Page 3 of Wolf Blood

I snorted at her attempt to mimic her mate's overconfident drawl. "You spend so much time together that you should have that down."

"The paperwork keeps distracting me."

"It's always the paperwork."

"Or the murders."

"Or the bloodlust." My mind went back to blood, and any amusement I'd been feeling faded. "Do you think it helps to drink from a few different sources? Switch it up a bit? Oren never tried it, so he doesn’t know. He keeps telling me not to push Rhone."

"No one wants to push Rhone, but someone has to do it."

"Do they?"

Bloom considered it. "I guess not. We should, though."

"I don't want to cause problems for you."

"Oh please, I'm the Alpha's mate. I have a get out of jail free card."

"Could Rhone take Maverick down, if he tried?" I asked, looking sideways at Bloom.

She shrugged, her expression tightening a little. "It would be a close fight, but Mav has won way more challenges than Rhone has even watched. Especially since we sealed our bond."

I patted her arm lightly. "He's happy to fight for you guys. He's always grinning. It's annoying."

Since she’d mated with Maverick, she smelled even less appealing to me. The scent of sex just sort of lingered around both of them all the time.

I'd been there for her way back when she was boning Timber, so it wasn’t like I had a problem with the sex. It was just a scent thing.

Fuck vampirism.

Her face softened a little. "It's not annoying."

"It is." I patted her arm again. "Ignore the prejudiced dickfaces and let Maverick make the other werewolves eat dirt."

"He has to kill some of them."

Images of the manI'dkilled flickered in my mind.

The way Steven's heart had slowed, then stopped, against the fist I had curled around his button-up shirt while my fangs were buried in his throat.

The way his body had slumped to the floor.

My fangs throbbed despite my disgust.

I had no control over my body anymore.

My mom's voice rang through my mind, the way it always seemed to when my fangs hurt.

"KILL HER."

I forced myself to breathe through the flashes, like I always did. That was how I survived.They would fade enough that I could ignore them after a few minutes

"I'm thinking about dying my hair black," I said.

"Black? Please don’t. You'd look like death incarnate in your current condition, and your hair would be super orange when you tried to get it back to blonde."

"Iamdeath incarnate. Or murder incarnate, at the very least."