Moonlight's Ambassador (Aileen Travers Book 3)(7)

"What the fuck?" I scrambled to seated as he stood and stepped away. "Did you just give me your blood again?"

He lifted one eyebrow, the superior expression on his face letting me know how stupid he thought that question.

I would have kicked the coffee table if Brax hadn't already knocked it out of the way earlier. Damn it. I just got used to bagged blood again. It had taken me weeks to be able to keep the stuff down after the last time I'd had a taste of Liam's blood.

"Don't do that again," I ordered.

"I will do what I must since you have already shown you can't take care of yourself. We needed you awake and alert for this conversation." He gave me a smirk. He knew exactly how difficult his blood would make my coming weeks. Yeah, I'd be supercharged for a few days. Stronger, faster, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but it came with a cost. That cost being the difficulty of keeping the bagged stuff down.

"When you two are done flirting, can we get back to business?" Brax asked. He'd taken a seat on the coffee table he'd knocked across the room and was leaning forward, his eerie blue eyes focused intently on me.

I glared at him, properly outraged at his presence in my territory now that I had the energy to stay awake and alert.

"From what I understand, Caroline needed a little away time from the farm you secluded her on. I understand the feeling." My smile was humorless. "All of this can be a little hard to take at times."

"No, you don't." Sondra stepped forward. "You can't. You're not a wolf. She's dangerous right now, both to herself and others. If we can't find her and she hurts someone, she could be put down."

I scoffed. "Like you were?"

Shame crossed Sondra's face before her expression firmed.

"Those were mitigating circumstances," Brax said, his voice a rumble in the quiet.

"It doesn't matter. Caroline won't let herself hurt anyone." Not physically at least.

"She's not the same person you knew," Sondra said.

"I was turned, and I managed not to hurt anyone," I said as a defense.

"You're not normal," Liam spoke.

"That's for sure," Nathan agreed.

Eric didn't give his opinion, just lurked in the background as he usually did, keeping an eye on things as he observed the situation around him.

Liam ignored the comment. "Most yearlings have to be heavily monitored for their first few decades. Before we had such strict laws governing their creation and rearing, they would rise and kill those closest to them when they tried to resume their normal lives. Their instincts often consume them, making it hard to establish control for a long time after their turning."

I shifted. This wasn't the first time I'd heard something similar. Evidently, I should have killed a whole army of people in my first year. The fact that I hadn't was a puzzle my sire and Liam were still trying to figure out.

"It's more than just her wolf she has to contend with. The demon taint has made her unstable," Brax said, sounding grim. "It's why I had to move her to the farm and extend her time there."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I thought the demon taint was taken care of when Sondra bit her."

The look Brax leveled on me was both pitying and censorious. "Demon taint is not so easily remedied. She will have to deal with its effects for the rest of her life. The bite saved her life and preserved her sanity, but it still has a hold on her. She is stronger than other newborn pups. Her temper is shorter, which means it will be that much easier to snap and go feral."

"Feral? Like a wild dog?"

"Similar," Sondra said from my countertop, where she sat cross-legged. Glad to see she was making herself at home. "For us, it means a loss of self. The wolf takes over and becomes rabid. Its thirst for blood unquenchable. A feral wolf can never recover the person they were. They have to be put down one hundred percent of the time."

Some of my exhaustion faded away, and I looked from Brax to Sondra in worry. "Caroline's not feral."

"For now." Sondra's agreement didn't put my mind at ease.

"There are those in my pack who think I should have put her down as soon as we discovered the taint." Brax met my eyes with determination in his gaze. His mouth was pulled tight, and his eyebrows lowered in a frown.

My chest tightened, and a chill crept into my soul at his words. Why hadn't they told me any of this before? They could have revealed this information during any of the dozen phone calls I'd placed asking for news on her condition.

Liam appeared at my side and sat down, stretching his arms across the couch behind my back—his body coiled and poised for action. It was only then that I realized that I was making a growling, hissing sound, similar to the deep throated warning a cat gives when it’s preparing to claw the face off its enemy. My fangs were down, and my hands were tensed and flexed as if they had claws on the ends of them.

Sondra leaned forward, one leg dropping down as she focused on me like a hunting dog sighting its prey. Nathan and Eric took a step closer, both watching me with caution. The room was poised for battle, the tension making it almost hard to breathe.

I took a deep breath, my shoulders lifting and dropping. My hands relaxed and my fangs returned to their hiding places in my gums. I'd discovered early on that vampires don't walk around with their fangs out all the time. Most of the time they were kept hidden. Strong emotions such as anger, fear, and lust could bring them out. Guess which one I was feeling at the moment?