“What are you doing here, Bastian?” I frowned. “You and Cade aren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow.”
“There was a change of plans.” He stopped in front of me and extended a hand. I did my best to ignore the way his dark, golden-blond hair fell around his shoulders. Bastian knew he was stunning. I would never give him the satisfaction of admitting it out loud though. “Come along, beautiful.”
I killed the flinch before it manifested at the casual endearment.
Samara was lovely with her ridiculous curves and striking eyes. Even Cali was beautiful in a terrifying way. I’d never exactly been comfortable in my own skin. It wasn’t that I hated the way I looked or anything. I liked my body well enough. At just under six feet, I had a lean, muscular build that allowed me to run for hours and not feel a thing. My eyes were two different colors, one a rich earthy brown and the other a deep ocean blue, which threw some people off, but I thought it just made me unique.
I was just . . . me.
The reason my pack had selected me to join the Alphas was because I’d ticked all the boxes. Right bloodline, female, and pretty . . . enough. The exact words my uncle had used when he’d made the announcement. “Rynn is pretty enough, I suppose.”
I knew how Bastian acted outside the Alpha pack. He was worse than Kieran with his smooth flirtations, tossing out words like beautiful and gorgeous with ease.
He treated me the same. An outsider, even though I lived with his pack. All his charming words were just a reminder of that.
“What plans?” Reluctantly, I set the book down and slid my hand into Bastian’s, who immediately tugged me to my feet.
“Dragomir pack arrived early.” He released my hand and stepped back, gesturing towards the mirror. “Cade and I only beat them to the stronghold by minutes.”
“Fuck.” I straightened the lacing on the top of my tunic that I’d hastily changed into before coming to visit Samara. “They weren’t supposed to come for another two weeks!”
The Dragomir pack was the top pack in the Fervis Order. So their Alpha, Gavril, was one of the most powerful across all of the Velesian realm, only Cade and the Alpha pack outranked him.
Gavril also hated me, and so did most of his pack. I’d been counting on more time to mentally prepare for this meeting.
“The Dragomirs like to pull stunts like this.” Losing patience, Bastian slapped my hand away and fixed the laces himself. “Come on, you look fine. You’re just meant to be the eye candy anyway.”
“Funny, I thought that was your job.” I gave him a flat look.
The corners of Bastian’s lips curved up. “Finally. You admit I’m stunning. Only took eight months.”
“I never said stunning.”
“Your eyes said it.”
I huffed a laugh. On days when Bastian wasn’t being an ass to me, he could be amusing. In small doses.
When I glanced at Samara to say goodbye, I found her watching us with a predatory focus, and I inwardly groaned. She would definitely be describing this interaction in detail to Kieran later. I could practically picture the two of them on the settee in her living quarters, surrounded by chocolate and gossiping like their lives depended on it.
Argh.
Samara gave me a small, mischievous grin before putting her Serious Blood Sovereign face back on. “Is the Dragomir pack going to be a problem?” she asked mildly.
“We’ll handle it.” Bastian’s eyes flicked briefly to the door that led out to the hallway. “Nothing for you to worry your pretty little face about.”
Samara’s eyes narrowed. “Stop trying to bait him.”
What? Bait who? The scent hit me a second later. Like the forest after a wildfire had burned through it.
“Call her pretty again in that flirty tone,” an enormous Moroi man with a vicious scar cutting across the right side of his face drawled as he stalked into the room, “and I’ll carve out your tongue.”
I still had a hard time believing someone as large as Vail could move so quietly. Out in the wilds, he might as well be a wraith.
Scary bastard.
Bastian grinned. “I don’t know, Marshal. Rumor is that the mated life has made you soft.”
Vail moved so fast, I barely registered it. I had to give it to Bastian though. The ailuranthrope stepped smoothly to the side and plucked the dagger that had been aimed at his face out of the air.
