Page 107 of Revenge of the Blood Pack

Uh, what?

I shake my head. “How?” He draws in a deep breath in preparation for a lengthy explanation until I raise my hand to pause him. “Nevermind. More importantly, how confident are you in its accuracy?”

“Completely,” he says. Then, after a beat, he qualifies that statement, saying, “It is a young algorithm, without much experience to draw from, so I have to keep feeding it instances of magic usage for it to suss out the proper wavelengths, but for example, I had it assess the town we just came from and it produced some really fascinating analysis. I think it’s going to be a game changer for our mission.”

Max rubs his eyes. “Either I’m not entirely recovered from my bout of amnesia, or none of that made sense. In either event, answer this in simple terms: How does all that translate into finding Asha’s brother?”

My thoughts exactly. So far, I’m hearing a lot about data and analysis. In my experience, you find my people by following the bodies. But, maybe, this system of his will make it so we can find my brother before the bodies keep piling up.

“Right.” Orson twirls his chair back to his computer and presses a button. A dark color pulsates on the map, a splotch of purple that darkens to black in its center, like a terrible bruise. “That’s the town we just left. As you can see, it’s covered in magical residue. Simon left behind his stink, as it were, because he used so much of his powers in this region.” He hits another button, and a timestamp appears on the screen. As its green digits speed through the hours, we watch the purple bruise gradually shrink.

Orson taps the clock, resets it to an earlier timestamp, then lets it roll through the morning. To the east of the town, a green dot smears across the landscape. Orson points to it and narrates, “This was Simon, forty-five minutes before the massacre. Asyou can see, not as dark as the big purple cloud, but giving off enough magic for my AI to pick up on.” His finger drags along the screen as neon green gradually draws a line towards the mountain village, as though a long snake unspools across the forest. “He starts charging up five minutes out.” The head of the snake darkens to red, then purple, then black.

“Then Simon enters the town,” says Orson, and the black dot starts giving off purple flares that lash out and imprint themselves on the map. I try not to think of the real world actions the colors indicate, but I know it’s not pretty. I’m watching dozens of lives ending through a filter of data. “Now, once he’s coated the entire town with magic, there’s no telling where he is. So, even if I had this up and running for the Enforcers, Simon would still have been able to hide from us anywhere in this purple cloud. But we’d have known he was in the area. He wouldn’t have got the drop on us like he did.” Orson encircles the color with his index finger.

“Alright, that’s pretty good work,” Max praises, patting Orson on the shoulder.

Orson grins. “I guess I have a purpose after all.”

Braxton punches his shoulder lightly. “You’re getting cocky, you know that?” But he’s smiling.

I put a hand on Orson’s shoulder, and he tenses under my touch. “Thank you. For all your hard work.”

For a second, our eyes just lock. I hate that desire flows between us like this. It feels wrong. Like cheating. So, I drop my hand.

“Asha?” Max’s tone is strange and unexpected.

I glance at him, feeling uncertain.

“Are you attracted to Orson?”

Fuck.“I don’t want to do this. It’ll just get you mad.”

He gives me that stubborn look that drives me crazy, but when I glance away from him, I see Braxton and Orson staringat me expectantly.Oh, shit.I guess everyone wants the answer to this question.

It takes me a minute to choose my words with care. “Before the attack on my pack lands, I had a few boyfriends, but no one really serious. I could always just take them or leave them, you know? I just didn’t care. And after the attack, I didn’t really think I’d find anyone attractive again. That kind of thing seemed like the last thing on my mind.” I release a slow breath. “Then, I met you and Braxton, and it just felt… easy, right. Strange. But right.”

They’re waiting. All three of them.

Even though I really don’t want another fight, I press on. “I feel that way around Orson too. I know it complicates, well, everything, but that’s how I feel.”

“Maybe it’s just because he’s always hanging around in his boxers with his junk out,” Braxton grumbles.

Orson glances down at himself. “Do you guys care when I’m in my boxers? I mean, my junk isn’t really hanging out.”

I’d laugh if it was any other situation.

But Max just sighs and goes to the bed, sitting down. His hands run through his hair, and guilt twists in my stomach as I watch him trying to decide how best to handle this situation. I’d kind of like it if I wasn’t always a situation for him to handle.

“Asha,” he says in an official kind of way. “Do you think we could be your mates?”

I freeze. Every muscle. Mate seems to be a word that rolls through my mind when they touch me, but for someone who is part vampire, part shifter, and part evil mage, I’m not sure I can evenhavea mate.

But, yes, it feels like they might be.

Wrapping my arms around my chest, I stare for a minute, then decide to go with the truth. “If a half-breed can have mates, then I think yes, you three are mine.”

Braxton turns, walks away, then paces back. He looks like a man deciding exactly how he wants to explode, which is the opposite of what I wanted. Not that I can blame him. I did just basically put two men who are my lovers on the same footing as a man I’m still getting to know.

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