Still, predictably, Harper felt guilty about abandoning me. “Hey.” Ignoring the fact that Lupe wasn’t quite done with us, I strode over to my sister and dropped down to peer into her face. “No, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you and Clara go home with Kira. I’ll find a way to see you before the end of break.”
“Awesome!” Like a light switch, Harper’s joy burst out of her. She wasn’t just going along with the other girls now. She was leading the way as they raced for the boathouse. Acting like a kid. Why walk when you can run?
As for the ‘dults, we waited until the creak of the boathouse door promised that young ears weren’t listening. Then Lupe finally explained what was going on.
“You did a good job.” She cut off Ryder before he could do more than mutter. “Even you. You quit. You apologized. You’ll do better next time.”
The tattooed shifter’s head rose, his gaze finally meeting ours for the first time since he’d realized he was engaged in a no-holds-barred fight with a minor. “Yeah. I will,” he promised, voice a deep growl.
Something strong and solid flew between him and Lupe, the air filling with an electricity that had nothing to do with alpha aggression or incipient shifting. This was pack forming, werewolf bonds that skittered across my skin in a way I’d never been privy to before.
And in its wake...a warmth. Rightness. Like I was being hugged ever so gently by someone who truly cared.
Lupe’s mouth twisted. “And that’s why you’re going on vacation. We need to become a team, but we can’t be a pack. Not if we don’t want the fae exploiting our weakness. Go home. Practice. Forget about each other. Then come back Tuesday night ready to work.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I wasn’t sure who spoke. One of us? All of us? We turned away as a unit to gather weapons, but Lupe’s voice held me back.
“Athena, if you have a moment.”
The happy haze of pack togetherness faded in an instant. I’d been singled out.
LUPE’S EYES BORED INTO mine. “Do you have something you want to tell me?”
Maybe it was our recent near-pack bonding. Or just the fact that this woman was tough and capable and kind all at once.
Whatever the reason, I hated the fact that I still wasn’t ready to spill my guts to her. Wasn’t ready to admit that I’d taken a side job with someone who was likely our enemy, even if my primary goal was the good of the Samhain Shifters. Wasn’t willing to explain how tantalizing some of Marina’s offers really were.
Probably because those two purposes were mutually contradictory....
I must have hesitated too long because Lupe frowned. “About your territory issues?” She raised both eyebrows and enunciated clearly. “Do you need me to speak with Rowan McCallister about your right to return to your apartment until Tuesday?”
Oh, right. The old problem...the one I was solving in a very outside-the-box manner. I shook my head. “No. I’m good.”
Lupe’s dark brown eyes were sharp now. I’d piqued her curiosity, and she didn’t seem like the type to let things slide. “Do...?” she started.
Then Tank was beside me. “Try these,” he suggested, dropping two practice swords into arms that had risen automatically to receive them. “How do they feel?”
“Heavy?” Unlike Kira, I had no idea how to choose a weapon.
And Tank, I suspected, didn’t either. But he’d distracted me at just the right moment, long enough for Lupe to dismiss my reaction and move on. “Butch!” she called. “We need to talk.”
So the moment passed, and the rest of the afternoon passed also. The girls returned from the lake damp from splashing each other but wreathed in smiles. By the time Tank dropped me off outside my apartment, they were arguing over who would get to take the wheel of his SUV.
“Do you girls even have drivers’ licenses?” Tank demanded, trying to sound tough but the words coming out laced with amusement.
“Learner’s permit,” Clara piped up.
“Me too,” Kira added. “Because someone won’t take me to do the test.”
Harper’s voice wasn’t quite as loud as everyone else’s, but she admitted: “I have a license.”
“Lucky!” Kira exclaimed while Harper glanced my way.
It wasn’t luck that had spurred her fast licensure. I’d wanted my sister to have an emergency escape hatch from Nick’s house as soon as possible, so we’d gone to the DMV together the day she turned sixteen. She’d used that skill to flee a dicey situation twice already.
