“What I’m saying is, we do not know this hybrid. We don’t know his mate. We don’t know his nature. We don’t know their strengths or weaknesses or what they’re currently planning, including a possible attack on us, not to mention fleeing,” Yuri returned. “We should send a human, at least, to keep an eye on that restaurant.”
“Do you not think with the extreme care they’re taking in protecting their son and brother that they wouldn’t notice a human doing something like this?” Gregor asked. “The only reason you knew where he stayed was that you moved about that building and smelled him. In their state, with what befell them three nights ago, I do not wish to think what reaction they would have to any threat, vampire, wolf, or human, including us, which they’ve made clear they perceive as a threat. We need to establish trust, Yuri, not shed blood.”
“Knowledge is power, Father,” Yuri remarked.
“We need know nothing except they are the last of The Sacred Triumvirate,” Gregor stated calmly.
Lucien tired of this back and forth and turned to Callum.
“Your wolves are close?” he asked, and Callum looked to him.
“Close but too far,” he replied.
“The hybrid can’t sense them, Callum,” Gregor told Callum something he already knew as they’d had this discussion two days ago when he and Sonia arrived. “And the enemy can’t know they’re in wait. But in case we need them, we need them close.”
“I have an excellent memory, Gregor, so there’s no purpose in repeating yourself,” Callum returned.
Gregor took no offense and looked to his son. “Our vampires?”
Yuri nodded curtly, visibly still impatient and annoyed. “They’re amassing fifty miles south of town, to the wolves’ north.”
“I have hope Mrs. Jin will impress upon her son that he should meet with us, but there may be a need to prove we’re trustworthy,” Gregor murmured like he was talking to himself. “I just hope the losses are few should that occur.”
“Me too,” Leah muttered.
Sonia looked to her friend and gave her a reassuring smile.
“We should have sent in the women,” Lucien noted. “Leah’s human. She would be no threat and might be able to establish camaraderie with The Third’s mate.”
“Again, no use going over old ground,” Yuri said.
“I’m not,” Lucien replied. “I’m mentioning it again because it’s still a play we can make.”
“And you wish your bride and my sister to go into the den of a hybrid vampire werewolf who doesn’t trust his own kind enough that he’s dispatched every one he’s encountered, save one who didn’t meet that fate only because he ran away?” Yuri asked.
“I’d trust The Third with my wife because he did the same thing I would do if someone had touched her. He tore them apart. Even if he doesn’t know who he is and all that means, he’d not harm Leah if she caused no threat. No one could say the same for those he slayed,” Lucien retorted.
“Give them until tomorrow,” Gregor cut in before things escalated as the look on Yuri’s face said they would. Then again, Gregor had raised Sonia since she was a child, Yuri a part of that, so he too was protective of the woman Yuri called “sister.” “Then we’ll discuss Leah and Sonia being involved.”
“I’ll reiterate at this point,” Leah said, “I’m all in.”
“Me too,” Sonia threw in.
Lucien sighed and looked down at his bride, who was looking at Sonia. “I have a taste for some Chinese food anyway.”
“Me too,” Sonia repeated on a grin.
Lucien moved his eyes to Callum, who had dropped his head back and was looking at the ceiling.
“He’ll sense you as wolf, Sonny,” Yuri reminded her.
“I know that, Yuri,” Sonia returned. “And he’s half wolf. He’d never harm a she-wolf that he senses as anything but a threat. And, it goes without saying, I’ll be no threat.”
“You can’t know that,” Yuri fired back.
“I live with wolves, Yuri, one in particular who is king because he’s the shining example of all the rest,” Sonia volleyed. “I can know that.”
Yuri clamped his mouth shut when Gregor ordered, “Enough. Tomorrow we’ll discuss this again. Today we hope that Mrs. Jin will talk sense into her…” His lips curled very slightly, then he said, “Son.”
Lucien felt Callum’s eyes and he looked that way.
What he saw was that Callum was hoping.
Lucien was too.
The time was nigh. The last of The Three had been found.
That meant they were all destined to save humanity from being enslaved by immortal beings.
Or they would die trying.
And they needed to get on with it.
One way or another.
* * * * *
Abel
“So, why don’t you have an accent?”
This came from Delilah, who was lying naked on top of her naked werewolf vampire.
Suffice it to say, they had not gone down to their space to think on a change of mind of staying in Serpentine Bay and putting the lives of everyone they loved at stake. They also had not cuddled close and shared their histories.
They’d gone down to their space and fucked all afternoon.
And most of the evening.
Now, finally, Delilah had had enough and wanted to talk, this being only thirteen short hours after Abel suggested they do just that when they woke.
He wasn’t complaining. He had a more than healthy sexual appetite and it would factor that the mate destiny chose for him would have the same.