Page 26 of Bad Blood Alpha

He pulled Lissa tighter against him, and he began to glow once more with that strange magic. “Who the fuck is she?”

Everyone turned and stared, the room falling silent.

Oh, hell.

“Hi,” she said, waving lamely. “I’m Kira. Don’t mind me.”

Flynn pushed himself off the counter and came to stand beside her, cocking an eyebrow at her. “Aren’t you going to tell them, Princess?”

Kira blew out a sigh. “I wasn’t, but I have the feeling you are.”

Flynn folded his arms across his chest and faced his crew. “Meet Kiraset Lael of the House of Al-Maddeiri. She’s a draken princess who’s been dead for twenty years.”

Stunned silence met that pronouncement.

“A dragon?” Caitlyn asked, eyes wide.

“Dead?” Lissa said. “She doesn’t look dead.”

Brody said, “Unless she’s a vampire dragon. Or a zombie dragon. Do they have zombie dragons?” He looked hopeful.

Funny guy. Kira said, “Yes. We eat wolf brains. Mmmm.”

She could see Jasmin behind Brody, biting her lips, trying not to grin.

“Moron,” Xander said to Brody. “Look, she has fresh wounds that are half-healed. Zombies don’t heal. Their flesh just rots and tears off in gangrenous strips.” He rolled his eyes. “Everybody knows that.”

“I hate my crew,” Flynn muttered.

Kira was kind of starting to like them.

“Kira is an old friend,” Flynn went on.

Everyone really stared this time. Caitlyn said in a stage whisper to Lissa, “Did we know he had friends?”

Lissa shrugged. “I guess it could happen,” she whispered back dubiously.

Kira watched the back-and-forth, fascinated. She wouldn’t have thought anyone would have the guts to fuck with an alpha who had as much juice as Flynn, but his crew was obviously used to giving him shit.

“Is that a friend-friend, or a fuck-friend?” Xander inquired.

Jenny smacked him on the shoulder.

“Just asking,” he said, glaring at Jenny and rubbing his shoulder. “Because if she’s a fuck-friend, Flynn might get a lot less grumpy, and not yell at me if he found out I messed up the measurements on some expensive paneling on a construction job…” He looked around the now-silent room. “For example. Not that I would ever actually do that.”

Flynn raised his eyes to the ceiling, shaking his head. “Fine. Kira and I are not fucking at the present time. According to the draken, she’s my destined mate. We were handfasted when I was twelve and she was five. Now that she’s not dead anymore, we’re apparently supposed to go ahead and mate and bond save the draken from some unspecified disastrous fate. Which we’re not going to do. The end. Now, take your mates and go the fuck to bed and leave me in peace.”

Nobody moved. Everyone appeared shell-shocked.

“For fuck’s sake, go to bed!” Alpha power rolled through the room.

They began filing out, eyes still wide.

Flynn said, “And Xander? I’m taking the cost of the paneling out of your pay.”

Xander detoured past them and whispered not-so-softly to Kira, “If you could arrange that getting laid thing for him before that happens, that would be awesome. Just sayin’.”