Three’s a Clan Read Free Page B

past Protectors was a regular part of my existence now. Jake had tried to explain the stuff in his head to me when it was obvious I’d been the lucky recipient, but there hadn’t been time. And despite the resulting war, I was grateful Jake found his mate. She’d taken over leadership when it was too much for him. She saved him when it was obvious the miasma was not meant to be held by an Alpha or Matheo. I barely held back the cinematic replay of what the newest member of their Clan had done to a group of wolves in the woods. No matter how much it was relevant, times like that were meant to be feared and not relived.
    My office hours at the school were about to start. The blood investigation would wait. I thought of the pesky date just a few hours away. I was about to put the phrase “red-blooded frat boy” to the test.
    I still had a forty-five minute window until I met with my new donor. Something nagged my brain, but luckily, I didn’t need much of it to get through office hours. Once again, only the male students sought my assistance. They fumbled over their words and asked basic questions I hoped they already had answers to.
    It was one thing to try and get close to a woman, but I did not comprehend these men who thought their looks would be more than enough fodder to impress the opposite sex. Did females not expect any conversation these days? I took a swig from the O negative that filled my little black bottle. It wasn’t unpleasant. The blood was chilled in a small refrigeration unit alongside my desk. I preferred warm and from the source, but a vampire did what she had to do to blend in these days.
    My mind wandered. My father had released three members of our Family from their search duties. The Matheo had been actively searching for Jake and Amber since they’d left ten months ago. The only difference was he now had a very real reason to be pissed. The Hart Clan had taken down his supply of harvested witch blood. I never asked about Jake’s plans, because at this point, any indication of my involvement with my brother would be another cause for my death.
    This was a don’t ask, don’t tell situation, and keeping my yap shut kept me close to where the final witch had to be without having to kill everyone in my house.
    I needed to get out of my office. I compelled three students to forget that they wanted to talk with me, and started walking. The miasma zapped me with how it had felt to be grabbed by claws in the woods. The sensation of frenzied kisses turned my feet toward where I shouldn’t go. It was where Amber Hart had almost died. I was at the Paulson apartments.
    The local werewolf Pack was smaller than it used to be. Being sucked into an interspecies war by your Alpha would do that. I heard voices from the weight room beside the pool. I passed a few pups playing in the water and walked through the door.
    Shirtless men were everywhere. I wasn’t into werewolves as a general rule, because I wasn’t supposed to be, and I guess part of that upbringing stuck. Glistening defined muscles surrounded me. I passed a handful of men, all who stopped what they were doing as I made my way to the far end of the room.
    The Alpha Paulson and his Beta lifted fifty pound dumbbells like they were tens. Muscles bunched under a salty mist of perspiration. Tan skin covered their bodies, and it was obvious that neither wore shirts much during the summer. They were two very different men, but they both turned toward me as one. The miasma tried to play back that scene again, but somehow I was able to make it stop. Barely.
    I had the attention of every powerful male in the place. Tension thicker than a dehydrated man’s blood bubbled up around me. Most of the tension revolved around the fact that my Family was on the other side of the interspecies feud.
    The Alpha and Beta of the Pack each grabbed an arm and looked down at me. Then a very specific part of my body woke up, and I tried to squash it, because this was