Page 98 of Wolf Mate

When Keith stepped toward me, an arm looped through mine, tugging me toward the exit. I held on to my biscuit tightly and realized Hecate had come to my rescue. A sweet scent that reminded me of cotton candy drifted into my nose from my right side where a paler woman I’d never met before flanked me.

I expected Keith to chase after me, but glancing over my shoulder, I found him standing at the edge of the shifters’ table with a sneer. If looks could kill, I’d be dead.

“Are you asking him to tear into you?” Hecate jerked me so I couldn’t see Keith any longer. “Staring at him like that will make him think you’re challenging him.”

Shit. My stomach clenched. I should’ve known that based on my animal studies. “Right, because I’m asserting dominance.”

The new woman to my right chuckled, her pale-green eyes twinkling. “Or not backing down, though you are letting us carry you off.” Wavy burgundy hair hung down over her white, lacy shirt. Her lips were a dark red that contrasted starkly withher pale complexion. She pressed them together. “At least they haven’t completely brainwashed youyet.”

“Brainwashed?” I didn’t understand what was happening. Hecate wasn’t a huge fan of mine, and now she was coming to my rescue along with a stranger. Between that and Keith’s animosity, I felt as if I’d walked into an alternate reality.

“Yes, the wolf shifters’ allure and power are intoxicating.” The woman shrugged and sighed. “It’s a damn shame since it’s an advantage they often use to get their way.”

“Zella, let’s make sure we’re far enough away from prying ears before you say anything else.” Hecate rolled her eyes. “We don’t need Keith reporting what we say back to King Jovian. You know she’s on their radar.”

That was enough to get my brain functioning again. “She’sright here.” Any warmth I’d had toward Hecate was gone.

“Don’t be such a drama queen.” Hecate arched a brow. “I was talking to her, not you, and what pronoun would you suggest I use?”

I blew out a breath. She had a point, but I refused to admit it and have her gloat. “You could’ve talked to both of us.”

“Really? You’re going all sensitivenow?” Hecate waved a hand. “Raffe rejects you and marks you as a social outcast, yet you practically sniff his ass, but I talk to Zella about you in front of your face, and you get all butt hurt.Please.Now isn’t the time to lose your thick skin.”

A lifetime of people treating me as if I didn’t exist was the sort of baggage she’d never understand. “I don’t want to argue or seem ungrateful, but why are you helping me out?”

The three of us walked outside, and I shivered in the cool September morning. I detangled my arm from Hecate’s and unwrapped my biscuit from the foil then took a huge bite.

“Slade informed me that you’re part of the coven now.” Hecate shrugged. “We might not be a pack like the wolf shifters, but we protect our own.”

I glanced at Zella to see if I could feel the magic inside her. From what Slade had mentioned, I should be able to feel it, but I couldn’t sense a damn thing. “Are you from the same coven?”

Zella snorted. “Uh. No. Not a witch here.”

Okay, I hadn’t expected that. With her pale skin, my second guess was … “Vampire?”

She nodded. “It’s so weird that someone who knows about us can’t tell us apart.”

“In fairness, your complexion reminded me of Dave’s, but you’re hanging out with a witch, which threw me.” All the species seemed to stick with their own and were wary of one another, so Hecate hanging out with a vampire didn’t make sense.

“Some vampires and witches are friends.” Zella winked. “The wolf shifters have a way of bringing us together.”

The past twelve hours’d had a constant theme. “That’s what I keep hearing.”

“It’s true.” Zella straightened. “Wolf shifters mess upallthe time, and they get so many chances. If a vampire makes one wrong move, like feeding off Skylar here, they kill us. No talking, no trial, no anything. Just death.”

I tensed. Raffe had threatened Dave, but I’d thought he was grandstanding to assert his strength. If what she said was true … “Are you saying the vampire who attacked me in the woods is dead?” Now that I thought back on it, I remembered Raffe jumping on his back, though I hadn’t realized it was Raffe then.

Zella became unnaturally frozen. “You didn’t know?”

The bite of biscuit I’d swallowed threatened to come back up. “No. I passed out when a wolf jumped on his back.” I couldn’t bring myself to say Raffe’s name. If they weren’t aware which shifter had killed him, I’d rather it stay that way. “He was gonewhen I woke up, and so was the woman he’d been feeding on, so I assumed …” I wasn’t sure what I assumed. I’d been exhausted and traumatized. Any time I thought back on that day, I remembered the vampire’s teeth sinking into my neck. The sharp stabbing pain was something I wished I could forget. Books and movies had it wrong. There wasnothingpleasant about it.

“Raffe, Keith, and Adam killed him because he lost control.” Zella snorted. “That was the first time iteverhappened, and he was two hundred years old. That should’ve counted forsomething.”

We were approaching Evergreen, which meant I needed to peel off soon, but I now had questions. “Why would a two-hundred-year-old attend college?”

“Vampires are weird,” Hecate said and bumped her shoulder into mine.

I stumbled, some of my latte spilling out from the hole of the lid. I hadn’t expected her to do something that friendly.

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