A London Werewolf in America

by A London Werewolf in America (lit)

  “As long as it isn’t contagious. We had a distemper scare last year.”

  “He’s clean,” Darinda said. “Your pack’s in no danger.”

  “All right, then.” Albert stepped away. “What say we meet the family?”

  He led the way from the foyer. Aunt Letty followed, then Roderick, then Darinda. The sullen young wolf brought up the rear. He crowded so hard on Darinda’s heels that when she stopped he nearly ran her down. “I’m a witch, you know,” she murmured to him, low-voiced so the others wouldn’t hear. “I appreciate you want to protect your pack. But if you don’t get off my feet, and my case, I’ll turn you into a bichon frise. Are we clear?”

  The young wolf backed off hastily, and Darinda continued on her way. Every interaction with wolves, she reminded herself, was a test of dominance, a jockeying for rank. If she stayed unobtrusive and didn’t show fear, they all might make it through dinner.

  Ellis and Nora, the Duquesne alpha pair, greeted their guests in the den. They were friendly to Aunt Letty, guardedly polite to Roderick. Since they’d been tipped off to Darinda’s presence, they didn’t give her any grief. They also ignored her. Roderick occupied the bulk of their interest. As a new addition to the pack, he posed a threat to the others’ standing, perhaps even to the leadership itself. Darinda carefully watched them watch him. Who among the Duquesnes might value their rank enough to commit murder to keep it?

  Tonight’s suspects numbered six. Besides Ellis and Nora there was beta-wolf Albert and the alpha pair’s three cubs: teenage twins Bentley and Camilla, and twentysomething Coraline, the prospective bride. Seven suspects, if one counted the low-rank who’d answered the door. Darinda noticed he wasn’t introduced any more than she was.

  She zeroed in on Coraline. The Duquesne debutante was tall, blonde and striking, with angular features and muscles she hadn’t developed hefting tennis racquets and credit cards. She’d been poured into a glittery black dress that accented her athletic body. She planted herself at Roderick’s side as if she meant to live there. Her parents looked on approvingly.

  Darinda had to admit golden Coraline and the dark, suave Roderick made a handsome pair. An unexpected pang at that observation hit her in the gut. Now who was feeling proprietary? Darinda took a breath and squared her shoulders. She had no claim on Roderick, and didn’t want any. Theirs was a business relationship.

  Speaking of business, time to get to work. The wolves had clustered around Roderick and Coraline, with watchful Albert on the periphery. Since no one seemed inclined to talk to her, she picked the young wolf as her target. “Sorry about the bichon frise crack,” she said, and extended her hand. “I’m Darinda Lowell. I didn’t get your name.”

  He stared at her hand like it stank. He clearly didn’t want to be anywhere near her. Too bad. “Are you Ellis’s son? Or Albert’s?” she persisted.

  That brought his eyes up. “Why are you talking to me?”

  “Because it looks like we’re in the same boat. Are you going to tell me your name?”

  “Cole Duquesne,” he said in a resigned mumble. His gaze slid away from hers and settled on the floor. “I’m from the Wissahickon branch of the pack. I’m staying here while I go to school.”

  Aha. The poor relation. Were packs had a name for them. Omegas. Darinda withdrew her unshaken hand. “So you’re…?”

  “Ellis and Albert’s nephew. Or cousin. Or something like that. We’re all related. Not brother-sister close, but the bloodlines are kind’a tangled up. That’s why they’re so hot to have Coraline marry outside the pack.”

  She followed his glance toward Roderick and Coraline, chatting away amiably enough beside the hearth. “Pickings must be slim if they had to send away to England,” Darinda remarked.

  Cole shrugged. “It’s been in the wind for a while. His alpha and Uncle Ellis go way back.”

  “As long as she’s okay with it.”

  “No reason she wouldn’t be. Beats hunting up a mate on her own.”

  He watched the happy couple while Darinda watched his face. No hate or hostility there, only wistful longing. “Lucky dog,” he said abruptly.

