Page 25

“No. Jesus. I don’t know.” Mack snapped.

The male stared at him. “You on your period?”

Asshole.

“Yeah, do you want me to shove my fucking tampon up your nose?” Mack snapped.

Kurt snort-laughed behind them while Brayden chuckled and kicked a chair out of the way.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Tristan drank some more of his water. “Give me her number and I’ll assess her body and get back to you.”

“Read the room, dude.” Darnell kicked his chair from behind.

“What?”

“Who’s the girl? She yours or your sister?” Darnell asked Mack.

Fucking hell.

It was like being at high school in this place some days. And that was saying something given he owned a gym back in Seattle where it felt like everyone seemed to fuck everyone on a good week.

He hadn’t been innocent.

While he did what he could to interfere with Ella’s romances, he’d guiltily slept with a lot of females. None of them satisfying for very long.

Especially when he caught Ella’s gaze when they’d bump into one another or were at the same parties.

“Neither.” He grunted. “She’s not staying, so find someone else to play with.”

“Spoilsport.” Tristan pouted.

“Alright ladies, let's focus.” Craig’s voice bounced off the walls.

Everyone shuffled into a comfortable position. Boots scuffed and chairs scraped. Tom, Lance, and Marcus leaned against the far wall. Ben, Logan, and Oliver were sitting nearby while Elijah, Jason, and Alex sat on the rear table.

“Not that long ago, there were five of you.” Brayden began glancing around the room as Callan slipped in the side door.“Recently, I tasked Craig with building the senior team to ensure we could protect the royal family and the race against growing threats. Now there are fourteen skilled warriors standing before me.”

Some of the males worked for Ari at The Institute as assassins, but they all worked as one team now.

“I’m an overachiever.” Craig smirked.

“It took an interspecies war, but nice work.” Kurt laughed.

“Semantics.”

The two vampires grinned at one another.

“Speaking of,” Brayden continued. The prince was all business when he got focused. After all, he was the captain. “Let’s get down to business.”

Ari pointed the clicker, and a global map appeared on the screen in front of them. Red dots were scattered. There were a lot of them.

“These are the hotspots right now,” the ancient vampire said.

The king stood to his right, with his hands in his pockets, glaring at the image. There was nothing casual about Vincent Moretti. He’d proven to be a smart and strategic king since he’d taken the throne.

“Meaning?” Lance asked.

“Meaning the most dangerous areas for our race.” Brayden sat his ass on the edge of a table near the wall and pointed. “All the big cities: Rome, London, LA, New York, Sydney, Paris...and a few other outliers. But this one is interesting. St. Petersburg.”