“She’s not a Sleeper,” Lupe interrupted, still pinning me with her gaze. “Are you?”
About that, at least, I could be honest. “This has nothing to do with me. I appreciate the invitation and the drink....”
Ryder snickered. He was the one who’d recommended my so-called treat. He’d known, I now realized, that the Super Shake was full of kale and chia seeds.
My punishment for leaving him to the mercy of the security guard? Or a jab at Tank, who’d been ready to fight Ryder over who got the pleasure of restraining me?
Whatever the reason, Ryder’s childish means of retaliation reminded me to glance at my watch. And what I saw there made me wince.
I needed to leave now if I wasn’t going to be late to Harper’s visiting hour. Sixty minutes once a week. Stepfather aside, I wasn’t willing to lose one second of sisterly bonding time.
“As delightful as it was to meet you all...” I rose, or tried to. Unfortunately, Tank’s loose grip on my fingers had hardened to the implacability of iron.
“This is important,” he told me. “My alpha’s territory is close to the node this year. We have pack mates there overcoming trauma. Pups who require a safe haven. Their fate depends upon Samhain Shifters. On us.”
His point made, he turned his attention to Lupe. “Athena has skills our team lacks.”
I hadn’t thought Lupe was particularly impressed with me, but she nodded. “Our team could use another woman. Consider it your civic duty to participate. Like voting, but more intense.”
To save the world...or at least werewolf pack bonds? For half a second, I wavered. This was what I’d dreamed about when I was a child. Making a difference, not stealing baubles from and for the rich.
But childish dreams didn’t last into adulthood. “Does the job pay?” I countered, knowing it didn’t.
Only, I was wrong. “I could squeeze a little out of the budget,” Lupe answered, ignoring the way Butch’s face wrinkled in disgust that, on him, still appeared beautiful.
So that’s what this was? Another job interview? “I’m flattered,” I answered, “but no.”
After all, squeezing out a little cash didn’t sound like it was going to pay Harper’s tuition. I couldn’t afford to save the world pro bono.
Saying no to werewolves, however, was a bad idea. I tensed, fully expecting the kid gloves to come off.
Instead, Tank released me. Released me...and pressed a business card into my hand before I could retreat.
“At least think about it.” His words and his touch made it hard to swallow.
Still, I managed to rise this time without being yanked backwards. Took a step away from the table...and no one leapt up to stop me.
“Sure, I’ll think about it,” I said, knowing every one of these werewolves could smell my lie.
Chapter 6
Which is how I came to be both saltless and late when I rolled into the parking lot of Harper’s prestigious boarding school. Despite the buzz of voices elsewhere, the picnic table where my sister and I always sat was empty. But the scent of middle-aged alcoholic led away from the table along with an aroma that matched my sister’s shampoo.
Unlike most werewolves, I couldn’t latch onto signature aromas. A symptom of my face blindness, likely. But the combination of coconuts and stale beer could be none other than Harper and Nick.
So I followed. Hurried down a tree-lined path, out onto a grassy field...and stopped in my tracks.
There in front of me was the slender and ever-moving body I’d recognize from a mile away as Harper. But she didn’t have her feet on the ground. Instead, she was perched atop a horse that could likely trace its ancestors back to the Mayflower. Its neck curved proudly, hair shining in the sun.
In contrast, my sister appeared a little shaky—after all, this was only her third term at Highlands and most of her time had been spent catching up on the academic and the social. Still, she was riding. My kid sister, an equestrian. My cheeks stretched into a doting grin.
Harper was too engrossed in her task to notice me, but Nick did from atop his own horse. His greeting was fake-jovial. “Athena. Pull up a horse.”
So...my stepfather wanted something. Still, I strode forward. “You look good, Harper,” I called to my sister.
She swiveled in her saddle to wave, loosening the reins as she did so. Which is the moment disaster struck.
I can’t say whether all horses dislike all werewolves. But I can say that equines have never been my biggest fans. Still, I was too far away for the horse to have been bothered by me. Or at least so I thought.
