Evelyn, Everest, and I went upstairs, and then we came back with the taco dish. While Evelyn warmed it in my microwave, I packed. Gathering everything I owned took me fifteen minutes and two blue Ikea bags.
“That’s it?” Jeb picked up one of the bags and tried to wrestle the second one from my hands, but I held on tight.
“That’s it.”
As Jeb and I walked to the black van with the golden Boulder Inn logo, we discussed my last rental payment and the cost of a new window, and then he asked if I had a car, and I shook my head. I didn’t even have a license.
“A boyfriend or friends to say goodbye to?”
I thought about my drug-dealing admirers and the sympathetic prostitutes for all of a second. “No.”
“Really? No one?”
His concern surprised me. I supposed acting as though I hadn’t had a life here wouldn’t serve him.
“I have Evelyn,” I ended up saying so he would stop pitying me.
Lucy and Everest were sampling the tacos when we returned. Evelyn offered my uncle a plate and watched as the tangy goodness vanished down his throat.
“If all your food tastes this good, you won’t have to worry about job security,” he finally said.
Evelyn smiled at me, and her expression dissolved some of the tension that had gelled inside my veins since I’d busted open my front door and set eyes on the past.
A past I dreaded revisiting.
Chapter One
one month later
The inn was packed.
Brawny men of all ages had arrived sometime before lunch, alone or accompanied by their wives, girlfriends, or sons.
I recognized many of the men, but they didn’t recognize me. In my gray housekeeping uniform, I blended with the rest of the staff. Every time someone looked my way, I disappeared into the kitchen where Evelyn was cooking up a feast, or entered one of the unoccupied bedrooms I’d helped prep for the occasion.
Energy crackled in the carpeted hallways, in the living room with its high-beamed ceilings and two-story glass panes, and in the tartan-covered adjoining dens. Every Adirondack on the sprawling porch held a reclined body. Voices chirped. Laughter rang. It was as though the Boulder Pack hadn’t come together in years. But I knew for a fact they met once a week. Well, the men did. The women and children were not invited to regular pack gatherings.
“If you go at it much longer, the metal will start peeling.”
I froze, and the feather duster I’d been using on the sconce next to the elevator tumbled onto the burgundy runner.
That voice…
Deeper, but nonetheless familiar.
Slowly, I turned to face Liam Kolane, one of the men who’d opposed my plea to join the pack the day my father was shot. I wasn’t short for a girl—five-seven like Mom—but I still had to crane my neck.
I hid my loathing for him underneath a smile. “Sometimes the filth is not visible to the naked eye, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
A small crease appeared between the dark brows shadowing his reddish-brown eyes.
I picked up my feather duster and continued down the hallway, swiping the long gray feathers over the other sconces.
He didn’t move. “Have we met?”
I looked over my shoulder at him, fake smile still in place. “Not in this lifetime.”
That made his entire forehead groove. I tossed him a wink as I turned the corner.
The second I was out of sight, I dropped the smile and hurried to the bedroom my aunt and uncle had loaned me. I shut my door and sidled against it. My heart was thumping so hard it threatened to derail. Liam hadn’t recognized me. I was safe.
At least, that was what I believed for the next few minutes.
Two knocks on my door made me spring away from it.
“Open up.”
I sniffed the air. Evergreen. Not Liam. I turned the knob to let my cousin in.
It had taken his girlfriend almost dying for me to forgive my cousin for being such an ass back in LA. I hadn’t forgiven his parents, though. They’d yanked me out of my life one too many times to forgive.
“I just overheard Liam mention to his buddies that he ran into a hot blonde housekeeper.” Everest dropped into the flannel-covered armchair in the corner of my bedroom. “Was it you?”
I crossed my arms. “I’m offended you need to ask.”
“Only reason I’m asking is ’cause I thought you were planning on holing up in your bedroom until the pack left.”
“Can’t a girl change her mind?”
“You can change your mind, but if I were you, I’d stay the fuck away.”
“Noted.”
“I’m serious, Ness. Especially from Liam Kolane. He’s cut from the same cloth as his dad.”
A chill whorled beneath my ribs. “He rapes women too?”
“There are rumors…” Everest dragged his long fingers through his red hair.
I hated that I’d just reminded him of his girlfriend’s fate—raped by Liam’s father, Heath…the horror.
I sat on the edge of the duvet I’d fluffed upon waking, folding one leg underneath me. “Go against Liam.”
“What?”
“For Alpha. Go against him.”
Everest exhaled a rough breath. “I have no desire to lead the pack.”
“You’d rather have Liam lead you?”
“No.”
Ever since Everest’s girlfriend had attempted suicide the week I arrived in Boulder, I’d softened toward my cousin. His pain, although different, reminded me acutely of my own. Maybe that was why I’d found it in my heart to overlook Los Angeles. Gone was his cockiness, replaced by this oppressive despondence that had turned him into a bit of a recluse.
“I can’t stop thinking about what Heath did to Becca,” he whispered, hazel eyes slickening with emotion. Not many things got to me, but a man crying…yeah, that got to me.
