Chapter 39

LACEY (The day after she called Alexis)

I bit back a groan as I stabbed myself with the needle again.

I suddenly remembered why I would always feign sickness whenever I was invited to these stupid sewing meetings. My fingers would always have more holes than the cloth had stitches.

But unfortunately, these meetings were the only place where you could find out all the juicy gossip. These old women had nothing better to do than talk about everyone and everything, which was perfect for the little investigation I had going on.

"So Lacey, how's your nana? Is she enjoying life in the human town?"

When I had left the mountains with Brielle, I told everyone we were making our annual visit to my nana, who lived across the country in a small town. Now, that wasn't a complete lie because I was planning on visiting my nana except I wasn't going to come back.

But, needless to say, all of my plans came to a halt when I found Matthew.

I let out a quiet sigh, feeling my heart throb at the thought of him. He was so perfect, and then there was me.

"Lacey?"

My head snapped up, "What?"

The lady whose name I had forgotten cocked her head, "Your nana, how is she?"

"She's great, ma'am. Still sewing up a storm," I grinned, lying through my teeth.

The woman nodded, "Of course. Her needle is almost an extension of her arm. I'm sure Brielle will learn sewing in no time. Oh, I must tell you how wonderful it is that little Brielle wanted to stay back with her nana. Nowadays, these young ones don't have time for us old people."

Was she calling me old? I was nearly fifty years younger than her!

"Well, Brielle did get very close with Nana. Especially after Mom and Dad died," I said, sucking on my bleeding finger.

The woman shook her head in pity, "I can't imagine how it is for you two. When I was your parents' age, there was no such thing as mistresses or cheating. Everyone was loyal to one another."

I pursed my lips, "Must have been nice."

"It was," she sighed, "It really was. No illegitimate children to worry about. No surprise half-siblings to drop on your children....speaking of which, have you seen any of your half-siblings after you came back?"

The moment the words left her mouth, I knew she was just looking for gossip and didn't genuinely care because she knew I didn't get along with my half-siblings.

I mentally rolled my eyes as I felt her eyes try to pierce through the top of my head as if she wanted to look into my thoughts and see if anything good was there.

Little did she know, the only good things she would find were the half-naked images of Matthew embedded into my brain.

Those memories were hard to forget when the man completely rocked the shirtless with sweatpants look.

"No, I haven't seen them, ma'am and I hope I won't either."

She nodded slowly and turned back to her sewing as if she got all the information she needed.

I put my sewing down and sighed at the sight of my red thumb. It was probably best to call it a night before I lost all sensation in them.

I got up and stretched my arms when two women whispering frantically in the corner caught my attention. They kept looking around like they didn't want anyone to eavesdrop, which obviously meant that I should go listen in.

Luckily for me, the water dispenser was right next to them so I got up and pretended to walk over for a drink.

They didn't seem to care that I was standing so close, either that or they didn't notice me. I crouch down and lifted the faucet, leaning closer to them.

"....Xavier changed the plans again. My son is starting to worry. I mean, he said we were attacking next week, now he says we're attacking tomorrow."

I nearly choked on my water.

The two ladies stopped talking to stare at me and I gave them a sheepish smile, "I swallowed too quickly."

They nodded and started talking about a completely different subject.

Great. Just when I was getting something useful.

I wiped my hands on my pants and went back to my chair, "I'm going to call it a night. I have to make dinner."

The lady beside me nodded and I walked out of the building quickly.

I had to find Xavier. What was he doing? What was he thinking?

As I walked towards his house, there was a loud roar of cheering. I frowned and walked towards the bonfire area, trying to figure out why they were having a bonfire tonight when they were supposedly attacking tomorrow.

When I reached the bonfire ground, I saw a huge crowd of griffins drinking like crazy and cheering at something our pathetic leader was saying.

I crossed my arms and glared at the crowd, watching Xavier as he raised his arms again.

"We will be immortal!"

More cheering.

"No species will ever be able to defeat us again! We will be invincible."

The roars got louder.

"Everyone," Xavier paused dramatically, "Everyone will worship us."

Clearly, they had all lost their sanity.

People wondered why I thought Xavier was a terrible leader. This was why. What leader would let his warriors drink before a battle?

"Even Lord Silvius will get on his knees for us. He will bow down to the immortals!"

That was when I had to step in.

"He's a Lord. He's already an immortal, you dimwitt!" I yelled over the cheers.

The noise died down and everyone turned to stare at me as I leaned against a tree with a smirk on my face. If only they weren't so drunk, they would have realized that Xavier was disrespecting our Lord.

"Ah, Lacey, I heard you were back," Xavier slurred, "How are you doing?"

I rolled my eyes, "Fine, before I saw you."

"How's our nana?"

"She's my nana, you asshole. Not yours."

"Ah, but I'm your half-brother. So that makes her my half-nana as well."

"Oh, put a sock in it, Xavier."

He chuckled and stumbled away to the ice-box to grab another bottle of beer. I decided to use this chance to walk away before he came back to ask more questions.

I never told anyone in the Riveter Pack that Xavier Porterson was my half-brother.

I didn't want them to think I was going to help him just because we have the same father.

Hopefully, Matthew got my note and wasn't mad at me for not waking him up when I left. I explained everything in that note– why I left, what I would do, etc.

I didn't want to leave the note in a random spot where it could fall into the wrong hands so I gave it to a nice pack warrior named Baxter, who said he would hand it to Matthew as soon as he saw him.

I sighed and stared up at the moon.

I had to go and warn Alexis again.

The werewolves were not going to lose. Not on my watch.