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“Of course.” Ava raised her glass to her lips, but her gaze followed Sebastian until he disappeared from the room.
“You’re in love with my husband,” Sophia said flatly.
Rage burned in Ava’s eyes, and her cheeks pinked. “I highly respect my alpha, just like we all do. You wouldn’t understand that the way you talk to him all the time.”
Sophia took another sip of her drink and shrugged. “I speak my mind. Sebastian appreciated that trait from the first day I met him.”
“Call it what you want, but it amounts to treason.”
Sophia choked. “Treason? You can’t be serious. I’m not like y’all.”
“And you never will be. You’re only human.”
“That’s supposed to be an insult? Fail.”
Ava took a step closer to her but stepped back just as quickly. The entire room had gone silent. Every person watched them, but no one sought to end the argument. Sophia peeked at the women to her right and noted an expression of triumph in the expression of one.
“Well, we know one person who won’t be considered for Guard,” the woman said loudly.
Ava flushed to the roots of her flaming hair. She straightened and tried to look sorry. “I apologize if I stepped out of line.”
“If you did?” Sophia laughed. “Whatever.”
Sebastian returned, and everyone rushed to pretend to be lost in conversations with friends. He cleared his throat, and silence prevailed a second time. He faced them all.
“Sophia and I are going to interview across the hall. I’ll call in groups of you and narrow
down who will be the next members of my Guard and who will make up hers.”
A ripple of excitement passed through the crowd. Sebastian pressed a hand at her lower back to lead her from the room. He called over his shoulder to Ava, and she followed. When they got to the room, which Sophia had noted earlier was a sitting room, Michael and Tom were already there. Alex walked with them.
Sophia stopped just inside the door and held a hand up in front of Ava before she could enter. “Hold on. Why is she coming? Is she one of your Guard?”
“No, she’s not. She’ll be the first member of yours.”
Sophia shut the door in Ava’s face and heard the woman’s cry of outrage. She ignored it to turn to her husband. “I thought you said we are going to be interviewing for our Guard. How are you choosing my first one?”
“Trust me, Sophia. Ava is an excellent fighter and fiercely loyal.”
“To you maybe, but I get the feeling she’d push me in front of a bus if she could get away with it.”
Alex didn’t like that opinion, but she wasn’t talking to him. She put her hands on her hips and craned her neck to glare up at Sebastian. He wasn’t getting away with forcing her to accept Ava. She didn’t care if the woman was an Olympic medalist in shifter gymnastics.
“Outside,” Sebastian ordered his men.
The men didn’t move. “Sir, we can’t—” Alex began.
“That’s an order or are you looking to be replaced, Alex?”
The shifter looked from Sebastian to Sophia. Her husband’s countenance darkened.
“Alex, are you insinuating that I have to be protected from my wife? Or that I can’t protect myself should she get notions?”
Alex colored. “Of course not. Guys, let’s go.”
They shuffled out of the room, and Sebastian shut the door behind them. He paused watching her, but she spun away and put distance between them. For a few minutes neither of them spoke. She tried to get her emotions together. Was this the opportunity she was looking for, getting him alone? No, not with all those shifters at the house. The hunters might have a hard time dealing with them, and it wasn’t like she could whip out her phone right there with Sebastian so close and call Jack. The plan was starting to sound shaky at best.
“Sebastian.”