Still, a haze of floral scent curved around me in a mini-tornado. Fallen leaves whipped up, flashing across the field in a burst of color. One second later, Harper’s purebred steed flinched as the wind and debris slapped it in the face.
Maybe it was the leaves or my own wolf scent flowing in the same direction. Whatever the reason, Harper’s horse rolled its eyes to show white as it flared its nostrils. Then, whipping its head sideways, it yanked the reins out of Harper’s hands and broke into a run.
THIS WAS MARINA’S FAULT. I somehow knew it. A warning? A test?
Didn’t matter. My sister was atop a runaway horse.
Her feet had already slid out of the stirrups. She grabbed for reins that whipped wildly. Came up with only a few tendrils of mane.
And Nick, who was a mere six feet away, watched impassively. Or maybe he was frozen with terror. I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.
I wasn’t frozen. Even though my inner wolf might have been what set the horse off in the first place, I sprinted toward disaster rather than away from it. Hooves slammed down inches from my sneakers, but I dove beneath the massive beast’s neck anyway. Slid my fingers between polished leather and hot flesh...
...And hung on as the horse reared up, up, up. I didn’t weigh enough to keep the beast from rearing. Didn’t know enough about horses to prompt it to stop.
Harper shrieked. I could just imagine her sliding straight off the animal’s back. If she hit the ground wrong, she’d break her spine....
And there was nothing I could do about it. Not until the ride reversed.
Down, down, down. My feet struck just before the horse’s did. Then Harper was beside me, alive, whole, grabbing the reins and jerking them sideways to force the horse to walk rather than rear again.
“I think maybe your wolf spooked her,” she told me, voice solid even though her chin quivered. “I’ll walk her away from you....”
Suiting actions to words, she turned the massive beast and started it moving. Pride and fear made my eyes stay on her even as I strode in the opposite direction. Harper was nothing like her father. She felt fear and pushed through it. He felt fear and...
“I need a drink,” Nick muttered, right on cue.
Then hooves were pounding toward us from the direction of the barn. A student slid down off her mount. “Whoa. That looked gnarly. Are you okay?”
“Hey, Clara,” Harper greeted her roommate, her voice staying carefully level. Right, I should have realized that was Clara, with her long, tangled hair and unfashionable glasses. I likely would have if my sister hadn’t been pressed up against a horse whose eyes were still rolling back in its head.
But the thousand-pound animal only twitched an ear and kept walking as Harper relayed what had happened in an animal-friendly sing-song. “I’m fine. Athena is fine. Cloudburst is fine. We’re all just fine.”
The skin on the horse’s neck stopped twitching midway through Harper’s litany. Or maybe the animal was responding to the fact that I’d finally found a downwind spot where it could neither see nor smell me.
I took advantage of the momentary respite to spin in a circle, hunting Marina. But there was no one else present. And the floral scent, now that my sister was no longer at risk, materialized into late-blooming honeysuckle on the fencepost beside me. No rose petals. No magic. Just a plant out of sync with the season.
Plus, Lupe had told me there would
be no fae present until Samhain. I shook away the conspiracy theory, focusing on my sister instead.
Harper’s cheeks were still red, but her breathing had slowed. Meanwhile, now that his daughter had everything under control, Nick finally decided it was safe enough to approach. Sliding off his horse, he held his mount’s reins so laxly I half expected it to bolt also. “Here, take the horses back to their stalls, why don’t you?”
Clara snatched his reins one moment before they dropped. And even though Nick had been the one to screw up, Harper was the one whose shoulders slumped.
“Sorry, Dad. I know you were looking forward to riding.”
“No problem, kiddo.” He shrugged, but his tone of voice didn’t entirely let her off the hook. He never did. An anxious child was far more eager to please him. “Run along and meet us back at your picnic table.”
I wanted to punch the guy, but Nick was Harper’s father and legal guardian. The line I walked here was a precarious one.
