Jen shrugged. “I’m an equal-opportunity flirt.”
Decebel blew out a breath. “She’s trying to drive me to an early grave.”
“Dude, you’re ancient. Any grave you go to would certainly not be an early one. Not to mention, I’d die with you.” Jen looked at Sasha. “I’m actually harmless. I just like to keep my mate on his toes. Just don’t get too close and you’re all safe.”
“Wait.” Boris spoke up. “Why are we in danger?”
“Because if she flirts with you and you flirt back, I’ll kill you.” Decebel sounded bored, as if he’d said the same thing a thousand times. Maxim imagined he probably had.
“And what about her?” Sasha pointed at Decebel’s mate. “She started it.”
Jen bounced on the balls of her feet with a wicked grin. “Oh, I get punished.”
“Bloody hell.” Crina sighed as she ran a hand across her forehead. “Tell me what Fane was thinking when he sent her with us.”
“Entertainment.” Adam nudged his mate.
“Message received,” Alexsey said. “No one acknowledge that the blonde exists.”
“Finally.” Decebel nodded. “Somebody gets it.”
Jen shot her mate a glare and then gave Maxim’s beta the same look. To his credit, Alexsey didn’t step back, though he darted his eyes away. She was a very dominant female.
“With that business finished,” Decebel continued, “let’s get to the rest.” Once all eyes were on him, he explained the situation. He told them about the Order, their fall, and then everything that had happened afterward. He explained about the vampires and how they’d been taking dormant wolves as food. Children. Rumbles of snarls and growls filled the room from Maxim’s pack. They had no children in their pack. Children were sacred. To harm a child was a death sentence as far as Maxim was concerned. When Decebel made it to the hybrids, he looked at Maxim and Alice. “I’ll let your alpha take it from here.” Decebel sat back down and pulled Jen into his lap. She seemed subdued.Perhaps she’d decided she didn’t want anyone to die on her account. She winked at Maxim. Nope. That was not the reason. She was definitely trouble.
Maxim looked back at his pack. “Before I left, I’d been having dreams about my mate. I wasn’t sure that’s what it was. But my wolf was. Then Perizada and her mate, Lucian, showed up. They came to tell me my mate was in danger.”
“How’d they know who your mate was?” Ivan asked in his deep, rumbling voice. Instead of sitting, he stood tall with broad shoulders and muscular arms crossed over his barrel chest, leaning his shoulder against the wall by the stone fireplace. His shaved head and chiseled features gave him an intimidating presence, though his blue eyes held a gleam of curiosity. Dressed in worn jeans, heavy boots, and a leather jacket over a plain white tee, Ivan had the look of a seasoned warrior.
“How does anyone know something unknowable?”
“Seer, healer, Great Luna,” Sasha answered.
Maxim nodded. “I went with them because I wasn’t about to take a chance that this female was my mate and not help her. If she wasn’t, I’d still have been helping a gypsy healer, which you know are precious to our race.”
He paused. The rest of this was going to be difficult for Alice, and Maxim considered how much he actually needed to tell the pack.“There are some things only for you to know,”he told her through their bond. She gave a very slight nod but didn’t drop her chin. She stood proudly beside him, her arm pressed firmly against his, and he relished the touch.
“Alice was the prisoner of the vampire king, Cain,” Maxim told the group.
“Damn,” Katya muttered, brushing her dark hair away from her face.
Alice nodded. “Damn indeed.”
“Why? Because you are a healer?”
Alice shook her head at Alexsey. “He didn’t know I was a gypsy healer, and neither did I. I had no clue about the supernatural world until my father, who’s a colonel in the US military and an asshat, requested that I assist some scientists in a very hush-hush project.” When they stared blankly at her, she quickly explained. “I’m a genetic scientist. I work with DNA.”
Dimitri frowned. “What type of project?”
Alice took a deep breath and let it out. “Cain wanted to figure out a way to merge vampire blood with werewolf blood.”
“What the—” Katya hissed as others cursed.
“Impossible.” Alexsey shifted, leaning forward in his chair. “I assume he was unsuccessful.”
Maxim felt Alice’s shame.“None of that, Malishka,”he growled through their bond.“You didn’t know what you were truly being asked to do, nor did you have a choice.”
“I had a choice,”she argued. “There’s always a choice.”
