Page 17 of Stolen Oath
“What she’s trying to say is that she’s always prickly, but today we get the special Alaska treatment.” Char ever the helpful woman smirked like a fiend. “Anyway, tell her what you told me, Dimitri.”
After Char returned to her place next to the alpha they stared at me mutely until I shuffled over to the armchair and plopped onto it. It took me a moment to realize that instead of talking the alpha was staring at my bare feet like he’s never seen toes before and I hurriedly tucked them under my butt. He looked up and blinked at me slowly.
I hid behind the mug as I kept sipping my coffee in hopes he wouldn’t notice how much he unnerved me.
“After I left here, I went to check how things are with my father. To see if he may be surprised to see me yet again unharmed; to also uncover if he had something to do with yesterday’s attack.” A line formed between his eyebrows as his gaze became unfocused.
I glanced at Char because it was unlike Dimitri to look so off somehow. The male was always sharp and in control that it took me aback as I watched the expression solidify on his handsome face. He…He almost seemed lost.
“Did he?” My tone barely above whisper in the silence, I tilted forward on the armchair gripping the armrest with one hand for no reason. What was I thinking? That I should go hug him to make him feel better?
Ludicrous.
“No.” He dispelled whatever thoughts pulled him under their allure with a small shake of his head. “He appeared to be unwell when I visited him. Highly unlikely for a shifter… he has a cold.”
“A cold?” I asked dumbly in a flat tone.
“Yes.” He said.
Char gave me “this is a very important info” type of a slow nod when I turned my gaping mouth to her.
“I’m still sleeping, aren’t I?” With a slightly unhinged giggle I jerked back in my seat and dropped the almost empty mug on the side table with a clink. “It would explain why all of you are acting so out of character, as well as all the crazy that my brain is trying to conjure into reality disguised as a dream.”
Both of them made no comment. They did watch me with concern though, but I didn’t care.
“I think that we need to look into the attack in the store and see what is going on.” Char said conversationally after watching me for a while. “I trust my instinct and this screams trouble from a mile away. First the hyenas, now a shifter, an alpha on top of that is sick with a cold like a mortal. I have a couple of contacts in Louisiana I can reach out to and see what I can dig out on these witches.”
“While you’re at it, you promised me lots of coffee.” I wiggled the empty mug at her after gulping whatever was left without taking a breath. The headache was gone and it only actuated my need for caffeine more.
“Is she always like this?” Dimitri turned to my bestie, talking about me like I wasn’t there.
“Yes.” Char and I said at the same time.
“Every morning when she wakes up.” Char rolled her eyes but did get off her butt and took the empty mug dangling from my fingers to refill it. “If you want her to function like an adult…” she paused on the way to the kitchen to give me a onceover over her shoulder. “Or whatever passes as an adult when it comes to her these days, you need to caffeinate her excessively. Her brain is no longer on standby after the second cup, so don’t let her fool you.”
The alpha was nodding as if he was taking mental notes about the instruction manual on how to troubleshoot Alaska. I narrowed my eyes on him, which earned me a small smile in return.
It took me a whole minute to realize the weird muffled sound coming from deeper in the apartment was one of my payphones that I used for jobs. Those with less moral grounds, not my candle making. The second it hit me what the chirping was I shot out of the chair like a bullet and rushed to my bedroom to snatch it off the dresser.
“Who is it?” I jumped a foot off the ground when Char spoke from the doorway. How she kept scaring me I had no idea.
“It’s a job.” I wiggled the phone to show her it was a payphone and my eyebrows hit my hairline when I found Dimitri looming over her shoulder. “You two move in a pair now?”
“What kind of a job?” My friend ignored my jab.
“One that requires my expertise.” I kept my eyes on Char but I could feel Dimitri burning a hole in my head with how hard he was staring at me.
“You’re not accepting it.” She cut the air between us with a sharp jerk of her hand.
“Really?” The incredulity was so thick in my tone it could be cut with a knife. I never did well with authority and it rubbed me all sorts of wrong when anyone tried to tell me what I could or couldn’t do.
Char knew that.
“I don’t think you are understanding the gravity of the situation we are in, Allie.”
Dimitri wisely stayed silent.
My temper flared.
