CHAPTER 8 #2
I sank onto the edge of the bed when he was gone, gripping the corner post to keep myself in place.
Delayed gratification. That’s what I needed to focus on.
The wards were gone from the room. I couldn’t push Michael right now.
All this lust, my overwhelming need for him, I had to bury it deep.
I needed to follow in his footsteps and focus on the reward for denying myself in the short term: being alone and relatively safe with my mate.
I emerged from my bedroom a few minutes later, bags in hand. Michael had nothing. Everything he needed was at his apartment in the city. His expression had returned to his resting snob face, but there was a thread of annoyance worming through him that he couldn’t hide from me.
“What is it?” I asked, setting my bags down.
He picked a piece of lint from the arm of his jacket. “Mother has requested we make an appearance before leaving.”
“Do you think we should?”
His eyes landed on mine. “Yes. I believe in this instance, it’s better to play into her hand than antagonize her any more. I’d rather she think that we’re coming around to the idea of caving to her demands than planning to depart from the city.”
I nodded. “Makes sense.”
He shifted, sliding his hands into his pockets. It was a casual gesture, performed by a man seemingly at ease, but I knew he was only growing more agitated by the minute. “Are you ready? I want to get back to the apartment and pack so we can be on the road before nightfall.”
“You mean before the vampires wake up.”
He dipped his chin in answer. If the witches were pissed, then the Goddess only knew how enraged the bloodsuckers would be that we’d taken out one of their own. I didn’t want to be anywhere near their territory when the sun set.
Michael hefted my duffel bag like it weighed nothing, and I swung my bulging backpack onto my shoulder. He held the door for me, locking it behind us. Together we made our way down the hall.
I shot a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. “Everyone in the city knows to be careful in the coming days and nights, right?”
“They do,” he said, resting his hand on my lower back. His thumb stroked over my spine in a soothing gesture. “Ronald has alerted them to the danger. It’s part of why patrols have been doubled and more lookouts are being posted.”
“Okay, good. I figured, but I just wanted to be su—”
I clamped my lips shut as we rounded the corner.
Two guards were posted in the hall. The man was big, even by my standards.
He must have been over six feet, muscles bulging on his frame, the soft overhead lighting shining down on his bald head, making his dark skin glow with caramel highlights.
Across from him was a short blond woman.
She smiled as she caught sight of us, but the light didn’t quite reach her eyes.
If it came to a fight, she was the one I’d be worried about.
“John, Clara,” Michael said. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” His hand was a solid pressure on my back now, reminding me to keep moving when all I wanted to do was balk.
Clara’s smile widened, but her eyes were still dead. “Just making sure you get to the meeting safely.”
Michael chuckled, leaning over to whisper to me in a conspiratorial tone, “Mother must fear further rebellion from us.”
Please stop poking the rabid bear, I wanted to tell him.
No doubt the dig would get back to Mary.
Clara looked like the kind of sociopath who would love stirring other people up if only to watch the resulting carnage from the sidelines with glee.
Then again, knowing Michael and his mom’s weird mind games, maybe he wanted it to get back to her for some reason.
I tried to unravel why as we walked. It served as a distraction that I desperately needed because right now, all I wanted to do was run screaming from the house.
Anna’s warning continued to play through my mind.
She will do anything for power. Whatever else Anna told me was still out of reach, but the closer we drew to Mary, the stronger my aversion became.
I needed to be very careful in the coming moments. No, we needed to be.
I looked at Michael out of the corner of my eye, wishing I could open our mental channels and warn him.
For all I knew, I might actually be able to do that without anyone else detecting it, but we hadn’t tested that theory yet, and I had no one to ask about it.
If I ever saw Anna again, I would grill her.
Carefully, politely, because she had answers, and I desperately needed them.
What a weird turn of events. A few days ago, the mere thought of Anna would have sent me into a blind panic, and now here I was hoping she’d show up again.
Now, when I thought of her, I pictured the posh woman who’d sat in my parents’ summer house, not that dark, undead thing I’d first glimpsed stalking through the wilderness.
I was drawn out of my troubled thoughts when we reached the first floor. Lizzy stood waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs.
“How is she?” Michael asked.
“Recovering,” his little sister answered.
Michael let out a slow breath full of controlled relief. “And the baby?”
“She’s okay, too.” Lizzy looked like she wanted to say more, but the presence of the other wolves stopped her. She’d inherited her blond hair from her mother, but she had brown eyes like her brother, but darker, and they kept darting to the guards and away again.
Michael sensed her unspoken warning, too. “What is it?” he asked.
Lizzy wrung her hands in a very teenage gesture. Her gaze skirted to the guards again.
Michael stepped forward and rested his free hand on her shoulder. “You can speak plainly, Lizzy.”
She took him at his word. “Mom told the council that Layla is a MacKenzie and part of our pack now.”
Fucking hell, Mary. This bitch just wouldn’t quit.
I hadn’t officially joined their pack, but by saying I had, she was forcing me to either go along with her bullshit or declare myself a rogue wolf in her territory.
Both came with dangers of their own. If I was rogue, I didn’t fall under her protection or the pack’s, making me an easy target for anyone who held a grudge against shifters.
If I joined the pack, then my position in it came up for question.
Rage poured over the bond. I snapped my gaze back to Michael, worried that cracks would start to show in his appearance, but he looked mostly okay, bordering on mildly irritated.
He let out a heavy sigh for good measure. “And let me guess, Mother tied her rank to mine?”
Lizzy nodded.
Oh, fuck.
Michael was basically second in command, a position he’d spent decades clawing his way up to.
I knew that because there was no skipping werewolf hierarchy.
A spoiled human kid could be elevated to the vice presidency of his parents’ company, and no one would bat an eye, but the same wasn’t true in pack structure.
If you wanted to be a beta, you had to fight for it.
The front door banged open in front of us.
Everyone else jumped, but I’d heard the big, heavy footsteps coming up the walkway outside.
Framed by the sunlight was a massive figure.
My eyes adjusted to the brightness, and I found myself looking at a man who could easily double as an extra in a TV show about rampaging Vikings.
His sandy hair was buzzed in a military style.
Ice-blue eyes stared out from a face cut from stone.
They landed on me in an assessing way I didn’t like.
It’d be one thing if he were a run-of-the-mill meathead, but an intelligent big man was a dangerous big man.
His scent was spiced with excitement and violence and a hint of lust. Gross.
“I challenge you,” he said.
I’m not sure what he expected, but he seemed a little surprised when I just sighed in response and said, “Of course you do.”