Page 38 of Laurels and Liquor

“My dance card’s full,” I reply simply, rocking my weight onto my back leg.

Delano sucks his teeth and runs his tongue along his bottom lip. Just like I’d suspected, a silver piercing flashes in the light. “Shame. You seem like the type to—”

“If you’re done flirting, we’re here for a reason,” Lex drawls pointedly, cutting across whatever Delano was about to say.

He turns and looks at her with no small amount of surprise on his face. I can’t say I’m not a little surprised either. There’s something in her expression as she glares at Delano that I don’t expect: possessiveness. I’d seen that look on her face whenever someone got a little too friendly with Lucas, and more recently Lydia, but it’s never been directed my way. But I’ll have plenty of time to ponder that later.

I step around Delano and continue into the dining room, sitting on Lex’s right. We both roll up our sleeves to expose our upper arms as he brings the vials closer. I don’t know what I’d expected, maybe something in a radioactive shade of green or even blue, but the liquid in the syringes is clear. If I didn’t know better, it looks like Hunter is about to give us a flu shot, not administer a bond breaking drug of questionable origin. But beggars can’t be choosers, and I’d do anything to be rid of this bond for good.

“You’re going to feel some burning, but that should go away after a few minutes. Over the next few days, you’re going to be more… irritable, maybe even slightly manic. That’s normal, and part of the process. If you’re going to have a bad reaction, it’ll happen within the first hour or so,” Hunter says, words detached and clinical.

“What’s a bad reaction?” Lex asks.

“Your body locks up and you stop breathing. Or you start ripping off people’s faces,” Delano says with a laugh.

I look at him with alarm, and find him in the chair I’d vacated.

“How could you possibly know that?” Lex throws back.

Delano only laughs and taps the side of his nose with a long finger. “Plausible deniability, dollface.”

Hearing him call her a pet name twists something in my chest, and I manage to contain my reaction to a glare. She’s not his dollface, or his anything.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve done this,” Gideon adds, almost no inflection in his words.

I want to question him further, but Hunter looks up at us expectantly. I turn my gaze to Lex, and I can read the question in her eyes.

You want to go first?

“After you, Prime Alpha,” I reply, trying for irreverent, but the words stick in my throat.

This is it. We’re doing this. Hunter puts on some gloves and sanitizes the injection site on Lex’s arm with a little alcohol wipe. I watch her face as the needle goes in, and her only reaction is a slight wince. And then it’s my turn. I close my eyes for just a moment, and before I can truly process what’s happening, it’s over. A slight prick and then it’s done. Years of trauma are finally behind me. After this weekend, Seth Douglas will be nothing more than a bad memory.

I’d thought I would be able to feel the drug working, maybe some ripping or shredding in my chest or head, but as we sit at the table and the minutes tick by, the only thing I feel is the burning Hunter mentioned. My upper arm feels like I have a very bad, very localized sunburn, and I rotate my shoulder as the pain ramps up a little. Lex looks at me, flashing a look of concern, but I give her a little reassuring smile.

“Feel like clawing my face off?” I joke with a little chuckle.

“No more than usual,” she returns, not missing a beat.

“We’ll stick around for a while longer, just to make sure,” Hunter says, packing up his bag again.

“I’m sure you have better things to do,” Lex says dismissively.

“Of course, we do. But Uncle Leo isn’t paying us to do a half-ass job,” Gideon adds from the door.

I snort at his words, trying to imagine Leopold St. Clair playing catch with a child Gideon, or taking him fishing, or doing any of the other things my uncles did with me growing up. But I can’t make myself imagine the man wearing anything other than a three-piece suit, which only adds to the humor.

“What’s so funny?” Gideon snipes, glaring at me.

“Just thinking about your ‘Uncle Leo,’” I reply, finger quoting the name.

“What else am I supposed to call him?”

“I call him ‘that bastard,’ and everyone usually knows who I’m talking about,” I say with a satisfied smirk.

His face goes a little red in his temper, and I catch Lex pressing her lips together as she tries not to laugh. That’s not the worst thing I’ve ever called her sperm donor, and it’s certainly not even close to the worst thingsshe’scalled him. Gideon looks at his cousin, waiting for her to defend her father, but when she doesn’t, he turns back to me.

“Come on, Gid. We both know Leo’s an asshole. They just have the balls to say it,” Delano tosses from the living room.

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