Page 43 of Blood and Magic
Lycan had been right. She was close to her transition, and hell, the moon was only four days away. It made sense. I picked up my phone to call Guin, but what could she do about it? If she told me to stay away from Maeve and let Fenris or Columba help her through it, would I even listen? I doubted anything could keep me away, not after what we’d done together, not after last night.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. No, we weren’t sharing dreams. I had to insist on that. The other stuff pointed to only one conclusion—Maeve was a shifter like her sisters. That wasn’t a terrible fate, especially not since she had a dominant shifter to see her through it. But dreams? That would mean something awful, something neither of us would want, especially not her. That was the type of shit reserved for soul mates and bonded lovers, and I wasn’t that for her.
Hell, I barely had my life together. Mating me would be the worst thing that could ever happen to her.
More certain of my conclusion, I dialed Kodiak’s number and waited for his gruff answer.
“Hey, Mill,” he said. “What’s going on? More vampire bullshit?”
“No, uh…” I cleared my throat and told him the truth. “She’s close. Today, maybe. Tomorrow.”
“Fuck,” Kodiak said. I could almost picture him rolling his eyes and running a hand over his bald head. “How certain are you?”
“I can smell it,” I said. “Fenris can, too. She’s got chills and terrible headaches.”
I didn’t mention the scent mark I was certain I’d left on her last night or the one I’d made her swallow at the river. Kodiak didn’t need to know about that.
“Will you help her?” he asked. “Or should I send?—”
“No,” I cut in. “I’ll do it.”
“What about the work on the ranch? If you’re down for three days, won’t that put a damper on production?”
“Fenris can take over. He knows what needs to be done.” He’d been lockstep with me for weeks, and he’d grown up on the homestead.
I did have an underlying concern about the impact of whatever was going on with me. What if my blood wasn’t good enough? What if dying and coming back to life had changed me so much that I couldn’t see her through to the other side of her change? But I was still a shifter, after all. And if Kodiak suspected there would be an issue, he would say something, right?
“Fine,” the alpha conceded. “Call me when it’s over.”
“There’s something else,” I continued with a relieved sigh. “The moon. Changing leaves us open to attack, and the Scorpions know it.”
“I’ve been working on that.” He ran through his plan, including stationing pre-transition and human members of our pack at the border to protect us. “They’ve all volunteered, and they know what they’re up against. It’s only important for the ten minutes it takes to shift, and Marx isn’t stupid enough to face us while we’re in shifter form.”
“Do you want me to bring Maeve to the homestead?”
“Stay there,” he answered. “I’ll send people to you. Protect Vanderbilt Ranch. After she changes, bring her here so I can make her pack.”
“What about Guin?” I asked with a smile because I knew how much of a pain in the ass the eldest Vanderbilt had become to the alpha.
He sighed. “Let me handle her.”
After we hung up, I showered and dressed for the day, choosing to skip breakfast this morning. I didn’t want to have to look her in the eye, knowing I fell asleep watching her last night, and make excuses for why I ran out of there like some prepubescent virgin who’d never felt a girl up before.
I sent her a text.
Me: Check in every thirty minutes or I’ll send someone looking for you.
Then, I stalked out of the mansion and across the pasture to the ranchers’ bunks, where I came face-to-face with my best friend.
“Morning,” he said with a big smile.
“Is everyone up and ready?” I glanced at the slow-moving bodies, some still brushing their teeth.
“What crawled up your ass and made you pissier than usual?” Fenris’s smile faded as he took a deep inhale. “Sweet holy shit. You smell like bonding scent.”
I ignored him while my inner wolf howled.
“Did something happen last night?” His shit-eating grin made me want to claw his eyes out.
