“You’re telling me. I’m thinking of forwarding your calls to Miller—let him deal with some of this.”
“No, you aren’t. Half of them used to be your pack.”
“Nah, you’re right. I think that’s the other reason why I should be there—they used to listen to me.”
“We pretended to, anyway.”
Jordan snorted and hung up.
…
He’d come back right when she was about to go after him, but then he’d spent most of the time on the computer and answering her with short, curt answers.
Yes, Merilee was definitely dead.
No, they couldn’t find her body.
No, he didn’t know who’d killed Merilee, but they’d be having a meeting.
No, she couldn’t go to Merilee’s place—no one could.
Jordan would be coming to the meeting so they were waiting on him.
She would be at the meeting—which made her freak out a little. It was her first meeting with the pack, and it was right after someone had died.
How could Merilee be dead? Who could have done it? Was this normal in a pack to just kill people if they bugged you? Maybe she should have paid more attention when Merilee was discussing that. She couldn’t stop shivering. She’d just seen Merilee last night, and now she was dead. And she was about to be surrounded by this pack in a meeting. What if they all turned into wolves and attacked her?
“Are the meetings when you’re human? Or are you all furry?” Was she going to be the only human there as they all stared at her? Holy hell. She hadn’t even considered that.
Travis stared at her. “We’re all in human form. Lycans can’t talk when they’re in form.”
She nodded. “Right. That makes sense. I’m just…” She gestured around vaguely while shaking her head. She wasn’t making any sense. She knew that. But Travis wasn’t helping. Someone had died—and he wasn’t telling her enough. “Maybe it wasn’t murder. Maybe it was suicide and she wandered out into the woods as she was dying.”
Travis just stared at her.
“I suppose you would have noticed if she’d done that.” That would be easy enough to track. “I can’t believe she’s dead. I mean, I saw her last night.”
“When?” he asked sharply.
“At the challenge.” She snapped her fingers. “Troy. It was Troy. Troy did it. Did Liam stay with him the entire night?”
Groaning, Travis wiped both his hands down his face. “Look, LeAnn, I’m trying to make sense of everything, but I need to be able to concentrate, and I need more answers than I have…so I can’t answer your questions when I don’t have the answers.”
She tried so hard not to be hurt. But he wasn’t sharing information with her, and there had to be a reason for that. So she nodded and went to stare out the window with her arms folded. At least she wasn’t dead. There was someone in the pack having a worse day than her.
Travis hadn’t touched her since he got back, either. Not once. After that morning… These days were seeming longer than was possible. How she felt in the morning was nowhere near how she felt by that night. She was ricocheting between emotions.
He had been at a dead pack member’s house. Maybe he didn’t feel right touching her after being so close to death—even if it was just a scent.
Of all the people to kill, Merilee was a weird choice.
It was sad.
She’d actually met Merilee and spoken with her.
“You’re sure she’s dead?” she asked again, turning to him. “We shouldn’t be out looking for her?”
“What makes you think she isn’t dead?” he asked.
She squinted. That was a strange question. “Well, who would kill her, for starters? She doesn’t seem the type to have enemies.” She licked her lips. “What makes you think she’s dead?”
“Her place smells like death. Decay has its own smell and…”
She nodded quickly. “No. I know. People put off a scent when they die.” She shuddered. “That man I killed. I didn’t even have to check for a pulse. He was dead. I guess I should have remembered that.” She shook her head. “It’s just I think someone would kill me before they’d kill Merilee.” She turned back to the window to stare out, but she could feel Travis’s eyes on her.
The time crept by. Finally, Travis said, “We can head there.”
It’d given her time to think. “Maybe I shouldn’t go.” She wasn’t really pack. She didn’t belong at a pack meeting—especially one involving someone they cared about and she hadn’t really known. Besides, they probably all hated her because she was related to Ross. It’d be like a slap in their faces if she were there.
