Twenty-Nine – Reed
I was braced for a pissed-off Clan Alpha on my doorstep.
Jasper had always been obsessed with Vail, and now he could track her every move, he’d be well aware she hadn’t left my room. In fact, she’d spent the day passed out in my bed. And since she was curled up against me with her arm around my waist, I wasn’t about to move her. It was the first time I’d stayed in bed past noon. And the first time I’d slept with a female since I was young enough to be in a puppy pile. I napped for some of it, but spent the rest of the time just enjoying the experience.
She’d relaxed in her sleep, and when I’d rolled onto my back, she’d followed. It put her head on my chest, and her leg hooked over my hip, her toes curled under my thigh. It went way past the healing embrace she’d fallen asleep to, and I knew I should roll her away. But fuck it. My wolf was happy, and for once it wasn’t because someone was in pain, or dripping with terror.
At the sniff test, Cal had said she smelled like nothing. He’d been the one to proclaim her a dud, and since he had the best nose in the clan, I hadn’t argued with him. It was also one of the reasons I believed the lab report that said she was a void. When she’d come out as an omega, my dad’s theory was she’d had to hide her wolf so deep because of her human upbringing, and was only now able to let her shifter side rise to the surface. Which meant her wolf had to be tough. And maybe a hell of a lot stronger than anyone suspected.
The only thing was, I’d been raised by an omega. My mom was the Luna of our pack, and the gentlest creature to ever walk the earth. But while she and Vail had got along fine during their brief meeting at the dinner dance, they were as different as the sun and the moon.
Maybe it was her Marrow blood.
Or maybe the lab report was wrong, and she wasn’t an omega at all.
But for the moment, I didn’t want to think about her bloodline or her pack status. Not when her scent was wrapped all around me – like fresh air and warm bread – and I could feel the silky skin of her back against my fingers .
It was late afternoon when she finally woke. It was gradual, and I had the pleasure of feeling her stretch muscle by muscle, her hip brushing back and forth over mine as she was coaxed from sleep. When she eventually opened her eyes, there was a moment when she looked at me in confusion and I knew she was thinking of Jay. But then a shutter came down and she unhooked her leg from mine. She scooted back a little, then grimaced. “I feel like crap.”
A chuckle rumbled out of me. “Glad I could be of service.”
She gave me a small smile, but as she sat up, she winced and wrapped her arms around her middle. “Ow. What the hell? Did I puke last night?”
“You had a reaction to the medicine they used. It made you sick. You remember that?”
The shudder that passed through her was answer enough. But she just pushed her hair off her face and looked at the window. “What time is it?”
“We missed Monday classes.”
“Really?” She pressed her stomach. “Maybe I’m hungry?”
“I was considering which limb you could do without.” When she just stared at me, I shrugged. “My stomach lining ate itself hours ago.”
She snorted. “Serves you right for cultivating all those muscles.”
I made a bicep, since she was already looking at it. “I was the runt of the pack until I was about thirteen. Remember what I said about shifting and body mass? For alphas, when they hit puberty, it can kind of snowball.”
“From snowflake to avalanche?” She lost her smile and began chewing on her lip. “You think I’ll change now I’m shifting? I could do without the extra padding, thanks very much.”
“It’s different with omegas. You probably won’t notice much of a change.”
She just raised her brows and rubbed her stomach some more, so I climbed out of bed and headed into the kitchen. After turning on the coffee machine, I took the tray out of the warmer, and grabbed the water jug from the refrigerator. She was still sitting in the middle of the bed as I lay the tray on the covers. “First time I’ve asked for room service,” I admitted. “Wasn’t sure what you’d feel like, so it’s somewhere between brunch and supper.”
“Works for me,” she said, taking an egg sandwich. She ate slowly, and I could tell she was still feeling lousy. “I can’t believe I slept that long.”
“You want to talk about it?”
She shrugged. “Principal Bregman said he had to talk to me in his office. I followed him, but he didn’t hang around. The two guards from Den Night were there, and a doctor I didn’t recognize. They held me down and she put the tracker in me.” She put the sandwich down and took the glass of water I handed her. When she’d taken a sip, she watched me over the rim. “Did you look at it? The tracker?”
