Page 22 of Wolf Mate

My mouth dried. I didn’t want anyone doing brain stuff to me. “Edward tried when he attacked me, and it didn’t work. I still remembered what happened when I came to with you four around me. Things went blurry for a bit then became crystal clear again.”

“He probably didn’t do it right,” Lafayette said as he stepped toward me.

My heart raced, and Raffe moved between Lafayette and me.

“What the hell, man?” Keith groaned. “You asked him to wipe her mind, and now you’re blocking him. I don’t even know what’s going on with you tonight.”

“That was before we knew Edward tried to make her forget everything.” Raffe’s back was tense. “Whatever sheismust make her immune to mind altering.”

I snorted, and my body weakened. “You mean mind manipulation.” Altering didn’t sound as harsh, but they were playing with people’s minds. It was sick, and I was glad that the worst thing my blood did was smell nice and cause weird things to happen around me.

“It’s a necessary evil to keep the existence of supernaturals secret.” Adam shrugged as if messing with people’s memories was more than okay.

All five men needed punching. They were so arrogant and weren’t trying to see things from a human’s perspective. “Oh sure, humans who are being used as a food source shouldn’t be aware it’s happening. That girl wasreallyenjoying being fed from tonight.” I let sarcasm drip from my tone as bile churned in my stomach from the memory of the terror etched on her face. I’d have been a food source tonight, too, if Raffe and his friends hadn’t come to my aid. “Whatever happened to her anyway?” My heart dropped. She could still be out there, hurt and bleeding. Some other vampire could find her and pick up where Edward had left off.

“She’s fine. While you were passed out, I took care of her and had just returned when you woke up.” Lafayette lifted his chin and sneered. “Enlighten me. What do you think we should eat? Unlike the movies, vampires can’t live on animal blood. It lacks the nutrients we need. Should we just stake ourselves through the heart and die?”

That thought held merit, but I doubted I should agree. He might decide to eat me later.

“Calm down.” Slade laughed a little too loudly. “She just learned about ustonight and was attacked. She has a right to be upset while she takes it all in.”

Raffe jerked his head toward Slade, his eyes glowing.

When I thought I’d seen them glow before, I hadn’t been imagining things. Worse, I found them more alluring. I now understood a small piece of a mystery that not everyone else did.

I was one of the few.

And so damn pathetic.

“He’s right, man,” Adam murmured. “But I’m not sure where that leaves us, so it’s your call.”

Slade wrinkled his nose. “Not justhiscall.”

Clear animosity existed between the species, or whatever you called the divide between witch, wolf, and vampire. It seemed like Slade resented Raffe and his role in their world.

Raffe didn’t miss a beat. He straightened and seemed to tower over me and the others, though he was only a few inches taller than Adam and Keith. “We don’t have an option. We can’t alter her mind, and I’d hate to try and have her react in a worse way than she did back there.” He gestured back to where the five of us had come from. “And we’ve vowed never to hurt a human who isn’t threatening us.”

“But what if she tells other humans?” Lafayette pursed his lips. “It could lead to people coming here and digging for evidence. If she talks, that could be considered athreat.”

Now they were debating whether they shouldkillme. And I wasrighthere.

“Simple.” Raffe turned to me, his ice-blue eyes locking with mine. He stepped close, his scent swirling around me, making me dizzy and adding to the haze in my brain. “Skylar.”

The way my name rolled off his tongue made me tingly. I opened my mouth to ask him to say it again, but he continued before I could.

“Do you swear not to alert anyone about what happened tonight or about our existence, including your own magic?”

That last part snapped me back into the moment. He’d said my blood had surged magic, but I wasn’t a supernatural.

I also noticed he’d saidalert, nottell, meaning any sort of message—verbal, handwritten, or text. “I’m assuming, if I did, it would be off with my head?” I arched a brow, being ornerier than I’d intended. This probably wasn’t the time to come off as if I was uncertain of my intentions.

Raffe grimaced, and Slade shook his head and covered his mouth with his hand.

When I looked at Lafayette, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, “You’re rather odd.”

Avampirehad just dubbed me odd. I’d never thought I had a death wish until now. “Look, I won’t inform, tell, text, video, stream, or anything else to anyone. I’ll put this in the vault because, believe it or not, Iwantto live. I just don’t want to be fed from or attacked.”

Raffe sniffed me again.

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