“Jordan says you should be there.” His words were all measured and clipped like a stranger’s. He’d been different the last few hours. All the kindness and tenderness he’d shown this morning had disappeared. Men did that sometimes. They had their best faces on before they knew they had you. And he had her—he had to know that. She kept coming back to him like the stray he’d fed.
Time to buck up, buttercup, and cut your losses.
“I can just leave. I’ll leave your pack alone. Leave you alone. It’d probably be better for everyone.”
“No. I don’t want you to leave.”
He could have fooled her. To think, they’d been planning on sleeping in each other’s arms all day.
He came to her and wrapped his arms around her, as if he’d somehow known what she needed.
“We need to figure out what happened to Merilee,” he said, resting his chin on the top of her head.
LeAnn nodded, sniffing back the tears that wanted to fall. “Sure. Yeah. I guess I was being selfish. She deserves that.”
Ten minutes later, they walked into the lodge. It was big and open with a raised platform on one end where there was a whole wall of windows. And it was full of Lycans who dropped their chins and quieted down when Travis walked in.
Jordan was already at the front on a podium, surveying the crowd with his dark eyes.
Travis had been holding her hand as they walked toward the building, but dropped it the moment they’d entered. And outside, it’d felt more like he was towing her and making sure she wouldn’t run off than a cutesy couple thing to do. She followed him as far as the raised platform before she drifted toward a nearby wall, away from everyone.
Travis looked back over his shoulder at her, but she shook her head. No way was he getting her up there to stand in front of everyone. She’d spent her life hiding in shadows, and it felt like where she belonged. Until she found her footing in this Lycan world, she was sticking to the shadows.
“It’s fine,” Jordan murmured.
She sent him a grateful smile that he didn’t return—he just stared hard at her as if he were trying to read her soul.
Him, too, huh? She couldn’t seem to be on anyone’s good side today. In fact, it felt like everyone in the room was giving her space like she was a leper. Screw it. She looked down. Not out of deference but because she was ready to be out of here and the meeting hadn’t even started.
First, Travis was acting like he was barely tolerating her.
And she’d believed Jordan thought she was okay, but apparently not. He’d been nice enough last night, but today…well, today…was different.
She was surrounded by Lycans…who didn’t really want her as pack.
She was surrounded and alone…very alone.
LeAnn sent a surreptitious look toward the closest door. Maybe once the meeting started, they wouldn’t notice if she left. And she’d really leave. She’d get in her car and not stop. There was more than enough money in her account to buy a fake ID and a new life.
“As you all probably know by now, Merilee has disappeared, and someone dug out her tracking tag and left it,” Travis said.
Tracking tag. She’d forgotten to ask him about that. Liam had mentioned it on the phone. Travis probably wouldn’t have explained it anyway. She’d found a program on his computer that’d needed a separ
ate password so she didn’t feel right checking it out…plus, it wasn’t as easy to figure out.
“We haven’t found her, but we’ll be looking for her. I suspect she’s dead. I…uhh…yes, Melissa?”
“I’m with Sean. I’m staying with Sean. I’m with Sean.”
It was such a weird thing to say that she actually turned to look at the woman speaking, only to find her staring straight at her with a frightened look on her face.
Frowning, she turned back around. That was weird. Maybe it was because she was Ross’s sister, and they all assumed she was on the verge of going psycho. When she looked up, she found that both Travis and Jordan were staring at her, too. Okay, this was creepy.
“What?” she mouthed at Travis. Seriously, if this was how the meeting was going to go, she was out of here.
He shook his head and looked back out at the group.
Alanna was directly across from her and making pointed eye contact with Travis.
He clenched his teeth tightly, but nodded at Alanna.
“Why don’t you just ask her?” And now Alanna was staring at her—and that was not okay.
“What?” LeAnn asked aloud.
“Nothing,” Travis said before looking back at Jordan, who shrugged. Travis rubbed a hand against his forehead. “Okay, I’m going to go straight to it. LeAnn did not do this.”
