B Positive by Jewel Killian

Thirty-Five

We dozedand fucked and dozed and cuddled and fucked and dozed until our respective duties pulled us from the cocoon of our new mate bond.

It was sappy and gross and I hated it.

“You do not,” Julian corrected as he toweled off from a shower.

“You’re right. I don’t hate it one bit.” I gave him a lingering, appreciative stare. God damn, he was perfect.

“I’ll be perfectly late if you don’t stop looking at me like that.”

“What time is the thing?” I wasn’t about to say the “I” word and ruin everyone’s mood.

Julian laid out a fresh charcoal suit. “Midnight.”

I glanced at the alarm clock on his side table. Noon. God, we stayed in bed till noon today of all days? His crew must be fuming.

“My people know what to expect of a mating bond.”

“Is it just me or are you reading more than just my sexy thoughts?”

Julian nodded as he buttoned up his shirt. “I seem to have access to all your thoughts now.” He raised an eyebrow, asking me without words if I heard his thoughts.

“I’m trying. But I still don’t hear a peep from that head of yours.”

He smiled at me. “It’ll come when it’s meant to.”

“Oh, before you leave, I wanted to know whether you’ve decided to let Jaxson attend tonight.”

“I’ve searched the rules and couldn’t find any specifically forbidding wolves from attending. However,” he added before I could do a happy dance, “he must be brought up to speed. He needs to know how the event works inside and out before I’ll let him attend.”

“I’ll take his training on myself, then.”

“Has Sunny explained what’s expected of you tonight?”

“Um, just the entering and being announced, like at a cotillion.”

Darkness shaded Julian’s features. “As my mate, you’re expected to dance with the rival king.”

My eyes bulged, mouth agape. “You can’t be serious, Julian. I can’t dance with the vampire who killed Odette.”

That V in his forehead was back. Good. It should be back. He should be worried about this.

“It is cruel and unfair, I realize. But you must follow the protocols to the letter. They are there for a reason and any deviation can result in forfeiture.”

Julian shrugged into his suit jacket and laid a kiss on my head. “I know it’s not what you wanted to hear. But you will get through it. We will. I promise.”

And with that, Julian grabbed his phone and left the suite.

Way to dump a fuck-ton of shitty news and run.

I made my way across the hall to my room, performed my morning ablutions, and met Sunny for a late lunch.

“Oof, he told you didn’t he?” Today she wore white with nude heels not unlike the ones Julian sent me for the incursion.

“He did.”

“Did it ruin everything?”

A little bit, yeah. Well, not really. “Nothing could ruin whatever the hell the last twelve hours were.”

A bit of bread fell from Sunny’s lips as her jaw dropped. “You guys boned for twelve hours?”

I nodded, sipping on my cup o’ blood. “Not straight. We slept on and off, talked on and off, but, yeah, basically we were together for twelve hours.”

Sunny leaned forward, hushing her voice. “How’s the downstairs, though?”

“So sore! I’m getting in the bath to soak right after lunch.”

“Hm, I figured with all the blood you two exchanged you’d be okay, but I guess not, huh?”

I shook my head. “My cooch is definitely not a happy camper. But I do have some good news.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Julian looked through the rules and said Jaxson could attend this incursion.”

Sunny’s brows pulled together. “Why would you want him to?”

“He’s got just as much right to know what’s going on with the clans as anyone else. Especially considering that if shit goes wrong and we lose, he and his whole pack lose their freedom. Julian said if I got him up to speed, he could come. So that’s what I’ll be busy with today.”

“You don’t want to spend the extra time working on the safes?” Sunny asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t see why. It’s not like I’ll be cracking any safes tonight. That won’t happen until the next incursion, on Titus’s turf.”

“Okay, well, good luck getting Jaxson caught up.”

“Thanks. Hey, do you think you could email me a copy of the report you made about previous incursions?”

“Sure thing.”

Sunny and I finished lunch and I did exactly what I said and headed upstairs for a long soak. But not before I texted Jaxson to let him know the news.

