Bitten to Death

I don’t!

“Just so you understand, he’s mine,” insisted Phoebe.

“You got a glitch, there, Pheebes?” I asked her. “Because I’m pretty sure we’ve been over this.”

“Wolves mate for life,” she informed me. “It’s important for you to understand that he’s already chosen his mate.”

I looked up at Vayl, who’d remained silent through this whole exchange. “Did you hear that, boss? Wolves mate for life.”

“And Trayton has made you an honorary wolf.”

“Huh.” I looked at Krios. “Am I in this pack, or not?”

He spent some time silently communing with his people. More time while each of them came up to sniff me. Damned unnerving considering how easily they could tear me apart. Force another change on me that I honestly didn’t know if I could stand. “You are pack. But bottom tier,” he warned me. “No power. No vote.”

“Fine.” I looked up at Vayl and smiled, my face actually hurting from using muscles I hadn’t worked out in too long. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“This is so bizarre.”

“You’re telling me!”

“However . . .”

“It’s worth a try.” I turned to Krios. “Listen, you guys need to get out of here. A couple of the Trust vamps are out looking for you right now. And even though one of them is trying his best to avoid you, they still might stumble on to you. Where do you want me to drop Trayton off?”

We agreed to meet at a cemetery located in the oldest part of town around ten the following morning. As soon as the last of them disappeared into the trees, Vayl and I hurried back to Niall’s room to ask Trayton how werewolves worked out the mating ceremony. On the face of it, you wouldn’t think it would cancel out a Vampere binding. But, then, we weren’t discussing a math problem. Our idea was so strange, it just might work.

Chapter Nineteen

No way!” said Trayton. He didn’t even look away from the TV screen. His thumbs flew. Guns blared. Crap blew up. He was having the ultimate recuperation experience. And I wanted to strangle him.

“Why not?” I demanded as I sat on the chair beside him. I glanced over my shoulder at Vayl, who’d elected to stay by the door and play watchman. He shrugged. Let us go, he mouthed. I shook my head.

Trayton paused the game and dropped the controller onto his lap. Finally, his full attention came to me. Weird that he looked almost as pissed as I felt. “You can’t take something like this lightly!” he fumed.

“Am I laughing? Look, Vayl’s in a helluva spot, here. Disa’s got something malevolent planned and she’s put my boss front and center. You’ve been the victim of her plots. Would you want that to happen to anyone else?”

“That’s not the point! We don’t mate outside the pack. Okay, maybe sometimes, and actually Krios is one of the few alphas who would go for it. But mating is for life, and even I can tell the two of you aren’t ready.”

Suddenly Vayl was towering over the both of us. “What do you mean by that?” he demanded.

“You’re not partners.”

“What the hell?” I asked. “We’ve been working together forever.”

Trayton snorted. “See, you don’t even get it.”

In the silence I could almost hear the semi-farting sound of our ego balloons deflating. Vayl found his voice first. He spoke with the careful control of a man who’s trying hard not to rip off anyone’s head. “Explain yourself, boy.”

Trayton blew his hair out of his eyes. “It’s obvious. There’s plenty of hot going on between you two; even a rabbit with a cold could smell that. But there’s not nearly enough warmth for it to last. And you can’t have a lifelong love without a solid partnership to shore it up. Geez, how old are you?”

Vayl jerked his head at me so I’d follow him back to the door. “There is a word for children like him,” he hissed.

“Smartass?” I asked.

“Aha!” He shook a finger in my face. “As if someone like him, a mere boy, could tell me anything I do not already know!” He slapped himself on the chest to emphasize his point. Which made me laugh. “What!”

“You kinda reminded me of a gorilla just now with the pectoral poundage. You sure you’re not offended because maybe he’s figured something out in less than twenty-two years that you still hadn’t realized in nearly three hundred?”

His black glare made me wish I had something bulletproof and Jaz-sized to roll between us. “Why do you think I have not given you more than a single caress? Taken more than one kiss? When everything in me demands that I make you mine, what do I do instead? I talk. I listen. I wait.”

“For what?”

Uh-oh. The look again. The one that said I wouldn’t be so ignorant if I’d just pay attention. “I wait for you to believe I will not die like Matt did. To trust that I will always care for you, no matter what you do or say. To relax enough to swear, and cry, and share your innermost thoughts with me.” He shrugged. “For your friendship. You are, perhaps, right about me. I do need to put my old griefs to rest so that I can move forward to new joys. But even after that happens, I will still be marking time until you find a way to let me past that enormous steel door you keep closed against your heart.”