Page 24 of Bonded By Blood
Chapter Seven
“All right, I’ll concede, you may have been right about the human, Brianna,” Trista said with the less-than-subtle tone of exasperation that always colored her voice when she was proven wrong.
Brianna gave her mother a pointed look. “You’re going to have to learn his name, Mother.”
Trista waved a hand dismissively. “Only if he stays.”
“You can’t keep calling him ‘the human’,” Brianna argued. “Your general disdain for humans aside, he’s one of us now, and in large part because we failed to get a dangerous vampire off the streets in time.”
Trista frowned, likely offended, but said nothing for a long minute. “Joshua, was it?”
“Joseph.”
“Yes, fine,” Trista said with a second, smaller, sigh.
“We’re going to have an additional problem,” Jasen said. He didn’t move from his post against the wall, where Brianna suspected he’d been waiting for their conversation to finish.
Brianna and her mother turned their attention to him.
“What now?” Trista asked, irritated.
“Pearce is friends with the wolves,” Jasen said. “Sooner or later they’re gonna notice he’s disappeared. Or we let them know, and deal with the Alpha’s anger at letting it happen.”
“It’s not as if we let it happen,” Trista said with a scoff. “I don’t answer to dogs, nor do I care what they think.”
“We’re supposed to be in an alliance with them, Mother,” Brianna reminded her. “It might be in our favor to go to them before they come looking.”
Her mother narrowed her eyes at her. “This is vampire business, Brianna.”
“When he was human, Joe was practically a member of their pack,” Brianna said, keeping her voice calm. “They won’t see it as not involving them.”
Before Trista could respond to that, Jasen spoke again. “Two years ago, we agreed to work with them in hunting down Tobias Wilson, until Wilson fled the state.”
Trista turned back to Jasen. “Your point?”
He met her stare calmly, hands still tucked into his pockets. “If it were me, I’d still feel like I had blood in the fight.” He tilted his head a couple of inches in Brianna’s direction. “If it were one of my friends, I’d make it my fight.”
Trista moved to her chair and sat down. “You don’t have friends, Jasen.”
Brianna’s eyebrows shot up her forehead.
“I understand loyalty.”
Trista massaged her temple with two fingers and let out a low groan. “This is giving me a migraine. Remind me again why I decided not to skin those wolves?”
Brianna bit back a sigh. “Because you saw opportunity in an alliance with a young Alpha, and because having an established pack would cut down on the occasional Rogue problem.”
Trista was silent for several seconds.
One of her advisors shuffled his feet. “If I may, my Queen?”
“Yes, speak. Advise. That’s your job, isn’t it?”
He cleared his throat and Brianna had the impression he was more than a little nervous. “Your alliance with the young wolves never specified an obligation to exchange information. While it’s true you worked together in the past in an effort to catch Mr. Wilson, that was because they were the ones who alerted us to his presence in the area. It doesn’t seem to me that it behooves you to reach out to them at all on this matter. The relationship between Mr. Pearce and the werewolves is, as you might say, their business.” He paused and swallowed heavily. “Moreover, if you take it upon yourself to relay word of Mr. Pearce’s situation, I worry the wolves might think to hold the Family accountable. That is, to place the blame on us, I mean. Which could lead to unnecessary bloodshed, and at a dangerous time.”
Silence hung in the room as the advisor finished.
He bowed his head and moved back to his corner.