Page 32 of Destined for Dreams
“I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my people. If you’d been anyone else, I would have shut down your shop immediately, so be glad you’re still open at all.” The alpha glared at her. “Now sit down.”
“Fuck you.”
Cori was so mad she couldn’t see straight. What the hell did he mean by saying if she’d been anyone else she’d have lost her shop? Now she could understand why Lucas barely tolerated the werewolf, considering she was ready to throw a chair at the man. She didn’t care that he could probably take her down in a heartbeat.
Lucas cleared his throat. “Perhaps we can come to some sort of compromise.”
“Until we know more about what she’s doin’ with her tattoos, I can’t let any of my people near her shop. It’s my job to look after them, and I ain’t compromisin’ that.”
“How do you propose we study the problem so we can find a resolution?” Lucas asked, lifting a brow.
The alpha took a moment to mull that over. “There are some humans I know of—victims who could use immunity to compulsion. Cori could do small tattoos for them, and if she’s successful, I’ll pay her for it. Those can be test cases to see how well she does.”
That wasn’t…unreasonable. “You’d do that?”
“If you’d have been patient,” he said, glaring up at her. “We might have gotten to this point sooner.”
She took a deep breath and sat down. “How do we test the tattoos?”
“We’ll have someone like myself or Lucas attempt compulsion on them to see exactly how strong the immunity is that you gave them. That’s the first step, and then we’ll go from there once we have a scale to go by.”
She frowned. “You can compel?”
A werewolf—no matter how old or powerful—shouldn’t have been able to do that.
“Ever since Yerik changed me I can,” Derrick replied.
Cori supposed if she could develop new talents, so could he, especially since he’d gotten a mixture of angel and demon blood to boost him. The world was full of surprises lately.
“We should also have her avoid giving that ability to other humans,” Lucas suggested. “From what I understand, it’s not something she does to everyone, so there is some mental component that causes her to give immunity to certain individuals. If she can prove she is able to be selective, new terms can be worked out.”
“That’s true,” Cori agreed. It would be good if she could figure out how to control the ability, and she had some ideas on how to do it if she could practice.
“Alright, I’ll go along with that.” Derrick laid his hands on the desk. “And if the human trials work, I might consider movin’ on to one of the supernatural races next. Many of my wolves would like to shift during the day if there ain’t any side effects.”
“Has the one guy had any problems yet?” Cori asked.
“Not that we’ve seen, but we need to wait until the full moon has passed to be sure.”
That wouldn’t be until this Saturday.
“Please let me know,” she said.
He dipped his chin. “I will.”
Lucas spoke up, “When would you like to start the human tests? I might bring a nerou along to watch and assist since this would be a good learning experience.”
Cori wondered who he might bring, considering Tormod was out of the country with Bartol. Other than Micah’s daughter, Olivia, most of the others were strangers to her.
“I’ve got no problem with that.” Derrick checked the calendar on his desk. “Let’s go with late Monday afternoon after the holiday and full moon. I’ll have more time to put into it then.”
It was Wednesday now, so she’d have to wait longer than expected to resolve this, but her shop was closed until then anyway. “Monday afternoon is great.”
“Good. We’ll meet at four in the afternoon—be ready to do several tattoos.” The alpha stood up. “In the meantime, I’ll look forward to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.”
She forced herself to paste a smile on her face as she stood as well. “You’re coming, too?”
“I’m not helpin’ you just because you’ve got powerful friends and a nephilim mate.” A slight smile spread across Derrick’s lips. “I’m making sure you never turn me away for a meal.”
Cori should have known he had an ulterior motive.