“Then why was she there at the time?” a voice she recognized as Liam asked.
“If she did, I’m sure it was fair,” another female voice said, sounding timid.
“What didn’t I do?” LeAnn asked, looking around. And it hit her suddenly. “Me? Kill her?” She even pointed at herself—it was that shocking. “Why on earth would I kill Merilee?”
“So she wouldn’t take your place,” Alanna said in a bored-sounding drawl. She was begging to be slapped. Hard.
“Take my place? How would she do that? I don’t have a place. I’m just here for right now. And why would I care?” This made no sense. It was like she’d dropped into a play in the middle of the second act. She felt the tingles on her skin of everyone’s attention. She hated this. So much for being in the shadows. And this was what being in a pack felt like? When they turned on you?
“You didn’t want her taking Travis,” Alanna said above the low hum of voices, drawing the attention her way again. She probably liked the attention. Total drama whore. “She was in heat. She was allowed to challenge your position because you haven’t taken it. But I don’t think it was a fair challenge, which is why you’re trying to cover it up.”
She blinked and blinked. No, she’d really said that. This wasn’t just some bad dream. “I would never kill Merilee. Wait, she was in heat? Is that why she smelled like…oh, never mind.” Well, that explained a lot. Though Merilee probably always smelled like sex.
And everyone was back to staring at her, and very few of them were trying to hide it.
“As I said, LeAnn didn’t do this. Someone stole her clothes a couple days ago, and they tried to make this look like her.” Travis cast her a concerned look, though…the same look he’d been giving her on and off when he said strange things.
Oh holy hell. She leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath before sending Travis a disgusted look. He’d been worried about her going nuts and killing Merilee, too—that was what was with all the strange questions about Merilee. She had almost earned that by telling him her past, but killing some woman she’d just met versus killing a man holding a family hostage was a whole different thing. Yeah, he didn’t really know her at all. She was so outta here. After she proved she didn’t kill Merilee.
“Why would I challenge her for Alpha when I haven’t even said I wanted it?” LeAnn asked Alanna directly. “Or what comes with it?” And Travis got a look at that. Bastard. Like she would ever do this.
“Maybe you couldn’t help yourself,” Alanna said.
LeAnn narrowed her eyes before turning and addressing everyone. “Let me be perfectly clear. I came here to find my brother, and he turned out to be a murdering bastard, but I would never kill anyone here besides Alanna, and I think most of you can agree she is one grade-A bitch. No, wait, that’s an insult to canines everywhere. So if you find Alanna dead, you can come right to me because not only will I be proud, you’ll see me dancing, maybe even a touchdown dance.”
“She’s not serious,” Travis said.
She was totally serious. Alanna had it coming and then some.
“And why would I kill Merilee? She was nice. A little odd maybe, but she seemed nice.”
“So you could be Alpha,” Alanna said again.
“Oh my hell, it’s like your mouth and your brain have never met. Do I look like I’d be the first to throw down some sort of Lycan death match? You even had to tell me about a challenge—I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know enough about Lycans to know she was in heat. I just thought she smelled like sex. But you all do. And more power to you because I’m not getting any, and I’m approaching Alanna’s levels of bitchiness.”
“Uhh,” Travis said, trying to break in.
“And if I wanted to be Alpha, I would have accepted the scent-match, but to be honest, I’ve been here less than a week, and it’s been weird and I’m not one for staying in one place, let alone in a small town with a bunch of people who might hate me. Besides all that, Travis could do a lot better, but he’s not the one holding this thing up. I am. Me. So I’m not exactly rushing to take my place when we might all regret it if I did. Travis deserves the right person. This pack deserves the right person…and I’m just me. I’m a hell of a lot better than you”—she pointed at Alanna—“but you’re a horrible, horrible person.”
