Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
bloom
A phone buzzed nearby. It sounded like it was pressed against something hard. Something plastic, maybe?
My forehead creased.
I vaguely remembered falling asleep in a gigantic dog bed, snuggling a deliciously warm, vanilla-scented copper wolf.
My cheek rested against something smooth and leathery that couldn’t have been a wolf.
“Hey, Harper.” Maverick answered the phone that had been vibrating.
My phone, apparently, because I couldn’t see my best friend willingly dialing the Alpha’s number unless I was actively dying again.
I cracked one eye open and realized pretty quickly that I was draped over the back seat of Maverick’s SUV. The furry blue blanket we’d taken to the dog bed was draped over me, and I realized I’d never asked for the story behind it.
“She’s asleep,” Maverick said.
I was what?
I shoved my hand in the gap between the driver and passenger seat, silently demanding the phone.
“Never mind. Here she is.” He shot me an amused look and handed the phone over before refocusing on the road.
The road?
Where the fuck were we?
That was a problem for after I made sure my best friend was still alive.
“Hey,” I mumbled.
“Where are you?” Harper asked. Something in her voice was off.
“I’m not sure. I think Maverick finally abducted me.” I eyed his arm suspiciously.
“I did. We’re going to my pack’s estate. You were never going to abandon the paperwork.”
“My love for paperwork cannot be matched,” I murmured. “Apparently we’re going to the pack’s estate. Everything okay?”
“There was an… incident.”
My stomach dropped. Or went sideways, since I was already horizontal. I eyed Maverick again, knowing I needed to be careful about what I said. “Sounds fun. I need details.”
“I zoned out. I’m not sure how long for. Maybe twenty or thirty minutes? When I woke up, all of the blood bags were empty. Velour’s friends must’ve been wrong about the werewolf blood, or it just doesn’t work for me.”
I closed my eyes and fought back the wave of emotion that wanted to express itself through my eyes in the form of sobs that wracked my entire body violently. “Wow.”
“I know. I’m going to have to turn myself in to the Guild.”
“Maybe just sleep the rest of the day? I’ll talk Mav into bringing me home tonight.”
“No, you won’t,” he said from the driver’s seat.
“He’s not going to do that, Bloom.” Harper’s voice was soft. “I have to go to them. I can’t risk losing control any further.”
I panicked and scrambled for an alternative.
Any alternative.
“Mav, can you ask Rhone to abduct Harper and bring her to the estate too? I don’t want her to be alone while she’s this behind on sleep,” I blurted. “She’s progressed to sleepwalking.”
“Bloom,” Harper groaned.
“Does he have to abduct her? I don’t think he particularly likes her, and werewolves only abduct people they like,” Maverick said.
“The feeling is mutual, and Rhone doesn’t like anyone. If he just knocks on the door and refuses to leave until she gets in the car, she’ll get in.”
“You can’t tell him these things,” Harper mumbled.
“I can and will.”
The estate was the only solution. All of Maverick’s werewolves knew how to fight, so she wouldn’t kill them if she devolved and attacked. If Maverick wasn’t letting me go back to the office in the near future, the estate was where I’d be when I got him to give me more blood bags, too.
It was perfect.
Or at least, the only option that didn’t involve my best friend being murdered immediately.
Maverick told the car to call Rhone, and the phone rang.
“I’m putting you on speaker so you can participate in this conversation,” I told Harper.
We all waited.
“What?” Rhone growled, answering just before the call went to voicemail. “You’d better not have bitten her. I told you, you need a—“
“Chaperone. I’m aware of your consistent lack of trust in me.”
“It’s a lack of trust in your dick.”
“I think that’s worse. Anyway, no, I didn’t bite her yet.”
“Yet?” Rhone was not here for humor when it came to this topic. Which was probably for the best.
“That’s beside the point. I need a favor.”
“You always need a fucking favor.”
“Can you stop by Bloom’s place and refuse to leave until Harper agrees to let you drive her to the estate?”
“Why can’t she drive herself?”
“That’s a good question.” Maverick looked at me in the mirror.
“She hates driving,” I lied. Harper didn’t give a shit about driving.
“Fine. I’ll drive myself,” she said. “It’s better than spending the whole time being glared at by that asshole.”
“Fuckwad is the socially correct term these days,” I put in.
“Cumstain seems even more appropriate,” she grumbled.
“Are they insulting me?” Rhone sounded incredulous.
“Probably. They do that. It’s cute.”
“No, it’s not.” He hung up.
“Does he have something against saying goodbye?” I asked.
“Yup.” Maverick didn’t clarify. I didn’t ask him to.
