>>Bring a few spools to HQ with you?
Heaving a sigh, I figured this was as close to divine intervention as I was likely to get.
>Where do I get them?
Bishop had the address ready to copy/paste in seconds, no surprise, and I promised to play fetch.
A 3D printer was all fun and games until enthusiasm outlasted the machine’s ability to keep pace with Bishop’s imagination.
“Midas?”
“Nah.” I glanced up to find Claudia leaning over my shoulder for a glimpse at the screen. “Work.”
“You’re not so different from an alpha.” She took another shot. “The city’s not so different from a pack.”
“You’re right.” The slight blurriness in her eyes concerned me. “I’m not, and it’s not.”
“No wonder Midas settled on you.”
The word settled pricked my ego, but I told myself that my insecurities were tainting her intent.
For someone wanting to drill me about how to land a mate, she hadn’t asked me a single question.
“I prefer to think I settled on Midas, but sure.”
“Tisdale doesn’t like me much.” She claimed my empty seat. “I get why, I do, but…have you ever been so afraid of paying what you owe that your purse strings shrivel right up?”
“Yeah.” An unexpected wave of kinship swept through me. “I have.”
“I did have designs on Midas, but not for the reasons you might think.”
A twist in my chest bumped my voice an octave. “Oh?”
“I wanted out,” she explained. “He was my ticket to the good life.”
Before I could tell her I didn’t exactly regret him not punching her ticket, she had another drink in hand.
“I was a pack princess.” She lifted her glass to the light. “I stood by and watched my father ruin us. When I was a kid, I had an excuse. I couldn’t have taken him. You know how gwyllgi dominance fights go. They’re brutal.” Her lips trembled. “But I’ve been grown for a long time now and continued to do nothing.”
“He was your father.” I met her gaze, which startled her, then held it. “Family makes it complicated.”
“Truer words.” She set the still-full glass back on the counter. “I gave Midas a hard time earlier, it’s what he expects from me, but I have to bring new blood into my pack, and he would never leave Atlanta.” She flashed me a quick, almost shy grin. “Or you.”
“Hey.” I had an idea. “Explain this mating business to me. Both fated and chosen.”
“You mean you don’t know?” Her eyes widened. “He didn’t tell you?”
“We’ve had our hands full lately.” I grimaced. “I get the broad strokes, but I want the nitty-gritty.”
Absorbing that, she tilted her head in thought. “You know how the whole soul mate thing works?”
“It’s a wargs-only club for the most part, right?”
“Yes.” She chewed her bottom lip. “There are a few gwyllgi with warg bloodlines only a few generations back who experience it, but it’s rare. Incredibly rare. You’d know if you and Midas were one of the lucky ones.”
Mood deflating, I had to ask, “How would I know?”
“It creates a bond, a magical tether, that joins your soul to his.”
Jaw dropping, I debated marching back to the Faraday and smacking Midas for his secret-keeping.
Unless Claudia was wrong. Or lying. Either of those would make me happier than I was now.
Like everyone else, she had wanted Midas for reasons that had nothing to do with who he was but who his mother was, and that was all kinds of messed up in my opinion. He deserved better. I loved him, for himself and only for himself, but he deserved better than me too.
I had more baggage than Hartsfield-Jackson, and Atlanta’s airport was the busiest in the world.
But he loved me.
And I…I was so far past ever letting him go.
“Otherwise, mating is marriage without the dress, rings, or cake.”
Snorting out a laugh, I teased her, “None of the fun stuff?”
“Basically.” She rolled her eyes in agreement. “I did see a guy go down on one knee once, but mostly the mating is assumed in more traditional packs. A couple sticks together long enough, and bam. Their scents entwine, their lives mingle, and the pack views them as a mated pair. End of story.”
“Like a common-law marriage.”
“The only exception to the rule is with alphas and future alphas. They’re expected to put on a show.”
“Oh joy.”
The ringmaster of our show would be Tisdale, I had no doubts on that score.
Yet another tidbit Midas had neglected to share with me.
Probably out of fear I would suddenly catch the flu.
Again.
Frak.
“What did I miss?” Ares rejoined us. “Sorry it took so long. I fell asleep on the toilet.”
“Thanks for sharing.” I offered her the shot on the counter before me. “Maybe this will help?”
“Can’t hurt.” She tossed it back, and her eyes watered as she coughed out, “What the hell is that?”
“Paint thinner,” Claudia told her with a wink for me. “You guys are heading out?”
“Yeah.” I checked the time on my phone. “I have to get to work.”
“Do you think…?” Claudia studied her hands. “Would you like to grab dinner one night?”
The ache in her voice, the dip in her chin, the fact she couldn’t meet my eyes as she asked cemented an answer before I considered the ramifications. “Sure.”
“We can make it a girls’ night.” Ares invited herself. “I’ll need a day or two to catch up on sleep first.”
“That would be great.” Claudia jerked me into an impulsive hug. “Text me the time and place?”
“Sure.” Passing over my phone, I let her enter her contact information. “See you later.”
Once Ares and I cleared the bar and crossed the street, I gave her a bland look. “Girls’ night?”
“Tisdale would murder me in my sleep if I left you alone with Claudia.”
“She seems nice enough.”
“Her dad was nice enough too, once upon a time.”
“Sins of the father, really?”
“Claudia was his beta. A lot of the blood on his hands is on hers too.”
I had no room to talk. I had done terrible things. I had blood on my hands that would
