think you have money. The world doesn’t work like that, Ramsey. Marriage doesn’t work like that."

I was tired of being left out of decisions that affected my life. Tired of secrets and hidden guardians and mysterious house purchases. Tired of feeling like everyone knew more about my own situation than I did.

I turned to Nanny and took her hand. "I’ll sleep with you tonight."

Both Nanny and I walked toward the duplex, leaving Ramsey and Elias standing by the car. I could feel Ramsey’s hurt and confusion through our mate bond, but right now, I needed space to process everything that had happened.

As we approached the front door, Nanny squeezed my hand gently. "You did the right thing, dear. Men need to learn that they can’t make unilateral decisions and expect us to just go along with them."

"I’m just so tired of being kept in the dark," I said quietly. "First the guardian I didn’t know about, then the house purchase, and who knows what else he’s decided without consulting me."

"We’ll figure it out," Nanny assured me as we entered our temporary new home. "But tonight, you rest. Tomorrow, we’ll demand answers."

***

I stretched lazily on the bed, feeling more rested than I had in weeks. This was the best sleep I’d had since we arrived in the human world. The mattress was incredibly soft, the room temperature was perfect, and for once, the babies had allowed me to sleep peacefully through most of the night. Aside from getting up maybe twice to use the bathroom, I felt absolutely wonderful.

When I turned my head, I saw Ramsey sitting in an easy chair next to the bed, watching me with a gentle smile playing at his lips.

"Good morning, sunshine," he greeted, warmly.

"Sunshine?" I scoffed, sitting up abruptly and looking around the room with growing confusion. "How are you in Nanny’s room? Who allowed you to come in here?"

"This isn’t Nanny’s room," Ramsey said with amusement. "This is my room. I don’t know when you came in, but somehow in the middle of the night, you were tapping my shoulder asking me to scoot over so you could get comfortable."

I colored in embarrassment as I noticed for the first time that this definitely wasn’t the room Nanny and I had chosen the night before. This room was smaller, with fewer decorative details.

"I’m still angry with you, regardless," I fired back, trying to cover my mortification with indignation. "You’re so annoying."

He rose from the chair and came to the bed, contorting his face in remorse. "I’m sorry about not informing you about buying the house," he said in a placating tone. "Everything happened so fast, and I was going to tell you, I swear. I’m sorry, baby."

I sniffed, giving him a skeptical side glance. "Will you also tell me why Elias is hovering around me like a fly?"

"I will," Ramsey nodded earnestly. "But first, I need to know that you’ve accepted my apology."

I gave him another playful side glance. "I’m still mad. Saying sorry cannot just fix things like that."

He gathered me t him, pressing a soft kiss to my hair. "Apology accepted?" he asked sweetly. I shifted to face him, raising a brow.

"Okay, apology accepted but not forgotten. I’ll bring it up in the future if there’s nothing to nag you about," I said grudgingly."

"Fair deal," he grinned as he continued to shower kisses on my forehead, my cheeks, my lips and thanking me over and over while I melted against him despite my best efforts to remain stern.

"Thank you," he murmured against my hair. "I promise I’ll do better about communicating with you."

Soon I found myself sitting between his legs with my back against his chest, both of us settled comfortably on the bed. His arms wrapped around me protectively. He nuzzled my neck, sending thrills of desire coursing through my body.

Of course, having a conversation on the bed was not a good idea but knowing who Ramsey was, every conversation like this always ended up with our clothes on the floor.

"Ramsey, focus!" I called out playfully, dodging a kiss.

"It’s been 48 hours without kissing you, give me a break."

"Ramsey!" I called out sternly. Kiss my foot. He would do more than kissing.

Sighing, his mouth left my neck, closing protectively around me. "What do you want to know?" he asked

"Everything. Start from the top."

Ramsey took a deep breath. "First, you need to understand about the Hollow Kin. They’re an ancient council that governs all supernatural beings; not just werewolves and Lycans, but vampires, witches, fae, everyone. They’re ancient, powerful, and they have authority though it doesn’t supersede mine but they have the power to unseat me and put someone else as a Lycan Leader."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" he nodded, "But that’s not going to happen. The real reason they reached out is because they want to see us. You, mostly. You remember when I said a lot of people would not like us because of the so-called divide between Lycans and Werewolves?"

I nodded rapidly.

"The Hollow Kin is one of those people. They hate inter-marriage or cross-marriage as they call it. They believe it ccan upset the natural order of things."

"Okay," I said slowly, processing this information. "And they want to see us because?"

"Because you’re interesting, Lyla. A werewolf who became a Moonsinger and has a two-tailed wolf plus, she’s the fated mate of the Lycan Leader and is currently pregnant with his children. All the things that have never happened before. They’re... curious about you and what our children might represent for the future of our society."

I placed my hands protectively over my stomach. "They want to examine us like specimens?"

"Not exactly, but close enough to make me uncomfortable," Ramsey admitted grimly. "That’s part of why I’ve been trying to delay the meeting. I don’t like the way they talk about you."

"What do you mean?"

"They refer to you as ’the werewolf woman’ instead of using your name or title as Luna. They act like you’re some interesting anomaly rather than my mate and the mother of my children."

I felt anger flare in my chest. "That’s incredibly disrespectful."

"Which is exactly what I told their messenger," Ramsey said, his arms tightening around me. "But there’s more. The Hollow Kin isn’t just interested in meeting us socially. They need our help with a serious problem here in the human world."

"What kind of problem?"

"There have been systematic killings of humans across several towns in this region. Fifty-seven confirmed deaths so far, all showing signs of supernatural involvement. The local authorities are starting to develop theories about ’unknown predators,’ and it won’t be long before they connect the dots."

A chill ran down my spine. "You think it’s werewolves?"

"That’s what someone wants it to look like. The kill patterns, the claw marks, the positioning of the bodies, everything points to our kind. But there’s something wrong about it. Something that doesn’t quite fit."

"And the Hollow Kin thinks I can figure out what that something is?"

"They think your abilities as a Moonsinger and the help of your wolf might be able to track whatever is really doing this. You can sense supernatural signatures in ways that even our best trackers can’t. If these killings are being done by a rogue werewolf, you’ll be able to identify them."

"And if they’re being done by something else pretending to be werewolves?"

"You’ll know that too," Ramsey said. "That’s why Elias was assigned as your guardian. The Hollow Kin believes this situation is specifically designed to draw you out into the open."

I turned in his arms to face him. "You think it’s a trap."

"I think it’s bait," he corrected. "Someone knows about your abilities and is trying to force the Hollow Kin to bring you here to solve their problem."

"But why? What would someone gain from that?"

Ramsey hesitated, and I could feel his reluctance through our bond. "There are several possibilities, none of them good. But we’re sure that this is revenge against the Dark One."

"The Dark One?" I turned to him, surprised now. "That’s not possible. We killed everything that had to do with Xander and his followers."

Ramsey sighed deeply. "You don’t know that. Infact, Elias was telling me that they discovered Xander may have fathered children with many human womans during his time here."

"Well, Xander was cursed. He cannot just father children and they would become werewolves or..."

I trailed off, realizing for the first time.

"Shit!"