Free Loving Lucius (Werescape) by Skhye Moncrief Page A

past me. At Elise. What the fuck's going on? Why can't they tell me? I can't help them if they don't explain. Can't they understand? I turned back to Elise.
     
    Who stared at the ground. Her dark shiny hair now coated in dust from when she'd fallen. Beaten. Whipped by me. Hell. I had to somehow fix things between us. "I'm going to say this once."
     
    Nobody moved.
     
    "It's my responsibility to protect my friends and family."
     
    She wouldn't look up at me.
     
    Is she even listening? "I'm taking you to my home. To your new home. And if there's something you can tell me to help you, I need to know. I can't slay the demons of your past if you don't tell me what they look like."
     
    She nodded but never lifted those haunting gray eyes from the ground.
     
    There's nothing else I can do. I walked back through the angry stares, passing the wide eyes of the little sage, and joined the horses.
     
    We'd send the telegraph, then reach my sire's outpost before sunset. Once home, what Elise hid becomes my sire's problem. And I can find a way to make peace with Wolf.
     
    ****
     
    The Guardians hovered, their gazes glancing at me, nervously after Lucius left me standing among everyone. Completely humiliated.
     
    My knees wobbled.
     
    The world started to sway.
     
    I managed to reach the section of log where my food waited and sit before I toppled over. But far worse things than fainting could happen if my secret was revealed. How had Langston lived with this fear the twenty-four years of my life? Oh how I owed him more than the last words he heard me utter. I scrubbed my palms over my face.
     
    Something brushed my side.
     
    "Are you alright?" Sherry whispered.
     
    Consoling. Arms snaked around my shoulders.
     
    She'd make me look like a sobbing woman. I dropped my hands and tried to sit upright, sucking in a deep breath. "Yes."
     
    Sherry squeezed me anyway.
     
    So long I thought I inhaled a few red hairs.
     
    She shoved me at arm's length and assessed me with that brutal gaze of hers. "He's crazy."
     
    No. No he isn't. But I can't say that when it means I'm hiding something. Even concealing a secret that affected my sisters. "When I speak with his sire, everything will make sense." I whispered and patted her shoulder. "Go on. I'm alright. Besides, it takes a lot to kill a healer." I forced a smile, realizing it couldn't hurt joking about healers when Violet kept blurting the point.
     
    She grabbed my cheeks with both palms and stared into my eyes. "Know I see right through you. I can see your sadness. And your pain. I'm sorry, Elise. I know you just want somewhere to live a normal life. And now you can't even do that in this fucked-up god-forsaken wilderness." She grabbed my head, shoving my nose into her t-shirt, and tried to suffocate me with the longest bloody hug before leaving me to my thoughts.
     
    To sit by the big Tacitus and finish eating. Her Shifter. Lucky Sherry. I'm alone. So damned alone, left to fight a battle for my sisters that they know nothing about.
     
    Violet walked over to claim a seat beside me. But she had the sense to just curl her fingers' warm touch around my sleeved arm and lean against me.
     
    Touch, skin-to-skin or not, had amazing curative powers. I'd have to be satisfied with the touch of my little sister though.
     
    ****
     
    There was still an hour's worth of daylight left when we reached Augustus's outpost and I climbed off my gelding in front of my sire's familiar two-story log home. All was done except dealing with what Elise refused to confess. But I'd sent the message on west to inform the Elders of the alien attack on warlords and how I stumbled upon the information. I kept my suspicions about Elise to myself though. Augustus would decide whether or not to continue to interrogate her. And if necessary, he'd decide to send her away.
     
    Protect mine , Wolf snarled.
     
    Shut up . You've gotten me into enough trouble since I found her . Especially since I felt like an ass