Page 143 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“Those things are real?” Chris asked.

“Apparently.”

“I’d like to help,” Chris stated, looking excited at the prospect of hunting down a mythological creature.

“Talk to Elim. He’s in charge of the operation.”

Chris was nodded, then John walked inside and stopped when he noticed him sitting next to me. Chris tensed, then relaxed when John walked over, and reached out his hand.

“I’m John. Nice to finally meet you, Chris.”

“Likewise, Beta John.” He shook his hand.

“Just John.” Bells giggled and Cade grinned. “What?” John asked when he noticed their reactions.

“Chris doesn’t like addressing anyone without their proper title. I’ve been begging him to call me Bells for years.”

Chris blushed beside me and shifted a little. I was about to mind-link him when he surprised me.

“I-I’ll try, Lu—Bells,” he stuttered.

“Shit. He actually said it,” Cade said, dropping the piece of bacon on the way to his mouth. I squeezed Chris’ hand encouragingly when his blush deepened. “Say mine next!”

Chris finally chuckled and stuffed his mouth with food. Cade awed, making the rest of us chuckle, too.

“Cade said you were a warrior?” John asked as we relaxed after the introductions.

“Yes. I am.”

“He could be an elite warrior, though. I saw him fighting last night. Hell, he could probably beat you, John,” Cade expanded on Chris’ answer.

John flipped him off, but looked at Chris with curiosity.

“Why aren’t you? Alpha don’t like you?”

“If he didn’t like him, Cory wouldn’t have put the safety of my sister in his hands,” Bells said, with a little bite to her tone.

The implication that our brother was anything but fair not sitting well with her. John raised his hands in surrender, but before he could apologize, Chris answered.

“I was away on assignment when Alpha Cory held trials last year. He told me he could set something up if I wanted to be promoted, but I opted to wait. I didn’t want people to think hewas giving me preferential treatment. I want to earn this on my own. I’m not hurting for money so I’m willing to wait. Especially since he’s been treating me like an elite warrior for years now. I just don’t have the title.”

“Is this the first time you would have applied for it?”

“Yes. I wasn’t in a hurry. I wanted to make sure I was confident in my skills before trying out.”

“How long have you been training?”

“Since I was allowed to. Both of my parents were guards to the previous alpha and luna.”

“Never considered anything else?” John continued to ask.

“Not really. It’s been expected since I was a pup.”

I listened as they talked. Would he like to do something else if he had a chance? I let it go as they changed the subject. I wondered if he went into it because he thought his parents only wanted him to follow in their footsteps. I was sure it wouldn’t be true, but considering the amount of pressure Chris put on himself to make them proud, I wondered if the only reason he trained so hard was that he thought they would be disappointed otherwise.

Shortly before we were done eating, Chris’ phone went off. He turned it off quickly and blushed for no reason at all, his eyes flickering to me.

“What?” I asked.

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