Page 41 of Ellie 3

“Oh yeah, that will go over well with my jealous lover when there’s too much going on. Yeah, he’ll love the idea of me feeding from other Alpha shifters. Are you having a laugh? Soft in the head? I don’t—”

I was up and out of the bedroom in a flash, startling Ellie into dropping the phone when I was suddenly standing in front of her.

“Fuck, you scared me,” she hissed as I caught her phone before it hit the ground. “I’m not awake enough for any of this.”

“Well, it can’t wait because South America isn’t doing enough,” Alan said from the phone.

“Put it on speaker,” she said, giving me a guilty look. “It involves you after all. And I don’t care—South America can suck it.”

“The whole continent or like some part of it in particular?” I asked as I put the call on speaker.

“Not in the mood even if you’re sexy and mostly naked,” she drawled.

Fair enough.

I thought my sarcasm was pretty well deserved.

12

Ellie

“I’m making coffee,” I grumbled when Ha-joon simply shrugged. I was a complete mess. This crisis was so much worse than any we’d helped with in years and years, and the fact the South American government acted like it was all owed to them was really pissing me off.

And people would want me to just accept it to not start trouble. I’d already told the president I wouldn’t this time because they were pushing harder and harder that we were a UN hospital. That wasdangerousand he wasn’t hearing me on that.

“Why are you trying to have Ellie drain me?” Ha-joon asked Alan, sounding as exhausted as I felt.

I snorted. He deserved his sarcasm, but it would irk Alan who was just as wrecked as we were.

“Not drain you, dipshit,” Alan drawled. “Ellie, does he know—”

“Yes, he figured it out,” I said over my shoulder. “And hurry this up because the president is going to be calling one or both of us soon. You know he will. He doesn’t want to fight on this.”

“I love and hate that man,” Alan grumbled. “Fine, Ellie’s blood is four times more potent for how we use it. The blood is—we’re going to have to redistribute it and dilute it. The only thing that’s changed?”

“Feeding from me,” Ha-joon instantly surmised. “Okay, great. So what’s the problem? You get four times as much to help the regular blood.”

I winced, knowing things weren’t that simple.

“Yes, but we don’t know how and when it works because it’s all hidden,” Alan answered, his tone tired. “It’s not like we have a team on this, Ha-joon. It’s a hidden secret that we’ve kept quiet for this long. Now there’s suddenly a change that quality control noticed? And how do we figure this out? Only take blood from her the day after she feeds from you?”

“That would make things less fun,” Ha-joon sighed as he sat at the counter while I made coffee. “Okay, I get it. So you’re saying she’s still drinking normal blood since I can’t give her everything she needs and that could make some of the batches not hit the new higher standards?”

“Yes, in theory. Also, it could throw red flags like something became unstable. If even a whisper of that happens—the only way people have accepted this is because it’s always,alwaysbeen stable since we’ve started.”

“And I’ve threatened to shut it all down if they pull tricks. But that’s my biggest fear with the South American government repeatedly trying to label us a UN hospital. What is in the bylaws of being a UN hospital?”

“Any government in the UN can inspect the hospital and do a full audit at any time,” Alan answered for Ha-joon.

I nodded when Ha-joon’s face went pale. “Okay, so one problem at a time. I’ll just have to stop drinking from Ha-joon.”

“Fuck. No,” Ha-joon growled, his eyes flashing his wolf and making it clear that wasn’t happening. “My wolf would go damn near feral if we were providing something necessary for our mate and then had to stop. Plus…”

I nodded. Yeah, it kicked up our sex to a whole other level.

One neither of us wanted to lose.

“Ignoring you just called her your mate,” Alan drawled.

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