Page 19 of Wolf Blood

"Some of them."

"If it makes you feel better to have the reminder that he's dead, you should wear them. Just ignore it when I cringe. I'll pester Rhone about a different chain. Something small, and shorter?"

I looked in the mirror. "Rose gold. It'll look bad, but with the different hair..."

"Might as well embrace the new you. Maybe you need a nickname to go with it."

"If you call me Harp, I'll bite you."

"My blood is too disgusting."

"It's unfortunate, but true." Vampires never smelled good to each other. Unless they were mated, I guess. I'd never asked about that, but it seemed like a safe assumption.

"We could go with... Har. Or Perry. Both great options," Bloom said with a grin."There’s always Trouble, too."

I managed a small smile. "Get out of here. Harper is fine, even with my new look."

"Fine, I’ll go. I've got a Beta to annoy anyway." She slipped out of the bathroom, calling over her shoulder, "You look hot in the new clothes. Maybe his taste isn't completely horrendous."

I studied myself in the mirror.

Maybe it wasn't.

Other than the haunted look I sported, the way the clothes fit actually kind of looked good.Not in the way I had before, but that didn’t matter.

Maybe I'd like to be attractive again. Even if it was a different kind of attractive than I'd been before.

Of course, not being able to keep food down would make that difficult.

Maverick and Bloomwere gone when I left. I headed back to the observation room alone, but I did that most nights.

I was a little nervous about getting called out for the fight earlier.I didn't want to spiral any more than I already had, and spiraling felt inevitable.

The elevator was empty when I got on it, but a pair of women joined me when it stopped on the next floor.

Instead of sneering at me, their eyes brightened when they saw me.

"Girl, you are my idol," one of the werewolves said.

She had a healthy glow to her light skin and dark eyes that I couldn’t achieve with any amount of effort, thanks to my permanent illness. Her blonde hair was up in two buns on top of her head, and it made her look cheerful in a way I couldn’t even really dream about anymore.

"Screwing Ryder, stripping in the hallway to stop the Beta from killing him, and getting hauled into your apartment over Rhone's shoulder? Seriously, you’re a legend," the second woman said, legitimately looking impressed.She had golden skin, and brown hair hanging in loose curls, with red lips and bright eyes.

I wasn't skilled with female friendships outside of Bloom. But, working as the personal assistant to the CEO of an investment firm for multiple years had taught me how to make decent snap judgments.

Mostly through trial and error. Poor snap judgments had shitty consequences.

The women didn't set off any red flags for me, but I was a walking red flag at the moment, so it would’ve been hard to find something worse than me.

"What did he do after he hauled you inside?" the first woman asked.

"You don't want to know," I said.

They both leaned in.

"If I tell you, you have to make sure it gets back to Rhone. I want him pissed off," I warned.

Grins took over their beautiful faces.