“We don’t know. Whoever killed Celeste must’ve done it before or after they drained her, while the lights were still off, because the office wasn’t touched before or after.”Rhone never beat around the bush.“At the moment, there’s a bigger problem.”
“What could possibly be a bigger problem than someone nearly fucking killing my mate?”I snarled.
“The Erren pack spread the word that you’ve accepted the fated mate bond with Bloom. Challengers have been arriving at the tower in hoards. I bought us a few days for you to recover and sent them to the estate, but they’re not going to back down.”
“Fuck.”I closed my eyes.“All male?”
He put another protein shake in my hand.“Yeah.”
“And it’s every old, scarred, prejudiced fucker we have left?”
“Yup.”
I drained another shake, my eyes still on my vampire.“Mathias? Gord? Rend? Collins?”
“Among others.”
“I can’t stagger them out. I’ll be fighting all year, and it’ll look fucking weak.”
“There are only seven or eight that will be real fights. I say we space them by two or three hours, putting the biggest bastards at the beginning and middle of the day,”Rhone said.
“One hour.”
I gave him the cup. He put the last shake in my hand.
I was already nauseous from the first three, but I chugged it anyway.
“If you get yourself killed, I’m not protecting your walking death trap of a woman,”Rhone warned.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Time’s up,” Harper said, stalking back into the room.
“One more thing.”Rhone’s voice changed slightly. Quieted. I still didn’t look at him.“Something’s wrong with the human.”
“We’ve already talked about that.”
“I asked her. She said she’s sick. You know they say that when they’re dying.”
“Shit. How bad?”
“She said she doesn’t have much time left. I fired her from the investment company. She doesn’t need to spend her last months at work. Sutton’s taking her job to scope out the office until we find a replacement.”
“Good.”I let out a slow breath and handed him the final empty cup. Exhaustion was dragging me under again.
“Get some rest. You’re going to need it.”Rhone stood, tucking his hands in his pockets before he strode off to a chair he’d dragged in from the office.
Harper sat in the one beside it. “Thanks, Maverick.”
Rhone grunted. “Don’t thank him for saving his mate.”
I nodded in her direction before lowering my head back to my pillow and crashing.
I’d text her family to make sure they knew she was alright the next time I was up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
bloom
