Page 39 of Blood Pack Beginning

Her lashes fluttered, and she froze in place before murmuring, “Cyrus?”

“Yeah. Sorry I woke you, but you didn’t seem to be enjoying your dream.”

“Not a dream,” she muttered, releasing his neck. She leaned away from him and clicked on a bedside lamp, which had him blinking before he could focus on her. The usually tough Sasha appeared softer than usual in her faded pink T-shirt and tousled hair.

“Reliving something from your past?” he asked.

“Not mine,” she said with a grimace. “I partook of Morpheus’ ashes, and it came with some side effects such as remembering some of the things he’d done.”

“Doesn’t sound fun.”

“It wasn’t. Thanks for waking me. Although, gotta ask, how did you get in here? Don’t tell me the staff aren’t wiping down the keypads? They were supposed to start after Amir figured out how to crack the door codes.”

“This is going to sound crazy, but it’s like I knew the combination.” Cyrus raked his fingers through his hair, “Just like I knew you needed help. It was the weirdest thing.”

She stared at him a moment then at her arm, the one chomped in the fight, now healed.

“You ingested my blood.” A reminder he’d given the wound a lick after tearing the ghoul away, an instinctive thing when faced with an injury.

“And?”

Her lips quirked. “It would appear the ingestion of my blood created a link between us.”

“What kind of link?” he asked suspiciously.

“One that let you know I needed aid and gave you my code to enter.”

“Does this binding mean you can control me?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask Thaddeus what happened when he exchanged blood with Toni and Marc.”

“We didn’t exchange though. I was the only one to get a taste.”

“Meaning it will likely be one-sided.”

“Will the effect wear off?”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.” She paused before asking, “Does it bother you to know we might be forever bound?”

He opened his mouth to say yes, only to find himself replying, “No. At least, not yet. Ask me again later if it proves to be a PITA.”

“A what?”

“Pain in my ass. I’d rather not be dropping shit and running every time you have a mood swing.”

Her brow arched. “I am not that temperamental.”

“No, but you are bossy.”

“You have a problem with an assertive woman?”

“No, so long as you don’t think that makes me your personal doormat.”

“I doubt you’d let anyone walk over you,” she offered with a small laugh.

The sound stirred something in him. Something more intimate than he’d felt with her so far in their time together, and for some reason, it discomfited. “I should get going now that you’re awake and okay.”

“Must you leave right yet?”

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