“You’re going to make me fall.”
The pressure on my abdomen decreased so suddenly I almost tumbled backward.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
It was late, and Liam would be here early, and the longer I remained next to August, the more chances we had of being caught. “I should really go. . .”
As I rounded the bumper, August powered his window down. “Come back to me, okay?”
Pleasure and trepidation dripped in equal parts inside my veins. Because his affection for me was so absolute that I was suddenly afraid of what tomorrow would bring.
Turning away, I said, “I’ll come back.” I climbed up my stairs fast, then went inside my home even faster.
The tether vibrated with his hurt.
Hurt I’d put there by not telling him I would come back to him.
Because what if the absence of magic affected the strength of my attraction?
9
I was already sitting on the bottom step when Liam arrived the next morning. I slung the backpack I’d borrowed from Jeb, and which I’d filled with the bare necessities, over my shoulder, then walked to the passenger side.
After I settled in, Liam asked, “Had a fun night?” He wore dark sunglasses that made it impossible to read his expression.
“I did.”
He started driving. “I have a half a mind to cancel the trip and phone up Morgan. You reek of him.”
Trying to keep as calm as lycanthropically possible, I said, “He gave me a ride back from his parents. Nothing happened.”
He didn’t pick up his phone or do a U-turn to drop me back off. I wasn’t sure if it was because he realized the only one who would get hurt would be him or because my tone had been so flat. I wore my emotions on my vocal cords. Guilt would’ve heightened my pitch. I didn’t feel guilty about last night. At least not in the way Liam was insinuating.
But I did feel guilt. I’d been so torn up I’d barely slept. I rested my elbow on the armrest, cradled my throbbing forehead, and shut my eyes.
A brassy whooshing sound jerked me awake. I’d meant to rest, not sleep. How long had I been out?
I rubbed my lids and stared at the gated airstrip. “We’re flying private?”
Nodding, Liam lowered his window to press on an intercom. The gate clanged open, and we glided right through toward a gleaming silver jet.
I gaped at it.
“It was Dad’s, but it’s at the disposal of the entire pack. If you ever need to use it, all you have to do is ask.”
My enchantment withered. I’d despised Liam’s father so much that my hatred extended to anything he’d touched or owned.
A man in a navy suit drew open my car door. “Morning, Miss.”
“Good morning,” I said, grabbing my backpack and scooting out of the SUV.
“Morning, Captain,” Liam said, rounding the bumper of his car.
He sported jeans—like me—and a black V-neck, which reassured me that my white tank and zip-up hoodie weren’t too dire.
The man in the suit nodded at Liam. “Morning, Mr. Kolane. We’re ready to go when you are.”
Liam gestured to the staircase that led into the belly of the sleek, winged beast. I moved toward it, my wolf bristling under my skin, as though trying to stick her claws into the tarmac to avoid taking to the skies.
We were land animals after all.
I battled through her reluctance and climbed the stairs. The air smelled of leather and flowery air freshener, which did little to appease my pacing wolf. My nails began to lengthen. I stopped in the narrow hallway, focusing on pushing her back. I doubted the captain or the flight attendant smiling at me from the galley in the back of the plane knew what we were.
“It’s safe,” Liam whispered behind me, his words blowing through the hairs thickening on the nape of my neck.
He set his hand on the small of my back and guided me onto one of the buttery beige armchairs.
After taking the seat across from me, he said, “I’ve never much enjoyed flying either.”
We weren’t even airborne yet. How would I react then? The pilot pulled in the retractable staircase, and the door shut with a suction noise.
“Let me know if you feel like you’re losing control,” Liam said, studying my face.
I nodded and swallowed.
The air hostess strutted over toward us, her lips a shade of fuchsia so bright they were almost blinding. “I’ll set out breakfast after takeoff. Would you like coffee or tea?”
“Coffee,” I said.
She didn’t wait for Liam’s answer. She must’ve known his order already.
She flitted back to the galley, leaving behind a pungent cloud of rose-scented perfume that reminded me of my aunt and her prized rosebushes.
“Do you have any news about Lucy?”
“Lucy?” Liam frowned.
“You know, my two-timing aunt?”
Liam’s lips curved into a crooked smile. “Oh . . . that Lucy.”
I rolled my eyes.
The engine turned on, and the entire plane began to rattle. Or maybe I was the one rattling. I gripped the armrests.
Breathe. Liam’s command shocked the tremor right out of me. Then, out loud, he said, “Last I heard she’s still working at the inn.”
“Why would she work for Aidan? After what she said at Everest’s funeral—about hating what we were—why would she willingly work for the Creeks?”
“Grieving people say and do uncharacteristic things. It might be a way of getting back at us.”
“But we didn’t kill Everest.”
Liam was supposed to, but Alex beat him to it.
“She still believes it’s our fault. Like I said, grief screws with people’s minds.”
The plane started to roll past other shiny aircrafts varying in size. I wondered if one of them belonged to the Creeks. Maybe more than one. And then I wondered if the Watts owned a plane too.
