Page 110 of Mortal Shift
“Right. And you might give me a task that takes a lifetime to complete.”
He shrugged. “I might. You’re not going to get a better offer. Your choice—take it or leave it.”
Dammit.
“I’ll take it. Open the portal.”
“So be it.”
He stepped back and raised one hand, muttering the same incantation as before. The portal sprang into existence, and I recognized the dark street he’d sent us to last time.
I didn’t thank him.
“See you around,” I said instead.
“Yes, you will,” he vowed, and a shiver traveled the length of my spine. I really,reallyhoped that deal wasn’t going to come back to bite me in the ass. But there wasn’t time to dwell on that now.
I stepped through the portal, and emerged into the pack’s territory.
“Halt!” The voice split the night air almost before my feet had touched solid group, and the vicious snarl that backed it up convinced me that halting was probably a smart plan. “You’re trespassing.”
“My name is Cali Ellis,” I said, slowly and clearly, because I really didn’t want Cole’s pack to literally bite me in the ass before Aodh’s deal could do it metaphorically. I quite liked my ass. “You know who I am?”
I fixed eyes on the man, the same who’d stopped us last time we’d come, and he quickly flapped a hand, waving the wolves off.
“Stand down,” he hissed at them. “No offence, Cali. Will the alpha heir be joining you?”
I was getting really sick of people peering behind me as they asked that.
“Not unless he’s planning to materialize out of thin air, no.” I swallowed the sharp edge to my voice, and offered him a small smile. “So he doesn’t need to know that you challenged me.”
“Challenged?” The shifter paled.
“I wouldn’t waste his time with such things.”
He ducked his head. “My thanks.”
“But I do need to see the alpha. Immediately.”
Owen’s eyes widened and he darted a look at the wolves clustered around us, and then back to me before swallowing hard.
“He’s not to be disturbed.”
“Even by his son’s mate?”
The shifter swallowed. “He gave specific instructions.”
Great. He might be scared of the consequences of threatening Cole’s mate, but he was clearly far more afraid of messing up his alpha’s evening. This world was seriously fucked up. Had these people ever heard of ruling with kindness?
But I might have just traded far more than I could afford to get here. I couldn’t be turned away now. Then a thought struck me.
“What about Blaine?”
Relief flooded the shifter’s face.
“I’ll take you to him at once. Silas?”
He lifted his chin at one of the wolves, who nodded in return and then loped off. I guess they didn’t much go in for surprise visitors round here.