Alanna narrowed her eyes. It was true. In fact, she was 95 percent convinced that hag had killed Merilee for some reason. Maybe just because she could.
“LeAnn,” Travis tried.
“So why would I kill someone over being Alpha?”
“Because you’re crazy,” Alanna said as if it was obvious.
The pack was swinging their heads back and forth like this was a tennis match.
“I’m crazy?”
“Yeah. That’s what I said.” Alanna had been mimicking her pose of leaning against the wall, but she pushed forward and asked, “Are you a Lycan?”
“Aww hell,” Jordan muttered quietly.
“What?” LeAnn asked.
“She doesn’t shift,” Travis broke in. “She hasn’t shifted the whole time I’ve been with her.”
“Yes, but is she a Lycan?”
Everyone around LeAnn looked confused. What had Travis been telling them? They should know that she wasn’t a Lycan. He’d said they accepted non-Lycans.
“No. I’m not. My father and brother were, but apparently it skipped me. I’m not a Lycan. If that means I can’t be in your pack, fine. If that means I can’t be with Travis…” She shook her head. She wouldn’t say it, but she was beginning to think there was a whole load of other reasons she shouldn’t be with Travis. Starting with the fact that he thought she might have killed Merilee. “But no, I’m not a Lycan.”
Alanna threw her hands up and said, “See! She’s crazy. She killed Merilee because she’s freaking insane.”
“Whore!” LeAnn returned with a glare.
“Slut!”
“Hag!”
“Bitch!”
“Asshat!”
Then Travis pulled out his gun and shot the ceiling.
And that might have been it. They might have ended it. But then Alanna had to say one last thing…call her one last name…under her breath…and no woman in the world would let that one slide by. No one but no one called her that.
“Oh, it is on!” And she bolted toward Alanna.
Of course that whore shifted.
Travis grabbed LeAnn around the waist and hauled her backward, kicking and punching. Jordan shifted and pounced between them, facing Alanna. The other Alpha let out a snarl that had everyone backing off real fast.
“You just met h
er. How can you already hate her that much?” Travis asked, adjusting his grasp as she went for his gun.
“You heard what she called me! Anyone who uses that word deserves to be shot!”
Travis set her against the wall and held her shoulders while glaring into her eyes. “Behave!”
Behind him, she could see Jordan and Alanna both had shifted back and were tugging on clothes while hissing at each other. The rest of the pack looked simultaneously alarmed and entertained.
She’d broken eye contact with Travis, and he shook her shoulders and moved back into her eyeline. “Stop it. You’re my mate and an adult and you need to start acting like it!”
Ouch. She held his gaze for one more second before dropping her eyes. Whatever. She was so out of here.
“We move to a vote,” Alanna snarled. “When one member of the pack threatens the well-being of the rest, a majority can declare their life forfeit. It’s our way.”
It was like a punch to her stomach. She couldn’t get in enough breath. A vote?
Travis’s hands loosened on her shoulders, and she looked up to see him closing his eyes in a wince. “Damn,” he whispered.
Over his shoulder, Alanna straightened up and smoothed down her clothes with a triumphant look on her face.
“LeAnn hasn’t accepted the scent-match,” Travis called over his shoulder, letting go of her entirely.
“You’ve said she’s pack. Melissa and Lara are both in heat. Merilee is dead. As Alpha, you must uphold our laws. And our laws state that a majority can declare her life forfeit.”
“She doesn’t even know our laws!” Travis snarled.
“That doesn’t matter. In fact, the law doesn’t even stipulate they be Lycan, but we all know she is.”
“Oh for the love of…” LeAnn muttered, rolling her eyes. “I’d know if I turned into a damn wolf!” What had she gotten herself into? This was all so crazy. They were going to vote whether or not to kill her?
“Alanna’s right, Travis,” Jordan said. He met LeAnn’s gaze and narrowed his. “About the law, I mean. She didn’t shift then, and I’ve never seen that—not in a fight.”
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