  “How so?”

  “He gets to mate. Maybe even breed one day. They’ve loosened up the rules, you know. All the upper ranks can take mates now, not just the alphas.”

  Which didn’t help Cole any, Darinda guessed. Not if he sat low on the ladder. Denied power, denied a mate, denied a pack of his own. Denied Coraline? Had an omega’s frustrations nudged him over the edge?

  The object of their mutual attention laughed at some witticism of Roderick’s. The noise was shrill as claws on glass and went on a beat too long. Cole’s lip curled. “And then sometimes low rank’s a blessing. You don’t get saddled with some yappy, high-strung she who’ll drive you scatty. Better him than me.” He slanted a sly look at Darinda. “Or you?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nice job with the perfume. It messes up your scent. But I’ve got eyes. I saw you get all stiff and frowny when Coraline moved in on Chase.”

  Darinda stiffened and frowned. “I’m only here to look out for his health. I couldn’t care less one way or the other.”

  “Hey, it’s okay. No shame in being a fur freak. Lots of monkeys are.”

  “I am not a fur freak!”

  Unfortunately her denial came out a touch too loud, right into a lull in the conversation. The entire pack stared at her. Roderick’s eyebrows climbed. If he smirks, she thought, I’ll kill him.

  Albert cleared his throat. “I believe dinner’s ready.”

  Ellis gathered up his family with a nod and strode from the room. The Duquesnes fell in behind, in rank order. All but Coraline, who had welded herself to Roderick’s arm. He motioned for Aunt Letty to precede him, then glanced back to include Darinda. Sure enough, he smirked.

  “You are so dead,” she muttered under her breath. Face burning, she allowed the grinning Cole to escort her from the den.

  Given their heritage, it didn’t surprise Darinda to discover the dining room was the largest and most elaborate room in Lupin Hill. The hunt and subsequent communal dining were cornerstones of were culture. The table filled nearly the length of the room and had been set up family style, with plates and bowls of food to be passed from member to member. Meat accounted for the bulk of the dishes, a lot of it tartare. Thank Hecate she’d had the foresight to tuck some granola bars into her bag.

  The wolves seated themselves, again according to rank: Ellis at the head of the table, Nora on one side of him, Albert on the other. Aunt Letty took the seat beside Albert. Coraline sat next to her mother and pulled Roderick down beside her. When Darinda tried to claim the seat at Roderick’s other side, both Nora and Coraline scowled. Roderick shook his head minutely. Well, fine. She took the chair two seats away, leaving sufficient space between the prickly wolves and her annoying humanity.

  A brief scuffle ensued between the twins over who would sit beside Aunt Letty and consequently closer to the alpha. Camilla won. She preened in her seat while Bentley slouched next to her. He wasn’t so dejected he couldn’t shoot a growl at Cole when the omega tried to sit next to him. Cole skipped a seat and took the chair opposite Darinda.

  Conversation ended when dinner began. Wolves, Darinda observed, took their feeding seriously. Ellis, as alpha male, began the meal. All plates were passed to him first. He ceremoniously placed the choicest cuts on Nora’s plate. From there the food made its way around the table to the other family members and the guests.

  Mostly. Very little reached Cole and Darinda at the omega end of the table. Cole made a grab for a plate of roast beef and earned a slap from Bentley. He backed down with no protest, but his eyes smoldered. Roderick, Darinda noticed, saw to it the few grain and vegetable selections made it down to her. She also discovered she was receiving the rarest, bloodiest cuts of meat, courtesy of the sneering twins. These she passed to Cole. He flashed her a quick, grateful smile.

  The twins noticed this a
nd didn’t like it. The meat stopped coming her way. “Sorry we don’t have any bananas,” Camilla said with a bright baring of teeth.

  Or manners, Darinda projected directly into her head, and had the satisfaction of hearing the little bitch yelp. Telepathy was one of her minor skills and one she never misused, but sometimes you just had to go for it. Especially when some snotty mutt wouldn’t stop nipping at you.

