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Just wonderful. As if I didn’t have enough on my plate, I now had to worry about a rogue guard somewhere on the premises. A rogue guard that for some reason was intent on seeing me.

Chapter Eight

Instead of the smaller circular tables bunched into the room, one long table was brought in. It was big enough to accommodate the families of those that came with the potential mates as well as the mates themselves. I sat near the head of the table next to my fathers and mother.

Alexei cleared his throat as he sat down next to me. “Mind telling me what’s going on? There are quite a few more guards than there usually are.”

Of course, he would notice. I took a sip from the wine goblet and held it in front of my mouth as I answered, “The guard from earlier? We’re not sure who he is.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah…”

Alexei pulled his chair up to the table roughly. Since he was a Rajyvik, he took great pride in everything to do with the facility, including the security. “How the hell did that happen?”

“Came in posing as a…” I hesitated, not sure whether to share the guy posed as a member of the Dumont Clan. It certainly wouldn’t do Felix any favors. It could all be a ruse, anyway. The guard could be acting on his own volition and just using the Dumont name because he knew it would get him inside. “He posed as a member of one of the other clans needing to get a message to them.”

Alexei eyed me warily. “That’s it?”

“That’s all we know so far. We’re not sure if he is a member of the clan and is acting under their orders, or is acting on his own, or a mixture of the two. No one has seen him since he came to the pond to deliver our lunch.”

He pulled his napkin down and arranged it on his lap, acting cool and comfortable as he did so even though I could see the strain on his face. “If they were walking around and looked like a guard, they were probably put to use.”

“Exactly,” I said. I didn’t blame the guards for letting him in or giving him access to the pond.

Calen and Kai both looked over at me, so I smiled at them and set my glass back down. The blood in it sloshed. I caught it up with my finger and licked it off.

I looked up, my fingers still in my mouth, and paused. All my potential mates stared at me intensely.

Alexei chuckled under his breath. “Easy there. You’re going to start a frenzy. Bloodanda beautiful woman?”

“Since when do you think I’m beautiful?”

His head whipped toward me, his gaze narrowing as if he couldn’t believe I’d said such a thing. “I always thought you were beautiful, Izzy. Best friends or not, I can still find you attractive.”

He wavered as he said the end of it, and I realized my mistake. If I didn’t think it was possible he thought I was beautiful, then, in essence, I’d just said he wasn’t handsome.

We were best friends. The truth was, I hadn’t really thought about it.

I groaned inwardly. It was hard to navigate this new territory between Alexei and me. Call me a wimp, but I liked it better when I didn’t have to second-guess everything between us. I looked at him without the eyes of a best friend. It wasn’t that I never thought he was handsome, it was just that I appreciated his looks in a way that you appreciated how beautiful a painting was. There was no sense in appreciating it in any other way because you couldn’t become intimate with a painting. It was also like saying how gorgeous a TV actor was. There was no way you’d be able to meet said actor, so you appreciated the looks without going further.

Alexei wouldn’t get all that though. He was a black and white, cut and dry kind of person. He didn’t easily find a middle ground.

I’d always thought the contrast between his blue eyes and dark hair was stunning. I couldn’t count the times his blue eyes sucked me in, but it was usually sucking me into some horrible plan that was going to get us both in trouble. I grew up thinking he was going to make someone a very happy wife, but with the way I wanted my life to be, I never thought it was possible I could be that person.

“You never told me I was beautiful before,” I said simply, hoping he would drop it.

It was his turn to sip from his glass and try not to bring attention to us. “It was easier that way for me.”

For him. That was the point I was trying to make all along. It would’ve been easier for me if he’d just told me. Everything. And as soon as he felt it, too.

“Do you know what you’re getting into with this?” I asked, wanting to lay it all out there since he was the one pushing. With the wanting to know if he was still in the running comment and now this, it was evident he wanted an answer, or was nervous it was going to be no.

His jaw ticked. It was a telltale sign he was losing his patience. “Yeah, you. That’s what I’m going to get out of all this.”

“And others. I don’t know how many others because I haven’t made up my mind yet, but you do know it won’t be just you. You’re okay with that?”

He looked away. “Sometimes I want to hit you upside the head.”