Page 129 of Claimed By Blood

I shake my head. “Unfortunately, if I let you kill him, Mia might killme.And don’t forget, Evie likes him.”

Draven’s frown only deepens, like he’s trying to calculate whether Evie would eventually forgive him for killing my baby brother.

“He doesn’t have a full bond with her yet,” he murmurs.

True.

Neither does Frost or Gideon.

Frost is understandable, given how much history the two of them have to overcome. And Gideon can be such an asshole at times, so I’m not surprised it’s taking him so long to connect with her. But my brother? They’re almost joined at the hip. He can read her moods almost as well as Finn, and the three of them are so comfortable together.

By comparison, my relationship with Evie is quiet, and it seems like we barely know one another. Yet that one night together on the plane was enough to snap the bond together. Since then, I’ve stayed back, and she’s obeyed my rules so well that I haven’t had any excuse to drag her back to my bed and punish her.

If not for the subtle hint of defiance she showed me, I’d almost think she was a perfect good girl. No. There’s a brat in there, and I can’t wait until she feels safe enough to let herself act out.

At least my absence has given her time to spend with Silas. I want my brother to have the full bond. He’s so obviously head over heels for her that it’s amusing to watch, but the thrall bond will cement that in a way he can’t even understand.

For betas like us, just to experience the utter comfort ofknowingshe’s okay without ever having to check or second-guess ourselves, is the most wonderful thing in the world.

I want that for him. For the whole pack—but especially for Silas.

I haven’t said anything, but I suspect he’s the one holding them back. Surface level friendships are easy for him, but getting deeper takes time. Losing our mother, our sister, and then our entire pack, at a relatively young age for an immortal, shaped him, made him guarded. But Evie is good for him.

And my brother is perfect for Evie too. I get the impression that she didn’t laugh much in her old life, but he brings the sound out of her more than any of us. She hasn’t said anything, but we can all feel her amusement at his pranks. It’s part of the reason why—despite his threats—Draven hasn’t actually retaliated against him as he once would’ve.

There have been no lost fingernails, not even a sneaky nut-shot.

It must be a record.

Or maybe he’s just taking out all of his anger on the vampires and lycans that Cain is ‘rewarding’ by sending them to the village.

The three of us reach the doorway just as Frost and Gideon look up. Gid is rubbing his eyes in the way he always does when he’s exasperated or trying to think of what to do next, and Frost doesn’t look much better.

Evie still looks as bad as she did before. Her apprehension and anxiety has returned in full force, but it dissipates slightly as Finn pushes past both alphas to draw her into a hug.

“What happened?” he demands.

“The villagers know something,” Frost surmises. “They approached us, and when we told them why we were here, they ran.”

“That’s not exactly encouraging.” Draven scowls.

“They thought we were just playing with them on Cain’s orders,” Evie murmurs. “I think they need more time.”

“We might not have it.” All of us turn to look at Finn, who pulls back from Evie with an uncertain look on his face. “My signal went down right after the lab got back to me about Evie’s results. That shouldn’t have happened unless…”

Unless someone unfriendly knew to target it.

“Shit,” I curse.

“What did the lab say?” Frost demands.

“Nothing,” I reply. “There’s no way to track down witches using DNA.”

Evie’s eyes widen, and her already pale face goes ashen. “If Cain was keeping tabs on us, that’s the kind of information he’d wait for.” She turns to Finn. “How certain are you that he can't have hacked your system?”

“Completely,” Finn argues, scrubbing at his short hair in frustration, only to growl as the action dislodges his glasses, forcing him to adjust them before he can continue. “He’d have to have found a way to interfere with the hardware directly.”

I meet Gideon’s eyes. “Where is Imogen?” I ask, trying my best to keep my tone level.

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