Page 10 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

Damn it.

“You delivered your message,” I said.“You can go.Someone else will carry him.”

He made a big deal of scanning the lobby.“I don’t see anyone rushing to help.”

“That’s because you’re here.When you leave—”

“Where are we taking him?”The drawl left his voice.He was speaking as a dominant werewolf now, someone who was used to people doing his bidding without question.

My jaw clenched.I wasn’t one of his wolves.I could have argued, probably would have if I wasn’t worried about drawing attention to the real reason I wanted him gone.

I sighed.Alone with Blake.Just what I didn’t need right now.

“This way,” I muttered, leading the way to the lobby’s back door.I held it open.“This will get awkward if he wakes up.”

Blake gave me a casual shrug.“Then I’ll just have to put him back to sleep, won’t I?”

“Not helpful.He isn’t doing well.”I followed Blake outside.

“So of course you have to fix him,” he said.

Irritation scraped across my skin.“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Where were you Thursday night?”

“Does it matter?”I countered.

“It might.”He held my gaze.If we were outside the Null, he would more than see through my defensiveness.He’d not only know for sure I’d been at the compound, he’d likely sense I was hiding an even bigger secret.

“I was here,” I said.

His jaw clenched.Look at that, he was the one irritated now.“You’re claiming you were here when the majority of Arcuro’s clan showed up to attack Satine, who wasn’t even in Tennessee at the time?”

“You don’t have to believe me.”

His irritation morphed into anger.Good.Maybe he’d start acting like the werewolf I’d met a few months ago—the one who’d made my life hell with fake health and safety inspections, an anonymous plagiarism report, and a strategic redecorating of my apartment’s parking lot with a thousand pairs of unicorn underwear.Seriously, why did I even like him?

“Care to step out of the Null and make me believe you?”His voice was a low, rumbling challenge.

“You have a vampire over your shoulder.”I was all polite logic and pure provocation.

“I’d be happy to deposit him in the deep end of the pool.”Blake’s steady gaze and don’t-test-an-alpha attitude warned me not to push him further.We still stood at The Rain’s back door.The pool was a pitch-black abyss twenty yards away, unlit, unmonitored, and definitely not up to code.He might toss Deagan in just to get the hotel cited again.

“I didn’t think you were someone who believed in rumors,” I said.

“When it comes to you disregarding your safety, they tend to be facts.”

I rolled my eyes.“Don’t worry.I’m very aware that I’m a fragile little human in a world of powerful paranorms.”

He snorted.“And that fact keeps you from putting yourself in harm’s way.”

“If you’re here to lecture me, I really don’t need it right now.”I turned to storm across the terrace.

Blake followed.“You aren’t getting one from Nora and Jared, so somebody has to talk some sense into you.”

“Oh, I’m getting it from both of them.Trust me.”

“You’re going to get hurt.”