Chapter 1 #4
I knew how Bastian acted outside the Alpha pack. He was worse than Kieran with his smooth flirtations, tossing out words like beautiful and gorgeous with ease.
He treated me the same. An outsider, even though I lived with his pack. All his charming words were just a reminder of that.
“What plans?” Reluctantly, I set the book down and slid my hand into Bastian’s, who immediately tugged me to my feet.
“Dragomir pack arrived early.” He released my hand and stepped back, gesturing towards the mirror. “Cade and I only beat them to the stronghold by minutes.”
“Fuck.” I straightened the lacing on the top of my tunic that I’d hastily changed into before coming to visit Samara. “They weren’t supposed to come for another two weeks!”
The Dragomir pack was the top pack in the Fervis Order. So their Alpha, Gavril, was one of the most powerful across all of the Velesian realm, only Cade and the Alpha pack outranked him.
Gavril also hated me, and so did most of his pack. I’d been counting on more time to mentally prepare for this meeting.
“The Dragomirs like to pull stunts like this.” Losing patience, Bastian slapped my hand away and fixed the laces himself. “Come on, you look fine. You’re just meant to be the eye candy anyway.”
“Funny, I thought that was your job.” I gave him a flat look.
The corners of Bastian’s lips curved up. “Finally. You admit I’m stunning. Only took eight months.”
“I never said stunning.”
“Your eyes said it.”
I huffed a laugh. On days when Bastian wasn’t being an ass to me, he could be amusing. In small doses.
When I glanced at Samara to say goodbye, I found her watching us with a predatory focus, and I inwardly groaned.
She would definitely be describing this interaction in detail to Kieran later.
I could practically picture the two of them on the settee in her living quarters, surrounded by chocolate and gossiping like their lives depended on it.
Argh.
Samara gave me a small, mischievous grin before putting her Serious Blood Sovereign face back on. “Is the Dragomir pack going to be a problem?” she asked mildly.
“We’ll handle it.” Bastian’s eyes flicked briefly to the door that led out to the hallway. “Nothing for you to worry your pretty little face about.”
Samara’s eyes narrowed. “Stop trying to bait him.”
What? Bait who? The scent hit me a second later. Like the forest after a wildfire had burned through it.
“Call her pretty again in that flirty tone,” an enormous Moroi man with a vicious scar cutting across the right side of his face drawled as he stalked into the room, “and I’ll carve out your tongue.”
I still had a hard time believing someone as large as Vail could move so quietly. Out in the wilds, he might as well be a wraith.
Scary bastard.
Bastian grinned. “I don’t know, Marshal. Rumor is that the mated life has made you soft.”
Vail moved so fast, I barely registered it. I had to give it to Bastian though. The ailuranthrope stepped smoothly to the side and plucked the dagger that had been aimed at his face out of the air.
“Too slo—fuck!”
I snickered as Bastian dropped Vail’s knife and gripped the one buried in his thigh, courtesy of Samara. He hissed as the dagger ripped from his flesh and flew back obediently to Samara’s palm. Vail recalled his dagger as well.
Apparently, Samara had shared her blood magic tricks with him.
“Don’t fuck with my mates, Bastian.” Samara pointed her dagger still coated with Bastian’s blood at him. “Also, Kieran is complaining that you haven’t responded to his messages . . . and that you stole his favorite vest.”
“It looks better on me.” Bastian rolled his eyes and clamped a hand over his thigh to slow the bleeding. Velesians healed the fastest out of all the Moon Blessed. In a couple of minutes, a minor wound like that would be completely healed. “And I’ll get back to him this week.”
“See that you do.” Samara licked the blood off the knife before tucking it back into the sheath under her sleeve.
Moroi never wasted blood. She was used to my restlessness and I was used to her viewing any drop of blood as a meal.
Vail’s silver eyes practically glowed as Samara strode over to him before standing on her tippy-toes to kiss his cheek.
He bent down a bit to make her life easier and then spun her around so her back was to his chest.
It was still strange for me to see them like this. Vail had hated Samara for so long, even tried to kill her a couple of times, but there was no denying the love between them now.
A small ache formed inside my chest. I ignored it. Maybe I didn’t have exactly what Samara had, but I was still part of a pack.
“Let’s get this over with.” I sighed and headed towards the mirror.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Samara helpfully called out.
“Happy to kill anyone if you need it,” Vail offered. “Alpha pack included.”
“Thanks!” I waved happily over my shoulder, mostly because I knew it would annoy Bastian, which it clearly did because the asshole shoved me face-first through the mirror.