He hesitated. “All of them.”
Chapter 30
Hadriel
When the alpha and his oblivious main squeeze were finished, Aurelia emerged with a red face, trying to look natural; Weston emerged like it was just another day and he did not care in the least that we’d all been sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, waiting for them. We’d all had lunch and they grabbed a quick bite before we settled back into formation and got under way.
They didn’t say a word about who’d come out the victor, but Aurelia didn’t take one of Granny’s products that night. It wasn’t until the next night that she finished her dinner, gave the alpha a poignant look, and headed toward the tent.
“What am I missing?” Unfortunately, I now sat with the alpha for dinner because she wanted to be near him, and I wanted to be near her. My friend was still ten times more interesting and fun than these yes-men. I loved her more than ever now that she’d basically told the alpha to fuck off. I was not a proud man and could admit I also used her as a shield. “What’s she doing?”
He didn’t comment. Face grim and manner resolute, it became clear that Aurelia had gotten her way. He followed her to the tent.
“Oh, this is a bad idea,” I mumbled to myself, shoving the rest of my dinner in my face and practically throwing my plate at Burt. “A wary wad idea,” I mumbled through a full mouth.
Gazes turned her way and then mine as I hurried after her.
“Tell me she’s not going to do another one.” Nova popped up. “Tell me he is not letting her do another one.”
But it was clear that she was. And he was.
“Hadriel, what is she thinking?” Nova followed me.
“Do I look like a headstrong-woman whisperer to you?” I hissed as I reached the tent. Aurelia was pulling out the various products still in her possession and the alpha was sitting on the cot, watching her quietly.
“Just in case tempers were running high yesterday...” I inched in slowly, the image of her lying on the ground in the mayor’s house—deathly pale, slipping away—haunted me. I don’t think I’d ever felt the panic and helplessness I’d felt when my newest friend and latest charge had barely clung to life. “In case maybe one of us is smitten and not thinking clearly around the other one of us...” The alpha’s stern look had me hesitating. “Are we absolutely sure that this is the best thing to do? Didn’t we rummage through all your half broken and very odd supplies yesterday evening, Aurelia? Didn’t we decide one or two would work well enough for you to analyze the waxy stuff we are now calling petrified troll snot?”
“You’re the only one calling it that.” She picked out the product she wanted and stuck her nail underneath the sticker holding the packaging together.
“Fine, but didn’t we decide that would work?”
“Yes. And it will.” She turned the item over again and studied the fluorescent yellow, pillow-shaped item. “Horrendous. Whois choosing these colors? I wouldn’t eat an actual piece of candy if it looked like this.”
“Right. Then maybe we should?—”
She chucked the thing into her mouth and I issued a high-pitched shriek I didn’t know I was capable of making.
“Fucking shit-warts, what the fuck, Aurelia?” I yelled at her.
“Careful how you speak to my—to her,” the alpha said in a growl that was not nearly as scary as Aurelia having just popped that thing into her mouth.
“Spit it out, my darling! This is crazy!” I nearly ran at her and tried to pry the thing out of her mouth. “Alpha, have some sense. Remember when you dug your fingers into her mouth and tried to pry out—damn it, she’s swallowing. Slap a cock, she’s swallowing! I’m so fucking distraught I can’t even joke about her swallowing!”
“Missed opportunity,” she said, packing away the rest of the products.
“A real fucking missed opportunity, yes. You know how angry it makes me when that happens. Okay, what should we do? How long do we have before we know if you’ll be okay or not?”
She gave me a long-suffering look. “Since when are you as overbearing as he is?” She hooked her thumb at the alpha.
“Since I’ve realized I have way more sense than you do, obviously.” My voice was too high and erratic. “This is dumb. I hate this.”
She rolled her eyes and made her way past me, finding a collection of people waiting outside the tent.
“Good gods,” she muttered, passing them.
“I feel like one of us doesn’t quite remember the near-fatal episode you had with those drugs.” I followed her.
“I took one the day before yesterday and no one was any wiser. It should be out of my system by now. I’ll be fine.”
