Page 66 of The Baritone's Rival

“You’re a shifter! A wolf, by the smell of it.”

Lavinia nodded, her face expressionless.

“No wonder they kidnapped you,” Oscar said. “Justin said they kept you to feed from, but I couldn’t understand why they’d choose you. This makes more sense. You’re a wolf shifter. Your blood is potent.”

“So the big jerk keeps saying.”

“Why didn’t Justin tell us?”

“He doesn’t know.” Lavinia frowned, tapping her fingers on the side of her bench.

“How?! The smell is so strong!”

“Manners, child.” Lavinia sighed. “I raised him. He grew up around me. The odor doesn’t even register for him.”

Oscar rubbed the back of his head. A big sore spot pulsated at the crown. One of Elliott’s vampires must have clocked him.

“I’m surprised they’ve kept you alive. If you shifted at the right moment, you could do some damage.”

“Because they are greedy.” Lavinia crossed her arms and glared at the closed door separating the room from the rest ofthe boat. “They have been drinking from me often enough that I’ve been too weak to shift. They’re waiting to sell me off to a collector. There’s big money in trafficking shifters. I’ll probably end up in a cage in the corner of some ostentatious McMansion.”

Regret and grief rolled through Oscar at her words. Rhonda had been an alpha, the strongest wolf in her pack, and Elliott and his vampires had murdered her. She’d tried to help them, and it left her people without a leader. Freddie had said he would assist the Scopan Lake pack in any way he could, but still. That had been Oscar’s fault.

“Where is Justin?” Lavinia shifted in her seat.

Oscar’s muscles locked at the question. He flexed and unflexed his right wrist. Well, they were in this together. He shouldn’t start out by lying.

“He’s being held at the covenhouse.”

Lavinia growled, and the skin of her face rippled. She was trying to shift. The response was instinctual. Her family was in danger. After a moment, though, the undulations subsided. Lavinia remained human, although now the circles around her eyes had deepened even further.

She sighed. “Like I said, too weak to shift. Why is Justin your prisoner?”

Oscar raised both hands in a conciliatory gesture. “He betrayed us, gave away our location to Elliott and his goons. He was trying to save you, but my mate and I almost died.”

Lavinia shook her head ruefully. “Sweet boy. I appreciate his devotion, but I can take care of myself.”

“Maybe, but he doesn’t know that.” Oscar got up, walking over to the porthole and staring out at the bay. The line of the water was right at the height of the window. “You’ve searched for ways out?”

“There aren’t any.” Lavinia’s voice was cold as she attempted to control her burning rage. “There’s just the one door to therest of the boat, and the one door in the hull where you came in. We could try to open that, but I’m pretty sure I would die as the water rushed in. I’m not as impervious to drowning as you are.”

Oscar brought his head to his hands. “I keep fucking things up. I should have waited for Lillian and Freddie. I should have never assumed Elliott was dead. I’m the reason all of this happened.”

“That’s a bit egotistical,” Lavinia said, cocking her head and smirking. “I certainly didn’t have ‘locked up below decks on a tour boat’ on my bingo card.”

“Wait, this is a tour boat?”

“That’s how they don’t get stopped by the water cops, or whatever the hell they’re called. They do cruises back and forth from the Statue of Liberty.”

Oscar stood up from the bench. He looked around the room, peeking into every nook and cranny, but other than the stray candy bar wrapper, it was totally bare. One of these vamps had a sweets addiction.

“You have a mate?” Lavinia asked.

“Yes,” Oscar replied, circling the room once more despite the futility of it.

“He’ll come for you. Mates always do. My mother would have torn the throat out of anyone that dared lay a hand on daddy.”

Oscar plopped back down on the bench with a sigh. “He’s human. We don’t have a way to communicate because we haven’t completed the bond. He’s fragile.”

---