Another Half

Azul Springs

June 2012

After dinner, Rex moved them to the bench on the balcony overlooking the lake. She could hear the water from the springs pouring into the lake in the distance. The moon was climbing higher into the sky, and Blade noticed that it would be full by the following evening. Watching the moon made her realize she hadn’t heard from Talon in a long time. Blade felt her wolf somewhere in her mind space, but Talon seemed to be distracted or too busy to care what was going on in the outside world. Blade didn’t bother her.

Rex brought out a bottle and a couple of glasses, and he taught Blade how to savor and enjoy a bourbon neat. He looked like an excited little boy sharing his favorite toy, happy that she liked what he shared. She loved watching his eyes light up when he talked about Rojo Bourbon, his most prized achievement, and the process he endured in producing it over the span of most of the years of his adolescence and into adulthood while he finished college. Blade couldn’t help but feel proud of her overachieving mate.

“You have to start working on the brandy,” she said, sipping from her glass of bourbon after he shared his goal of eventually producing a brandy. “I’ve always preferred wine, but this is really good stuff! I can only imagine that the brandy will turn out just as good.”

Blade felt Rex’s happiness quadruple within him, and he reached over and hugged her.

“Have you had Azul? Our vodka?”

“Yes, when I went out drinking with Ax,” she said, grimacing. “Sorry. Vodka is not my favorite.”

Rex’s boisterous laughter surprised her.

“You really are the perfect mate for me,” he finally said, still laughing. “I’ve never liked it, either. That’s why I produced Rojo, to have a good excuse to not drink Azul.”

She stared at him. “I hope you don’t go around saying that, you’re the owner of the company.”

He grinned and refilled their glasses. “Why wine?”

Blade let out a slow breath as she assessed her mate by the light of the moon.

Despite how the day had begun, she had felt a deep sense of peace and contentment with Rex throughout the afternoon and evening. There had been no red flags or anything to alert her that he was deceiving or hiding something from her. Whatever his usually stoic face showed, his true feelings were always clear to her. He almost seemed innocent in his ability to open up to her and let her feel and see his vulnerability, a side of him that she knew he had never let anyone come close to seeing.

“I had to become knowledgeable in wines because it was part of my training as a spy and spymaster. Because wines are the easiest way to poison someone.”

Rex set down his glass on the table on his side and turned completely toward her.

“Training? Are you really a trained assassin?” His tone was bereft of judgment or disapproval. If anything, Blade thought she detected admiration.

“I’ve never thought of it that way, but I guess many of the skills I have are those of an assassin. Except I only kill people when I need to defend myself or someone else, not because someone is paying or blackmailing me.” She shrugged. “You might say it’s the code my grandfather taught us.”

“So you’re telling me that your grandfather taught you how to be a spy, how to poison people, and how to fight? Is that all he taught you?”

She laughed at his cheeky question and gave him a side glance.

“No, he also taught me how to use a wide range of instruments to extract information from unwilling subjects.” She laughed at his dumbfounded expression. “You know what? Maybe I am a trained assassin and I didn’t even know it until now.”

“And he taught you to become a Training Master, too? Because that first kick you gave me, that was rough.”

“Abuelo was our pack’s first Zamora Training Master followed by Uncle Danny. Abuelo taught my Uncle Danny, and then Uncle Danny taught all of us cousins. My grandfather did tutor me when I asked him to, though. Because of their training, I became the Training Master of Nick’s pack when I arrived.” She sighed. “I thought it would please my idiot mate, but it did the opposite.” She downed the rest of her drink in one swallow.

Rex stared at her with a mixture of admiration and pride, but she also felt sadness from him.

“Hey, you bear my Mark, so I’m your mate,” he said softly, kissing her head and putting his arms around her. “He didn’t Mark you, so he was never your mate, understand?”

She nodded, feeling so much love and admiration for this outstanding male that so willingly and so quickly became her mate. Without a doubt, he felt it too because he cupped her face with his large hands and kissed her gently.

Rex grinned as he looked into her eyes. “But, that explains why you’re able to kick everyone’s ass in the fighting ring.” He snorted. “You almost kicked mine!”

It was Blade’s turn to laugh. “You know very well that I could never beat you.” She paused. “You never hit me back,” she whispered. “Why?”

“Why would I? You’re my mate—.” Rex narrowed his eyes. “Did that asshole ever lay a hand on you like that?”

She swallowed hard and looked away. “Nick knew he couldn’t beat me hand-to-hand, so he usually used something——a bat, a stick, or a poker to teach me a lesson on humility, he called it. Of course, the really worse part was that instead of Marking me he showed me how much he preferred his girlfriend. She slept in his bedroom while I slept in the basement.”

Blade stopped talking not only because her throat had begun to hurt with the oversized lump that was scrapping it, but because she could feel Rex’s rage rising to a level that was scary.

“I need to hear how you put that asshole down,” he said through his teeth, “before I go out and find him. Nick is it? But know this, if I ever find him, I promise you I will fucking end him in the most painful way I can think of.”

Blade smiled, “And I promise not to stop you.”

He took his glass again. “Is it hard to poison someone?”

His question made Blade feel oddly happy. She knew it was fueled by genuine interest and curiosity, but it was also his way of supporting her past actions with Nick. Unfortunately, it also meant that his alpha training was dangerously lacking.

“Can I show you instead? It’s my turn to teach you something fun.”

He chuckled and nodded.

“Let me get something from my boots. Will you please meet me at the bar? I’ll need a wine glass.”

