Page 15 of Blood Pack Beginning

“That won’t be a problem,” she stated confidently. “You’ve been made impervious.”

“Dare I ask how?” Diego queried.

“The food we gave you contained the ashes of the vampire-Lycan hybrid I mentioned. Ingestion made you immune.”

Diego’s brow lifted as his lips curled in disgust. “You fed us a dead vamp?”

“Would it help if I said Roderick was Lycan first?”

“No!” Amir bristled. “What the fuck? We’re not cannibals.”

“Calm your fur. You should be thanking us, seeing as how we don’t have a ton of Roderick’s ashes left. By ingesting them, we’ve made it so you can’t be turned into a puppet. You’re welcome, by the way.” She didn’t mention the fact that Thaddeus had also tampered a bit with their minds to ensure no one else could.

Amir growled. Sexy. She wondered if he made that sound in bed.

“What’s wrong, Puppy Chow?”

“What’s wrong is you being so flippant about fucking with our bodies. Not to mention, the blackmail. ‘Join us or else.’”

“I never said ‘or else,’” she pointed out.

“Oh, really? So if we told you to shove it and tried to walk out?”

“I’d let you. Heck, I’ll even drive you to the nearest town.”

“I hear a but,” Cyrus murmured.

“When those killer rogues catch up to you—and they will—and discover you can’t be swayed by compulsion, they will murder you all.”

“What if we want to join them?” Omar ventured to ask.

Her gaze slewed to him, and her smile might have rivalled that of a croc’s as she sweetly replied, “Then I’ll be the one removing your heads. I guess, either way, you’re fucked.”

“You’re assuming these rogues would find us. We’ve managed to stay out of the Lycan Council’s purview. Surely we can steer clear of a pack of crazy loners,” Amir argued.

“For a while, maybe. But you don’t seem to grasp the fact that there is a vampire-led faction determined to wipe out the Packs. It began with mysterious disappearances. One here or there, not enough to draw notice, but more recently, there’s been violence. Several packs have been hit. Although Moon Dew is the first to have a good chunk of its population murdered.”

“How come we’ve not heard of any trouble?” Amir questioned, his jaw rigid.

“The Alphas know, but they’ve been told by the Lycan Council to keep quiet to prevent panic.”

“According to you,” Amir scoffed.

“Don’t believe me? Your prerogative, but my claim can be verified by Nathan himself.”

“Who?” Amir frowned, but Cyrus nodded.

“Nathan runs one of the biggest packs in North America, and he’s currently leading the Lycan Council.”

“I can put you in touch with him if you want to check out what I’ve told you.”

“He won’t talk to me,” Amir grumbled. “I’m rogue.”

“I’m not, though,” Cyrus interjected. “I’ll talk to him.”

Sasha pulled her cell phone from her back pocket, dialed the number Thaddeus had given her, and handed it to Cyrus. He wandered off to murmur quietly. Kind of useless, since she heard everything.

The conversation took a few minutes. First for Cyrus to confirm the person on the other end was actually Nathan, then for Cyrus to exchange info and ask his questions, followed by a bleak expression as the reality hit.

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