I cleared my throat. “Go on.”

He scratched his arms again; they were streaked red but quickly healed. “Well, I felt like I was dying. She wasn’t letting go of me. I got dizzy. Right before I blacked out, she said something about wanting to keep me. That I was sexy. She dripped her blood into my mouth.”

Alek interjected, “Get to the part when you woke up and heard the queen talking.”

The kid slicked his hair back with a shaky hand and then sighed. “So, I wake up in a medical type of room and the door’s open. They don’t even know I’m awake. But I hear voices coming from the next room. This lady is screaming and freaking out on some doctor for killing her baby. He calls her Queen Layla. He calms her down and says if she gives him one more chance, he can give her a full-term healthy baby. He tells her that her body was too cold to carry the child and that’s why she miscarried. But he says something about her eggs being good. That it worked. He tells her to get more fertile blood and to kidnap a female werewolf to incubate her fetus in. He says a human will be too weak. A werewolf will stay warm but can regenerate.”

Holy Shit. Oh, holy mother effing shit. It’s like time had stopped. I stood there staring at this kid in shock. I wanted to say a million things but nothing came out. My mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. Kai had enough peace of mind to ask a good question.

“When was that? When you heard the doctor and the queen?”

“I dunno, like, sometime yesterday? Day and night are weird now that I can’t go out in the sun.  I ran off after that. I saw her feed off of him and I knew what I was.  I had an insatiable thirst for blood but I didn’t want to hurt anyone, so I ran to the nearest blood bank. Found this guy.” He motioned to Alek.

Alek looked sadly at the boy. “And I’m going to help you live the best life you can.”

The kid scratched his arms again. “I wanna go home. I want more smack.” His leg kept bopping up and down.

Kai’s voice was deadly calm. “Where was this? Where was the lady who talked about her baby?”

The kid shrugged. “I was delusional. Somewhere in Pearl District, a warehouse.”

Kai and I met each other’s eyes, but Alek shook his head.

“She’s too smart. She will know he fled. She will leave.”

Kai ordered Alexa to go send a team to check, anyway. Pearl District was in Portland. We could be there in an hour. Layla had done something to make it so we couldn’t smell her clan, even with hundreds guarding Emma and me, she was able to sneak through. None of her vampires could be smelled and it was so damn frustrating. The dark witch, Prudence, who worked with her was most likely responsible for it.

The teenager scratched his arms. “I need more blood. That wasn’t enough! I need the good stuff. You said you would help me get it.” He looked at Alek with a murderous gaze.

Alek looked at Kai. “I’m going to need a steel reinforced cage,” he said calmly.

The kid whipped his head in Alek’s direction and hissed. Crouching down, he jumped up five feet in the air and slammed down on the table, crushing it. Max and Alek each reached out and took an arm, but the kid threw them off quickly. The large werewolf and vampire both sailed through the air and slammed into the nearby wall like a sack of bricks. Holy shit, this kid was strong! I wished we had Anna. Max and Alek were both groaning on the ground, so Kai and I slowly stalked towards the boy. My hand snaked out and I put a firm grip on his neck, essentially choking him. Tough love, right? Kai pinned his shoulders down and Max limped over to grab the kid’s ankles.

“We want to help you,” I told the kid and loosened my grip when I was sure Kai and Max could handle him.

Alek stood shaking his head, seemingly to clear the daze of being tossed across the room. “Newly changed and jonesing for smack blood makes them very strong. If I can keep feeding him clean blood for the next week, he will be fine. If we let him loose, he will murder, steal, and God knows what else to get what he wants.”

“Get off me, assholes! I thought you were going to help me! You said you would help!” He struggled against Kai’s and Max’s grip, so I slipped in to help hold him. His scream was a wail now.

Jesus.

‘Kai, we have to help him.’

Kai growled. ‘I know. God dammit! This is the last thing I need. A vampire caged in our basement for a week. Feeding him powerful Alpha blood. Who knows what that will do?’

‘He’s just a kid,’ I added.

“I have cages in my basement,” Kai said aloud.

Max had an elbow on the kid’s chest, pinning him down. “This could be a trap. Don’t let them live with you and keep tabs on you. They’re vampires!” he roared.

Kai looked at him for a long while until Max lowered his eyes.

“Times are changing, brother. We have united with the humans and now with a few vampires. If they do anything that makes me suspicious, I’ll kill them both.” This time Kai looked at Alek.

“Fair enough,” Alek said, nodding.

*

After getting them set up in the basement and enduring Max’s bitching, Kai called the council and told them to put all female werewolves on lockdown. To spread the news of what we heard tonight.

Later, as Kai and I were getting ready for bed, I turned to him. “You think they will listen? The other packs?”

Reaching his arms up, Kai took his shirt off in one quick move and sighed. “Alphas don’t like being told what to do. If they are smart they will listen. Some won’t. Some aren’t even on the council’s radar. We can’t reach everyone.”