A fact that Nick knew as well as I did. His gaze turned to me and his eyes went predatory. “I have something to discuss with Athena.”
Chapter 7
The girls and horses walked one way. Nick and I ambled in the other. Silence hovered over us until Nick reached out to finger the hem of my leather jacket.
Despite myself, I jerked away. This jacket was the only item of my mother’s I still owned. The rest of her possessions had long since been sold...by Nick, without my permission. This one thing I intended to keep.
“How much do you need?” I demanded. Only after I spoke did I realize my voice had been louder than intended. If Harper possessed wolf ears, she would have heard my opening.
Harper didn’t possess wolf ears, though. All she had was a no-good, alcoholic father and me.
Speaking of the no-good alcoholic, Nick stepped closer until his fumes enveloped me. “A couple of grand. No, make that ten grand.”
“Ten thousand dollars?” Breath hiccuped out of me.
“You make it sound like a few bucks is an imposition. We’re family, aren’t we? Family gives and family takes.”
I knew better, but I let myself get drawn into the argument anyway. “Family gives and family takes? The taking part I get, but what have you given lately?”
Nick waited a solid second, as if he knew he possessed the trump card and wanted to relish his moment of victory. When he spoke, I realized he was right.
“Harper.” His eyes narrowed. “I give you Harper. I sign the papers and let her attend a hoity-toity boarding school, don’t I? I stay out of your way for weekly visits. I ignore the fact you’re an animal, a threat to her safety. Seems like I give a lot.”
He was right and I had no rebuttal. Instead, I picked up my pace, heading toward the picnic tables. Nick would follow. He always did.
Sure enough, the reek of cheap liquor caught up with me before the rest of the visiting families came into view. Nick’s taller form cast a shadow across my face as we stepped out of the trees side by side.
“I could yank her out of school today you know.” His words were ice picks in my spine. “Take her home with me.”
Home to the beer cans, the late nights, the gambling debts piling up. Harper worked hard at Highlands. She didn’t deserve being forced into unpaid maid service.
“How about I pay whoever you owe?” I suggested. Because that was when Nick came to me for extra beyond his usual weekly stipend. When he gambled too much and IOUs were called in all at once.
I’d learned the hard way that it was safer to deal with his creditors directly. Then the debt was sure to be cancelled. Otherwise, my hard-earned money slid down the black hole of another binge.
Unfortunately, Nick’s scent morphed into bitter anger. “I’m not a child. I won’t be treated like one.”
I’d pushed it too far. And we’d spent too long discussing the issue too, because Harper was now entering the picnic area from the opposite direction.
Boarding schools must have staff members to take care of horses for the students. Whatever the reason, my sister was unencumbered as she waved at us. She’d be within human earshot within seconds.
Nick didn’t budge. “Well?”
“Give me a week,” I told him, “and you’ll get your cash.”
THE REST OF OUR VISIT went nearly as badly as the first half. Harper pretended not to be disappointed by the lack of salt packets. “I forgot,” I lied when she dug through the sack and came up empty.
“They’re salty enough,” Ms. Stiff Upper Lip lied back.
Nick, of course, was always good for lowering the mood yet further. He glowered as Clara and Harper competed to see who could stuff more soggy fries in their mouths. But, for once, my kid sister was having too much fun to focus on her parent’s moodiness. So, yeah, that part didn’t suck.
Since Harper didn’t seem bothered, I didn’t exert myself to tease Nick into good humor. Instead, I leaned on the picnic table and reveled in the fact that Harper was hanging out with someone who looked more like a friend than a colleague.
This was a major change from her first year at Highlands. For two terms, I’d watched and worried as my sister nurtured acquaintances, ensuring she’d have a warm body to spend vacations with if her father failed to step up to the plate.
But now Harper appeared to relinquishing thoughts of the future. She was laughing and being silly like a child. That felt unbelievably good.
