Page 25 of Blood Moon
“True. Just make sure you’re thinking ahead of him. He’s not bonded with you or us. It’s obvious, or he would have taken better caution with taking you out tonight. He needs to stop fucking around.”
“We all need to figure out how to fix the bond, Zac,” I said in annoyance. “None of this is his fault. He’s already dealing with the loss of Nakia and Bren.”
“Listen, babe,” I could hear the frustration in Zac’s voice. “We’ve talked tonight and are coming back in a week. Bren and Nakia are dead because we all agreed to do it Zane’s way. We’re done fucking around. Two shifters that we needed are dead because they thought they could fix this shit themselves…” he paused. “Is he anywhere around you right now?”
“We’re both outside, trying to wind down from the BS of tonight. Your call is not allowing me to, at least.”
“Put him on speaker.”
“Why?”
“Elle,” I could hear the vamp coming out in Zac now. “Put the phone on speaker, he needs to hear this. Please, and thank you,” he said with an exasperated sigh.
I pulled the phone off my ear and clicked on the speaker. “He can hear you, and don’t be a dick.”
“I already heard you through the phone.”
“I know, wolf,” Zac said, “But I want to make sure you hear this. We need that fucking bond back. If you don’t find a way to mentally accept Elle and do that shit naturally, we’re bringing a goddamn witch back with us. The only person you give a shit about right now, besides yourself, is Aria, so do this for her.”
“I’m perfectly aware,” Zane snapped.
“I’m serious, man. The shit we’re learning up here is telling us Enzo is a bigger fucking problem that we can’t handle unless we have you back in this bond. Got it?”
“I talked to Cole. I get it.”
“What the hell are you finding out?” I asked, more interested now that Zac stopped taunting Zane but had a death tone in his voice.
“He’s still building his Frankenstein soldiers. These assholes have a venom in them that can take any one of us out. Obviously, your blood is our antidote, but after Braden practically skinned one of his vamp bitches alive after it admitted to being one of the five who was designated to kill the shifters and us, Enzo is now playing mad scientist to a venom that your blood won’t cure. It’s only a matter of time. The witch we have up here said that the wolf needs to be part of the bond to make your blood change in a way that would save our asses—including Zane’s—if we were attacked by the vamps who are being built to fuck us up beyond what your blood could do to heal us.”
“Shit.”
“Pretty much. We’re good now, but we aren’t coming back until we get more info, and the other four are in fucking hell where we just sent their buddy,” Zac answered me. “Zane, get your shit together. The witch is coming down sooner than later if shit doesn’t change with you.”
“What about Aria?” Zane asked. “Is she safe?”
“Aria’s fine,” Zac answered, “But the rest of us are as good as fucking dead—and Aria will be Enzo’s next target—if we don’t get this pulled together. Take care of Elle,” He ordered.
“Keep me updated on those four that are on the run. Cole made it sound like you four had their asses already,” Zane answered, more pissed now.
“Elle?” Zac said as he ignored Zane, “If you go out with the wolf, you have to cover the blood. We don’t need shit going down while we’re handling a mess up here.”
“Anything else you want to give us orders on?” I answered.
“Just be fucking smart,” he said.
“Got it, bye.”
I hung up, not in the mood for Zac to heighten the shit that went down tonight. If any of the vamps would lecture us, I figured it would be Cole, not Zac.
“Fuck,” Zane said, running his hands through his thick hair. “We need this shit to happen, and I don’t know where the hell to start.”
He looked over at me, and it seemed as though his eyes were pleading with me to find his answers.
“Don’t let them get to you,” I said. “I know that they’re dealing with shit up there, but so are you. You haven’t even been able to grieve the loss of Bren and Nakia.”
Zane shook his head. “Thatwould be the normal thing to do,” he answered. “Shit stopped being normal after we formed the blood bond, the shifted prematurely came after us, and we went to war with the devil himself.” He leaned forward, his back muscles tight with stress. “God,” he looked at me, “Do you ever wonder how the fuck I managed to get you pregnant when you’d been fucking those vamps long before we showed up?”
I pursed my lips. “That’s a pretty good question,” I answered.