I closed my eyes. “How much further?”
“About twenty minutes,” Mav said.
Twenty more minutes of sleep sounded glorious. I doubted my pounding heart would allow it after Harper’s news, but I could dream.
“Taking you off speaker,” I told her, lifting the phone back to my ear.
“Send me the address,” Harper said. “I can leave after I scrub your Alpha’s scent off my skin. The blood is everywhere. It’s bad, Bloom.”
My stomach dropped again, for a different reason. “I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is. Did you do the deed finally?”
“Perhaps.”
“Was it good? Should we celebrate?”
“Yeah. No point in skirting around it.”
Harper laughed once, then went quiet. “I’m glad you’ll have him when I’m gone.”
“Stop.”
“He’ll forgive you for lying about me. He’d do it for Rhone. That marshmallowy bastard might as well be his brother.”
I snorted. “We have to call him that from now on.”
“Deal. And I’m serious, Bloom. Apologize to him afterward. Explain everything. Grovel if you have to. You should be with him. He makes you stupidly happy.”
“I’m not talking about that.”
“We should.”
“I think I’m losing service.”
“Liar. See you at the estate.”
“Love you, Harper.”
“Love you too.” She hung up the phone, and I dropped it on the floor of the car.
“Who are you calling what?”
I mimed zipping my lips and throwing the key away.
The Alpha chuckled as I closed my eyes and tried to doze.
But failed.
I sat up when Maverick pulled onto a dirt road. My gaze swept the landscape, following the luscious green trees on their ascent down toward a sprawling building that looked like a mix between a luxury hotel and a rustic cabin.
I rolled the nearest window down, and Maverick did the same to the rest of them.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with fresh air.
This was life. Real life. Not just lattes and paperwork, but the world outside of them.
I forgot how big the world was outside of Vast, sometimes.
Vaguely, I wondered what it would’ve been like to be born a werewolf instead. To grow up being taught that you were on the top of the world, not the bottom. That you were strong and powerful, not a danger to everyone you came in contact with.
I took in another breath of fresh air. Somehow, I had to keep my emotions under control long enough to convince Maverick that I was normal and everything was fine.
I guess growing up afraid of yourself was good for something after all.
Maverick parked in a large, dirt lot on the side of the estate.
There were dozens of cars there, with no real rhyme or reason to where they had parked or why they had picked that spot.
Half of them looked way too nice to be parked in the dirt.
The other half looked way too shitty to be parked next to a building as massive as the estate.
Maverick pulled me out of the car and into his arms, lowering his nose to my hair and breathing my scent in.
My chest squeezed.
“So does everyone live in the main building?” I asked, my gaze sweeping the massive length of it.
“Nah. Most of the wolves who stay year-round have cabins around the back. You’ll see them from our room.”
“Do we need to go out and greet anyone?”
“Nope. We’re here purely for pleasure.”
“Sounds scandalous.”
“It is.” Maverick flashed me a grin.
He looked so free-spirited. So calm. So happy.
Harper had been right about my badass plan from the beginning. I wasn’t cut out for any of it. Not the werewolf-dodging, using, or seducing. Definitely not the murder-solving. Not even the information gathering. I wasn’t a badass, period.
I was just a desperate bitch trying to stay afloat in a motherfucking ocean. And I didn’t have a lifejacket.
Maverick took my hand, lacing our fingers together as he towed me toward the massive doors leading into the estate. There was a gray wolf sitting on the snow outside, sunbathing. They wagged their tail when they saw Mav. He greeted them with a quick pat on the head, but didn’t stay to chat.
When we stepped inside the building, he gave me the speed version of a tour on the way to his room—which he called ours.
It was on the far side of the building.
I tried not to fall in love with the place. I really did.
But it turned out I had a growing soft spot for all things nature and laid-back and... well, related to werewolves.
Real shocker, huh?
When we reached his room, Maverick closed the door and tugged me in for a slow kiss.
I pulled away after a few minutes. He only let me lean back a few inches from his face. “I shouldn’t be kissing you.”
“Why not?” He bumped his nose with mine.
The man was far too sweet, and far too adorable. When he wasn’t being a complete asshole, at least.
“You abducted me,” I said.
“Out of protectiveness.”
“Out of possessiveness,” I corrected.
“Maybe you’re right. So?”
“So, you could’ve asked.”
“I did ask. You weren’t interested in protecting yourself, so I did it for you.”
“You don’t get to make decisions for me. That’s not how a relationship works. If I remember correctly, we’re engaged now.”
“We are.” He lowered his lips to my ear. “There may have been another reason for the abduction other than just possessiveness and pleasure.