Page 95 of Blood and Trouble

“You’ll need to mark me back,” Lycan explained, “for the bond to fully form.”

“Is that what you want?” Poe snapped.

“Is that what you want?” Lycan retorted.

“Don’t answer a question with a question,” Poe replied.

“Why? You fucked my wife and bit her neck. I think I deserve a little leeway.”

“And then you marked me,” Poe said. “You didn’t even ask⁠—”

“I want both of you,” I said, mostly to distract them. They obviously had a lot of things to work out between them, but if I didn’t get the upper hand in the conversation, we’d be here all night. “I think I’m supposed to be with both of you. I think you’re supposed to be with each other. We’re all supposed to be together.”

My confession was met with a heavy silence that sucked all the air out of the room. Lycan ran a hand over his face, and Poe made a humorless laughing sound.

“Matings don’t work like that,” he said. “Shifters are notoriously possessive. Two dominant males have been known to tear each other apart to get to their female, and two females?” He blew out a breath and shook his head. “Anyone who thinks males are more ferocious has never seen two female shifters in a fight.”

I opened my mouth to argue, to insist that my wolf understood this situation better than any of our human sides, but Lycan’s phone rang and stopped my train of thought. He reached into his pocket and answered when he realized it was Kodiak.

“Hey,” Lycan said. “What’s the plan?”

“I’m sending Orion and a team to you. I’ve managed to secure a Harlot and her warrior for the trip,” he said. “Everything you’ve already done falls apart if you don’t get Scott, so we have to risk confronting her there. Head to London. It was the next stop on the tour, and Evelyn will expect you to go there.”

Lycan pinched the bridge of his nose. “So we’re drawing her out?”

Kodiak paused, perhaps sensing what Lycan wasn’t saying. We were bait. I was bait.

“She’s been tracking you for weeks, and we don’t know how,” he said. “There’s a Bastards chapter in London who will let us use one of their townhouses in St. Albans as a base. Orion will be there tomorrow morning. I can’t send Morwyn. We’ve got too many shifters in the medbay, but Aquila’s been showing signs of the healing gift. I’m sending him instead. Pack up your shit and hit the road. Keep a low profile.”

“We still have our emergency kits,” Poe said, pushing to his feet. “I’ll get Locust and Bow.”

“Turn your phones off,” Kodiak said. “Reach out to Orion from the burner when you get there.”

“Got it,” Lycan said. “Did Channing dig up anything else about Evelyn’s background or why she’s on this manhunt?”

Kodiak sighed, and Poe stiffened next to the bed.

“We’re working on it,” he said. “I’ll fill you in when I know more.”

“Thanks, Prez,” Lycan said before he hung up. Then he looked at me and pursed his lips. “Do you think you can ride?”

“I’m not even sure I can sit upright by myself.” I was healing quicker than I normally would. I already felt better than I did when I first woke up, but London was thirteen hours away. I couldn’t sit on a bike that long.

“We’ll get a car,” Lycan said.

“Two. If anything screwy happens, Locust and Bow can peel off,” Poe agreed and walked into the living room with his phone in his hand, already shooting off directions for the rest of our security detail.

Lycan leaned down to help me up, scooping one arm under my knees and the other around my shoulders. Fresh cedar floated off him, and I tucked my head into the crook of his neck to breathe it in deep. He chuckled and tutted.

“Don’t start that now, Trouble,” he said. “You’re hurt, and my restraint is paper thin.”

“You still smell good,” I said.

He put my feet on the ground and kept one arm around my back to stabilize me, but I could stand. I could walk. That didn’t mean it felt great.

“Shit, are you alright?” he asked at my grimace.

“I’ll live,” I said, testing a step. When I didn’t pass out from the agony, I tried another. And another. It was slow going, but I wasn’t completely useless. Lycan paced around the room, grabbing what little we’d managed to take from the cabin in Copenhagen.