Elena’s POV
The weight of Marcus’s body pressed against mine as I locked my legs around his waist, surrendering to the heat that sparked between us. His lips traced a burning path along my jawline before trailing down my neck, drawing soft sounds from my throat that I couldn’t suppress.
"Marcus!" The shrill voice cut through our mont like a blade, making us both freeze.
"Damn it. That’s Viviana." Marcus muttered, pulling himself upright on the couch.
"Kind of hard to miss that tone." I replied, trying to steady my racing heart.
"I’m sorry about this." He stood up, running his hands through his disheveled hair as he scanned the room.
"If you even think about suggesting I climb out that window, I’ll make sure you can’t have children." The threat rolled off my tongue easily, and I caught what might have been a smile flickering across his face.
"I’ll lead her to the office. You can slip out through the front entrance." He said.
So I stayed hidden in the library, surrounded by dusty books and the lingering scent of our interrupted mont, until his voice echoed in my mind through our link, telling the coast was clear. I grabbed the history book I’d been studying and made my exit from the packhouse.
Walking back to the trailer, I felt Tara’s anguish rolling through in waves. She was practically howling inside my head, desperate to return and tear Viviana apart with her claws.
I had to focus all my energy on keeping her contained and calm.
Her emotional turmoil was giving a splitting headache.
"Doesn’t this make you angry?" Tara whined in my thoughts.
"Should it?" I shot back.
"Of course it should. Our mate just had us hiding like so dirty secret because his girlfriend appeared." Tara’s voice dripped with indignation.
"Please stop making this more complicated than it needs to be."
"Why aren’t you upset?" She pressed.
"Don’t tell how I should react. I stopped caring about things like this years ago. You know that." I said firmly.
"Right. I forgot. You’re emotionally dead inside." She said with bitter sarcasm.
"Exactly." I muttered, pushing through the trailer door and letting it slam behind .
I tossed the book onto the kitchen table and changed into my workout clothes, then headed out for my usual training routine. This ti though, I pushed myself twice as hard. I ran two complete circuits around the territory boundaries and spent two full hours attacking the exercise equipnt until my muscles scread.
By the ti I dragged myself back inside, darkness had already swallowed the day. I stood under the hot spray of the shower until the water ran cold, then pulled on my pajamas.
I prepared dinner for both my mother and myself, sliding her plate into the oven to stay warm while I ate my portion. The history book lay open beside my plate as I continued reading, searching for answers to questions I wasn’t sure I should be asking.
I was particularly fascinated by the possibility that our pack had ford so kind of alliance with a vampire clan. The very idea seed impossible. Werewolves and vampires existing as anything other than enemies went against everything we’d been taught.
We were supposed to be the guardians protecting humans from vampire threats, which was why the bloodsuckers had changed their hunting thods over the centuries.
These days they kept their feeding habits much more discreet.
We accepted that they needed blood to survive, but in the past they had been completely unrestrained. They would slaughter humans for entertainnt rather than necessity. That was before the werewolf council stepped in and our kind began systematically hunting them down.
Now they limited their kills to when hunger demanded it, and they were skilled at making deaths appear to be animal attacks. Nothing that would draw unwanted attention or raise suspicion.
When a wolf pack lived near a human settlent that experienced an unusual number of unexplained deaths, that pack would be assigned to investigate. But most of the ti, we never encountered vampires at all.
Despite everything I’d been taught, vampires had always fascinated .
I’d always harbored a secret desire to et one face to face. I couldn’t explain the attraction.
There was just sothing about their mysterious nature that intrigued .
Not that I could ever admit such thoughts to anyone around here.
They already considered strange and damaged. This revelation would only confirm their worst opinions about .
Marcus would probably be obligated to have executed for even thinking it.
The book revealed just how extensive our pack’s docunted history was. The records began in the early fifteen hundreds, when the first Alpha decided to chronicle every significant event within the pack. Every noteworthy occurrence was carefully recorded.
A movent outside caught my attention. Through the window, I could see Jett standing in his usual spot, enduring the falling snow and bitter cold. I pushed the window open.
"How much longer are you supposed to keep watching ?" I called out.
"Until the Alpha orders to stop." He replied, his breath forming white clouds in the frigid air.
"Get in here." I said, closing the window before he could argue.
He appeared at my front door monts later, and I waved him inside. I imdiately started preparing coffee to help warm him up, knowing he’d been standing out there for hours in the freezing weather.
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