Interested in a front row seat to tonight’s incursion?

Jaxson texted back instantly. Wish I could, doll. I’ve got pack shit to deal with.

Well, that wasn’t at all what I expected Jax to say. Pack shit? What’s more important than the event that directly influences your pack’s future?

Probably nothing except me being forced to take my position as new alpha tonight.

Fuck.

Fuck!

I called him but it went to voicemail. I didn’t bother leaving a message.

Sorry, I can’t talk now, Eeds. I’m at a prelim pack meeting. The ceremony happens tonight though. Wish me luck xoxo

Shit. Shit!

Something major must have happened for Jaxson to change his mind. Not that I knew why he didn’t want to be a part of his pack before.

I shook off the strangeness of that turn of events, and went upstairs to finally soak Ms. Puss.

The moment my toes hit the steamy water, my body melted. I relaxed, letting the warmth pull away any soreness, until I dozed.

When I woke in lukewarm water, I relocated my dozing to the bed.

I’d had a long night, I reasoned. And I needed to be fresh for the incursion. That’s what I told myself, at least.

No one wants to admit they were sleeping to avoid thinking about the life-altering even looming several hours away.

“Eden! Eden!”

Someone was shaking the bed.

Nope, me. They were shaking me.

I cracked an eye. “Whadizit?”

“Eden! Get up! It’s eleven-thirty. You’ve got to get ready for the—”

I shot out of bed to find a harried Sunny hovering over me.

“Why didn’t you set an alarm?” she scolded.

“Because I didn’t expect to sleep so long.”

Sunny looked at me like I’d grown a dick for a head. “Exhaustion is the main side effect of a new mate bond. The king’s been napping on and off all day.”

“Well, if someone bothered to tell me things like that, maybe I would have known!” I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face.

“We don’t always know exactly what to tell you, Eden. So much of it is just known and part of our culture, it’s hard for us to think about it from the perspective of someone who wasn’t raised with it.”

Yeah, that made sense.

I went into the bathroom looking like a five, but angry at a ten, and came out looking like a ten and feeling…well, I was still ten mad that I had to hurry but I wasn’t yelling at Sunny anymore.

Sunny helped me put my hair up after I got myself into the indigo dress. “You look amazing,” she said when I’d stepped into the nude heels.

“Thank you,” I said and did the finger motion for her to twirl. Sunny spun in a small circle, golden dress fanning out around her to show off her thin, strappy heels. “So do you. If you weren’t dead set against the vamp life, I’d say you might have a shot at finding your mate tonight. That’s how good you look.”

“Aw, thanks, Eden.”

And then it was time to go down.

“Remember,” she said as we traversed the great room stairs arm in arm. “You’ll be one of the first to enter, right after the king. You’ll be announced as his mate and you’ll just have to walk down the stairs and join King Julian’s side. Do not look at Titus. Not because it’s against the rules, but because I don’t want you getting worked up, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll be one of that last to enter. It’s likely the event will have moved on to dancing by the time I come down the stairs, so don’t look for me.”

“Got it.”

“Don’t be nervous. Just be your badass self, okay?”

“Sure. Sounds easy enough.” I held my stomach as a hunger pang gripped me.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just slept the day away and haven’t eaten or had any blood since lunch.”

Sunny stopped midstep. “Eden, we don’t have time to get you any blood. Can you hold off until the blood flutes are served?”

I’m gonna have to. “I’ll be all right.”

We walked silently arm in arm across the compound to the main courtyard entrance. A row of vampires, all dressed to the nines, stood behind a partition screen, waiting for their turn to enter the courtyard.

Sunny deposited me at the front of the line, earning glares from every single vamp.

Not a minute after I arrived, a booming voice called my name. “Eden Vaughn, mate to the King of Laurel Cove, Julian Bashra.”

Every snickering, sneering vamp face behind me stilled as I stepped out of line and walked down the—

Whoa.