Page 72 of Bonded Through Bite

Fuck, that’s not much better.

“The pack needs your presence.”

“And I will attend to their needs soon,” I bark.

Usually, I’m good with pack politics and patience, but she’s really getting on my nerves right now.

“I could go scout the site again,” the muscle grumbles, shifting from foot to foot.

“You are not going anywhere without Mr. Moretti’s explicit approval,” I growl, putting some alpha oomph into my tone. “The pack has already offended his hospitality enough.” I’m happy that Henry’s beta gave a proper report when he called. Otherwise, I might have agreed with… “What was your name again?” I ask the muscle.

“Jere, Alpha Courtkenay,” he replies.

I nod my thanks. I might have agreed to Jere’s request. What possessed Henry to bring a witch onto vampire land unannounced, I don’t know. A witch with a concealment spell, no less. Talk about adding insult to injury. They were lucky that Moretti only took a sip and not her head.

“Alpha—”

“Shut up,” I say, forcing my tone to stay even, and lift my leg on an ottoman that Santiago nudges my way. The vampire is a decent bloke, for a hunter, and has no need to throw his weight around. I’m not sure which one of us would come on top in a fair fight.

Right then, Samantha stumbles into the room with a wide yawn. From the looks of it, she’s wearing a T-shirt and nothing else. Her short blue hair is sticking around, like she gave it a rough towel dry and then ran her fingers through it. Or he did.

Moretti follows her, wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt. There are several bite marks visible on his neck and shoulder and the bastard is showing them off.

“Not the witch,” Samantha mumbles and looks at Rafael expectantly.

“No. Wolves,” he replies and she relaxes. Ah, she expected the witch to be back.

“This is Jere.” I wave my hand at the man. “And this is…”

“Olivia,” the woman supplies when it’s clear I don’t remember her name. The look on her face sours. Ugh, more ruffled feathers.

“Olivia,” Samantha says and tilts her head. “You don’t smell like fucking potpourri.”

“What?” Olivia spits out. Both Santiago and Rafael chuckle at that.

“Good, neutral, or bad?” Rafael asks her and she sniffs harder.

“He’s yucky,” she says, pointing at Jere. “She’s neutral”—she points at Olivia—“and he’s good,” she finishes, pointing at me. “Not Santiago good, but who is?”

“Me?” Moretti asks with a painful expression and she shakes her head, smirking.

“Nothing beats lemon-meringue pie.”

“What the fuck is she talking about?” Olivia snaps.

“Watch your tone,” I grind out just when Moretti opens his mouth. He stays silent after my reprimand and nods. Olivia shuts her mouth but bristles.

“How are you? Is the leg hurting you?” Samantha asks, ignoring the others as she makes her way closer.

Olivia moves to intercept her and Samantha lets out a feral hiss that halts Olivia in her tracks. She’s unsure if she can take Samantha on and shows some sense, not inciting a fight.

“It’s going to take a couple of days before I’m running again, dove. Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I say and pat the sofa beside me.

Samantha sits down and proceeds to curl beside me and rest her head on my shoulder. I glance at Moretti and Santiago to see what they think about it, but neither of them shows a flicker of emotion, unlike Olivia, who is blushing furiously, and Jere, who’s fisting his hands.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Samantha whispers. It takes a moment for me to figure out what she’s apologizing for. She didn’t know about the bonding.

“It’s all right, dove. No harm done. I wouldn’t be up without you.” I don’t regret it, even if I might have made a different choice had I known… but her wound needed to be cleaned and I needed to start healing. If the beast had returned…