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Silence descended in the space. My heart was thundering. Her parents, both sets, had been taken from her. I would bet every feather I had that they’d been murdered.
“But I do have an older sister and her husband and kids,” she continued hastily, pressing on as though she didn’t want us to linger on the fact that she’d lost not one, but two sets of parents. Johnny and I glanced at each other, exchanging a knowing look. “They’re the best, and they encouraged me to go out and explore my options, especially since I don’t look like a fallen wolf, nor act like one. At least, not often.”
Johny frowned. “And you’ve been living with them? Are they wolves?”
Aria nodded, swallowing another mouthful of food. “Yeah. The alpha knows what I am.”
My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. “And he didn’t report you?”
“My adoptive parents were wonderful people, and the alpha feels like he owes my sister a debt for not being able to save them the night they were… they were, um, killed.”
Read: murdered. The night they weremurdered.
“And he justletyou leave the community for a job where heknewyou might be discovered as a half-blood, then sentenced to death just for existing?” I spat.
My question was a little more accusatory than I meant it to be, but for heaven’s sake. If you were choosing to harbor a classified abomination, I would fucking hope you’d have better common sense.
“He didn’t ‘let’ me do anything, Sariel. I’m a grown fucking woman,” she shot back.
“You’re not just a ‘grown fucking woman,’ though,” Johnny said carefully, moving to lean on the opposite side of the island. “You’re also a wolf… and one that shouldn’t exist.”
I nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Do you have any idea how valuable you are?”
She blanched. “I know the Council would—”
“Not just the Council, sugar,” Johnny interjected. “The black market, shifter trafficking rings, mad scientists. They would all go crazy for you. Not just your body, but even parts of it. Your blood, your hair, eyes, limbs. You’re a walking gold mine, Aria.”
The words rocked her. She paled to an alarming shade by the time he was done speaking.
“I— I mean—”
“Has no one told you any of this? Your alpha?” I asked.
“He’s not my alpha,” she corrected.
Johnny grinned. “Your dominance is an issue for him.”
Aria nodded jerkily. “We’re rarely in the same room,” she admitted. “I think I make him uncomfortable.”
“Of course you do,” I sighed. “You’re threatening the position of a man who has probably been alpha for close to seven decades.”
She frowned, pushing her plate away. “I don’t mean to do it,” she said softly. “My wolf just doesn’t consider him dominant enough.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face in frustration, abandoning my own food. “Let me get this straight. You don’t know anything about being a half-blood because the only danger they had the good sense to warn you about was the fucking Upper Council?”
“Maybe Sean doesn’t know—”
“Your alpha is Sean Homer?” Johnny gaped.
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “Why?”
I could only stare in silence as Johnny explained. “Because he’s been an alpha for over two centuries, sugar.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,oh,” I said. “Your wolf can’t be a day over fucking twenty-five, yet it’s making alphas over two-hundred-years-old nervous.”
She gulped, and silence filled the room.
