Page 76 of Mortal Shift
I took the hint and started moving. Apparently blind obedience wasn’t limited to students and guard details.
“Doesn’t Cain need his bodyguard?” I asked with more snark than was probably good for me as we walked.
“That’sAlphaCain to you. And I’m not his bodyguard, I’m his beta.”
“Oh.” I’d learned enough about pack structure to know that a beta was one of the highest-ranking members of the pack, second only to the alpha, and suddenly Cole’s concerns for my safety made sense. A beta was the alpha’s right hand, and their loyalty was absolute. If Cain wanted me dead, I was pretty sure Blaine was plenty capable of making it happen, and that he would do it without hesitation. Maybe the kitchen was a smart place to be, after all. There would be knives in there.
“I can smell your fear from here, kid,” he said, as we reached the door.
“I’m not a kid,” I snapped as I pushed into the small, brightly lit commercial-style kitchen. “And I’m not afraid.”
“Lie,” he said, closing yet another door behind us and sealing me in the same room as him. Crap. “But you don’t need to be. Until Alpha Cain commands otherwise, you’re safe in this territory.”
“Gee, that’s so reassuring,” I said.
Blaine shook his head and exhaled sharply through his nose. “Sit.”
“I’m not a dog.”
“Not a wolf, either,” he observed as he reached over and flicked on the kettle. “Otherwise you’d know when to follow orders.”
“Obedience is overrated.”
He chuckled. “Says the mate of our future alpha. Fate has a sense of humor, it seems.”
“Yeah, a dark one.”
He pulled down two mugs from a cupboard and spooned some coffee granules in and filled them, then set one on the worksurface in front of me with some milk and sugar. I eyed it suspiciously.
“It’s not going to bite,” he said, tapping a pointed sip from his own mug.
“It wasn’t the coffee I was worried about biting.” I reached a hand out towards mine, then hesitated. “You’re, uh, you’re definitely a wolf, and not fae, right?”
He exhaled a snort of laughter. “Cole brought you here via the Wandering Willow, I take it?”
I shuddered at the memory and reached for the mug absently, then hesitated again. I’d been joking, but that hadn’t strictly been a denial… Blaine must have caught my expression.
“No, I’m not fae,” he said. “It’s good that you’re suspicious, though. A human in power in the shifter world?”
He clicked his tongue.
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure no-one has any intention of letting it get that far.” Least of all me. I caught the look he was sending my way. “What?”
“It’s called fated mates for a reason.”
“So?”
“So, you can’t fight fate.”
“Watch me.”
He canted his head, as though he intended to sit there and do exactly that…which somewhat put paid to my plan to slip off the moment his back was turned.
“There’s something different about you,” he said slowly, after a long moment.
Shit. I froze. Could he sense that a vampire had fed from me recently? I didn’t get the sense these shifters were the ‘ask first’ kind when it came to their enemies. I forced a laugh. “You must not spend much time around humans. I’m as ordinary as they come.”
“I liaise with the local mundane population,” he said, eyes still glued to me. “And there’s something different about you.”