It was almost as if Tank smelled the shift in mood because he threw my sister a bone that set her above her companions. “Then Harper can drive. Once we’re off the highway.”
“And you’ll take me and Clara to get our licenses tomorrow,” Kira prodded.
“Maybe,” Tank answered, eyes on me as I dragged my suitcase and all four swords out of the car. His voice dropped. “Do you need a hand?”
“No, I’m good.”
And, surprisingly, I was. Even though Harper was leaving with a man I’d known for only a few days, I trusted Tank to protect her.
The only flaw was that I couldn’t ride away in the exact same car.
Chapter 26
Instead, I lugged my suitcase and swords over to my own vehicle and headed west. Ten years ago, I’d parked in a secluded spot within McCallister territory but past the boundary of their daily patrol runs. That time, I’d snuck in to speak with my father and snuck back out again with no one the wiser.
Tonight, I intended to repeat the trick.
First, though, I needed information from Marina. When I called to tell her I was heading in tonight, I’d been shunted straight to voice mail. Now, though, a text response chimed as my headlights illuminated the narrow pull-off of my destination.
“Send me a photo of Rowan’s bedroom,” Marina ordered.
His bedroom? I deleted the incriminating evidence and pursed my lips.
Marina wanted me to take Rowan up on his offer, not only the overt one of joining his pack but the insinuated one of becoming his mistress. That would certainly be one way to get her photo.
But I wasn’t that desperate. Instead, I intended to use my own skillset. Scout out the lay of the land tonight. Then, tomorrow, make a plan for a fast in-and-out.
After all, stealing a photo wasn’t that much different from planning a heist.
So I slid out of human clothing, shivering for one split second before warm fur clad a lupine body. It had been only a few days since my last shift, but exhilaration consumed me. I leapt over a fallen log as easily as if gravity had reduced to lunar levels. Then I followed my nose to a muddy slurry of half-rotten leaves.
This was just what I needed to cover up any residual human aromas. The damp leaf litter rustled as I rolled and scratched, paying most attention to my paw pads. As long as I didn’t drink so much my bladder threatened, feet were the biggest threat to passing the sniff test.
So I worked rotten leaves into my paws then shook most of the debris away from me. Specks of mud splattered out to stain nearby tree trunks and I couldn’t resist huffing out a laugh. I’d forgotten how much fun it was to inhabit my lupine skin in a wild environment where I could act like a real wolf.
But I wasn’t here to play. I was here to work.
So, just as the moon rose, I got down to business. Racing upstream, I crested a hill and peered toward the McCallister home place. Their lights were barely visible in the distance, just where I’d expected them. Probably a dozen houses. Not such a big pack that I needed to be overly concerned.
I’d thought their settlement would have grown in the last decade, actually, but it hadn’t. I, on the other hand, was older and considerably wiser. So rather than making a beeline for the lights the way I had last time, I ran in the opposite direction. Up the crest of the hill I was on, then swinging a sharp left onto a taller ridge.
Because I’d planned ahead before making the drive today, checking a map and plotting a more circuitous route. The result should have made my foray eve
n less likely to catch the pack’s attention. But I was only halfway through the planned loop when a howl rose off to the east. Another to the north. A third one between me and my vehicle.
Coincidence. It had to be. Rowan couldn’t have known I was coming, had no way of guessing my plan to sneak into territory that didn’t belong to me. Most likely, this was a Saturday night hunting party. Just my luck that I’d stumble into the center of a clan out chasing deer....
I flattened my body against the ground as I slunk closer to the lights of pack central. It was the only route open to me, but I was no longer engaged in a simple scouting mission. Instead, I intended to swerve around the settlement and run as far as I had to in order to escape the semi-circle of werewolves. Then I’d hightail it back to my car and regroup.
That was Plan B, Plan A having been ditched at the first eerie howl.
And...it looked like I’d be moving on to Plan C. Because the darkness in front of me moved. I’d thought there were only trees in my path, but now I caught the flick of ears, the sway of a wolf tail.