I leaned across the narrow space and touched his clasped hands. “Heath is gone, Everest. He got what he deserved.”
Even though Heath had died a week ago, the realization hadn’t settled in Everest yet. Perhaps because Liam had decided to bury his father in an intimate ceremony to which only a handful of pack members had been convened. Although brutal, seeing my mother’s body lowered into the earth had brought me closure.
“He may be gone, but so is Becca,” he muttered.
“She’s not gone-gone.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Her odds of waking are fucking ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous is better than no odds at all.”
He snorted. “Can’t believe you’re the optimist.”
He was right. I was a half-empty sort of girl.
He sighed then stood. “I should go. The meeting starts soon.”
“Think about what I said. About tossing your name in the hat.”
“There won’t be a hat. No one’s going to go up against Liam.”
“You don’t know that.”
He shot me a how-many-shades-of-clueless-are-you look.
And here I thought the pack had balls. Many pairs of them. Was there truly no one to challenge a Kolane?
Chapter Two
The second Everest left, I swapped my gray housekeeping uniform for skinny jeans and a white tank top. Mom’s wedding band drummed against my chest as I headed for the inn’s common area. Conversations and laughter frothed through the closed doors and filled the hallway. Steeling my nerves, I pumped the sculpted copper handle and drew the door open.
Squares of sunlight dappled the airy room. People were huddled in large groups, either sprawled over the leather sofas, or standing by the buffet of sweets and drinks set up next to the massive stone fireplace. No fire snapped in the blackened hearth, and yet the room smelled of warm smoke, as though the scent of winter fires had penetrated the pale-yellow stucco walls and Native-patterned area rugs.
As I dragged my gaze over the crowd, I caught Lucy’s attention. She shot me a look that could’ve withered one of he
r prized rose transplants. She wasn’t the only one glaring. I garnered many a glare. For example, Liam and the two guys standing on either side of him gave me the stink-eye.
I was the new kid all over again. Good thing it didn’t frighten me.
Lucy elbowed her way through the sunlit room toward me, then latched onto my bicep and tugged me aside. “What are you doing here?”
I shrugged her off. “I’ve decided you were right. That I should get out and meet people.”
Lucy dipped her chin into her fleshy neck. “Ness…”
“Yes?”
Her warning died in her throat. My aunt wouldn’t dare make a scene, and considering how quiet it had gotten, she chose silence over a messy confrontation.
One of the guys broke away from Liam’s little group and approached me, black eyebrows slanting over piercing green eyes. He stopped mere inches from me and tipped his head down. I crossed my arms, expecting him to tell me to beat it.
“Dimples? Is that you?”
If I were the type of girl to blush, I would’ve turned crimson at the nickname. Not because it wasn’t true…I had deep dimples—craters really—but because it was spoken loudly.
“I go by Ness now. And you are?”
He grinned. “Shit. Ness. You’re all grown up.”
“Six years does that to you.” I raised an eyebrow as I studied his face, took in the light-brown skin with the dusting of freckles, the prominent but straight nose, the dark stubble, the cropped black hair, the hazel eyes. “August?” I asked hesitantly. “August Watt?”
He smiled wider.
And then I smiled, because August had been my absolute favorite person in Colorado after my parents. When I’d asked the pack to allow me into their ranks, he and his father had fought in my favor, joining their voices to Everest’s. They’d been drowned out by the chorus of absolutely-nots.
A girl in an all-male pack? What a revolting idea.
I couldn’t help that I’d been born a girl. And it wasn’t like I could pledge myself to a neighboring pack, because werewolves couldn’t switch packs. The only thing werewolves could do was either be a part of their own pack, or move away—far away—so the distance prevented their bodies from changing. Those who stayed—lone wolves—were loose cannons hunted down by all.
August shook his head. “I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”
“I wasn’t planning on it, but shit happens.”
He got that look that drove me insane. Pity. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the shit-happens part.
“You okay?”
“I’ve had better days, but I’ve also had worse ones.”
His frown deepened.
I ran my hand through my long hair because, heck, now I was uncomfortable.
Slowly, slowly, his chiseled face smoothed out. “Are you here to stay?”
“Haven’t decided yet.” My skin pebbled from the vent blasting cold air over my head. I hugged my arms to my chest. “Want to take the conversation outside?” I was chilly, but I also wanted to get away from my aunt’s prickly glower.
“Sure.”
As we walked through the open sliding-glass doors onto the overhanging porch that was almost as spacious as the living room, I said, “You don’t need to talk to me by the way.”
He draped an arm around my shoulders and tucked me into his side. My entire body tightened at the contact.
“Shut up. I just got my favorite girl back. Let me enjoy her.”
I snorted softly. “Favorite girl?”
He amended, “Woman.”
I peered up into his face. His freckles seemed to have darkened. “I imagined you’d have plenty of new favorite girls. I mean, look at you. You’re like a real man now.”
“A real man?” He chuckled. “If everyone wasn’t staring at us right now, I’d put you in a headlock and rough up that pretty hair of yours.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Fine.” He looked down at me, still grinning. “Seriously, it’s so good to see you.”
