How Nina Got Her Fang Back: Accidental Quickie (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 13) by Dakota Cassidy

confessed. “But I’m at a complete loss as to how it will help our own situation. My clan’s rules are my clan’s rules. They’ve been clear since Artem took over.”
    Wanda squeezed her temple and stood up straight as she began to pace the length of the alley, kicking up dust with her conservative sandals. “Is your coven of the same belief system? Can witches mate with another species? Or is that against your laws, too?”
    Gripping Galen’s arm, January leaned against him. “They don’t love it. But it’s happened here and there. I mean, there’s no written rule that says we can’t. They’d just prefer we stuck to our own, you know, the whole procreation thing—keep the bloodlines strong. But I’ve never heard of anyone—not one single soul—persecuted the way we’re being persecuted. I didn’t even think about it until Galen told me his clan’s laws after our first date.”
    Which should have been the moment she’d walked out and never looked back. At least, that’s what the rational side of her said. But there’d been no denying she belonged with him from the start. She’d fallen head over heels for him long before he even knew she existed.
    Wanda leaned back against the brick of the building, her beautiful face tight. “So do you think we might find allies within your coven? Some high-ranking officials who aren’t against you mating with a vampire? Someone with some power who’ll back us up? Someone who can talk some sense into this Artem?”
    January held up her hands in misery. “But who can I tell? Whom can I confide in without fear word will get back to Artem? What if there are witches in my coven who feel the same way? What if they believe what Artem believes? What if they told Artem? I can’t afford to arouse any suspicion, Wanda. We have an infant to consider.”
    “Shit,” Nina swore, pulling a Snickers bar from her hoodie pocket and ripping it open with her teeth.
    January put her hand on Nina’s wrist, the doctor in her unable to stay quiet. “You’re stress-eating.”
    Nina hitched her jaw. “Really? If I pulled some fucking kale out of my pocket, would that be considered stress-eating?”
    Point for the vampire. “Not technically, I suppose, because it’s better for you.”
    “Well, if I liked that shit, that’s what I’d use to shove my stress down my throat. But seeing as kale tastes like dirt and I don’t give a fuck about calories or clogged arteries, here’s to you, Doc.” She saluted January with the candy then ripped a hunk of it off with her teeth and smiled.
    “Honey?” Galen said, squeezing her hand. “We have to go. Your spell won’t last forever.”
    “So let us think on this, yes?” Wanda asked, gripping January’s arm, her eyes ablaze. “We’re better as a team. I’ll run this past Darnell and Arch and our husbands and let’s see what we can come up with.”
    January blew out another breath of air. “That’s another thing. We have a tight time frame, Wanda.”
    Marty’s gaze zeroed in on January’s face as she place her hands on her rounded hips. “How long are we talking, Doc?”
    “A week,” January whispered. A week to prove Artem was a maniacal power-monger. “They’ve given me five days only to assess Nina. Nina should get notification from the council of elders that they’re calling a meeting soon.”
    Wanda licked her lips and tucked her bone-colored purse under her arm again. “Okay, then. We need proof that Artem’s ultimate plan is to oust everyone in power. There has to be a way to prove it. Until then, Nina comes to see you as planned. Let them videotape her sessions. We’ll try to keep her in check on this end.”
    Nina’s finger shot upward, eyeing them all. “Stop GD talking about me as if I’m not here, Halfsie. If I start acting like I want to go to therapy, this Artem is going to get suspicious, right? I can’t just go in and be all pro pick-my-brain. Is that at all like me? Fuck no. He’ll know