“You think I might be able to adjure Lacey before she can tell anyone else?” I asked, feeling crestfallen. I eyed the shot on the counter. Maybe I did need it, after all.
“Not likely.” Lindsey snorted. “I’m sure the entire pack knows by now. Hell, even the human townsfolk are probably going to start asking you when the wedding is.” She paused and gave me a meaningful look. “Besides, adjuring members of your pack for petty reasons isn’t a good idea. That way lies trouble. And lots of it.”
She wasn’t wrong. Jeremy doing exactly that as alpha is what had gotten us into our current mess, after all. A monster on the loose, a weakened pack, and an inexperienced alpha who didn’t have a single clue what he was doing.
“Fine, I’ll have one drink.”
“Excellent choice.” She beamed at me, but there was a speculative look in her eye I didn’t like at all. We downed our shots. The whiskey burned, but it was a good heat.
She poured another.
I immediately grabbed it and tipped it back.
That’s when she hit me with, “He’s your mate, isn’t he?”
I choked, barely managing to swallow.
“Sorry,” she winced. “I could have timed that better. But it’s true, isn’t it?”
With wide eyes, I stared at her. “Did Lacey tell you that?”
“No, she just thinks you got some action. Jeremy called to warn me that there was about to be a little drama afoot. He’s the one who told me that Harris is your fated mate.”
“He could have called me directly.”
“You aren’t answering his calls.”
I shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “And how, exactly, does Jeremy know this? Does he suddenly have psychic powers along with an appetite for blood?”
“First off, he can survive on raw meat instead of blood, which is what he usually does. And second, Jeremy knows because Nicolas told Thierry. And Thierry is—”
“Jeremy’s fated mate,” I supplied, glaring down at my empty shot glass. Though, if I were being fair, I hadn’t minded Thierry as much as I might’ve expected. He was okay for a vampire. Mostly. He clearly loved Jeremy. So there was that, at least.
“Anyway, they’re blood-bonded, so Jeremy caught Thierry thinking about it. And then he called me to tell me to buckle up.”
That made sense. Vampire blood bonds were a type of intense telepathic connection between the vampire and their mate. Which meant Nicolas, Thierry’s brother, was Cole. In other words, Harris was Nicolas’s friend. And Nicolas was the brother tomybest friend’s fated mate. That’s why Harris was at the wedding in the first place. He had eventoldme as much when we first met, but I had been otherwise occupied by the fact that I had just met my fated mate and recognized him on the spot.
Still, I felt very dumb for not having connected those particular dots. Harris was already way more mixed up with the supernatural than I would’ve liked.
She added, “I was actually coming to the bar to warn you—which Jeremy asked me to do, by the way. But apparently, Harris found you first. And he wasted zero time.”
“No, he did not,” I said, eyeing the whiskey. Wolves have exceptionally high alcohol tolerance, and this was not just a two-shot conversation.
“I could watch the bar if you need to… err… talk it out with Harris,” Lindsey suggested, obviously feigning nonchalance. “I’m happy to hang out all night if I need to. I don’t have any appointments for the rest of the day.”
“I have bookkeeping to do,” I said immediately. “And inventory. Plus, I ought to reorganize the storeroom. And there’s a monster on the loose.” I shrugged with mock helplessness. “So, I’m all booked up.”
She shook her head at me. “Men. You’re all hopeless. I’m lucky that I’m more into the ladies.”
“He needs to leave. He’s human. And as long as he’s here, he’s in danger.”
“I haven’t even met the guy, and I can already tell you there’s a zero-percent chance of that happening.”
“Are we drinking more, or are you going to torture me by having this conversation sober?”
“We’ve already had two shots.”
“We’re wolves. That might as well have been nothing at all.”