“Likewise.” When we reached the guardrail fashioned from a tangle of sanded branches, I ducked out from underneath his heavy arm. “How’ve you been?”
“Pretty good. I enlisted a year after you left. It paid for college.”
“Navy or army?”
“Marines.”
I ran my fingers over the knots in the tawny wood that Dad and August’s father had put in after Jeb bought the inn. Dad had been a talented carpenter. He’d taught his trade to August’s father who purchased Dad’s company after he died.
I placed my forearms on the thick balustrade and squinted at the dense copse of pines running up the sharp ridges of the Flatirons. The view from the inn definitely beat the one from the unit I used to call home. Not that I would ever admit this to anyone.
“Heard you were working with your dad now,” I said.
“Yeah.” August stroked the wood, his fingers moving carefully over the knots, and then he turned and leaned against it.
“How’s business?”
“Booming. Want a job?”
“A job?”
“I remember you loved whittling wood.”
“That was”—Dad’s face flashed inside my mind—“a long time ago. Besides, I have a job. I work here.”
I wanted my uncle to pay Evelyn her full wage, so I’d offered to help with the housekeeping. My suggestion had made my prim aunt balk, but rather rapidly, when she observed how effective I was, she changed her mind. If Evelyn caught wind of this trade, she’d unleash a torrent of Spanish on me. Every time she became emotional, her mother tongue spurted out like steam from a geyser.
At the beginning, I’d helped with the actual cleaning, but after a week, my sense of smell had gotten so acute I had to stay away from cleaning products. I stuck to laundry and ironing and occasionally helped out with vacuuming and assisting Evelyn in the kitchen.
August’s thick black eyebrows almost joined together. “Something just occurred to me.”
“What?”
“Did you run into Liam earlier?”
“Why?”
As his gaze settled on a spot behind me, a vein throbbed in his temple.
“I do believe we’ve met in this lifetime, Ness Clark.”
Speak of the devil. I turned around slowly.
Liam glowered at me. I swear…little lightning bolts were zipping out of his eyes. “Where’s your feather duster?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Did you want to borrow it?”
The lightning bolts turned into electrical discharges.
A loud clap resounded, disrupting the thick tension, and then Lucy exclaimed, “All pack members are asked to make their way to the conference room.”
Reluctantly, August pressed away from the balustrade. “Catch you at dinner?”
I nodded. He’d catch me sooner than that.
Liam’s jaw moved as though he were about to say something. In the end, he backed away without speaking.
I watched the men leave, allowing them a head start. Whether they liked it or not, I descended from this pack, so their decisions would affect my life. I hadn’t had a say in returning to Boulder, but I wanted a say in what would happen now that I was back and out of hiding.
Chapter Three
I forded through the clusters of women sipping drinks from copper goblets, the heady mix of perfumes and spirited juices making my nose twitch.
“Ness?” Someone tapped my shoulder.
I pivoted.
“It’s me. Amanda.”
I studied the brunette with the bluntly cut curly hair, the long-lashed tawny eyes, and the heart-shaped face.
“Amanda Frederick,” she went on.
At last, I placed her. Miss Popular back in elementary and middle school. Not a mean girl. Just someone interested in everything I wasn’t.
Her lips bent into a satisfied smile once she noted the recognition. “Are you back for the summer or longer?”
“Not sure yet.”
Two other girls pushed in beside her. They tossed their names at me. Taryn and Sienna. Sienna reminded me of a piece of pale silk with her wispy blonde hair, latte-colored eyes, and flawless complexion. Taryn, on the other hand, was all harsh angles and stark contrasts. Her face was as narrow as an axe blade, her hair tar-black, and her eyes an icy blue.
“Who did you come with?” I asked.
The pack didn’t have daughters—hadn’t had any for over a century until me—so these girls had to be plus-ones.
Taryn raised her pointed chin. “Lucas Mason.”
I remembered Lucas: shaggy black hair, serious acne, and surly attitude. He used to be Liam’s best friend. Maybe still was.
Amanda said, “I’m with Matthew Rogers.”
The name conjured up a blond giant.
“Sienna…” Amanda tilted her head toward the delicate blonde. “She’s with August.” It sounded like a warning.
“You and August seem close.” Sienna’s voice gusted softly toward me. I’d never met anyone whose voice matched their appearance until today.
“August is the brother I never had,” I explained.
“You have Everest,” Taryn snapped.
What was that supposed to mean? That I shouldn’t hang out with August? “If you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere to be.”
I started back toward the doors of the living room when Lucy stopped me. I was about to utter an exasperated what, when she asked, “Where are you going?”
“To my bedroom.”
She scrutinized my face. “Evelyn could use some help in the kitchen.”
Without a fight, I walked in the direction of the kitchen until Lucy moved to the buffet. Then I doubled-back and set course for the basement. When I burst into the conference room, forty faces spun my way. Expressions ran the gamut: I got annoyance, anger, shock, curiosity.
But mostly annoyance.
“Ness?” my uncle said in a strangled voice. “Is everything all right?”
The salty, tangy scent of male was overpowering.
A Pack of Blood and Lies Page 2
