Page 21 of Blood Lust
“They are mellowed out, but I can assure you if they felt that—”
“I don’t know what you did to them or why, but I want them in their normal state of mind before we do this. Is that too much to ask? If you want me to trust all of you, then fix them.”
A low growl came from Zane’s robust chest. “They’re not broken.” He stared at me like he had Jen, but whatever he was trying to force out of his gaze had zero effect on me. “You need to do this to help them and help you.”
I glared back at him, “Like I said, fix my guys, and then we’ll start the merge when they okay it. What the hell did you guys do to them anyway?”
“They were given your blood, then Shane hit them with a serum to chill them out,” the dark-skinned, silver-eyed guy I had met earlier said as he came down the stairs. “If he hadn’t handled them and you when we got here, then you would have four dried up vamps instead of four stoned out vamps.”
“How long until that shit wears off?”
“It should be wearing off in about thirty minutes,” the other wolf-guy said, glancing at a watch on his wrist. He looked up and smiled at me, “I’m down for holding off because I’m fucking starving.”
“You’re always hungry, Nakia.” Zane cracked a smile at him, then brought his warm eyes to me, “You’re right, for you to trust this new situation, we need to prove you can trust us. We’ll wait until the Four are back in their normal mindset again.”
“This is insane.” Jen stood up. “You’ll just do whatever she wants?”
“You sound like a spoiled brat,” Bren said to her. “You might as well just shift into your wolf form and go howl at the moon if you’re just going to bitch about this nonstop.” He looked at Jon, “I know we all thought we were supposed to be mated with our former alpha’s daughter, but we didn’t think you’d be our former alpha either. Obviously, things change. So you need to handle your daughter, or you both need to leave.”
“I won’t take orders from you. I already lost my wife by following orders to leave, I’m not losing the pack either.”
“You already lost the pack, Jon,” Zane tilted his chin up to Jen’s dad. “It’s mine now. Out of respect for you and your loss of Marsha, I haven’t pulled rank on you. I’ve left you alone and hoped as much as Jen that she would be ours. She’s not. She’s not the one true mate, if you and Jen are going to be a distraction in all of this, then you will be forced out of the pack.” He looked at Jen who had tears pooling in her eyes, “Not another word about what we all thought was our future together. You will understand fate saw it differently than us, and you will respect fate’s reasoning.”
“Okay,” I interrupted the drama that was bubbling up in the room. “Why don’t you guys take this and work it out somewhere else. I’m not even slightly tempted to drink from my guys. I can smell the life-blood in their veins. Just leave us until we’re ready to go all in on the blood merge.” I walked over and took Cole’s hand in mine, his vacant stoned-out eyes looked down at me. “We’re waiting until your brain is back in the game. Got it?”
Cole sighed and nodded. I could sense the guys were okay with all of this, but I wasn’t cool with doing anything blood ritual related until their heads were straight. My guys weren’t this naturally laid back, and I wanted to be solid on this crazy ass idea before we did anything.
I looked at the sadness on Jen’s face, and for the first time since she left me, and I learned she was a wolf shifter, I felt bad for her. Marsha was gone? What the hell happened? I felt like I should want to know everything about what happened to them after they left me, but right now my vampires were the most important thing to me.
“Go,” I said, addressing Zane. “Please, go work all of this shit out together outside or something, I need to be alone with my guys right now. This is a huge change, and before it all goes down, I just want it to be them and me.” I looked at Jen, “I know it’s all bullshit, but for once, put yourself in my shoes. I don’t want this. I want it to be just my guys and me, and somehow, it’s not going to work out that way.”
“Can we just get out of here? I need some air anyway,” Jen said to Zane.
“Let’s go,” Zane ordered the wolf shifters, and they all followed him through the back doors and out of the house.
“Once the merge happens, you’ll all begin to accept what fate—” Shane started.
“We know,” I said dryly. “Can we have a few moments alone while my guys are snapping out of this drug you have them dosed up on?”
“No problem.” Shane smiled kindly at me, “It will be a powerful force, I’m looking forward to the merge.”
“That makes one of us.” I forced a half smile.
I looked at my vampires who all directed loving—stoned—gazes toward me. “My God, when you all snap out of this, you’re probably going to kill a bastard for even wanting to do this shit.”
“It’s the only way. I can feel it, even past being mellowed out like this,” Braden answered. “Trust me,” he stepped forward and swallowed me up in his arms. “I’d have killed them, even in this stoned-out state, if it wasn’t right. We should have done the ritual, baby.”
I tightened my arms around him. “We’re not doing anything until you guys start talking and acting normal again. Right now, I have to apologize for losing it and almost killing you all.” I pulled back and looked sadly at my guys, knowing they were in this state because I lost control.
“Fuck that!” Logan folded his arms. “That witch is the only one who needs to apologize. She’s the one who fucked with the universe and our girl when she hit you with this curse.”
I smiled at my guy, feeling a bit more comfortable by hearing a little anger in his voice. It’s not like I wanted to be a bitch to people who tried to help us—wolves and shamans—but I wanted to be sure. These guys were already screwed over by the ancient witch bullshit that put us in this position, so I wanted to make sure history wasn’t going to repeat itself. This time with wolves and shamans instead of ancient creepy witches.
Chapter Twelve
It took about twenty minutes of the guys going back and forth with apologies and regrets until Cole snapped into the game. I was sitting on Logan’s lap when Cole stood and walked over to me.
“Come here, doll,” he said in his usual commanding tone. “Get your ass over here,” he said as I went into his loving embrace. “They’ll be feeling more themselves in a few.” He kissed my head and sighed, “I really fucking hate that it all shakes out like this.” He withdrew from me, and his eyes were focused and severe. “My biggest worry is for you. I know in my brain this must be done. I can feel it deep inside me, so can Zane, but my heart isn’t quite there.” He pressed his forehead into mine, cupping each side of my face with his hands. “You have to be completely honest with me, Ellie. How is this working out in your head?”
