Page 144

“Well, maybe we’re just going for a walk and we happen to be going in the same direction.” Ajax grinned. “Start walking.” He gave Macey a nudge forward.

She walked to the door, not sure she felt better with the vampires at her back or worse because now everything would be out in the open. They’d all hear she was fucking a wolf and the paltry amount of respect she’d earned would evaporate.

The wolf didn’t move aside as Macey drew level with her. Instead she took a rather dramatic sniff. “Smells like the rumors were true.”

Shit.This was about her and Owen. “What have you done to him?”

What were they going to do to her?

“Nothing yet.” The wolf glanced at the vampires behind Macey. “But I wouldn’t dawdle for your new friends if I were you.”

She followed the wolf through the campgrounds. The night was eerie and quiet. Was everyone else in bed or deliberately staying in to avoid the trouble? She shouldn’t have gone to the lake. Then Owen wouldn’t have gotten caught.

How had his father found out?

The vampires followed at a distance, but it felt like she was walking into a trap. If Owen’s father expected her to admit to something so he could punish Owen, he was going to be bitterly disappointed.

She heard the pack’s excited heartbeats before she saw them. Twenty wolves sat in a circle, and five vampires stood around the outside. In the center knelt Owen.

Macey swallowed hard. This wasn’t a friendly chat. She’d only seen this kind of meeting happen once in her pack when one of the younger pack members had been caught by the police shop lifting. The cop had been kind enough to let him off with a warning; he hadn’t gotten a warning from the pack. Drawing police attention to the pack was never a good idea.

She didn’t want to step into the circle. She wasn’t part of this pack, and they couldn’t punish her, only Owen.

An older man with gray hair lifted his head and sniffed. Then he turned in her direction and glared like her presence was an affront. All other gazes followed. Most were hostile.

“Is this the vampire you broke the rules for?” His voice was thick with contempt as he pointed at Macey.

“Yes.” Owen said. His voice was steady as though he was untroubled.

How he did that she didn’t know because her heart was racing like it wanted to escape and leave her body behind. Her skin was clammy, her mouth was dry, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to form words.

The leader beckoned her closer. He looked like an older version of Owen. But where Owen’s lips readily smiled, this man’s were pinched into a thin line. She took two steps and stopped. That was close enough to the circle.

But the circle parted as though they were expecting her to join Owen in the middle.

“I don’t know what pack you’re from,vampire,but relationships, no matter how short, are forbidden. Owen knew that, even if you didn’t.” His tone implied that she should’ve known. “He is to fight for his place in the pack, but he didn’t want to fight his own battle. Instead he has invoked his right to defense.” The sneer was present even when he talked about his own son. “Do you even know what that is blood drinker?”

She shook her head. She hated being called a blood drinker. Vampires didn’t drink blood very often, and they liked their steaks as rare as the wolves. They weren’t that different. She was related to her parents as much as her siblings. But none of that mattered here. Here she was only a blood drinker, a failure.

“I’m a vampire of the Green River pack. Your rules are archaic and unfamiliar.” Her pack wasn’t that progressive, but they certainly weren’t this backward. “What is the right to defense?”

“Owen wants you to fight in his place,” Owen’s father smirked. “You can refuse.”

Macey glanced at Owen. What the hell was he thinking? She couldn’t fight and win. She’d only had a couple of lessons on being a vampire. Was this some strategy to do with him wanting to set up his own pack? “What will fighting prove or achieve?”

The father turned away to glare at his son. “There, she doesn’t want to do it.”

Macey stepped to the edge of the circle. “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t. I asked what will happen. Who am I to fight?”

The leader scowled at her, his expression darkening with each heartbeat. He was enjoying Owen’s submission, and she was spoiling it. He indicated to another wolf that looked enough like Owen that they were related somehow. The man stood.

“You will fight to first blood or break. Because you are fighting for him the outcomes are different. If you win, he maintains his place in the pack.” Owen’s father seemed to choke on those words. “If you lose, he will be outcast.”

Given her fighting skills, Owen would likely be kicked out. “And if he fought?”

“Then he’d either take Joel’s place as my second or go to the bottom.”

So the reward was less and punishment more severe if she fought. She lifted her eyebrow and glanced at Owen. It was a terrible risk. He gave a small nod. He must know what he was doing. But she didn’t. She glanced behind. All of the vampires that had followed had fanned out into the trees except Ajax.