I shook my head. “I won’t take him.”

“Then I’ll kill him,” Curran said.

All blood drained from the kid’s face. He pushed himself from the wall and stood straight.

“He disobeyed me,” Curran said. “He touched you, so I’m well within my rights.” Fur sheathed Curran’s arm. Claws shot from his huge paw and pricked the skin under Derek’s chin. The kid winced.

“I like him,” Curran’s voice was almost a purr. “It won’t be an easy kill.”

“Bleed him and I’ll skewer you like a stuck pig,” I said through clenched teeth.

“No, you will try. You’ll wave your sword around and talk a lot of shit and then back off at the last minute. And then I’ll snap your neck and his.”

Sickle claws danced dangerously close to the faint flicker of pulse on Derek’s neck. Time to learn how to write checks I can cover.

“You win, Your Majesty. Please bind him now. I have an appointment in three hours.”

THREE RED DROPS FELL ON THE COALS BURNING in a metal brazier and hissed, bubbling. The smell of burning human blood permeated the chamber, fueling the tangled cords of magic. I grimaced.

A binding was taking place, a ritual of attaching Derek’s oath to the magic of his blood. The trouble was that blood oaths guaranteed very little. Derek would have a strong aversion to breaking promises made under these circumstances, but that’s where it ended. When given a choice between breaking a blood oath and a stronger obligation, such as loyalty to the Pack, he would most likely break the oath.

The tall, lean alpha-wolf intoned the words of the pledge. Derek repeated them, and the currents of power licked the round room, spiraling up the impossibly tall walls, to the ceiling lost in darkness. The Council, who had formed a circle around the brazier, uttered a single word in unison. Derek held his hand over the flame. The alpha-wolf slit Derek’s forearm, letting his blood run into the fire of the brazier to seal the pledge. There were a lot of pledges. The shapechanger blood clotted quickly and the alpha had to reopen the wound every thirty seconds or so. The binding took nearly fifteen minutes. Halfway through it, Derek started clenching his teeth when the knife touched his skin. That arm had to be sore as hell.

I listened to the vows. Derek pledged to protect me with his life if need be. He pledged to be at my side in danger and in peace, for as long as the Pack required it. He pledged to uphold the honor of the Pack as a whole and of his Wolf Clan in particular. I was not getting a bodyguard. I was getting a second shadow and if someone frowned at me, he was honor-bound to rip them to pieces.