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“I can, but not on a whim,” I answered. “It’s mostly when my wolf feels like it. And I feel when a shift comes on, even though she sometimes takes control too fast for me to be prepared.”
Johnny frowned. “Hm. It’s almost like you’re cohabitating with a full-blooded wolf instead of sharing consciousness and power.”
“I guess? But a full-blooded wolf still wouldn’t be more dominant than an alpha with two hundred years of experience keeping wolves in check under his belt.”
Johnny nodded sagely. “True. But you don’t follow the laws of nature. You’re an abnormality, according to the Upper Council.”
“I’m sure the Upper Council must realize that it is unreasonable to want to control who people can procreate with. That’s insanity.”
“It’s not the first insane notion I’ve ever heard from them.”
I waited patiently for him to expound.
“Technically, we each have a fated mate,” he started. “A partner created by Him that fits us perfectly. They’re our soulmates, and at one point, the Upper Council only sanctioned matings and unions between people who’d found their fated mates.”
I frowned. “But… that makes no sense. There are too many fucking people on this planet.”
“Exactly. But that’s not why we haven’t heard of it in forever. The first interspecies fated mate bond was recorded five hundred years ago, and the Upper Council was thrilled… until the pair started having superpowered babies with more power in their pinkies than the Upper Council combined.”
“No,” I breathed.
Johnny chuckled. “They banned fated pairings between two people of different species, and then, when people eventuallystopped talking about it, they banned having relationships with people outside of your species altogether.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“This is all according to hearsay, but fated mates knew almost immediately when they found each other. The attraction was supposedly insane and uncontrollable; some mates even tried denying their connection, but found it impossible in the long run. Even if they traveled to the other ends of the Earth, they’d miraculously end up in the same place within weeks of each other.”
I didn’t like the way he was staring at me, his dark eyes glinting with a sort of knowing that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with.
“So, Azazel is after you, and pretty soon, the Council will be, too,” he stated. “Which, if I’m being honest, isn’t ideal.”
I swallowed. “Right.”
Johnny’s phone alarm made me jump. He pulled the device from his pocket. “Shit. Gotta go into the office.”
He stood and stretched, giving me a glimpse of his tattooed stomach. For one insane second, I thought about what it might be like to be attracted tohim, not his best friend. Maybe life would be more straightforward. “Overseas clients are a pain in my ass, but the money is glorious.”
He left twenty minutes later, eyeing Sariel and me with the seriousness of a parent leaving his troublemaker children home. “Be good,” he instructed.
When his car pulled away, I went in search of the guest bedroom. I collapsed onto the queen-sized mattress with a heavy breath when I found it.
Exhaustion hit me like a train. My muscles were sore, and my head pounded so hard, I was suddenly dizzy. There was too much on my mind, though; I couldn’t get it to be quiet longenough for me to fall asleep. Everything I’d learned over the last few hours was combining, turning my brain into a madhouse.
I could hear Sariel moving around outside, his footsteps light but not undetectable.
I stared at the ceiling for a few more minutes before sitting up. The room was gorgeously painted a shade of blue that was a mix between periwinkle and sky blue, with mahogany furniture and the four-poster bed I was currently sitting on. There were two doors to my left, likely leading to the bathroom and walk-in closet, and huge windows on one side of the room, all covered by a wispy sheer curtain that barely concealed the reflecting light of the rising moon.
At the foot of the bed sat Sariel’s duffle.
I narrowed my eyes at the unassuming black bag.
Something thudded outside the door, and I flinched. Suddenly, paranoia began to grow in my gut like a weed. The cumulation of everything Sariel and Johnny had told me hit the cognitive parts of my brain at last.
There would be people looking for me. If Azazel knew, then the Upper Council knew, and they were ruthless.
I’d once followed a story about the Upper Council putting a bounty out on a serial killing fallen-blood wolf, dead or alive. His head had shown up on the doorstep of the Upper Council’s High Priestess within the hour.
The vast windows lost their beauty immediately. I was yanking the door open before I could stop myself. My breath came in heavy pants as I stumbled out of the room.