I knew she hadn’t. Her fingers had brushed over it a couple times in her sleep, but she’d been careful not to touch it since she woke. “There’s a small square of gauze. No bigger than a postage stamp. I didn’t look under it.”
“Okay.” She set the glass on the tray and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I’m going to the bathroom.” She flushed, like she wasn’t sure why she’d told me. Or maybe she was thinking about that tracker behind her ear, and exactly how much it told Jay about her whereabouts. “Thanks for the food.”
I nodded, but she was concentrating on getting from my bed to the bathroom. I could see her legs shaking and when she caught sight of herself in my mirror, she grimaced. My wolf was suddenly pushing right up through my defenses and I had only a moment to warn her, before brown fur rippled across both my arms. “Damn, Vail. My wolf isn’t coping too well with seeing you like this.”
“It’s okay.” She gripped the doorway, but I think it was mostly to keep herself upright. “If you have to shift, I don’t mind.”
“No,” I shoved my wolf back with an inward curse. “He knows better than to try pulling that crap.”
She watched with interest as the fur faded, and I flexed my forearms. The fucker had raked me good in the process, and for a moment my skin glowed a painful red. But like all of the tussles with my wolf, his weapon of choice was psychological warfare and as soon as he’d made his point, the claw marks faded. The muscles underneath still throbbed like a bitch, though. “That’s kind of amazing,” she said. “But your wolf seems like a hard ass.”
I snorted. “The downside to going from runt to ranger is your wolf gets an inflated sense of his importance.”
“Ranger?”
“Old Pack word. You know how we have enforcers? They keep the peace within a pack. But a ranger is built for war. First out of the cave, last to leave the battlefield. ”
She shuddered. “I hope you never have to do that, Reed.”
“So do I.” I held up my aching forearms. “But my wolf likes to keep me on my toes.” She went into the bathroom, but didn’t look much better when she came out. “I think we should go to the medical bay. Get you checked over.”
She was already shaking her head. “I really don’t want to be around the smell of antiseptic.” She paused, a hundred thoughts flitting through her eyes. “But the mineral pool, maybe?”
I was already moving to grab my trunks and some towels. “Good idea.” If a hot soak didn’t put my wolf back in his box, at least it might wash some of the strain out of Vail’s face.
But when we got down to the pool, Cal was sitting on the edge with a pair of females splashing around in front of him. He was smoking something spicy and the smell, along with the giggly shrieks of the girls, put my wolf even more on edge. Vail had managed the walk down on her own, but she wobbled a bit when she realized we had company. Cal just flicked us both a nasty smirk and blew a smoke ring in our direction. “You really are going to die a virgin.”
“Fuck off, Cal.”
He snickered out a mouthful of smoke and watched as I helped Vail down into the water. Since she didn’t have a suit, she was in one of my training singlets and fighting to keep the fabric from floating up. But Cal wasn’t interested in her legs; he was looking at the square of gauze behind her ear. “So, he really did tag your ass. Seems like you’ve got them both where you want them.”
“Really, Callum?” She snapped, moving away to the opposite side of the pool. “I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about!”
“Sure, you do.” He tucked his cigarette in the corner of his mouth and slipped into the pool, leather pants and all. The guy wore them even in one-hundred-degree heat, and when I’d asked him why, he’d told me he liked skin on skin. “Jay’s all but put you in a cage, so now you want to bust out. What better way than getting the Ragemaster all worked up?” He flicked a handful of water my way. “You talked to her about messing with your wolf?”
I glanced at the two females, who were watching the back and forth with interest. “Take the show somewhere else,” I told him. “We’re just here for the water.”
“Bullshit.” He looked at Vail for a long moment, then shook his head. I knew it was going to be bad before it came out of his mouth. “ Remember how I said you were nothing? You’re worse than that, No Chance. You’re a void with a toxic bloodline.” He blew another smoke ring in my direction, but all his malice was for Vail. “You think he’s hanging around for a piece of your princess pussy?” Anger still sizzled in her eyes, but she flushed when the other females started giggling. I was about ready to dunk the pair of them, but Cal silenced them with a look. A moment later, they were pulling themselves out of the pool and retreating without a backward glance. “He told you it’s political, not personal, didn’t he? That’s Reed’s motto. Because that’s how it is in his family. His dad would trade him away for even a sniff at Old Man Marrow.”
