Page 43 of A Clash of Moonlight

“What?” Jared asked flatly.

“Oh, nothing,” Deagan responded, his voice pitched too high.

“Speak.”

“It’s definitely nothing, my lord.”

Jared waited.

“It’s just… now that you’re not spending your night torturing a youngling, whatever will you do?”

Jared watched Tyrek toss Knife Wolf’s trachea into the back of the van and retrieve a bottle of bleach. He wanted to go to Nora—he wanted to claim her—but if the man he had heard on the phone was still there, he would end up with more wolf blood on his hands.

“She warned me not to kill them.”

Deagan choked, coughed, then said, “Good God, she knows?”

“She was on the phone.”

“You—” He took a deep breath. “Jared. My lord. I was jesting about asking your girlfriend their identities. When she tells Lehr—”

“She will not tell him.”

“He’s her alpha.”

“She will not.”

“You aren’t that good in bed.”

Jared cut him a look. Usually, Deagan would respond with a jaunty shrug, but there was nothing lighthearted in his expression now. His normally bright eyes were hard and condemning.

“Of course,” he said, a sharp bite in his voice. “This is you implementing your demise. It’s working out perfectly, isn’t it?”

Tyrek’s gaze caught on them. Jared’s responsibility to his vampires plucked at a cord in his chest. Killing the wolves had not been part of his plan, but it fit in well with the endgame, an endgame he had not contemplated in some time. He had single-mindedly been focused on Nora, on luring her to his bed, pleasuring her, binding her to his will.

“I want to know who they were before morning,” Jared said.

“No.”

Jared let his aura flare in warning. Deagan pretended not to notice.

“Let’s skip to the end of this game. Go to Lehr and ask him for their names yourself. The wolf’s stench still clings to y—”

Jared grabbed Deagan’s throat and shoved him against the side of the van. “You are out of line.”

“Of course I am.” Deagan swallowed. “You are suicidal. Arcuro will kill us—”

“He will not know.”

“He will. You make no effort to hide her scent. When he smells—”

His hand tightened. “You smell her?”

Deagan’s yes came out strangled.

Jared’s heart beat almost as quickly as a human’s at rest. It was not worry for himself or for Deagan and his people. If Deagan could smell Nora on him, then the werewolf in her home would undoubtedly be able to smell Jared. He would know she was with a vampire. He might even know she was with him.

He released Deagan and ran.