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“True, one alone wouldn’t be enough,” he continued. “There is much more to me than my exceptionally sharp mind.”

I got up and walked past him to put the glass away.

“Why does it feel like I’m babysitting a grown child and not like a professional alliance?”

I heard a snort behind me.

“Do you ram a needle into every child’s neck before taking a liter of blood from them and then leaving them on a park bench in the middle of the night?” I turned with raised eyebrows to Miles, who shook his head with his arms crossed, pretending to be serious. “Quentin, you should never have children.”

His cell phone buzzed, giving me time to think.

The mere thought of ever bringing children into this fucked-up world gave me stomach pains. But with J, everything would be different. I could forget, repress it. And I could leave this town with her and settle down somewhere remote if that was what she wanted.

Oh God, now I was thinking again about a future I would never have. And the ring on my left hand painfully underlined these thoughts.

“I have to go,” Miles said, and I looked up. His speed had brought him to my front door unnoticed. “I have a law lecture waiting for me.” He sighed dramatically. “Or rather, campus drama.”

Before he even reached for the door handle, I pulled myself together.

“Miles.”

He turned to me.

“Could you do me a favor?”

I hated doing things like this, but for what other reason had I gotten myself into this crappy deal with him?

Miles's gleeful grin returned, and I knew why the Senseque pack was going wild in the locker room about wanting to beat him up.

“It's about time you asked,” he said with that goddamn glint in his eyes.

And something told me I would regret it. Still, I did it.

“Would you find something out for me?”

Chapter 12

Nash

Fire

Barns Courtney

“How are you going to win next season when you don't have any strength in your arms?” Noah laughed and wiped the sweat from his forehead as Cody lurched to his feet from the snow and glared at him with glowing yellow eyes.

“Says the guy who only trains his arms and can't keep up with endurance training,” Cody snorted, raising his eyebrows, and a grin appeared on his lips.

“Careful,” Noah growled, his grin disappearing.

He was quick to anger.

Cody knew that and didn’t feel the need to respect Noah’s boundaries, which was why he had ended up in the snow in the first place.

“Leave Cody alone...” muttered an annoyed Hunter, who stood there with his arms crossed and his upper body bare – like the rest of us – waiting for us to continue our training.

There were five of us: Noah, Cody, Hunter, Emely, and me. The other guys liked to train with us, but we had something of a small inner circle so that the training was more focused and not as chaotic as when fifteen men stood on the lawn and dragged each other into the mud.

“Don't always defend him,” Noah growled. “He can show he's got balls himself.”