Page 76 of Mortal Blood
“Okay, but can we make it another day?” I asked around a badly suppressed yawn. “Because right now I’d like to sleep. And hopefully not have nightmares about,” I put on a poor impression, “Ezekiel of the Daemonoctis Clan.”
Cole was silent for a second, and his voice was very careful when he spoke again. “What did you just say?”
I frowned, wondering if my exhaustion was short circuiting my brain, because I had no clue why he was opposed to me getting some shut eye. “I’m tired. What’s wrong with that?”
He shook his head impatiently. “Not that. You said ‘Daemonoctis clan’.”
“Yeah, so?” I canted my head and examined his face, which meant I didn’t miss the look of exasperation that passed over it.
“I know for fact that you go to cultural studies because I’m sitting right next to you when you do. So I’m not sure how you manage to take nothing in.”
“Hey!” I objected, slapping his shoulder lightly. He caught my hand with a smile, lifting my palm to his cheek and planting a gentle kiss on it. Then he got serious again.
“The Daemonoctis clan were wiped out decades ago. First banished, and then executed for crimes against the council.”
“I guess they missed one.”
“I’m more than happy to correct their mistake,” he rumbled, and I shivered, picturing my wonderful, perfect mate going up against the powerful old vampire who had such little respect for life. Bad enough that he was going to fight his own father; he didn’t need to be fighting mine, too.
“Don’t,” I murmured.
“You…want to make peace with him?” Cole asked carefully, eyeing me like I’d lost it. I snorted.
“Hardly. But that doesn’t mean I want to go to war with him, either. He can’t reach me inside the academy’s boundaries.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Me, either. But we’ve got bigger problems right now.”
“Bigger problems than the man who tried to kidnap my mate?”
“Yeah.”
He tucked a finger under my chin and tilted it up so that Imet his eye. “Name them.”
“What, you want a list?”
“Yes.”
I blinked in surprise. “Oh. Okay. Um… Less than a month until final assessments and I can’t shift on command yet.”
“A month is a long time. You’ll get it.”
“Debatable,” I grumbled. “But fine. We’re supposed to run on the moon hunt in two weeks, and I’m going to look like an idiot when I can’t shift.”
“You could never look anything other than perfect,” he murmured. “And I’ll gladly kill anyone who makes the mistake of thinking otherwise.”
Heat pooled between my legs and he chuckled darkly. I coughed and squirmed.
“Fine. Your pack.”
“The pack will follow the alpha.”
“Right. And you can’t be alpha and be fighting my father at the same time.”
“Says who?” he demanded.
“Your attention needs to be on bringing peace between the packs. And if it’s too late for that, then you need to focus on winning the war.” I ducked his eye as I made my confession. “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”