“I heard August and his father did business with the Rivers two years ago,” I said, mostly to distract myself from the long dotted strip in front of us. The plane bumped to a stop, and then it made a U-turn and hurtled so fast it pinned my heart to my spine.
Shh.
When my claws dented the buttery leather, I ripped my hands off the armrests and cinched my thighs. I pulled in a long breath, then let it out. I did this over and over until the plane’s nose lifted and the wheels left the ground.
“You’re okay, Ness. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Don’t say that,” I snapped, “because nothing ever goes right when people say that.”
His head jerked back a little. “Where did that come from?”
I shut my eyes, air pulsing through my nostrils. “Dad said that to me, and then he was shot. You said that to me, and then you turned on me. I hate that sentence.”
After a beat, he said, “I’m sorry.”
I laid my head back, eyes still clenched.
“I have something that’ll cheer you up.”
When paper rustled, I raised my lids. A large white envelope dropped into my lap. On the top left corner was an intertwined C and U.
“Your college packet,” Liam explained, mistaking my surprise for confusion. “Classes start in a week. Do you know what you’re going to study?”
“Business.”
“Practical.”
I stared at the envelope, feeling both fraudulent and lucky. The pack’s money and connections had gotten me in, not my exceptional transcript.
“There’s a course catalogue in there. I was a business major too, so I can help you figure out the best classes to take.”
The flight attendant came back then, a white tablecloth draped over her arm. She pulled out a hidden table from the wall between our seats, then smoothed the crisp cloth before returning to the galley. As she set up breakfast in real porcelain and silverware, I opened the envelope and read over my welcome letter, then flipped through the catalogue while Liam told me stories of his college days
, about his initiation into the frat house run by generations of Boulder wolves. Even though it was open to all male students —human or supernatural—a shifter was always in charge, and that shifter made sure the hazing was “eventful.”
“What did they make you do?” I asked.
He got this far away smile. “Fight in a ring lined with dog excrement. Loser got tossed in the shit.”
“Bet you didn’t lose.”
He turned that smile on me. “I didn’t lose.”
Gratitude and excitement drifted up in me. As I ate flaky pastries and drank bitter coffee, I pored over every sheet of material on my lap. “Thank you so much for this.”
Liam raised a palm. “Please. It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. It’s my future.”
“No, your future is saving my ass, remember?”
A smile tugged at my lips, and I closed the catalogue. “So tell me about the Rivers.”
I learned they were the largest of the Eastern packs and the most influential. They’d done their share of dueling in the East but weren’t interested in expanding to the West or to the North—the territory of the igloo-dwelling Glacier Pack, descendants of the Inuits.
“I’m surprised August didn’t tell you about them. He knew the Alpha’s daughter quite intimately.” My sudden intake of air had Liam dip his chin into his neck. “You didn’t think he was a choir boy, now did you?”
“Of course not,” I said a little too abruptly. And I truly hadn’t, but that didn’t mean I wanted to know about all the beds August had warmed and all the bodies he’d stroked.
Jealousy reared its petty head, and I turned my attention to the ocean of sky surrounding us. Just as brusquely as the jealousy appeared, the realization that my navel didn’t tingle—not even a little—hit me.
The link was gone.
10
Between talk of the Rivers and petty jealous musings, I barely realized the plane had started its descent toward an airstrip at the base of the Smoky Mountains. When the wheels jounced against the tarmac, though, I became wholly centered on the aircraft. And then the pilot braked, and the lap belt dug into my stomach, sending what I’d eaten back up my throat. I mashed my lips together and swallowed so hard I almost choked on my spit, but that beat hurling all over Liam.
Liam, whose eyes glinted as though amused by my predicament.
The pilot’s voice crackled over a loudspeaker, announcing we’d touched down, as if we’d somehow missed it.
“You can leave the college packet on board,” Liam said, getting up. “We’re taking the same plane home.”
As I unbuckled myself, the door with the retractable staircase popped open, letting in a burst of hot, humid air. I followed Liam out of the jet, and when my white sneakers met solid earth, I almost purred. Liam tossed me another amused look, but then his features hardened into his Alpha mask.
Two open-roofed SUVs fit for a safari were snaking past the few parked private aircrafts. Laughter and chatter floated from the bodies crowding the vehicles.
“Did the entire pack come to greet us?” I murmured over the drone of the approaching cars.
“They’re close to three hundred, so no.”
I’d been joking, but Liam was too concentrated to pick up on my intended humor. When the fenders all but butted against our thighs, the vehicles stopped and the passengers jumped over the sides. A man with a thick auburn-brown beard pushed through the tight web of shifters circling us.
“Liam!” he boomed, clapping my Alpha on the back as though they were old pals.
Even though Liam was as stiff as an ironing board, he offered the large male a tense smile.
And then the man moved toward me and extended his hand. “Zachary. But everyone calls me Zack.”
I shook his gargantuan palm.
“So you’re the Boulder female everyone’s been yappin’ about, huh?” He hadn’t released me yet.
“The one and only,” I said, eyeing him and his pack.
“Well, welcome to the East,” he boomed again.
I tugged my fingers loose. “Thank you.”
He nodded before turning to Liam. “Shall we run for the hills?” A slash of white teeth appeared between the coarse brown hairs of his beard.
