Shepherd’s pie turned out to be—surprise, surprise—a pie. But instead of cherries or apples, it had some kind of spicy ground-up meat and diced vegetables in it, with big poofy waves of browned mashed potatoes on top instead of whipped cream or meringue.
“Good?” Gage asked, as I shoveled down the generous wedge he’d put on my plate.
I nodded, swallowing. “I like it. Doesn’t taste like hamburger, though.”
He pulled out a chair and sat across from me. “It’s ground lamb. That’s why they called itshepherd’spie. Drink your electrolytes.”
I paused, not sure how I felt about eating a fluffy little lamb ground up in a pie. Then I decided I was too hungry to care, andI went back to scarfing it down like a starving coyote—pausing every few bites to drink some of the sports drink, which was red this time.
As promised, Heath didn’t make an appearance. But as I was finishing up seconds, Knox did.
My fork clattered to the plate as my shoulders stiffened abruptly in surprise.
He came in and pulled out a third chair, sitting down and making himself comfortable as though he owned the place. Which, in his defense, hedid.
“Hello again, Jez,” he said. “I apologize for interrupting your meal. There are some logistics we need to discuss, though.”
The mouthful of shepherd’s pie I’d been chewing suddenly tasted like dry cardboard. I had to force myself to swallow it down.
“What... kind of logistics?” I asked cautiously. He still didn’tseemmad... but heshouldbe mad.
“We’re all kind of working on the assumption that you’ll choose to break the mating,” he said, without any detectable judgment in his tone. “Which generally means a glandectomy. That, in turn, means finding a good surgeon and getting sucked into the medical system. For most people, that wouldn’t be a problem. But for you...”
He trailed off.
“What about me?” I demanded, unable to keep the defensiveness out of my voice.
“Do you have any sort of legal identification?” he asked. “Birth certificate, social security card, state ID, passport?”
I scoffed. “Of course I don’t. As far as the authorities are concerned, my life ended when I was thirteen. And that’s the way I like it.”
“I’d figured that might be the case,” Knox said. “And while that’s certainly your choice, it’s going to make scheduling a glandectomy challenging, to put it mildly.”
I huddled back in the chair, wrapping my arms around myself protectively. “I can find someone to do it.”
There were always people for stuff like that... just like you could find someone to stitch up a wound or do a clothes-hanger abortion, if you knew who to talk to.
“You arenotletting some back-alley butcher hack out your mating gland,” Gage said, seeming to grow taller and broader in his chair as he puffed up with alpha indignation. “Jez. What if they miss part of it, or they use dirty tools and you get an infection?”
I didn’t want to think about this. I didn’t want to think about letting someone cut out my mating gland,period. Whether it was in some sterile operating room that cost tens of thousands of dollars, or in a shady back room that cost a couple of grams of cocaine.
The barrier in the back of my head rumbled ominously again.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I told Gage tightly.
“That’s understandable,” Knox said. “Nevertheless, I’d like you to consider letting me get you set up with legal documents and a new identity to ease the way. The fact that you’re mated to one of us simplifies things, but I’m afraid it will still take some time to arrange. Even so, I think you’ll find using a licensed doctor much safer and less traumatic than the alternative.”
An image of the back-alley hack job I would otherwise have to endure wavered in my mind’s eye, urging me not to dismiss the offer out of hand.
“I’ll... consider it,” I said warily.
Knox nodded. “That’s all I ask. There’s just one other thing. I know you’re still recovering physically, but you and Heath need to talk to each other sooner rather than later.”
“No,” I said immediately.
“Not yet,” Gage amended, and I glared at him.
“Soon,” Knox said, with the implacable certainty of a pack alpha. “In the meantime, the pack will provide you with anything you need. Just make a list.”
