Grace of a Wolf (by Lenaleia) novel Chapter 178

Chapter 178: Grace: Strange Notification

Caine’s calm demeanor is impressive as he tells Andrew to close the door behind him.

He does as ordered, awkwardly standing in the hall as the Lycan King orders children around like an expert babysitter. Or maybe he’s just indiscriminately used to ordering people around.

"Sara, stop screaming and get a towel to clean the floor. Jer, put her cup in the sink to be washed. Ron, take Bun and feed her some snacks to calm her down. Fenris, keep the damn dog quiet."

From chaos to order in only fifteen seconds.

It isn’t hard to figure out what happened. Bun must have opened her cup, probably all over the cat. It explains the demon-yowl.

"Shouldn’t we dry off the cat?" Sara asks, plopping a towel over the water puddle.

"No. It might scratch you if you try." Caine hands Bun off to her older brother and motions for me to come closer.

A little confused, I stand obediently in front of him as he narrows his eyes at my face. "Your eyes are red."

I frown. "A polite person wouldn’t mention it."

He seems startled, jerking his head back a little. "You think I’m polite?"

"No, because if you were, you wouldn’t have mentioned it."

"Ah." He seems a little disappointed, and Fenris huffs from where he’s laying on top of Sadie, pinning her to the floor.

The golden retriever’s eyes are wide enough to see the whites around them, and Jer looks like he’s itching to save her from the predicament.

Sadie whines, and Fenris’s lip lifts in a soft snarl.

The whining ceases.

Caine lifts his hand to my face, brushing hair out of my eyes. The faintest touch of his fingers against my skin sends another surge of energy his way. "You should rest more. You look exhausted."

"Actually—" Andrew interrupts, awkwardly sidling into the conversation, "have you looked at the weather?"

Caine scowls at Andrew, but his eyes seem more focused on the mere five inches between my shoulder and his than the interruption.

He grabs my hand and yanks me to his side. At least this time it doesn’t cause my brain or body to dive headfirst into panic mode.

"What about the weather?" he demands.

The contact with his skin leaves me light-headed, my energy draining in a now-familiar way. I guess I haven’t recuperated enough arcana to make up for what we drained.

I yank my hand out of his, breathing out a soft sigh as my dizziness fades almost immediately. How long will it take before I can handle these casual touches? A week? A month? Never?

The thought of permanently flinching away from him makes my stomach twist, but I remind myself we’re working on it. I’ll just have to practice.

Andrew meets Caine’s gaze with an impassive face, and I wonder how he manages to be so calm in the midst of all the insanity to hit us. He’s just taking it all in like this is normal.

"There’s a massive storm system moving in. They’re saying it will hit later tonight—record rainfall, flash flooding, the works. Temperature’s supposed to drop like twenty degrees and put us back at a normal fall chill.

"Okay, kids. Get ready to go. Everything off the floor, put your cups in the sink. Use the bathroom. We’re pulling the slides in as soon as you’re done."

"What about the cat?" Sara asks, hurriedly swiping up the last bits of water off the floor. "How are we going to take it with us?"

"Oh—I don’t know if we’re..."

"I’m sure it will be fine until we can buy one," Caine says calmly. "Don’t worry about other things. Just get everything ready for us to leave again."

"Got it," they all chorus, and Jer’s the first one to run for the bathroom.

"I’m first!"

"No fair! I was going to be first!"

"Just shut up and go," Ron snaps. "Didn’t you hear him? We’re in a hurry."

I also have a job to do, so I escape from Caine’s side to sit on the couch. One hundred and twenty miles; I have no idea what the next town is, much less what’s coming in two hours of driving. But my phone has everything I need to find out.

The screen lights up, and I open my map, about to search for a potential overnight spot when a notification banner slides down from the top of my screen. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

[Divinity Connect: You have been added to the side chat, "Lyrielle’s Fan Club".]

I freeze, my thumb hovering over the screen. What the actual hell is this?