Ward looked down, an adorable flush creeping over his cheeks. “I don’t need to impress anyone.”
“I know.” Viper shifted his weight, one hand resting lightly near the hilt of his blade. “That’s what’s unsettling.” Because it meant Ward, while he was uncomfortable, was living in the moment, which made him either the most vulnerable person here… or the most grounded. Viper hadn’t decided which yet. But everything about it made him want to keep Ward close—because if this place was a dream? Then he wasn’t too sure he wanted to wake up just yet.
“I don’t know what to say to that. Not really.” Ward shrugged. “I’m not used to being noticed—seen—in a room filled with men like you or these.”
“They’re just men, Ward.”
Ward snorted. “Sure, they are.” He waved his hand toward the room at large. “I’m not sure we can call them men, or if all of them are even human. I know Trace isn’t.”
“I see your point.” Viper grinned. “I about shit my pants the first time I saw him go wolf. If I hadn’t been injured, I’d probably have shot the bastard.”
“How did it happen?” Ward shifted in his seat, half turning toward him. “I mean, if you can tell me?”
Viper thought about it for a second, then figured that as long as he didn’t break any OPSEC rules, there shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m not even sure OPSEC rules apply here.
That’s a tomorrow problem.
He took another sip from his tankard. “We were in a country that I’m not going to tell you the name of. Pinned down, and some of my guys were injured.”
Ward reached for the jug and topped off both their drinks. “That sounds ominous.”
“We weren’t looking too hot there for a bit,” Viper admitted. “One of my injured men was Juice. Let’s just say, Bran couldn’t care less about protocol when his mate is in danger. All he cared about was getting to him.”
“Did you guys know?”
Viper shook his head. “One second I’m lying on my back, having quikclot shoved into a bullet wound, and the next I’m looking at the ass end of a massive wolf racing into the line of fire.”
“Did you screech?”
“Like my teenage niece at a Taylor Swift concert.” He grinned when Ward laughed out loud. He liked making him laugh. Was it the mating mark or bond that was causing the warmth building in his chest? He wasn’t sure, but he also wasn’t afraid to admit to himself that he kind of liked it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
By the timethe drums faded into a low thrum behind him and the firelight gave way to moon-drenched shadows, Ward wasn’t entirely sure his legs still worked. His brain was spinning—reeling—from the overload of sensory chaos that had been the feast. The meat still sat heavy in his belly, rich and thick with something that tasted like memory and ancient woods. The drink burned low and slow in his blood, not numbing, and not quite intoxicating like he’d expected it to be, but it was shifting something inside him. He hadn’t realized how tightly he’d been gripping reality until it started to give a little under his fingers. “I’m not sure how to handle all this,” he admitted softly.
“No shit,” Viper replied, but there was no bite to it. Just something contemplative threading through his dry sarcasm. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t figure it out.”
Oh God, is he talking about the mate thing?
Shit.
I don’t even want to think about that right now.
“No. I mean, I don’t have any special skills.” He figured playing dumb might be the best way to ignore the mate thing completely. “I have no military training, and despite what those people think,” he nodded toward the warriors, “I have no magic bloodline and I’m not a druid or a warrior.”
“You gave your blood, just like I did,” Viper interrupted. “Don’t sell yourself short.”
“That was an accident.” He supposed it didn’t matter if he admitted it. “I meant to pull my hand away from your knife, but I wasn’t fast enough.”
“It was brave. You could have just refused. You were scared, but you did it anyway. In my book, that’s brave, even if you think it wasn’t.”
Ward’s throat tightened. That wasn’t something people usually said to him.Bravewas a word reserved for people like Viper or any of the other men in this room. Brave wasn’t for an academic who cowered behind a boulder and needed saving before he could be skewered like a medieval appetizer. Yet, when Viper said it—his voice low and certain, not trying to flatter but simply telling the truth as he saw it—it made something in Ward’s chest ache. He glanced away, embarrassed, fingers rubbing over the edge of where the blue marks were now visible above the wrist bracer the warrior had given him earlier. “Well… thanks for not thinking I’m an idiot.”
“Anytime, Sutherland.” Viper chuckled under his breath. “At least for the compliment. Waking up a volcano by reading symbols on rocks like a book, that’s something we gotta discuss.”
“Ward.”
