Page 172 of Wolf Blood

I gave him a look. "Raw eggs? Really?"

He shrugged. "I have to win fights somehow. Need the extra boost."

"You couldcookthe eggs."

"It’s easier to chug them with the shake."

Our vampires frosted their cake quickly.

"Alright, it's taste testing time. If we can’t all come to an agreement about the true winners, we bring the enforcers in," Bloom announced.

I sat down at the kitchen table in the vacant apartment that had been Harper’s before she moved in with me. It was still empty, and had become the neutral place the four of us hung out, so neither of our apartments ended up covered in each other’s scents.

Moving ingredients over hadn’t been difficult, and everything else in the space was already decorated with random things Bloom and Harper had brought in.

Harper still stayed inside most of the time, but Vast City had reluctantly started to accept that our pack was "taming vampires". The media’s words, not ours.

When she left with me, no one cowered or called her out, so I didn’t care what they said. She had even gotten to go back to her old hairdresser. While it hadn’t been completely normal for her, I'd tipped the human woman excessively, and she had done her best not to be fazed by the red eyes.

Harper’s hair was now a wild mix of different shades of pastel pink and pinkish blonde. She fucking loved it, and I loved her. Didn’t give a shit what her hair looked like, as long as it made her smile.

It did.

I did, too.

Harper sat down on my lap as soon as I was seated.

Maverick hovered next to Bloom, watching her cut the cakes to make sure she didn’t cheat. His competitiveness was surfacing. Bloom seemed more amused by it than annoyed.

Then again, she was the same way about the parts of his job that I would've fucking hated. She lit up every time they went to visit another pack or headed off to the estate.

That had even caught Harper off guard. She’d never seen Bloom come out of her shell so much before.

Harper and I were on the same page, as far as adventure: Not really interested.

She just wanted to feel safe and comfortable. She liked going places that made her feel human, but she was always excited to go back home, too.

Part of that was vampirism, but part of it was just her personality. She’d admitted that to me months ago. Being dragged to Guild things multiple times every week as a kid, and working for Steven afterward, had made her crave a quiet, laid-back life.

When it seemed like she was getting stir crazy, we visited the estate, and she relaxed all over again.

I’d never expected to enjoy having a mate, but learning who she was and how she worked satisfied me in a way I didn't have words to describe. Making her happy was even better.

Bloom and Maverick brought slices of the cake over to us, and we all tried mine and Mav’s first.

It was… passable.

"Our mothers would be ashamed." Mav gestured toward our cake. "We should be amazing at this."

"We became killing machines instead of bakers," I said.

"Fucking disappointing." Mav shook his head. "We’ll practice before next year's competition."

"You haven’t lost yet," Bloom pointed out, though she was smiling.

They were going to crush us.

We all tasted the women's cake—and demolished the whole damn thing in minutes.