  You sorry witch, she berated herself only seconds later. You’re no wolf. Rank’s unimportant. Use your magic on something that matters. Like ferreting out a would-be murderer.

  With appetites now sated, conversing resumed in laughter, small talk, and lots of gossip. Nora and Letty monopolized the latter. The twins listened attentively. Roderick’s attention was split between Albert’s pointed inquiries and the vivacious Coraline. Relaxed, full-fed, at ease, the wolves would have their guards down. No one paid her the slightest attention. Now would be the perfect time.

  Darinda took a sip of water and went aura-sniffing.

  This wasn’t her favorite method of divining secrets, nor was it the most accurate. A touch would tell her more. However, in this crowd even a casual touch could get her arm ripped off at the elbow. Better safe than maimed. She let her physical eyes unfocus and her inner eye take over.

  The room took on an overlay of red. Powerful excitement, greed. That she expected from a room full of carnivores high on the reek of meat. Hard, black streaks darted through the red, indicating suspicion and hostility, aimed her way. She tried not to take it personally. “Witch” equaled “human” in the were vocabulary, and a shared heritage of persecution didn’t win her any brownie points.

  Nothing on the surface. She’d have to dig deeper.

  She narrowed her focus until she had each participant pinpointed. Cole, closest to her, radiated anxious orange, his resentment over his position assuaged somewhat by food. The twins roiled purple with restless energy. They were bored and longed to escape. Letty, in her element, glowed serenely blue. Albert’s darker, watchful blue was punctuated by a yellow undercurrent of general alertness. Some of that he directed at Roderick, but no more than one would expect from a beta concerned for his alpha’s safety.

  On to the key players, then. She focused on the alpha pair.

  Right off she noted excitement. They didn’t want Roderick dead. Far from it. Their interest stank of sour desperation. They wanted Roderick in their pack so bad even Darinda could taste it, bad enough to crawl like low-rankers before Bernadette Chase in order to set this up. She averted her mental eye from the harsh yellow-green of their auras.

  She could scratch Nora and Ellis off the suspect list. How about the prize in this game? Darinda fixed her attention on Coraline.

  Heat. Hunger and heat. Coraline burned crimson, a Krakatoa of lust just looking for an excuse to erupt. She liked her fun and she liked it fast and hard. At the moment she liked Roderick with an intensity that seared Darinda’s senses around the edges. She pulled back hastily and downed a gulp of water.

  Okay, so Coraline wasn’t out to kill him—not by traditional methods, anyway. Small wonder her parents were desperate to marry her off.

  Desperation seemed to power all three wolves. Beneath Coraline’s fiery mating urge Darinda had sensed that same anxiety that tainted the alphas’ auras. She was just a bit too eager in her interest, as if Roderick were her only chance and she’d better make the most of it, a feeling shared and encouraged by Ellis and Nora.

  Surely Coraline had other options. Other packs inhabited the area. Bucks County was practically rife with them. Were the Duquesnes that determined to forge an alliance with the Chases? One had to wonder why.

  And Darinda had to wonder what Roderick thought of it all.

  Just a peek. One quick glimpse and out. Get his take on matters. She set her senses on probe again and had a “look” at Roderick.

  Sex, hot and raw, hit her hard. Sex and impatience. His aura burned nearly as red as Coraline’s, churned by frustration and wanting. A great black beast chafing at a leash he couldn’t slip and so had decided to chew through. How could he contain such primal emotion? She marveled at his self-restraint.

  Of course she should have expected this. Roderick was a healthy male, in close proximity to a healthy female of his own kind sending out blatant come-hither signals. He’d have to be dead not to respond.

  Except it wasn’t Coraline he was responding to.

