Page 23

Ellie

“I’m making coffee,” I grumbled when Ha-joon simply shrugged. I was a complete mess. This crisis was so much worse than any we’d helped with in years and years, and the fact the South American government acted like it was all owed to them was really pissing me off.

And people would want me to just accept it to not start trouble. I’d already told the president I wouldn’t this time because they were pushing harder and harder that we were a UN hospital. That was dangerous and he wasn’t hearing me on that.

“Why are you trying to have Ellie drain me?” Ha-joon asked Alan, sounding as exhausted as I felt.

I snorted. He deserved his sarcasm, but it would irk Alan who was just as wrecked as we were.

“Not drain you, dipshit,” Alan drawled. “Ellie, does he know—”

“Yes, he figured it out,” I said over my shoulder. “And hurry this up because the president is going to be calling one or both of us soon. You know he will. He doesn’t want to fight on this.”

“I love and hate that man,” Alan grumbled. “Fine, Ellie’s blood is four times more potent for how we use it. The blood is—we’re going to have to redistribute it and dilute it. The only thing that’s changed?”

“Feeding from me,” Ha-joon instantly surmised. “Okay, great. So what’s the problem? You get four times as much to help the regular blood.”

I winced, knowing things weren’t that simple.

“Yes, but we don’t know how and when it works because it’s all hidden,” Alan answered, his tone tired.

“It’s not like we have a team on this, Ha-joon.

It’s a hidden secret that we’ve kept quiet for this long.

Now there’s suddenly a change that quality control noticed?

And how do we figure this out? Only take blood from her the day after she feeds from you? ”

“That would make things less fun,” Ha-joon sighed as he sat at the counter while I made coffee. “Okay, I get it. So you’re saying she’s still drinking normal blood since I can’t give her everything she needs and that could make some of the batches not hit the new higher standards?”

“Yes, in theory. Also, it could throw red flags like something became unstable. If even a whisper of that happens—the only way people have accepted this is because it’s always, always been stable since we’ve started.”

“And I’ve threatened to shut it all down if they pull tricks. But that’s my biggest fear with the South American government repeatedly trying to label us a UN hospital. What is in the bylaws of being a UN hospital?”

“Any government in the UN can inspect the hospital and do a full audit at any time,” Alan answered for Ha-joon.

I nodded when Ha-joon’s face went pale. “Okay, so one problem at a time. I’ll just have to stop drinking from Ha-joon.”

“Fuck. No,” Ha-joon growled, his eyes flashing his wolf and making it clear that wasn’t happening. “My wolf would go damn near feral if we were providing something necessary for our mate and then had to stop. Plus…”

I nodded. Yeah, it kicked up our sex to a whole other level.

One neither of us wanted to lose.

“Ignoring you just called her your mate,” Alan drawled.

“She’s our future mate to my wolf,” Ha-joon muttered. “We’ve already discussed this. Leave it be. You can’t bring logic or like relationship timelines to our animal sides.”

Alan was quiet a moment. “I’ve heard Sean and others say the same. Glad you can keep it under wraps. Okay, on the blood, we’ve needed more, Ellie. It’s not about the money or what it could do for ASH. You know that.”

“I know that,” I agreed, knowing the numbers better than he did. There were just too many vampires in the world, and they needed better, stronger blood. “But your answer just—even if it was reality, how would we suddenly explain being able to produce so much more blood?”

Alan snorted. “I doubt most will care as long as there’s more on the market, Ellie.”

“So your answer is for her to… What? Have a list of Alphas she can just bite and that won’t be suspicious or lead to misunderstandings?” Ha-joon demanded, his tone tight.

“Do you want to be a jealous child and throw a fit or be of use because right now we have a problem and you just shit on both options,” Alan snapped.

“And that wasn’t his real suggestion,” I cut in. “So let’s all breathe and remember we just went through three days of hell.”

“It wasn’t even about being jealous but getting her caught as different,” Ha-joon grumbled. He stood suddenly and slapped his hands on the counter. “Some will want her dead if they find out she’s the reason vamps can get better blood. Others will take her and—you know this!”

“We do,” Alan said gently, understanding he’d misread Ha-joon’s upset.

So had I.

“We could make something sound legitimate,” I sighed. “When these blood drives are happening, we—”

“Pay an Alpha for their blood and say it’s needed to have on hand in case an Alpha is injured or needs surgery,” Ha-joon interrupted as he went to the fridge to get everything we needed for coffee.