The thought of vacations, though, reminded me of something I’d meant to discuss with her. “Break is week after next, right?” I asked.
“Next week,” Harper countered. Her face shuttered, my fault this time instead of Nick’s. “It starts Friday at 5 pm. But, I mean, if you guys are busy, I can stay here. Clara does.”
Clara did because her mother was the headmistress. “It’s like a mausoleum,” the other girl countered. “Dark. Cold. Dinners in the cafeteria with Mum.”
Harper’s eyes smiled even if her mouth didn’t. “I like your mother.”
“She’s a termagant.”
Whatever that meant. Highlands students definitely liked their big words.
“She’s fair,” Harper countered. “And...she’s directly behind you.”
So, yeah, that was uncomfortable. The headmistress peered down her nose at her daughter before turning to face me. “Your tuition payment is overdue.”
I hated discussing this in front of the kids. But the headmistress clung to silence until I muttered, “I’m on the monthly payment plan....”
“And late.” Then, turning to Nick, she added, “Meanwhile, you haven’t signed the parental agreement for this semester. That, at least, is easily remedied.” As she spoke, she whipped out a sheaf of papers, as if she expected Nick to jot down his signature right there at the picnic table.
Which, knowing my stepfather, was probably a good idea. He wasn’t the best at follow-through unless it involved accepting a round of drinks....
But Nick didn’t seem to be in any hurry to grab the papers. Instead, his eyes slid to me as he spoke to the headmistress. “I forgot my pen.”
“I have one.” Clara was either deeply oblivious to the mood or very, very good at pretending. Either way, she dug into her backpack and came up with a glittery, sparkly thing that I supposed could have been called a pen.
“Naw.” Nick waved away the writing utensil. “I’ll sign it when I bring Harper back from vacation.”
“I’ll expect full payment of this and next month’s tuition payment at the exact same time,” the headmistress agreed before sweeping away.
The coldness of her reaction seemed to take all of the autumn sunshine with her. No wonder the four of us sat there in stunned silence for a solid minute before Clara dipped back into the insulated bag for another soggy fry. “Don’t mind Mum. She has to be a hard-nose or no one would ever pay her.”
I nodded, accepting the fact that it was likely just as awkward for Clara to be the daughter of the headmistress as it was for Harper to have an alcoholic father and a
sister who had trouble dealing with bills on time. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, about break, I’d love to have you both come stay with me. Girl time. We’ll paint our toenails. Binge on ice cream....”
Nick opened his mouth to interrupt and I raised both eyebrows. A reminder of our agreement. He’d get his cash. In exchange, I’d get Harper for spring break.
And...Nick nodded. Closed his mouth without anything vile spewing out of it.
Gradually, the sun emerged from behind the clouds. Clara and Harper regaled us with chemistry-lab mishaps and crushes on actors.
And, on the way home, I stopped by the bank to deposit Marina’s check.
Chapter 8
The museum was impenetrable to thieves...well, to human thieves. Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve.
The ability to transform into a wolf.
And, yes, I knew it was a bad idea. I’d never utilized my lupine form during previous heists for three very good reasons—the card in my pocket, the alpha it represented, and the necessity of keeping the existence of werewolves a secret from the larger human world.
If I was found out during this heist, I put my ability to visit Harper in jeopardy. The idea of losing our weekly visits left bitter terror in my mouth.
But two days of scouting showed up no other obvious avenues of entrance. The night guard I brushed past on the sidewalk at the end of his shift had dog hairs on his trousers. And the deadline of Harper and Clara’s fall break loomed.
Plus, there was the check I’d already cashed with all those zeroes on it. The carrot that a single job could pay Harper’s tuition all the way through to college. And the stick—the memory of smelling flowers that really shouldn’t have been blooming at the end of October moments before Harper had an incident with her horse.
“Just this once,” I decided. “We can be in and out before anyone notices. Authorities will assume I’m a dog with a human handler...and if they see no signs of the handler there will be no leads to follow up.”
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