“N-nothing.” Max coughed. “So who’s up for a little kidnapping and starting an inter-pack war?”
Riley wasn’t surprised when Max and Paz were the only ones to raise their hands.
CHAPTERTWENTY
If Kraft hadn’t known better,he’d think Max was sensing a connection between him and Riley. The lycan kept shooting looks at them, then at Paz.
For such a powerful demon, the kitten seemed to have failed on his promise. Kraft told him so while Max went outside to talk to Ivan.
I did no such thing,Paz said after Riley had left to go pick a fight as a distraction.Max is a lot more powerful than he appears. I fear that nose of his scented your bond, which I’ve hidden inside myself. It’s not gone from you and the berserker, exactly. Just temporarily moved.
“Then what the hell good was it? Ha. This totally gives me the right to name the date and location of your fight.”
It does not, you cheating nachzehrer scum.
“I can eat you, you know, and no one will care.”
Kaia will! And Orion, that big dope, loves me!
The demon had a point, but Kraft wanted their deal amended. He anticipated problems if Paz got to decided when and where to steal into Kraft’s body. And Kraft still couldn’t be sure the demon would leave afterward as promised. He really needed their Bloode Witch’s help. He would have asked Kaia, but she was too new to being a sea witch to know how contract deals were made.
Kraft pretended to be sure of himself. He was a vampire, after all. “Look, Paz, your terms were that our bond would be hidden.”
From her, not everyone on the planet.
“You didn’t make that clear.”
Not my problem.
“Neither is your access to my body.”
Stupid wolf.Paz seethed, growling low, his fur standing on end as he hissed and spat at Kraft, dancing around on his tiny paws as he tried to scare Kraft with a ridiculous amount of cuteness overload.
Max entered and saw the spitting cat. “Ah, I see you’re spreading that famous vampire charm around.” He shook his head. “Come on, Kraft. Riley and Ivan are instigating trouble with some Wildridge soldiers while our beta watches with stern disapproval. Now’s your time to sneak the lying Antonia into Riley’s cabin. I’ll be waiting there. If she sees me with you, she won’t come.”
“I won’t give her a choice.” He caught the scarf Max tossed him. “Hers, I take it?” Kraft took a whiff and smelled lycan and lemons and a touch of...sky? And there, underneath, Max.
“Yeah. She’s currently down by the mercantile. Hurry up.” Max grabbed Paz off the table and ignored his hissing. “Come on, kitty. We’ll have a front row seat in Riley’s place.” He leaned closer to Paz and whispered, “And you can explain why you smell like my cousin mated with a vampire.”
Perhaps I will at that.Paz sneered at Kraft before the pair left.
Kraft didn’t trust the demon, though he was coming to like him. The little bastard saw too much and hoarded information like a revenant. When pissy, he turned into a bundle of furry fury. Laughing at the thought, Kraft drew on the innate power of his kind and clung to the shadows, able to go unnoticed. The gift worked on humans every time, but some magir could see the truth no matter how vampire magic tried to obscure it.
He made sure to stay away from the lights in town, turned into his wolf for stealth, and followed the scent of the scarf to the Mercantile, as Max had said. Once there, he shifted back into his vampiric form and waited.
Antonia Wildridge stepped out of the store and slid between buildings, so as not to be seen.
Interesting.
Kraft watched her mother and a few other lycans exit and look after her.
“Antonia! Girl, where did you get to?” Beatrice yelled. “I don’t smell her. Do you boys?”
The hour had passed four in the morning, yet the streets remained busy, lycan life attuned to night and daylight hours. With so many foreign packs close by, he imagined the Crimson Claw pack keeping a tight watch on their town.
Kraft moved swiftly toward the alleyway Antonia had disappeared into and nearly ran into her when she shot out in a run in direwolf form. Before she could bark, yip, or howl to give them away, he clamped a hand over her muzzle, locked down his hold over her panicked attempts to escape, and murmured, “Riley needs to talk to you.”
A bet that Riley’s name would get him cooperation, whereas Max’s would have gotten more struggling. The lycan went limp and let him haul her with speed to Riley’s cabin.
