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“I haven’t taken a holiday in years. A decade, actually. So I think I am due for some time off. Besides, with you and Reece, I have all the backup I need for my beta. Jaymes can handle this. He can also step in at the office, given that he is my highest-ranking deputy.”
“When this falls to shit, remember this moment. When the vamps attack your home while you are too far to defend it, I want you to look back and remember this.” Atlas slapped him across the face. “Anything? Did that snap you out of it?”
Nero shook his head. “Nah, man. I’m done for. I made a promise to my mate, and there is no breaking that.”
Atlas shook his head. “Fine. I did what I could to talk you out of it.”
He grinned and rubbed his cheek. “You’ve got one hell of a bitchslap.”
“Only because you are being a bitch right now. Whipped by your mate, and she doesn’t even know what she is to you yet.”
“I don’t think that matters. One day, if you’re lucky, you’ll meet yours, and you’ll be willing to do anything to help her. To make her smile.”
Atlas waved him off. “Nope. You should know better than to think that. Never. Gonna. Happen.”
Nero shrugged and waved to his friend. “We’ll see.”
And that’s how, a sleepless night later, Nero was parked in front of Valentine’s cabin at dawn.
SEVEN
VALENTINE
Until Valentine spotted Nero’s truck in front of the cabin at dawn, she almost convinced herself that she had hallucinated the whole conversation.
The kiss, however, she was not thinking about.
No. Nope.Nooopie!
What mattered more than anything in the world right now was that someone … an alpha with resources out the wazoo and enough strength to kill a bear … was helping her.
Val was going to find Lilliane and drag her back home, kicking and screaming if that’s what it took. Nero might not be quite okay with that part of the plan, but she would deal with that when it came.
She wasn’t an idiot.
There would be a limit to what this wolf alpha would do for her.
He wouldn’t put his town or his pack … or his job, for that matter … in danger for her. She was nothing but a woman who sort of lived in his town, at least on the border of it.
There was every chance he was only doing this because Reece and Celestine were making him.
Not that Valentine understood how or why one alpha could order another one around, but she didn’t pretend to understand how packs worked.
Shit, she barely understood how the vampire council worked. Probably because, as a Half-Blood, she wasn’t exactly allowed to know everything. Or anything, to be honest. She was too much of a vampire for the humans and, tragically, too human for the vampires.
Maybe the answer, she thought wildly, was to be with a bunch of wolves. It nearly made her laugh manically, but she stopped herself just in time as Nero made his way up the cabin’s steps.
“Good morning,” Nero called out to her. He looked way too good for so early in the morning. He had obviously just showered, and his hair was still a bit damp. He smelled like body wash and the forest, and it made her mouth water. She would have liked to kiss him again.
Thatwas wild.
She wouldn’t kiss him. Ever. Never. Not again.
She had a sister to save, and if that was going to work, she needed to stay focused. More than that, she had to make sure Nero didn’t ditch her halfway through this little mission she had given herself.
If they kissed again, and Val refused to go further than a couple of kisses, he might change his mind about helping her.
Men were fickle. Wolves probably even more so because they had that whole wild animal thing going on. Valentine wasn’t taking that chance. She was smarter than to fall for a man. Any man.
