Page 3 of Sassy Embrace

Leigh swallowed hard, a rush of frustration shooting through her nerves.

“If you had someone to take half the load, help you relax, you know? It might make all of this easier to handle.”

Leigh, not wanting to insult the matriarch, shook her head shortly. “Sorry but…no way.” She stood, thanking Barbara for her concern, and marched toward the dressing rooms to check on her dancers.

With all this work on her plate –work she was more than happy to handle– she didn’t have time for love. The thought of dating even felt like a nightmare to juggle with everything else going on.

No, Leigh felt she was handling everything perfectly fine. No mate required.

TWO

CLAUDE

“Something has to change, and soon.”

Claude slowly shook his head as he put a hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “You need to sit down,” he said quietly, a stark contrast to Aria’s boiling rage. Claude didn’t know much about pregnancy, but he was pretty sure Aria being this worked up couldn’t be good for the baby.

A baby that was due very, very soon.

Aria reluctantly took a seat, but her demeanor did not waver for a moment. “If Jana hadn’t been stalking her ex in Blue Creek, none of this would have happened. But it did. And now I have to figure out how to move forward.”

She was, of course, speaking about the events leading up to Jana’s parents seeking revenge. Their daughter was stalking Quinn, her ex who was half-wolf. Since he was mated to a wolf shifter, he fell under the protection of the Wolfe clan there, and they protected him the only way they could.

Still, Eliza and Robert blamed Quinn for their daughter’s death and sought to meet violence with violence. Claude couldn’t entirely blame them, though. They were grieving parents, no matter how in the wrong their child was.

But Barbara and Tristan, the leaders of the Blue Creek pack, handled the situation themselves.

Without consulting Aria.

And that was where Claude’s very pregnant cousin’s current stress came from.

“This was vampire business,” she said, slamming her palm on the mahogany table. “It involved vampires. They should have consulted me as the leader of the North American vampires.”

“I’m sure they had a reason,” Claude said unenthusiastically. He knew the reason. They both did. Relations between the shifter wolves and vampires were strained, at best.

“There was no reason to delay informing me about this. This entire situation is proof that I’m right. We need to repair our relationship with the wolf community,” Aria said, trying hard to rein in her anger. She took a few steadying breaths as Claude fetched her a glass of synthetic blood.

She took it with gratitude. “We’ve spent too many generations warring with each other, and for what? Our struggles are similar enough. We should be allies, not causing more pain and death.”

Claude sighed. “You’ll have to convince quite a few wolves of that.”

“Emma’s a wolf, and we get along perfectly well,” Aria interjected.

“You and Emma are a fringe case,” Claude reminded her. “You can get every vampire in North America to rally behind this cause, I know you could, but it hinges on the shifters changing their attitudes just as much.”

Aria nodded slowly, invisible gears whirring around her temple. Claude knew that look on his cousin very well. Once she started putting her mind to something, you were never going to dissuade her.

“We need to be actively reaching out to the wolf community. Make strides with this tentative alliance,” Aria said, staring ahead with conviction. “The human trafficking ring did our reputation no favors, even though we got rid of it.”

Claude nodded. They could champion their work in ending the ring all they wanted. The fact was it was made by vampires too. That was enough to break their reputation in the eyes of many.

Perhaps irreparably.

“Our kind have kept their distance from each other for centuries. Maybe… maybe that’s for the best,” Claude said carefully. He knew his cousin wouldn’t like what he had to say, but he needed to say it anyway. That was his job as her advisor, after all.

“No. Things have changed,” Aria said darkly. “My own mate is half vampire and half wolf. And that heritage was kept hidden from him for so long because of this ridiculous contention.”

Aria gripped her swollen belly, her expression of strained conviction melting into compassion. “What does that mean for our baby? How will that heritage affect her? She deserves to live truthfully, doesn’t she?”

---