Page 72 of Mortal Shift
“What now?” I asked.
“Now,” he said, “we get moving before anyone else decides they want to let my father know we’re here.”
A shiver ran down my spine as I recalled the single time I’d found myself trapped alone in a room with the alpha of this pack. “Yeah, good idea.” And then I frowned. “Wait, I know why I don’t want to see him, but why don’tyouwant to see him?”
Cole turned and started walking down the street, leaving me no choice but to hurry alongside him. Asshole.
“Last time I spoke to him,” he said, “he suggested killing you ourselves as a way out of this mess.”
My throat tightened. “But, uh, you decided against that, right?”
Cole just grunted in reply.
“You know, because it’d make your pack look weak, right?”
“We’d look weak if someone else killed you,” he said.
Well, that was not at all reassuring.
“Yeah, let’s try to avoid your dad.”
“That might be easier if you stopped trying to broadcast our presence to the entire town.”
“Did you just tell me to shut up?”
He cut me a sideways glance. “And yet, you’re still talking.”
I opened my mouth to tell him where he could shove that, and then realized he was probably right. If his father wanted me dead, then the less people who knew I was here, the better. Which’d be great, except…
“If we’re keeping a low profile, why’d you tell the guards who I am?”
Irritation flicked over his face. “Instinct. They threatened you.”
I rolled my eyes and thrust my hands into my pockets. “Like you and Thaden haven’t done that a hundred times.”
“That’s different.”
“Why, because you and your fang friend were the ones doing it?”
“Lower your voice,” he snapped, throwing a glance over each shoulder and scanning the shadows.
“Are you that scared of people finding out I’m here?” I frowned, and then stopped dead, because that wasn’t what had changed his exasperation to fear—and it was fear, no matter how much anger he tried to hide it behind. “You don’t want people finding out you’re friends with a vampire, do you?”
“Enough! Be quiet and get moving or you’re going to lose your only chance to see your mother.”
I planted my feet and folded my arms across my chest in clearest ‘fuck you’ I could convey without screaming it from the rooftops—which, incidentally, I hadn’t entirely ruled out.
“Not until you tell me what the big deal is. And if you’re even thinking about pulling some disappearing act in the hopes of making me follow, then don’t, because I will knock on every door and make sure every shifter in this town knows your dirty secret.”
He grabbed hold of me and hauled into the shadows of an alleyway.
“Use your head,” he hissed. “You think the shifters at Darkveil have an issue with vamps? You haven’t seen anything yet. We’re on the brink of war with them, and what I—” He looked around, and even though we were completely alone, lowered his voice further. “My friendship with Thaden is treason. Half the shifters here would kill me for it without thinking twice.”
“Gee, I wonder why they’re not all rushing to your corner, with the way you treated the guard detail.”
“Wolves respect strength.” He looked away, his mouth tightening. “And they threatened you.”
“Still, don’t you think there are slightly better ways of finding allies?”
