Page 132 of Blade's Battle
“Hell no. I thought we needed some leverage. If Damien wants to go through with this, I’ll be shooting something harmless into them. Or not so harmless if they give us any trouble.
“Blade, she’s a keeper. If you hadn’t already blood-bonded her, I would.”
“Too late. She’s already mine.”
“And I’m not giving you up to anyone,” Damien said as he swooped in and pulled Tess to him for a long kiss. “Liam, Drake and I are going to meet in a few days to discuss our next moves against the WSSO. Until then, the other packs will gather samples from salt licks and bring them here for you to test, as well as some small game.”
“Good, that will help.”
Damien and Blade stared at one another for a moment, thinned lipped and silent
“We need to talk,” Damien finally said.
“The time for talk was earlier when you were ready to sacrifice Anna.”
Damien sighed. “I spoke with Liam in private before Drake arrived. Neither of us planned to hand Anna over, but we had to find a way to convince Drake to relinquish his claim, whether it was valid or not. We needed Drake to back down, on his own accord. I didn’t know what Liam was going to do, but he’d forewarned me to keep you in line. I trusted him. I was hoping you’d trust me. If I had known Tess and Anna would show up, I would have kept you away.”
“Which is why Liam and I agreed not to tell you,” Tess said. “Of course, it was a last-minute change of plan. We didn’t know if Blade and Anna would be back before the meeting.”
Damien raised a brow. “You’ve been having discussions with another alpha behind my back?”
“Relax, big guy. I was helping Liam see things properly, nothing more.” Tess leaned into Damien in a way everyone knew would wrap Damien around her little finger.
Anna shook her head in disbelief. “What happened to all that ‘We’ll think of something’ and ‘Can’t leave it all up to the guys’ talk you spouted on our way here?”
Tess started bouncing on her feet, biting her bottom lip trying to hide her grin. “Wedidthink of something, and wedidn’tleave it all up to the guys. Sometimes a little improvising is required, however.”
“And you thought I was in charge,” Damien joked.
Blade scrutinized Damien. His alpha was standing there, looking as if he was holding his breath. Damien wasn’t one to apologize easily, especially in a situation when he’d only been doing his job.
“You know I wanted to kill you back there,” Blade said.
“You had cause,” Damien concurred, matter-of-factly.
Just like that, it was clear Damien held no ill-will.
“Are we good, Blade?” Damien asked.
“Yeah, we’re good,” Blade said.
“You still don’t feel like you belong, do you?” Damien asked.
Anna leaned into Blade. Skin to skin contact always soothed him. He rested his head against hers as his arms wrapped around her.
“It’s hard sometimes, but this is home. You didn’t fail me, none of you did, and for that, I’ll always be grateful.”
Damien nodded, which was a lot from him. He wasn’t the hugging or slap a shifter on the back type of alpha.
“Hey, enough of this mushy stuff,” Anna said, swatting Blade’s arm to let her go. “I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon, not a double date.”
“Very true!” Blade said as he scooped her up into his arms, leaving Damien and Tess behind in their wake. He moved fast through the woods, taking a short-cut she wasn’t familiar with.
“I can walk.”
“I know. But this is more fun. Reminds me of our first date,”
“Date? I was a mess, dirty, traumatized, wounded—”