A few minutes later she stood next to him with the plastic bag containing the tiny black and white envelopes. “In all my kits, never touch the white envelopes.”

Rex raised his eyebrows. “Poison?”

She nodded. “As poisons go, the Blue Lady is probably one of the worst. There is no antitoxin capable of stopping her because she works so fast. Think minutes, not hours. My black envelopes contain Sleeping Beauty, and she’ll knock anyone out for a good twelve hours. She’s the one I used on that bastard.”

A few minutes later, they were looking at a small transparent congealed blob at the bottom of a wine glass through the flame of a candle. Unfortunately, Blade was right; this was all new information to Rex, and it was fun to watch his fascination and answer his many questions. But his ignorance put him in a precarious position, and he didn’t even know it.

“If you are ever with untrustworthy companions, that little blob right there or anything like it will be what you’re looking for. Although, if you don’t trust the company you’re with, the best thing to do is not to drink or eat anything at all. You’ll know you’re right to not trust them when they start to pressure you to drink something. Always drink straight from a bottle that you take with you. That’s why my grandfather always kept a hip flask of whiskey on him.”

Rex stood back, and Blade felt his puzzlement. “Why are you teaching me this as if you know someone will try to poison me?”

Blade looked up at him and smiled, pleased that he had caught on. “This is basic knowledge that you need as an alpha to protect yourself. War is not the only way to die or kill rivals and enemies, Rex. My grandfather constantly trained our pack’s alpha and the other pack leaders on how to protect themselves during meetings with other packs, especially when the alpha had to meet with individuals who were hungry with ambition or had little to no honor. Not to mention that you and I are mates, and you’ll inevitably come across my kits and other materials I use. I need to make certain that you will always be safe in both of these cases.”

Rex gaped at her.

“What is it?” She was detecting a sense of realization along with sharp pain mixed with sadness from him.

“Could someone use Sleeping Beauty with vodka instead of wine?”

Blade thought a moment and nodded. “Yes and no. Sleeping Beauty is clear but sweet, that’s why wines work best. The subject would have to be incredibly trusting to not even suspect foul play when the vodka tastes a little sweeter.”

“Then that’s how they did it,” Rex whispered. His arms fell from around her and he sank on a bar stool. “That’s how they imprisoned my father. They knocked him out with something in his vodka, chained him, and then starved and tortured him until he died.”

Fuck.

Blade had known he had suffered, but she had no idea to what extent. She had not forgotten that in addition to losing his family, Caroline had also rejected him. But, from the faraway look in his face, she knew this was not the time to inquire about the fate or whereabouts of Caroline and her baby. So she did the only thing she thought might help. Blade put the glass down on the bar’s dark surface, stood between his legs, and wrapped her arms around him. She kissed the side of his neck, making him shiver. He quickly reciprocated, kissing the top of her head. He held her as if he was starved for physical contact. And Blade closed her eyes and felt sorry for Caroline, for rejecting such a sweet man and causing him so much pain while Choosing a male of far lesser quality. She had no idea what she had lost.

“Who did that to your father?” she whispered.

He sniggered and looked down at her. “Would you believe that a man who my dad thought was a close friend betrayed him and delivered him to my worst enemy?”

Blade sighed and nodded once. “Yes, I would believe it, actually. Shit like that doesn’t surprise me anymore. That’s why my grandfather insisted that our family unit remain closed to outsiders. We were all we each needed.”

“A wise man, your grandfather. I like him already,” Rex said. “When can I meet him? Does he live close by or is he still on the East Coast?” He smiled at her despite his sadness. “And will he be okay with me being mated to his favorite grandchild?” A sudden glint of mischief lit his eyes, one which Blade didn’t want to snuff out. She felt he was trying to chase away his sadness.

She looked up at Rex and cupped his face. “He would have loved you mostly because you are kind to me,” she said, “but he would not have approved of you being so vulnerable to someone poisoning you, especially since you have someone on the loose poisoning your pack members.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Hasn’t Sergio or Ax told you? About last night?”

“I didn’t see them until this morning after I, uh, after you fell asleep. They didn’t seem to want to say anything to me.”

Blade snickered. “Were you snippy with them after Marking me?”

Rex blushed. “Maybe just a little.”

She dramatically rolled her eyes at him. “Alphas!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault! Everyone knows that telling someone to calm down has the opposite effect!”

Blade told him everything about everything that had transpired, and he listened intently.

“By all means, mind link Sergio or Ax to confirm what I’ve told you or ask them as if I haven’t told you anything. I have a feeling Sergio is a huge fan of the chain of command thing.”

Rex laughed. “He is! But you outrank him now anyway.”

“And I’m sure that thrills him,” she said while he continued to laugh. She glanced at the clock on the wall. "That issue will have to be addressed."

“I’ll talk to them in the morning.”

“We should go to bed, I have a five-miler at five with the elites,” she said stretching. “They were not thrilled when I told them an early run was now part of their daily regiment. Want to join us?”

He buried his face in the crook of her neck, and she felt his anxiety of wanting to ask something. Blade put her arms around him and slipped her fingers in his hair, massaging his scalp. He groaned with pleasure and tightened his arms around her.

“Rex? What is it?”

“I don’t want you to go. Tell me you’ll sleep next to me tonight. We don’t have to mate until you are ready, but—”

“Hey, it’s okay,” she whispered. “Of course, I’ll stay with you. I don’t have to Mark you until you’re ready—”

He got up quickly, took her hand, and started to pull her out of the dining room.

“Fuck, yeah! That's happening right now!”