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Returning to the bottle under the sink, I stopped with the towel bunched in hand.

“Where’s the trash?”

“Leave it in the sink,” Asher said, adding a can of tomato to the water. He didn’t turn to look at me, his lips were pursed with concentration.

I dropped it and took a seat at the island beside Ren who leaned on the edge with both elbows.

“We should move,” Tobias said, focusing on Ren’s hand brushing my hair behind my ear.

Irritation flashed through his gaze so quickly, I might have imagined it.

“If we move now, we won’t have the opportunity to hunt the fucker that dared attack our Coven,” Jax sniped, seemingly appearing out of thin air. Had he been around the entire time?

The angry vampire moved like a feline.

I put my elbow on the granite and leaned my chin on my palm as they continued their back and forth. Bastien stood behind me until his chest was flush against my back.

“We established that a vampire male is after the human. Just hand her over.”

I perked to attention at that since my heart jumped at his comment. I had to have misheard him. Hand me over? My throat closed up and made it hard to swallow. I turned to Tobias, then Ren.

“Then you’re announcing to everyone that we are weak,” Tobias said. His fingers drummed against the island.

“She’s ours.” Ren’s hand flexed around the back of my neck.

Jax scoffed.

“That human is not mine.”

“I don’t want to be his anyway,” I pushed through gritted teeth, my face burning from embarrassment.

Jax narrowed his eyes at me and sneered.

“You have chosen to be a part of this Coven, which means we work together. Unless you are saying you want to defect.”Tobias’s comment seemed innocent enough but Jax stiffened like he’d snap in half.

“Not a bad idea. Your sired children are not as many as Asher’s, so it won’t be too much of a loss,” Ren said, big arms returning to the granite.

Every single vampire stilled.

Sometimes they seemed more like enemies than a Coven that worked together. Or that could be how they always spoke to each other. After all, what did I know about vampires other than what I fabricated in my own little fictional world in an attempt to make sense of my shit experiences.

In my defense, when I chose to write romance novels about vampires, I never expected to encounter them again. Especially with how hard I tried to avoid the inhumane monsters.

“All for a pointless human?” Jax snapped.

I gritted my teeth, meeting his hate filled eyes. I wouldn’t turn away from him. He couldn’t do anything to me. His nostrils flared, obviously displeased that I challenged him instead of cowering.

Bastien grabbed my shoulder and hissed at Jax.

“Enough. Jaxon, you’re not going anywhere. We are a Coven and we stay that way. Accept her.” Asher set the ceramic bowl in front of me. “Eat,” he prompted in a much softer tone.

The soup swayed in the bowl. Lentils, a simple enough dish, but he’d left them to cook for too short of a time. The little legumes hadn’t swelled enough.

His hopeful expression didn’t waver.

“Can I get a spoon?” I asked tentatively.

“Right! Apologies, Pet, it has been so long since I’ve been human.” He quickly fetched me one.