Then four sets of eyes glowed back at me out of the night.
DID I SAY FOUR? FOUR in front of me maybe, but there were dozens present. Dozens of wolves seething through my personal space as I spun in a tight circle seeking escape.
There was none. No way out and no way through. Instead, I froze as wolves padded closer. A damp nose made contact with my butt and I snapped at the personal-space intrusion. Someone else slammed into my shoulder, knocking me off my stride.
They darted in and out so fast I couldn’t get a handle on their locations. And while I was trying, teeth closed around my neck.
I couldn’t breathe. Was this what Kira felt like when Ryder grabbed her in a chokehold? It felt worse than when Rowan had squeezed my throat in human form. I tried to swallow, but the obstruction wouldn’t budge.
It was madness to try to fight free, but I couldn’t help myself. I snapped into the darkness, making contact with nothing. Dropped to the ground, hoping that would dislodge my attacker.
Instead, I ended up at the bottom of a pile of fur and paws.
Surrender. My lupine nature clawed at me, begging me to roll over and show my belly. That might stop my attackers...or might make it easier for them to tear me apart.
Instead, I growled. These strangers weren’t my pack. I couldn’t afford to surrender to them.
While my human and lupine natures battled, my opponent’s fangs dug in deeper. I not only couldn’t breathe now, I was also bleeding. Salt stung the insides of my nostrils. Hot liquid slid down my chest.
I couldn’t think inside my fur. Couldn’t catch my breath. Couldn’t wriggle free....
All I saw was Harper’s face. If I died now, Nick would have no reason to keep sending my sister to boarding school. He’d probably demand a refund of the money I’d paid ahead, then drink up every penny of it before taking his daughter home to wait on him.
And while Harper was able to drive, she was also sixteen. Stuck in his household for another two years as far as the law was concerned. Without me, she’d have no reprieve.
I had to be there for my sister, so I gambled on werewolf morals. Sucked in my fur and croaked out a plea with my human voice.
“Stop.”
I hadn’t expected words to come, actually. But the instant I regained humanity, the wolf who’d been chewing on my throat dropped me like a hot potato. Something cold and electric passed over me as an alpha compulsion pressed the pile of wolves aside.
The compulsion pressed me also, but in a different direction. Forced me onto my butt so I could peer upward....
Then human fingers were gripping my feet, inspecting the muddy soles. “You didn’t run far,” Rowan noted.
He sounded so urbane. So human. But his eyes were wolf yellow and I was unable to move my body. The moon came out from behind a cloud and his gaze settled on my naked breasts.
“Where did you park?” he asked, speaking to my nipples. His fingers prodded at the arch of my foot, a touch which should have tickled but instead threatened my gag reflex.
I wanted to snarl a denial. To save my car for quick escape just the way I’d intended.
But Rowan was all that stood between me and sharp wolf teeth. And at least he was two-legged, even if he had yet to release my foot.
Plus, his alpha command was pressing at me. Pressing at my throat, at my lips, at my windpipe....
So I told him. Told him the location of my car and the key I’d stashed on top of a rear tire.
“Troy, get it.” His command bit at everyone alike but only one wolf peeled off into the darkness.
“The rest of you,” Rowan continued, “it’s time to head back.”
Chapter 27
Rowan’s pack mates weren’t thrilled to cut their hunt short. I smelled resentment, heard annoyance in the pounding footfalls that didn’t even attempt to remain silent.
But no one shifted and complained. Instead, they followed me and Rowan—now lupine—as we speared straight down the hill toward pack central. A third of the shifters peeled off as we reached the first puddle of lamp light, the one that I’d thought housed the entirety of the McCallister settlement. But the rest kept running until we hit...a rectangular hole in the ground?
Well, not really a hole. A cement tunnel. Still, it wasn’t large enough to walk through upright if we’d been two-legged.
We weren’t two-legged. Instead, wolves streamed into the opening without pausing. I was the only one who hesitated, unwilling to dive through this dark, subterranean door.
I hesitated...and Rowan left the stream of wolves, padding against the tide until he stood shoulder-to-shoulder beside me. Well, no, that makes our relative positions sound too companionable. Lupine, Rowan had nearly twice the mass I did. Standing beside me, he didn’t show solidarity. He loomed.
We couldn’t speak in our wolf forms and Rowan didn’t bother barking out another alpha order. Still, he got the message across quite admirably. I was expected to enter the tunnel. Was expected to follow along like a good little wolf even though, for all I knew, this tiny orifice was the only way in or out of his domain.
I slid a glance sideways into the night. The last of the stream of wolves had entered the tunnel, leaving me and Rowan the only ones present. And while I couldn’t take him in a head-on battle, I might be able to outrun him for a short distance. I’d have to be clever. Focus his attention elsewhere then sprint to get out of range of his alpha compulsions.
After that, I could cut across country. Shake my pursuers. Find a phone and call for help.
Then what? I wouldn’t be able to return to my apartment, the same apartment Rowan had broken into once this week already. Wouldn’t be able to reel in Marina or keep her away from those I cared about. The best I could come up with was hiding in the forest for three days waiting for Lupe to open camp back up.
I was a doer, not a waiter.
So I let Rowan think he’d intimidated me. Dropped my head to my chest and inched toward the tunnel entrance.
Then, swallowing down the scent of damp and mildew, I padded inside.
THE SUBTERRANEAN CORRIDOR opened up to human-height fifty yards later. Bright lights forced my eyes to squint. My nails clicked against unpainted concrete.
Rowan’s lupine scent had been crowding me all the way through, but now he shifted upward. Motioning toward the sound of flowing water, he prodded verbally: “This way.”
Glancing back down the tunnel, I saw nothing but darkness. Not even the moon, suggesting the grinding noise I’d heard was a door closing behind us.
There was no easy way out, so I stayed lupine but otherwise obeyed Rowan. Sidled through a human doorway and entered a gym-style locker room.
There, Rowan nodded at someone while I took my bearings. Naked shifters sluiced mud off their bodies without bothering with modesty. I’d never seen so many naked butts in one place before in my life.
They weren’t all men either. Six women chattered at one end
of the room, equally naked and equally oblivious to human modesty. I headed in their direction, still lupine, but Rowan reached down and grabbed my ruff.
“No. Wouldn’t want any mistakes before November.”
I had no idea what he meant, but the words sent a shiver through me anyway. Enough so that I let him steer me in the opposite direction. To a far corner where I could shower in semi-privacy.
Not that the space was truly private with a human Rowan stepping beneath the shower head beside me. His voice came out as an amused purr. “I wouldn’t have thought you were shy.”
A challenge. I pressed human skin out of lupine fur and met it head on. “I’m not.”
Rowan must have smelled my lie because he huffed out laughter. But that was good. Shyness gave me an excuse to run my gaze around the shower room a second time. Now I wasn’t looking at the inhabitants but rather at the space itself.
Three doors. The one I’d come through plus two others. As I watched, the six showering women left in a gaggle through one doorway. Two men sauntered out through the other door.
Coincidence, or were there male and female wings to Rowan’s underground den?
Rowan had seemed busy scrubbing dirt off his fingers, but he must have been watching me also. Because he broke into my thoughts with words that would have sounded like a suggestion from a human. “You’ll stay in my spare room, of course.”
From Rowan, the sentence came out as a command.
And I should have been thrilled. After all, that would put me close to the bedroom I was supposed to be photographing for Marina, even if I didn’t currently have my cell phone handy.
But my eyes had continued wandering while Rowan spoke to me. Seeking familiar faces...or familiar bodies rather. I couldn’t pick out the cat-chasers from outside my apartment. For all I knew, they were here and my face blindness made me skim right over them. But one male posture looked familiar, even if it had been a decade since I’d last seen him. After all, I noted hints of similar features in my mirror every day.
Moon Glamour Page 13
