Page 76 of Blood and Magic
“There you are,” said another voice from our side. I looked up at a girl with brown curly hair and sandy skin, her big hazel eyes kind as they landed on me.
“You mind if I sit here?” she asked with a smile.
“Please,” Sol said, scooting over so the other person could sit. “It’s good to see you, Ginny.”
“You too.” Ginny looked at me and held out her hand. “You must be the newest member of the pack.”
“I am.” I gave it a firm squeeze. “Though I haven’t been officially inducted yet.”
“Soon enough,” she said. “My dad won’t let you hang out for long without a pact.”
Her dad.
Kodiak.
“You’re the alpha’s daughter?” Now that she said it, I could see the resemblance in her bone structure. She had the same nose, eye shape, and mouth as her father.
“One of them. My sister’s Henny. She’s at school.” She pointed over her shoulder, suggesting it was across the hall. Two people walked by, giggling and talking in hushed tones while they looked at me. Ginny glared at them, baring her teeth with a loud hiss. “Fuck off, Amelia.”
Amelia and her friend averted their gazes and scurried away.
“Sorry about them.” She tilted her head and assessed me. “We’re not used to newcomers, especially not Vanderbilts. You’d think they would have gotten over it after Sol mated Orion.”
“People are always going to talk,” Sol said with a small smile. “They’re not so bad after a while.”
“Of course.” I rubbed the bite on my neck and noticed a similar mark on Sol, lower, near her shoulder. It had turned into a scar, its bright white lines standing out against her skin. It must have been her mating mark, which claimed her as Orion’s. Mill hadn’t done the same to me, not like that, and despite saying he loved me, I doubted he ever would. Over the past four days, he’d barely touched me, too afraid he’d start craving again.
Did I even want to be mated to him? My inner fox purred at the idea, thwapping her tail against the barriers of my mind. She ached for that kind of connection. The one we’d created during my transition had started to fade; it would probably be entirely gone by tomorrow.
Ginny and Sol discussed their plans for the day, but I went silent, retreating into my own navel-gazing ruminations.
“What about you, Maeve?” Ginny asked. “Wanna get out of this place and go for a walk with me?”
I perked up at the mention of going outside. Mill barely let me leave his room, and according to Kodiak, I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere unsupervised. Not that I gave much thought to his permission, but with the Scorpions on the run and us still waiting for reinforcements, I had to agree that walking around alone wasn’t the best idea.
“I would love to,” I said. “But I’d better check with Mill first. With the Scorpions running around, he’s been…territorial.”
Sol snorted. “Yeah, I bet.”
“They get like that, those alpha males. You’re probably lucky he lets you out of his sight.” Ginny grinned, and I admired how it lit up her entire face. “Are you sure you don’t want to come, Sol?”
“I promised Orion I would help him with the animals this morning,” she said. “You two go. I’ll catch up when I can.”
“Okay.” Ginny stood and nodded toward the door. “C’mon. Let’s find your male, and then I’ll give you the homestead tour no one else knows about.”
I hugged my sister goodbye and followed Ginny out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. I thought it might take longer to find Mill, but I followed my intuition through the underground tunnels of the connected buildings, sensing his presence running through my veins. It was faint but still a thrumming mystical shimmer that exploded whenever I approached him. He was in the tech room with the other IT pack members, flicking through computer screens and chattering around, upgrading the cameras.
At first, he was happy to see me, but his grin quickly disappeared into a scowl after I explained that I wanted to explore with Ginny.
“No,” he said. “Absolutely not. We don’t know where the Scorpions are, and I don’t have time to go with you, not right now.”
“Mill, I’m dying in here. I have to get some fresh air.” I put on my best pout while Ginny talked to Channing a few feet away. “It’s not like I need your permission. I just want to be safe.”
He took a deep breath and ran his hands over his face, and a thick wave of anxiety poured out of him, coating my lungs with dread as heavy as steel.
“Fine,” he finally said, glancing over his shoulder. “Holden!”
The younger wolf walked over and raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, boss?”
