Maverick hit the button to call the tower’s elevator, draping his arm over my shoulders. It wasn’t nearly as slow as the office building’s, so we wouldn’t be waiting too long. “Alright, I’ll keep doing the laundry. But there’s a condition.”
“Why is there always a condition?”
“It’s only fair.”
“Fine, give it to me.”
“You have to sleep naked. All the time.”
Well... if all of his conditions were that easy, maybe I didn’t mind after all.
I sighed dramatically. “You drive a hard bargain.”
“I do drive a very hard, very large bargain.”
“Alright, deal. You do the laundry, and I’ll sleep naked. Even if there’s knotting involved.”
“There will be.”
We stepped into the elevator, and my humor faded.
I’d been hiding from the reality of Harper’s situation since I’d been awake. Now that we were headed up to see her, I wasn’t going to be able to hide any more.
“How bad is she going to be?”I asked him mentally. Honestly, it felt good to talk that way, and I thought it might ease the blow.
Maverick grimaced.“Bad.”
That was it.
Justbad.
If that was all Maverick had to say about it, it was going to be brutal.
The elevator stopped partway up, and a few other werewolves stepped on.
“Congrats,” one of the women said with a smile aimed directly at me. She must’ve seen the scars on the sides of my throat.
“Thanks.” I gave her a small smile back.
“The whole pack felt the link ripple when I bit you,”Maverick said into my mind.
“Why?”
“I’m the one who holds it together, and my abilityis now tethered permanently to you too. It didn’t change anything, but they felt it.”
“Werewolves are so weird.”
He chuckled.“Of course we are. Vampires are altered humans, but we’re our own species.”
“Doesn’t that make it strange that we’re compatible?”
“Depends on your definition of strange. Nature tends to balance itself out.”
The doors opened, and a few more people got in the elevator.
Another congratulations came our way, and I thanked them again.
I got along well with his enforcers, but it was hard to believe Maverick’s other werewolves would like me too.