“That’s enough.” I surged through the water towards Cal, but instead of following his females to safe ground, he turned to face me. There was a glimmer of real concern in his eyes as he asked, “He ordered you to mate her yet?”
I didn’t bother answering. Vail was already climbing out of the water and wrapping herself in her towel. I could feel the heat on the back of my neck as I did the same. We left Cal in the pool, both of us still dripping because we didn’t want to wait while we dried off. I thought she might try to head back to Omega House, but she just followed me up to my room. When we were inside, she went straight to the bathroom, while I got one of my betas to drop off a sweater and some yoga pants. The shower ran for a while, but when she came out, her hair was in a ponytail and the gauze was gone.
“Is it true? Does your dad want us to mate?”
I was sitting on the sofa with two cups of coffee in front of me. I wouldn’t have been my dad’s son if I wasn’t prepared for that question. “He thinks you’d be a good match. You’re strong. Not just your bloodline, but how you looked after yourself all those years in the human world. Resilience is important.”
“And my name?”
I nodded slowly. Even though she couldn’t scent a lie yet, she wasn’t stupid. She knew her bloodline was a big deal. “Cal’s not wrong. My dad’s always looking for strong allies.”
“And what do you want?”
I wasn’t expecting that, and I didn’t have an answer prepared. When the silence stretched, she sat on the sofa next to me and wrapped her hands around her coffee. Her lips were pulled tight, and I could tell she was still in pain. I wanted to reach out and take it from her, but she was lost in her thoughts. “No one’s asked me that since I got here. It’s like there’s no room for wanting things in this world. You get what you get, because of your pack rank, or who shares your bloodline. But you know what I would have said if someone asked? I just wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere. Not because I can’t look after myself, or because it was a convenient place for me to be for a while, but because I fit. I got a little of that with Marnie. A few others. But I always felt like it was going to be taken away again.”
“It won’t. You’re pack for life, Vail. Nothing changes who you are.”
Her big green eyes fixed on me. “But who is that, Reed? Callum said I’m a toxic bloodline. I know nothing about the Marrows, except that they’ve put some kind of price on my head. And I know even less about Parker West.”
“I can help with that.” I should have thought of that already, but I’d been too caught up in her Marrow blood to think what she needed from my own pack. “You can come home with me for the holidays. My mom always goes all-out for the holidays. You can meet everyone.”
She nodded slowly. “So how would we do it? If we were to mate.”
She meant the ceremony, not the physical act, but my wolf started shoving images my way. Most of them were of her writhing under me on this sofa, so I forced them away with an effort. “It can’t be an arranged mating. Your grandfather would never go for it. So it’ll have to be a blood-to-blood claiming. Like we’re called to each other. That our wolves are choosing and we can’t stop it.”
“Like with Jasper.” I didn’t miss the flare of color in her cheeks. “But a claiming like that needs two other alphas to agree to it, right? Before it’s official? Because I can’t think about that, Reed.”
“You don’t have to. Carter and Beckett will endorse it. For friendship only. They’ll have your back.” She didn’t exactly look reassured, but she gave another slow nod and I took her hand. “The thing is, we’ll have to go public. It’s got to look like we’re caught up in the moment, and it just happens. Maybe at the Packball Cup on Saturday night. We sow the seeds all week. Let people think something is building between us. Then I’ll claim you at the game. Maybe at the end, in all the excitement when we annihilate the Arras clan.” I gave her hand a squeeze. “That should keep the flak from your Marrow relatives to a minimum.”
She bit her lip, her other hand going to the collar around her neck. “ And Jasper? I mean, he won’t like it. Not because he wants me for himself, but he’s made it clear he doesn’t trust me. And you’re one of his alphasons. What if he reacts like Callum? Tells you I’m toxic and forbids the claiming?”
My wolf was already prowling and I felt him push forward at those fighting words. To keep him in check, I brushed my fingers over the small scar behind her ear. “Whatever he does, it’ll be on me, not you. And I’ll make sure he knows my wolf and I are all in.”