Page 28 of Nightshade

“I understand,” I said. Leo had told me enough that . . . maybe I did. I didn’t like that keeping their pack safe meant I needed to go, but I understood it. I was fairly certain that on my own, I’d be caught in a matter of days, and I hoped it was by the witches and not Ivan himself. If I got desperate, I could always walk out into the morning sun and—well, that’d be better than going back, wouldn’t it? “I’ll be clear of pack territory by morning.”

Aleks didn’t say anything when he met my eye, but this—this was the easiest solution for him. As for the sadness and understanding that sparked in those blue irises, well, I wasn’t going to think about it.

After all, he’d said he’d never seen me with the witches, which meant he’d been there. He must’ve had some idea what they were like.

“That’s crazy,” Leo insisted, shoving between his brother and me. “We’re not sending him away.”

“It’s all right,” I said.

At the same time, Aleks’s cheeks hollowed and he frowned. “We don’t know how the pack will react, and loads of them weren’t too pleased to follow me to begin with.”

I reached out and touched Leo’s wrist. I didn’t know what I was thinking, other than I wanted him to calm down. It’d be all right. He didn’t have to put himself out there for me.

He turned his hand around and grasped my fingers tight. When he looked back at me, his eyes were steely and determined. He glared at his brother, and his jaw ticked.

“I fed him.”

“Leo—” I hissed.

He shook his head and glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “You don’t have to cover for this. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He stuck his chin out at Aleks. “I offered to feed him. He was starving, but he didn’t bite me until I said he could.”

All right, that was stretching the truth a bit.

If I’d been able to, I certainly would’ve fed from him with or without his consent.

Like he could read my thoughts, Aleks looked my way. “That true?”

I could only shrug, but I squeezed Leo’s hand tighter.

Why the hell was he doing this? He’d already fed me, seen me clothed. He’d even brought me that ridiculous book, which was rather melodramatic but . . . well, I didn’t mind the idea of an oversized wolf at my back, and the story held my attention.

“I told him that I would keep him fed, as long as he didn’t hurt our pack. He hasn’t, so I intend to keep my promise.”

The way Aleks tilted his head right then looked more like a curious bird than a person. On second thought, maybe a curious dog.

“You’d go with him?”

The cost of that choice seemed to fall on Leo slowly, layer by layer, slumping his shoulders. His brother, his mother who’d made the beautiful blanket, his pack—he couldn’t leave them.

“I don’t want to go anywhere,” he said tightly. “But we have our pack, and Altair has no one else to keep him safe.”

Well, that was a little bit absurd. I was a vampire. I was perfectly capable of keeping myself safe.

Or, if not perfectly capable, then somewhat capable.

All right, I was a fucking mess, but I hadn’t said as much aloud.

“You know what they’ll do to him, Aleks,” Leo whispered. “What they’ll keep doing to him.”

Aleks’s expression twisted, but it only took him a moment to master himself. I got the sense this wasn’t a conversation I was meant to be privy to.

“We can’t let him wander freely around the pack. He might hurt them, or they could hurt him. We don’t know, Leo. We’ve never dealt with a vampire before. He’s only been here, what, a couple weeks?”

“Days,” Leo corrected without missing a beat.

“How do you know we can trust him?”

“I can stay here,” I offered before Leo could admit he didn’t. “I won’t come near the rest of your pack.”