Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1) by J.A. Cipriano Page B

there was that whole trying to kill me thing.
    “Well, I’m glad we’re all in agreement then,” Bast murmured, sashaying over to me and putting one slender arm around my waist and pulling me against her. She was warm... so warm that I couldn’t think about anything but snuggling up against her. “I’ll pair up with Theseus, and you two can go do whatever it is you need to do about the mummies.”
    “Wait, what?” Anubis asked, glancing at his wife, confusion and horror snaking across his jackal-face. Was there a reason this was a bad idea? I’m pretty sure there was, but as she ran the tips of her fingers along my spine, I couldn’t even remember how to make my mind work.
    “I don’t want to go anywhere with him ,” Aziza said, but it didn’t matter because Bast was already leading me away from them. I tried to look back, to just glance over my shoulder, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t.
    “So, what do you want to do first?” Bast asked, her hand drifting just a touch lower so her fingers rested just above my butt. I swallowed, not sure what to do or say, but sure this was not going according to plan.
     

Chapter 12
    “This is not going according to plan,” I said, my words carefully neutral so I wouldn’t offend my host. I was sitting on a soft pink cushion in the middle of a room where every object resembled some kind of bed. Bast was in front of me, lounging backward across a fuchsia loveseat, but she was so tall that her bare feet draped over the side.
    I glanced down at the table, staring at the gilded goblet filled with milk and honey for a moment before moving to get up. “I think I should go and help Aziza.”
    “I wouldn’t if I were you,” Bast said, her voice the faint edge of a feline purr. She looked at me lazily, one hand thrown back across her forehead as her yellow-cat eyes watched me. “Those two have centuries of issues to deal with. Getting into a good tussle will help them sort it out.” Bast stretched, her chest straining against her grey tiger-striped blouse. “With any luck, maybe they’ll bump uglies and get that out of their system too. Either way, there isn’t anything for you to do right now.”
    I swallowed, staring hard at her as I sat back down on my too soft cushion. “Are you suggesting that you want your husband to sleep with Aziza, and by sleep, I don’t mean sleep.”
    “Yes,” Bast said in her purr voice. The word hung in the air, drifting between us like an amorphous blob.
    “He’s your husband, right? Doesn’t that upset you?” I asked, feeling crazy because I was the voice of reason. She shifted, burying her shoulders into the couch and hugging onto one of the pillows so that her eyes were barely visible.
    “It bothers me, but I’m a god. Gods do things like that. Our sex life is all kinds of screwed up.” She glanced at him. “The thing you’re not understanding is that gods actually have a lot less control over our destinies than you’d think. We’re bound by what people think of us. I’ve gone from being Anubis’ mother to his wife, and I’m sure I’ll have some new incarnation soon. Whatever people believe about us is what is. It’s why some of the aging gods combine together.” She shrugged dismissively, but the edge of sadness in her voice touched something deep inside me, scratching at a wound I didn’t even know I had.
    I wasn’t sure what it was like to be a god. I couldn’t know. But I knew what it was like to be set up with someone you didn’t want to marry just because other people thought it would be a good idea. Truth be told, I’d been engaged since before I was born. I hadn’t actually met my wife because we weren’t supposed to get married until we both finished college. All I knew was that she was the daughter of an Alpha from New York. Our betrothal sealed some kind of treaty between the east and west coast wolves. Yippee.
    I shook my head. Every time I thought about it, I got upset. So I always tried to