CHAPTER ELEVEN
bloom
I draggedHarper off the couch the next morning, ready for war in brown leggings and a light pink sweater that had to have been made from a blanket.
Yes, both articles of clothing needed to be washed. I’d dug them out of a work bag I’d left on the floor of my closet many months earlier. They smelled mostly fine, though.
The various piercings in my ears (I had four in one and six in the other, thanks fast vamp healing) were dotted with the silver earrings I’d been given as a joke by my sisters one year, and my hands were equally decked out in the anti-werewolf metal. The silver chain around my throat seemed like the perfect touch.
The bun I put all of my hair up in put everything on display. The bite wounds on my neck had finally healed, too. I was pretty sure Mav would miss seeing them there because of his possessiveness.
That aspect of my plan was simple:
What would an Alpha who hadeverythingwant?
Whatever he couldn’t have.
Assuming I didn’t accidentally get myself seduced in the process of making him want me more, I was going to make him want me enough to bite me by the time I needed more blood.
Hopefully.
Anyway, I woke Harper up and waited for her reluctant ass to put on the clothes I’d brought her.
No way in hell was I letting her stay home alone so she could ruminate on how much she wanted more blood. If she’d lost her job, I’d get it back for her. The werewolves needed me enough to make it happen, and she was amazing at her job anyway. If I was her, Steven would’ve been dead way sooner.
Okay, fine. I would’ve just quit.
I waited while she fixed her hair and put my colored contacts in—thank god her eyes had been brown before she turned, because it was difficult to make red eyes look the right shade of blue with contacts—then dragged her out the front door and down our apartment complex’s stairs.
It was only about a twenty-minute walk to the business sector.
“How’s your bloodlust?” I checked as we walked. The sidewalks were free of snow and ice, which was good.
“Um, manageable?” she mumbled, still half asleep. “Since when do you wear eyeliner?”
“Since I have ass to kick.”
“Does paperwork have an ass?”
“I wish I was talking about paperwork.”
She looked over at me in concern while I pulled her down the sidewalk toward our favorite coffee shop. “What are we doing?”
“Getting coffee.”
“We don’t leave this early to get coffee, Bloom.”
“I’m having a meeting over the coffee.”
“With who?”
She wasn’t going to like this part of the plan. I didn’t either. “Velour.”
She stopped abruptly. I continued pulling her with me, and she took tiny steps to slow our movement as much as possible. “I don’t want to see him again, Bloom.”
“You’re not going to. You’re going to wait outside. I hate the guy, but I need his help if I’m going to save your life. It’s the only way my plan will work.”
Harper resumed walking at a normal pace, so I didn’t have to drag her. “What’s the plan?”
