Page 77 of Blood and Magic
“Take the girls out for a walk, will you?” Mill grabbed Holden’s shoulder in a friendly pat.
“Oh, thank fuck,” Holden said. “I need to get out of this place. These early curfews are making me antsy.”
“See?” I said with a smug indignant look. “Even your own pack mates are getting cabin fever.”
Mill snorted and shook his head. “Keep an eye on your six, got it? And if anything strange happens, call it in. I don’t care if it’s a squirrel that smells funny.”
“Ten-four,” Holden said, giving a mock salute before turning to me. “C’mon. Let’s stretch our legs.”
“Thank you!” I pushed up on my toes and kissed Mill before yelling for Ginny.
Feeling better now that I had a bodyguard, I followed Ginny and Holden down the corridors and out a side door that led to the courtyard. It was a gorgeous morning, the sun bright against clear blue skies, and the scorching heat of summer hadn’t yet taken over the day. Holden led the way, and Ginny stepped beside me as we wandered toward a path in the tree line.
“Hey, Ginny,” someone called, “Where ya going with the Vanderbilt girl?”
Ginny turned to the older guy and waved. “Just walking the trails. We’ll be back in an hour.”
The guy looked like he wanted to say something else, but ultimately let it go. “Be careful out there, okay?”
“You got it, Polar,” she said, “Holden’s going with us.”
“Alright,” Polar shouted back, but his tone made it sound like it was anything but alright.
Mill’s trepidation mixed with Polar’s half-warning caused a brief sting of anxiety to swell in my gut. “Are you sure this is okay?”
Holden flashed me a pistol on his belt and nodded. “We’re not going outside of the perimeter. Trust me. No one’s getting past our patrols.”
I figured Holden and Ginny knew what they were doing, and I was practically crawling the walls.
Once we were far enough into the woods so that no one in the pack could overhear us, Ginny gave me a sidelong look. “So, how are things going?”
“Great,” I added in a sarcastic tone. “Amelia and the others have been super welcoming. I’m practically family already.”
Holden glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s jealous.”
“Jealous?” I scoffed. “Of what?”
“You’re all new and interesting,” Holden continued. “And she’s used to being the center of attention.”
Ginny sighed and nodded. “He’s right, unfortunately. I’m sorry about them. We’re a pretty close-knit pack.”
“It’s not your fault,” I admitted. “Thank you for inviting me out.”
“I know what it’s like for everyone to talk shit about you behind your back,” she explained. “Being the alpha’s daughter means everyone either wants to use you or hate you. There is no in-between.”
I understood. I had a similar problem as a Vanderbilt heir. Making friends was hard to come by, and even if I found someone interesting, they were just as likely to be only interested in what connections I could make for them.
“My mom died when I was eight,” she said. “Not to trauma dump on you, but after that, everyone got weird around me. No one knew how to act.”
I thought about my own mother. Ginny and I had more in common than I would have initially thought. “I get it.”
“Yeah, Sol told me,” she said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Same to you,” I said.
We walked for a while and talked about our lives up until now. She’d applied for a college in Hawaii, much to Kodiak’s chagrin, and now that she’d been accepted, she had been trying to convince her father to let her go.
“There’s a Bastards MC out there,” she explained. “Most of the world doesn’t know about shifters, and it’s illegal to tell regular humans, but we make special allowances for other clubs. I’d be protected.”
