When I made it through, I released my breath and asked, “Are you giving me a head start?” I looked up into Jasper’s blue eyes, begging him to tell me the truth. “Or did you call him already?”
“Call who?” Jasper asked.
I wanted to scream in frustration. Instead, I gritted out, “Kane. Did you call Kane?”
A tangible thread of anger flowed through from Jasper, and a muscle ticked in his jaw. His words came out harsh. “Isn’t Kane Shipman your husband?”
“If by husband you mean that he fucking bought me, changed me against my will, and kept me as a prisoner for ten years.”
A sudden surge of fury erupted in Jasper, but the emotional tether between us broke off abruptly, and I could no longer feel him.
“There’s been a misunderstanding,” Jasper gritted out. “I know the man you’re running from—and, trust me, there’s not a single werewolf in Grayhaven that would piss on Kane Shipman if he was on fire. I can’t make you trust me, Teagan, but Grayhaven is probably the safest place in the world for you if you’re running from the Head Alpha of North America.”
I startled at Jasper’s words, and not because I believed them. I hadn’t heard someone say my name, my real name, in ten years. I was Omega when addressed directly and Kane’s wife when referred to in mixed company. On the run, I was Jane or Sylvia or Emily or some other of my favorite author’s names. The fact that this alpha knew my name scared the absolute shit out of me on so many levels. Half of me wanted to ask him how he knew and the rest of me wanted to get the hell out of this bar.
“Here.” Lucas reached over the bar and grabbed a napkin. On it, he wrote two addresses, below which he wrote, “Gift Certificate for one free set of hand stitches.”
“The first address is the packhouse,” he said. “The second is my downtown clinic, only a few streets over. If you don’t feel comfortable coming to our house, I’ll be at the clinic at seven-thirty tomorrow morning until five o’clock. As a veterinarian, I would recommend coming in sooner rather than later for that hand.” As I took the note, he said, “Your secret is safe with us. I can guarantee that.”
“Thank you.” I shoved the napkin into my back pocket. “Appreciate the gesture.”
Cradling my bloody palm, I headed deeper into the bar, beelining for the tall, pasty vampire named Clive. He leaned over the bar, smiling down at an older man who appeared mid-fifties and had what looked like a pair of horns nestled in his curly brown hair. Not having room in my thought process to contemplate the man’s horns, I held my bleeding hand between the pair. “Hi, Clive. Will you take the blood from a pre-existing cut as payment for a room?”
The vampire rose from his barstool in a fluid motion and his gaze narrowed in on my gash.
“Hmm... It looks to have torn several layers of tissue, though it’s not through any vital artery. Oh… your blood does smell like feral magic…” His dark eyes glowed as if illuminated by some inner flame as he licked his lips. Seeming to snap out of the trance, he glanced over to me and then over his shoulder toward the four werewolves who were still standing around the bar, watching us. His attention turned back to me, and the glow in his eyes had noticeably dimmed. Trading my blood for a room to stay in was probably one of the worst ideas I’d ever had, but vampire saliva cleaned and closed cuts instantly, and I needed a bed for the night. Win-win-win. And, I was out of options.
“Deal.” He reached for my cut, but I pulled my bloody wrist away.
“Room first, and it needs to have a working lock on the door. All locks must be operational from the inside, and there needs to be a deadbolt or something similar that can’t be unlocked from the outside.”
“All of our rooms have safety measures for the guests of that caliber,” he said. “We do not lock our guests in their rooms, on the contrary, we more often have issues with removing ones who do not keep up payment.”
“I have more terms here,” I said. “I’m only feeding you and only until this cut closes. I’m not an all-you-can-eat buffet for the vampires in town.”
“I agreed that it was a deal.” He rolled his head back on his neck and peered at me from down the length of his nose. “But you can’t press on your wound to stop the bleeding before we arrive at the hotel.”
“Oh, there will be bleeding. I have to dig glass out of my palm,” I said, holding the cut closer to him. “What time is check out?”
“Sunset tomorrow,” he said. “Or we can always come up with a further payment arrangement.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Sunset tomorrow was better than I expected. I could work with that.
“Do those werewolves know where your Inn is?” I asked with a nod back over my shoulder.
“Everyone knows where the Sanguine Inn is, it’s on the top of the hill, three blocks west.”
That wasn’t ideal if the alpha was lying about his feelings toward Kane. Kane had no shortage of enemies, but I didn’t know of a single one that wouldn’t hand me over in a heartbeat. On the other hand, this vampire Clive was clearly wary of the local pack, so he’d hopefully stick to the terms of our deal.
“Lead the way, vampire,” I gesture back to the door.
The werewolves hadn’t moved when I