Some of his wolves chuckled, stances slack, exhibiting no signs of aggression.
“I’m kidding. We’ll do enough running tonight. Liam, you’re ridin’ with me, son,” Zack barked.
Liam nodded, but before going off, he signaled for me to follow.
“My son Samuel can give her a lift,” the River Alpha offered.
A man, who had the same sturdy build as Zack and the same reddish-brown hair, lifted his hand in a wave.
“My Second rides with us,” Liam said.
I sensed from the weighted look father and son exchanged that they weren’t too pleased with Liam interfering in their plans.
“All right,” Zack said, his voice a little less loud, which wasn’t to say it was at a normal pitch. It was most definitely louder than any voice I’d ever heard.
Although they all climbed in the way they’d poured out of the vehicles, Liam opened the door. He gestured for me to go ahead of him before hopping in, and then we were off, warm wind scraping through my hair and pounding against my eardrums.
At some point during the drive, the girl sitting beside me introduced herself. “Jane.” She looked to be around my age, perhaps a year or two younger, with a round face dusted in freckles and sweeping lashes that looked red in the sunlight.
“Ness.”
“I know.” She pushed a bluntly cut piece of auburn hair out of her dark-blue eyes. “Are you and your Alpha a thing?”
When I shook my head, she scrutinized Liam a little more boldly.
“Why the heck not?” she asked after a long beat.
“It’s a long story.” One I didn’t see myself sharing with her.
“It’s a long ride.”
Was she really expecting me to confide in her? I didn’t know her, plus Liam was sitting right there. Not that I would’ve felt comfortable had he been in the other car.
“The males in your pack are so hot,” she said with a breathy sigh. “Makes me want to visit Colorado.”
I frowned. “How do you know if you’ve never been to Colorado?”
“I attended the pack summit a couple years ago.”
Oh. Right.
“After what happened to my older sister, though, Daddy doesn’t want us straying too far off our land.”
I was glad Sarah had told me about the Alpha’s daughter, the one who’d been killed by Morgan. “You’re Zack’s daughter then?”
“One of them. We’re seven. Two boys, five girls. Well, only four now.” Her gaze turned a little misty, but she blinked, and her eyes dried.
I wondered which of her sisters had been the one to sleep with August, because Jane was far too young to be the girl in question.
Thinking about August made me acutely aware of his absence.
And of the emptiness inside my stomach.
I pressed my hand to my navel as though my touch could somehow reactivate the link.
Liam’s gaze drifted to my hand. Thankfully, he didn’t ask me how I was feeling . . . or rather what I was feeling.
As we drove over miles of concrete roads that turned into rough terrain, I wondered what August was doing.
What he was feeling.
My blood turned to ice as a thought collided into me. What if August had been wrong about liking me before the link formed? What if he felt relieved by its absence?
I dug my phone out of the front pocket of my backpack and powered it on to send him a message that I’d arrived safely.
That I was thinking of him.
As my carrier searched for network, Jane said, “You won’t get any reception ’round these parts. Dad put up a bunch of jammers. He’s not a fan of technology.”
And suddenly my concern of what August was feeling was superseded by a new one—that
of being disconnected from the entire world. The Rivers suddenly felt more oppressing than welcoming.
Liam leaned over me. “Will you have Wi-Fi at the compound?”
“We have a computer connected to dial-up.”
I gaped at Liam.
They hate the Creeks, not us, he said through the mind-link.
I tried to let his words reassure me, but I wasn’t reassured.
What had we gotten ourselves into?
11
August and Nelson had come out to Tennessee and returned to tell the tale.
The Rivers weren’t going to make Liam and me vanish.
I repeated this to myself as we drove down a dusty road lined with identical one-storied stone and log cabins. The only building that was different was the one at the very end. It was built in the same style—rough gray stone, tawny slats, grids of windows—but it was long like horse stables with a thatched roof.
The car came to an abrupt halt right in front of it.
“Lunchtime,” Zack bellowed, stretching himself up to his full height before vaulting over the side of the car.
This time, Liam jumped over too, then held out his hand to me. When in Tennessee, do as the Tennesseans, I supposed. I sat on the edge, swung my legs over, then placed my hand in his and hopped down. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I let go.
This trip wouldn’t change the fact that I was Liam’s Second and not his girlfriend. Not even his friend for that matter.
Business partners.
A petite and shapely woman with crinkly blue eyes was stationed by the entrance of the thatched structure. As we approached, she extended both her hands. First to me, then to Liam, and then she stepped close to Zack.
“My mate, Eileen.”
The word mate made my heart pinch. Even though werewolves called their spouses this way, I couldn’t help but think of August.
“Nice to meet y’all,” she said.
Zack pointed to the two women standing around a young boy. “Three more of my flesh and blood: Poppy, Penny, and Jack.”
I committed all of their names to memory. Where Jack waved to us, his sisters—who looked identical—observed me and Liam with quiet caution. They had the same auburn hair as Jane, but their eyes were different, dark, almost black, like the bitter coffee I’d drunk on the plane.
A Pack of Love and Hate Page 7