Page 18 of Stolen Oath
“Pray do tell what am I missing about it.”
“You are just being reckless and stubborn now.” With a huff she started tapping her foot. It should’ve warned me to shut my trap, but it didn’t. “There are people, most probably witches, who want you dead, Alaska. You are not taking any jobs until the threat to your life is over.”
“I hate to break it to you, Char, but I’m a witch. There was a threat to my life from the day I was born and it’ll be there until the day I’m killed or die. It was always present even when we pretended otherwise.” All frustration drained from me in a wave when I noticed she was fighting tears and hiding them behind anger. “I’ll be okay, Char. I need you to trust me. This is what I do.”
“I can’t lose you, Allie. You are all I’ve got.” Despite the alpha witnessing our sappy conversation we had a silent one too, one only best friends can have, and ignored his presence.
“You won’t. I’ll be extra careful, but my reputation is on the line here, Char. I need to accept it unless there is a solid reason for rejecting it. First, I’ll research it.” Moving closer I took her hand and squeezed her fingers in reassurance. “I’ll be fine. Promise.”
It looked like she wanted to say more, to maybe argue again in hopes to convince me otherwise. But, Dimitri as usual had to open his mouth and ruin my life for me.
“I’m going with you.” The jerk made it an indisputable statement.
“Like hell you are.” Was my automatic reply.
“Try and stop me, little witch.”
“I’m going, too.” Char jumped in and my groan was ripped out of me all the way from my bare, purple painted toes.
That’s how I ended up looking at a new thieving job and how to do with an audience.
CHAPTER10
“Remind me again, why did we have to accompany Dimitri to his fiancées parents house?” I fidgeted in the back seat of the alpha’s car and muttered under my breath to Char while she pointedly ignored my question.
Granted, I asked it at least a dozen times in the last five minutes and I’m sure her answer of ‘to snoop’hasn’t changed, but I was getting antsy. The longer Dimitri spoke on the phone to a guy who was complaining about babysitting a vampire during the day and being bored out of his mind, the more some intuition was firing up alarms in mine.
Everything in me was screaming to turn around and walk away, more so when we entered the pack’s grounds than the moment I dumbly listened to Char and got my ass in the car. Deep down I wanted to convince myself that I wanted to stay away from them in case they notice how often I glance in Dimitri’s direction; not that I could do anything to control that. The male was a flame and I was the silly moth. It wasn’t even a conscious action. One minute I was looking elsewhere the next I’d be locking eyes with him and all the air leaves my lungs.
It was insane.
Just like the very moment I was thinking that and we got locked in a stare-down through the rearview mirror. He didn’t even pause in the conversation he was having. His irises flared up though and my belly did a somersault, so I jerked my eyes away and watched through the window unseeing.
It was my mother’s journal to blame.
That was it.
Whatever happened the day before crossed some wires inside my brain and I was totally acting out of character. Because who in all the worlds needed Dimitri Bell to destroy a single life? Not me, that was for sure. By all accounts I had a lot of other people gunning for my head and didn’t need to add more.
A movement caught my attention from the line of trees hugging the road we were on. It took a bit to realize it was a streak of fur weaving in and out through the foliage and bushes, as the shifter kept pace with us. When I did notice him, a weird sense of suspicion twisted in my belly.
“We have company.” I said to no one in particular, and as soon as the words were out two amber eyes locked on me immediately from the outside. “Damn shifters and their hearing.” I added on purpose.
“Shit stirrer.” Char snorted nervously from the front of the car.
My lips curled at the corners automatically at her comment and I pretended like I didn’t notice the humor in Dimitri’s gaze when he glanced back at me.
“You know it.” I told my bestie, straightening up in the back seat when the large log cabin came into view.
The long driveway opened in a circular path outlined with perfectly manicured shrubbery and rose bushes. Loose red, white and pink petals littered the cement like droplets of spilled blood on the edges.
A shiver raked my spine.
Dragging my eyes away from the flowers I focused on the large flashy fountain that was the centerpiece of the noteworthy lawn. Two wolves were curled around each other standing on the peak of a mountain their snouts raised up in the air as they howled at the moon. It was a very pretty piece, even I could admit that as much as it irked me to do so. I didn’t want to like anything connected to the bombshell engaged to Dimitri Bell.
Not even a fountain.
So, when Char’s nails dug into the skin on my forearm, I suppressed the surprised shriek by a hair. It took great effort to strangle the sound and let it die in my throat but I proudly managed it. Through watery eyes I stared at my friend who looked as if she’s seen a ghost.
