Page 42 of Bad Blood Alpha

Chapter 16

Kira chose a path out of the clearing at random. It didn’t go far—just about fifty feet to where two trailers sat side by side. One was a normal-looking single-wide. The other had an expanded front porch with some kind of tent cabana erected on it. And…was that a tiki bar on the other end?

On the ground in front of the cabana was a giant kiddie pool—over two feet deep and about fifteen feet across—with a semicircle of sand around it. A miniature beach. It even had a couple of chaise lounges and an umbrella.

Kira just shook her head. This was the weirdest crew she’d ever seen. Not that she hung out with many shifter crews—and the ones she had worked with had been mercenaries or security crews.

But still. Weird.

There was a shelf of liquor bottles in the bar. Just sitting out in the open, where anyone could take some. Kira found a mostly-full bottle of vodka and sloshed it around, contemplating. They made vodka from potatoes, and potatoes were breakfast food.

Close enough.

She sat down on the edge of the porch with her legs dangling and opened the bottle, taking a swig.

It warmed her all the way down to her belly. She knew it was fake warmth, but she didn’t care.

She’d never be part of this crew. She’d never have what they had. And now she’d made it so Flynn couldn’t have it either.

Maybe she’d just sit here and have some quality pity time, while she waited to see if the visions would hit. And if they did, if she could have them without her brain turning to mush and dribbling out her ears.

If she could, then she’d done what she came here to do. She could find the dragon and the woman. Save them, without involving Flynn. That would be one useful thing she’d done in her life.

If not…did she really have the right to stick around here and expect Flynn to have sex with her some more, on the off chance it would help?

She shivered. She’d give almost anything for another night like last night.

Right. And if Flynn had managed to escape bonding with her permanently, she should just go ahead and risk it again.

Yup. Selfish princess bitch.

She’d been sitting there for about ten minutes, wallowing, when she saw Xander coming down the path, carrying a covered plate of food.

“Hey,” he said. “Flynn was looking for you. He thought maybe you ripped a hole in space and vanished.”

He wasn’t so far off. She’d thought about it. “He thought?” she said. “Or hoped?”

Xander eyed her, then set the plate down next to her, pulling some silverware wrapped in a napkin out of the back pocket of his black jeans. “See for yourself.”

“I’m already having breakfast,” she said, holding up the bottle. “Liquid potatoes.”

“Dude. You’re like, Flynn’s perfect woman. Except he likes whiskey for breakfast.” He nodded toward the plate. “But on Sundays it’s pancakes. Eat.”

Kira gave in. She lifted the cover, and the plate held two giant pancakes in the shape of dragon heads, with horns and big fangs and chocolate-chip eyes, with a side of bacon.

She bit her lip. “Did Flynn do these?”

“Yup. I told him I saw you go this way, and he would have brought them out himself but he got a phone call. Well, okay, he probably wouldn’t have brought them to you. He probably would have just yelled from the front porch.”

That sounded more like Flynn. “Does he make everybody animal pancakes?”

“No,” Xander said. “Only Brandon.”

But he’d made some for her. Why did that suddenly make her want to cry?

Xander jumped gracefully up onto the porch and went behind the bar. Kira heard the mini-fridge open, and he came back with two small bottles of orange juice. He sat beside her, opened one orange juice, took the vodka bottle from Kira, and poured some into the juice. “You can’t just have potatoes for breakfast.” He handed the doctored orange juice over to her.

She put it down to take a bite of her dragoncake. “Oh my god,” she said. “These are amazing.”