“You’ll make more money being able to sell way more blood—four times as much, right?

You’d get Alphas who regularly donate because some packs can always use money. ”

“But are Alphas of smaller areas or packs that need money always real Alpha shifters?” Alan muttered. “Look, I didn’t say we needed the answer today. I wasn’t even being a shit before when you laid into me, Ellie. I didn’t say bite Sean or Gerald. They’d give blood to…”

“Gerald is a problem when he’s shown interest and he doesn’t let things go,” I interjected when Ha-joon started growling, explaining the issue. “It’s also—yeah, okay, we’ll discuss it and get back to you. I hear you. Let’s get through this crisis first.” I thanked him and hung up.

“It’s because I’m different, right? That’s what you didn’t want to point out to him?” Ha-joon asked quietly, his voice distant. It was such a wound for him, especially everything going on with his family.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged when he shot me a look that he wasn’t buying that.

“We fell into all of this, Ha-joon. I have no fucking clue what blood to drink to make mine more powerful. Or powerful in this way. Yes, your blood is powerful and I love it. It gives me a bit of a high if I’m down on the tank and makes me… ” I cleared my throat.

“Horny for me?” he asked hopefully. “Tell me it at least makes you extra horny for me and help me feel better.”

I chuckled. If he could try and make this conversation easier, I could too.

“Yes. Very.” I decided to address what happened last night before we had to head to work too soon.

I moved closer and cupped his face when he focused on me.

“And you didn’t do anything wrong with Theresa. I’m not mad at how you handled it.”

He studied my eyes for a moment. “You’re not.”

“No, I’m not given the situation and what you told me. You weren’t poking for information when I wasn’t there. You weren’t sticking your nose in it or trying to play mediator. I’m sorry I couldn’t say it last night, but I just—I couldn’t use my brain I was so tired.”

“I know.” He turned and kissed my hand. “Thank you. I’m glad we talked it out. I’m glad you stayed and we could be good enough for each other to pause on something like that. I got snitty because I was exhausted too, but—I hate the space. Time-out on a fight or conversation but don’t run from me.”

“Deal.” I nodded when he met my gaze. “Now that I saw the healthy way to handle this and asking for a pause was reasonable when we shouldn’t talk about serious, I would rather us handle it that way instead of sleeping on the couch.

Thank you for showing me how to be healthy—valuing me so we could be healthy. ”

“Me too,” he said, leaning in and kissing my cheek. “It was really nice to talk things out and have it settled this way. I hate—everything was always a blowup in my family or other relationships. Yes, we care enough about this relationship to fight, but not everything has to be a fight.”

I couldn’t have agreed more and did.

I told him my idea about separating the blood of Alphas at the drive and making it clear that it was for shifters.

Sort of like he said, but right now we gave the same mix for surgeries by blood time.

Supe blood was supe blood in a way unless special conditions or reasons, and then we normally had blood separate for that.

But even if we said we were doing a research study on more powerful shifter blood for… Whatever. A list of things but to push how it could help hospitals. Maybe even do it for real without letting people know that I was drinking some of it.

“Yeah, that’s smart too,” Ha-joon accepted. He gave me a hug and pulled me onto his lap. “I want you to have the best. I do. It’s just hard. I hate that I don’t give you all of what you need.”

“It’s because I give so much blood to make better blood for my people,” I promised him.

He blinked at me for several awkward moments. “Yeah, but if it’s four times as powerful—do you need to give as much that often? Even if you gave half as much as you do now, that would be twice as much blood additive as you have now?”

“We’re too sleep-deprived that we didn’t see that,” I mumbled. “You might have to change a bit of your diet and whatnot to more iron-rich—we should loop in Sean. There’s got to be a way to do this quietly.”

“I’ll do whatever I can and not just because the sex is so amazing between us when you feed. I know getting better blood to vampires is a priority for you.”

“You’re going to make me fall in love with you,” I warned.

“I hope so,” he chuckled, giving me another kiss.

We headed into work and everyone was just dead from the past several days. We weren’t getting in any more victims, and most would be presumed dead by now, so it was mostly recovery operations from what I knew.

But somehow we still had “guests” all over the lawns of my fucking hospital. Guests who were asking when food was coming again and if they could get showers—basic everything.