His hand brushed my cheek, and he pressed his forehead to mine. “I'm sorry.”
He was so beautiful.
My mate.
And it was hard not to trust him, but uh… with otherswatching? No one had seen me... like that... “I won’t know what to do?—”
“If you say it’s a no, I'll do everything I can to get us free?—”
“No, no.” I’d heard them discussing it. I knew what the Redgraves represented. I’d been so nervous since theconfrontation in the cafeteria yesterday—seeing just how many alphas might want to hurt my pack to get to me.
And the Redgraves were security from that.
“My job is to keep you safe. I tried to get us out of it, but I lost the key.” He winced.
I…
What?
Oh.
I frowned. Oh. Oh dear.
Wait, I couldn’t. I—But my thoughts cut off at his next words. “I've told Dominic if we do it, he has to give us protection until theappeal?—”
“Protection?”
He nodded, but my brain was working a million miles a minute.
“You told me he's one of the most powerful packs?”
Everything else vanished from my mind. I thought of Karma and Phantom, of Vandle—of everything this whole pack had done to keep me safe.
NowIcould help keepthemsafe?
“Will... the others be there?”
“If you want them there.”
I nodded, my chest heaving. “I want... I want you. All of you.”
“It's okay, deep breaths.” He tugged me toward him, and I shifted from my seat onto his lap in an instant.
“You… aren’t doing it just for the deal, though, right?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You dowantme?” My voice was a wisp.
His eyes widened. “Crescent. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about jumping you since the first time I met you.”
“Oh. Well you’ve all been very… respectful.”
“You said you were a virgin.”
I frowned. “But youbitme.” It was hard not to get the wobble out of my voice.
His brows creased, and his lips parted but it didn’t look like he knew what to say.