I don’t move.
“I won’t pressure anyone to join my pack. We don’t coerce. If you don’t want in, it’s your loss. But if you ever go near the Adalwulf Pack, we’re going to have a big problem.”
I go still, staring at him. Do I come clean? Tell him I held the Adalwulf princess in my arms an hour ago? That I put a tracker in her bag and plan to find out where they keep the Moonborn?
No. I can’t. My mission is more important than pleasing my boss. I’ll have to risk his wrath.
“Understood, Alpha,” I say.
“Apparently, I’m not your fucking alpha.” The alpha command in his voice registers as another shove to my torso.
I tip my head to the side to show my throat. “Yes, sir.”
“Get out.”
This time, I obey. As I walk out, I sense danger closing in on me from more than one side.
I’ll have to choose my path carefully, or I’ll never have the chance to find my mom and free her from the cult that’s kept her captive for so long.
I hole up in my cubicle, keep my head down like I’m getting to work. In between answering emails for my Moon Co job, I monitor the data the tracker in Aster’s purse is picking up for me.
The tracker has an audio component, which I run through a speech-to-text translator, so I can speed-read the conversation.
The Alpha wants to know if you think the tiara is worth purchasing.
It’s powerful. Maybe too powerful. The vision I had was strong.
I tag the second speaker as Aster and the first as her bodyguard.
I scan all the texts, but she hasn’t admitted she met me. In fact, she’s insisting that she doesn’t know who I am.
A stranger,
Is it possible she hasn’t seen me in her dreams? They felt so real.
She’s the enemy, I remind myself. She means nothing.
I know that’s a lie. I can still smell her sweet floral scent, even though I washed it away before my meeting with Brick.
I need to focus. I can use the Seeress to get intel and infiltrate the Adalwulfs, but that’s it. Beyond that, my interest in her needs to stop.
Bodyguard:
So the moonstone will be an asset to the Blood Bonding.
Blood Bonding? What’s that? I make a note to call Gran and ask her.
Aster:
Maybe. There’s a danger in using another culture’s talismans to enhance our own rituals.
The speech-to-text doesn’t give me any nuance, like facial expression or tone of voice. I wish I had visuals, too, and not just so I can examine Aster’s stunning ice-blue eyes and lovely face. I want to know how she feels about this Blood Bonding ritual. It sounds fucking painful, and knowing what Gran told me about the cult of the Moonborn, it’s probably not a walk in the park.
Bodyguard:
A danger to whom?
Aster:
