by Lisa Olsen
Looking down, Amelia noticed she’d strayed off the path and was indeed stepping on one of his plants. “Oh, sorry. I guess I wasn’t paying attention.” She hopped to the side, pleased to see the bush spring back into place.
“No harm done. They tend to grow a bit wild and then Adele has me cut them all back within an inch of their lives and then the cycle starts all over again.”
“Oh, so you’re not a full time gardener here then?”
A low, throaty chuckle rumbled out of him like she’d said the funniest thing ever. “No, I’m not the gardener.”
“Oh.” Millie’s cheeks grew hot. She pushed past him on the path, eager to escape those dark eyes, but he followed along beside her. “What do you do then?”
“Anything I have to,” he replied in an unexpectedly grim tone. “Which roughly translates into, the same as you. Whatever Gran wants, and she lets me and Scarlett live here.”
Realization dawned on her, he must be the Chase Scarlett had mentioned the night before. “Oh, that would make you Scarlett’s…”
“Brother,” he finished for her, offering his hand. “Chase LaRoche, pleased to formally make your acquaintance, Millie.”
Her cousin. Amelia eased at the news, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you, Chase,” she smiled wider. “Have you guys lived here long?”
“Long enough.”
“Sounds like you’re ready to move off on your own maybe?”
“Not hardly,” he snorted, looking up at the big house. “Someday this place will be mine and I’m not moving away and forfeiting that. I’ve worked too hard doing every little thing Gran’s ever asked of me to give that up now.”
“A real slave driver, huh?” Millie gave him sympathetic look. Would she have the same demands placed on her for the price of being taken in?
“Nah, not exactly. She doesn’t work us to the bone or anything, we have plenty of time to ourselves. She just… Adele is used to having a certain amount of control over us, being Alpha.”
Alpha. She was familiar with the term and started to see what bothered him most about being under Grandmother’s thumb. “And you don’t like having to check in with her over every little thing?”
“That’s it exactly,” he smiled, snapping a branch off of one of the bushes and chucking it at the tree line.
“You said before all this would be yours someday, does that mean you’ll be Alpha someday too?”
“Never can tell.” His brows danced playfully. “If it was based on pure desire alone I’d get it easy enough, but there’s a bit more to it than that.”
“Want it so bad you can taste it, huh?”
“Taste it, feel it, smell it…” His eyes blazed for a moment and then the easy grin returned. “Soon… I can feel it coming soon, there is change on the wind.” He lifted his nose to scent the air.
Millie sniffed carefully, but all she could smell were the soft scents of fragrant flowers, fresh loamy soil, and maybe a hint of Chase himself. “Is Grandmother supposed to step down soon? It seems like she’d want to retire at some point.”
Chase let out a heartfelt sigh. “She’s gotta step down sometime, one way or another.”
“So, you’re, ah, a shifter then? You can change forms?” Amelia blurted out, realizing she had the perfect opportunity to learn more about her heritage since Chase seemed perfectly comfortable talking to her about pack things so far.
“Yes, Millie, I’m a shifter. Would you like to see?”
“Wait, right here? Right now?” She looked around the deserted garden.
“Sure, why not?” He tugged his sweat stained shirt up and over his head.
“Don’t you need… Well, doesn’t it need to be night or something?”
“Nope, and I don’t need the full moon either, though it is hard to resist the moon’s call sometimes,” he admitted, flinging the shirt aside and kicking off his shoes.
Her eyes flicked to the house, feeling a little odd about him stripping right in front of her in the garden, but he seemed not to have a self conscious bone in his body. Not that he needed to, his well muscled form was appealing enough that she had to remind herself he was her cousin and turn away.
“What’s the matter? I thought you wanted to watch me change?” he asked, and she heard the soft rustle of clothes as his jeans dropped to the ground.
Knowing her cheeks were probably a bright red, she kept her face averted. “I, ah… I wanted to see you shift but… I guess I wasn’t thinking you’d have to be, you know, naked for it.”
“Trust me, it’s a lot easier on the clothes that way.”
“Millie?” Scarlett’s voice came from the back porch where the slam of the screen door announced her presence.
“Shit. You’ll have to catch the show later, Millie,” Chase muttered.
A curious sound reached her ears, like someone cracking their knuckles or popping their back in a deep stretch, only intensified as if they were cracking the joints all over their body. Millie turned around just in time to see the tail end of a large grey wolf disappearing around a bend in the garden path.
“Wait!” she called out, but he was gone, loping toward the tree line with fluid grace. Millie could only stare after him, dimly registering the idea that only a moment ago she’d been talking to that wolf.
“Millie?” The call came again, this time with a note of concern in her voice.
“Coming!” she yelled back, following the path back to the porch with a smile and a wave for Scarlett once she came into view.
“There you are, for a moment I thought I’d lost you.”
“Just enjoying some of the fresh air.” Millie climbed the stairs, using the height to try and spot Chase out there, but there was no sign of him.
“Looking for something?”
“No, Chase was going to… you know, shift, so I could see it.”
“Any excuse to strip in front of a pretty girl,” Scarlett laughed. “You’ve really never seen it before? Not even your own family?”
“No, before last night I had no idea they could even do that, and before the attack I had no idea it was even possible.”
“Oh.” Scarlett sobered at the mention of the attack, her blue eyes clouding with sympathy. “That must’ve been really scary for you, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks, and yeah, it scared the crap out of me. I thought we were being attacked by wild animals or something.” She swallowed back a wave of nausea at the memory of all the blood.
“It doesn’t have to be like that, you know,” Scarlett said softly. “All the fighting and death. It can actually be quite beautiful, and the freedom…” Pure delight shone from her face, and Millie hadn’t realized before that Scarlett was speaking from personal experience.
“You can do it too?” she asked in surprise. Somehow she’d thought if Chase could, then Scarlett couldn’t.
“Of course, didn’t you know?” Scarlett answered with equal surprise. “If you want me to show you sometime I’d be happy to, and I’ll do it without the striptease,” she grinned.
“Yeah, maybe sometime,” Millie nodded thoughtfully, moving inside with her cousin. “Scarlett, do you work for Grandmother?” she asked, as something Chase said earlier weighed on her mind.
“Mmmhmm,” she nodded, moving to the kitchen counter where groceries awaited. “I manage her correspondence, help maintain the books for her businesses in town, take care of her personal errands and things, drive her around where she wants to go.”
“Sort of like a personal assistant?”
“Yes, I guess you could call it that. I help Gran out and she takes care of my needs, same with Chase, though his tasks are usually more varied than mine.”
“Chase said something along the lines of, he wonders what Grandmother will want me to do.”
Scarlett looked up from the cupboard with a shrug. “It’s hard to say, you should really talk to her about it, but she hasn’t mentioned anything to me.”
“Do you ever think about wantin
g something more? Getting out to see the world? Live your own life?”
“Leave here?” The idea clearly appalled the shy girl. “Everything I know is here. I have everything I could ever want.” Blonde waves danced as she shook her head.
“To each his own I suppose.” Millie sighed, and Scarlett smiled her encouragement.
“Give it some time, you’ll like it here too. You’ll see.”
“I haven’t had much chance to look around yet, so my impression is fairly limited,” Amelia allowed.
“After lunch we should go into town and do a little shopping. You can see a bit of the town and the bay if you like. We’ll have plenty of time before the gathering tonight.”
“Gathering?”
“Mmmhmm, Grandmere sent runners to call the pack together tonight to welcome you home.”
“Runners? Don’t you people have cell phones?” Millie snorted.
“Some of us are a bit remote, and not all of us have embraced many of the new ways.”
An interesting concept, like the Amish, but with more hair. “So, how many people are you expecting at this shindig then?”
“You’ll see tonight, I don’t want to spoil it for you. It’s better if you see them all at once.” Her lips tilted in a mischievous smile.
“If you say so.” Millie frowned on the inside, uneasy with the idea of a pack gathering in her honor. Would she be expected to take part in some kind of ritual? All manner of strange thoughts swirled around in her mind, superstitions and scenes from movies lending bizarre ideas to the party.
Scarlett didn’t seem to notice Millie’s preoccupation and started working on lunch. Coming out of her reverie, Amelia offered to help, and the girls chatted easily about other things while they worked.
“Should one of us go find Chase to call him to lunch?” Amelia offered when she was done setting the table.
“He’ll turn up, he can scent food miles away.”
“Oh, right, of course.” She should have known. Feeling at a distinct disadvantage among a family of werewolves, or shifters rather, Amelia couldn’t help but wonder why she’d gotten the short end of the stick. Besides not being able to shift, she didn’t have any other heightened senses either. All she got was a pack of hungry wolves nipping at her heels, chasing after her to be a brood mare. Swell.
Chase appeared moments later, fully dressed, his hair still damp from a quick washing. “Looks great, Scar, I’m starving.” He immediately plopped down and loaded up his plate with food.
“Aren’t we waiting for Grandmother?” Amelia asked.
“She’s still in town making arrangements, she won’t be joining us. Oh, I almost forgot, she asked me to give you this.” Scarlett withdrew a slim, leather-bound checkbook from her purse and held it out to Millie.
“What is this?” Amelia accepted the book, brows climbing skyward as she opened it and saw the balance written in precise script at the top of the register.
“It’s some walking around money. Though for most of the shops in town you can ask them to put any purchases on Adele’s account,” Scarlett explained.
Catching Chase’s I told you so look, Amelia set the checkbook down on the table. “I never asked her to do that,” she maintained with a stubborn pout.
“Of course not, but it’s her money to give and she takes care of her own,” Scarlett replied in a soothing tone, shooting a warning look to Chase.
Already starting to feel those strings that bound her to Adele and Cutter’s Folly, Amelia decided not to worry about it for the moment. She needed the help and she was accordingly grateful, but when the time came, she wouldn’t let the obligation tie her to Cutter’s Folly if she was ready to leave.
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