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Jaxson glanced down at me. “I’m so sorry. I knew you were a newer vamp, but I figured your maker had taught you about supernaturals.”
My temper flared, burning through the whirling disorientation of having everything I thought I knew about the world and my place in it stripped away. I shot up, meeting those now clearly wolfish amber eyes. “I’m so fucking sick of hearing that. You wanna know why my maker didn’t teach me anything? Huh?” My gaze bounced from Jax to BDD. Both backed away a few steps, startled by my sudden mood swing “She died. That’s why.” I stormed across the studio to grab some pants and yanked them over my shorts, then found some socks and my favorite pair of shit-kicking boots. I didn’t bother with a bra and spun around to meet their gazes once again, temper still hot. “Right after she turned me, Odette Laurent, one of the first vampires in the new world, died because of some stupid shit between King Titus and Julian. She died before she got to teach me anything and I had to figure everything out on my own. By myself. So, no. I didn’t know wolf shifters were a thing, or that vampires even have mates, but I guess that explains why my fucking pants want to explode every time I’m around Julian. But I’d appreciate it if everyone would stop bringing it up!”
I pushed past both men, neither of whom deserved my outburst. I turned to glare at them once I reached the broken front door. “I’m not mad at you two, I’m just mad, okay? And fix my door!” I yelled before blurring out into the pre-dawn stillness.
I expected they would follow. I was sure they’d find me at the next intersection and corral me back to wherever it was they thought I belonged. But with every street I crossed, every building I cleared without seeing them, that fear grew less and less.
Which pissed me off as much as it was a relief.
I mean, what the fuck was I supposed to do now?
The king’s mate?
What did that even mean?
I shook off the shudder of revulsion the word evoked. It sounded gross and possessive and broodmarish. Like nightmarish, only with breeding.
No, thank you.
I had signed up for exactly zero of this. Stupid turf wars and politics, diamonds that I couldn’t sell, and best friends that were actually wolves. This was not the plan!
But then, my plan had changed the moment King Titus took Odette’s life.
I’d come out of my transition an orphan. No one to ground me, no one to show me anything.
I’d been damn lucky to find a nest to take me in at all. But by then I was too far gone, and as much as they’d tried to curb my binge-drinking habits, I couldn’t. Despite giving me double the normal ration of blood, I still went to the streets and drank until I was blood-drunk.
My nest had kicked me out, hoping that time alone would either straighten me out, or…
That I’d get caught and the king would have to kill me for being a danger to our kind.
Luckily, I figured out how to handle my bloodlust before I’d caused enough damage to get myself staked, but the whole goddamn reason I’d chosen Odette was because she seemed so perfect. I wanted to learn from her because to me, she was the best example of vampirism.
But fucking Titus had taken her from me.
I paused at an intersection, glancing at the street sign. South Main? How had I ended up there?
I’d blurred all the way from my place uptown to the center of midtown on autopilot.
And I was about forty yards away from those big iron gates.
“That’s twice now.” The rumbly voice behind me was as irksome as it was erotic. I turned slowly, meeting Julian’s hazel eyes, willing myself not to peruse the rest of his face or body.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
A smile slowly spread across his face and some of the tension in my back and shoulders fell away. “It’s the second time you’ve had a problem and run straight to me.”
My jaw clamped shut, and I stepped fully into his space. “First of all, I had to convince myself to come here the first time, which I did only because there was a message specifically for you. And second, I didn’t even realize I was coming here, jackass.”
A low rumble rattled in his throat. A warning. Well, if he didn’t like being called a jackass, he shouldn’t act like one.
Julian still managed to smile when he said, “But you’re here nonetheless.”
I stepped back, hating that he was right and hating that I gave in and raked my gaze over his body. Same charcoal suit as earlier.
Earlier…
I scrutinized his clothes for the tells.
