Page 142 of Mortal Shift
Oh. That didn’t sound good.
Chapter Forty-Seven
“We need to talk.”
I glanced up from my plate at Thaden, and Thessalia hovering in his shadow, and immediately felt Cole tense beside me.
“About what?” he asked.
Thaden’s eyes flicked to me in the least subtle sign imaginable, and then he met Cole’s.
“I think you know.”
“Not up for discussion,” Cole ground out.
“Yes, it is,” Thessalia insisted, and Thaden shot her a warning look over his shoulder. She clamped her mouth shut, but didn’t look happy about it. Cole didn’t look happy about the conversation at all.
“Can we just talk?” Thaden said, casting a brief look around the room. “In private?”
“My mate is eating,” Cole said.
“Um, I’m done,” I said, pushing my half-empty plate away from me. Or half-full, I supposed, if you were an optimist. Nothing about this conversation was making me feel particularly optimistic.
“You need to eat,” Cole said.
“And you need to stop trying to protect me from everything.” I gave his hand a light squeeze as I said it, taking the sting out of my words. He caught my hand and pressed it to his lips, meeting my eye over the top of it.
“Never.”
“This is important,” Thessalia snapped.
“Not more important than my mate’s safety,” Cole growled, lunging to his feet and glaring at her.
I rose and planted a hand on his chest before he could do something ridiculous, like start a war over whether or not I was eating the rest of my burger.
“Why don’t we take this somewhere else?” I said, glancing meaningfully around the half-full canteen, and the several dozen students who were looking our way right now.
Cole looked around and dipped his chin in a curt nod, the aggression easing only a fraction from his shoulders.
“Good,” I said, forcing a smile. “Our dorm, then.”
The four of us walked there in silence, no-one saying a word until after the dorm room door shut behind us, sealing us inside in relative privacy.
It was Thessalia who broke the silence.
“He needs her blood.”
“Subtle, Thessalia,” Thaden muttered.
“We’ve already spoken about this,” Cole said to Thaden—which was news to me.
“You have?” I asked.
“Yes,” Cole said, without taking his eyes from Thaden. “I forbade him from taking your blood. And that still stands.”
“Why…why would you do that?”
He turned to me finally.