  Wouldn’t even romp in a bolt-hole with this skittery twit what was Mother thinking smells all wrong can’t take the bloody politicking –

  That wasn’t aura. That was words in her head, along with sensations and emotions and a hundred other things that shouldn’t be happening. The image that held center stage in his head shouldn’t be there either. With a start she recognized herself, as his eyes and his nose perceived her, fully naked and with far more hair than she’d ever worn in her life. His want stabbed into her and demanded she reciprocate.

  Attracted by the force of him, her magic boiled up, questing after the source. So few beings could match the power of a witch. Their auras tangled like lusting bodies eager to steal pleasure from each other. Phantom nipples hardened under the rasp of a spirit tongue. Her astral hand made an exploratory lunge between the werewolf’s legs.

  Hecate’s tits!

  Darinda wrenched herself away and thrust her consciousness back in her body. The room spiraled in front of her eyes. Focus, she ordered herself. Focus on the physical. Unfortunately, the most overwhelmingly physical thing closest to her was –

  “Darinda?” Roderick said.

  Her water glass shattered in her hand.

  For a moment she stared stupidly at the wet shards of glass in her palm and on her plate. Only gradually did she become aware of the rest of the table. Every yellow eye and every nose was aimed at her. The twins looked startled. Cole edged back from the table.

  “Are you all right, dear?” Letty asked.

  “I’m—” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Something went down wrong. May I be excused?” Without waiting for alpha permission she got up and bolted from the room.

  * * * *

  When Darinda fled the dining room, Roderick automatically started to rise. Her scent had spiked dramatically in a matter of seconds. She must have found something out, something that upset her. A monumental something, or she wouldn’t have pelted away from the table like that. His instincts demanded he follow, offer comfort and protection to a she of his pack, as an alpha should.

  Coraline hauled on his arm. “Let her go. So the ape’s got a bellyache. She won’t die from it.”

  He snarled at her, right in front of her parents, and didn’t give a bite. “That woman is keeping me alive so you can have yourself a healthy husband. You will show her respect.” He shook her off and started after Darinda.

  Ellis started up, his teeth showing. “Now just a minute.”

  “Easy.” Albert laid a placating hand on his brother’s arm. “I’ll deal with it. You two finish your meal.” He rose and coolly trailed Darinda from the dining room.

  Roderick would have gone after her anyway, and Lycaon bite the Duquesnes, but Aunt Letty’s soft warning growl forbade it. This wasn’t about his desires, that growl reminded him. This was about the good of two packs. He settled back onto his chair, face tight and inwardly seething.

  “All right, the woman.” Coraline dismissed Darinda with a shrug. “Forget about her. She’ll be fine. You know how fragile they are.”

  Fragile? Ha. Not that one. Darinda had the heart and spirit of a wolf, trapped in a simian body. Strength to spare. Not unlike the ghastly perfume Coraline had doused herself in. What did she call it? Rutting Elk? It made him want to vomit, or rip his own nose off, or both. Did the word “subtle” not exist in the American lexicon?

  Soothed by his anxious mate, Ellis smoothed his hackles down and went back to that let’s-all-be-good-fellows-about-this heartiness that set Roderick’s teeth on edge. Its stench battered him almost as mercile
ssly as Coraline’s hideous perfume. And Mother wanted to strike a deal with these fawning tuck-tails? She must despise him beyond measure.

  “A week from Saturday all right?” Ellis said.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “For the wedding. I was thinking the back yard would do for the ceremony. It ought to hold all of us. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to hold it at Meadowlands. Letty?”

  “We’ve plenty of ground,” Letty agreed. “My daughter Lorraine was married there. There’s one corner of the garden that catches the moon just right.”

  Roderick counted days on his fingers under the table. “A week from Saturday? That’s awfully sudden.”

  “I don’t see any reason to delay,” Ellis said. “Bernadette’s okayed everything. We’d better notify her, in case she wants to attend. Whatever’s good for you.”

  He mentally snorted. Good for him? Returning to England and his home territory would be good for him. Sinking his teeth into his mother and shaking her like a rat would be immensely good. Freeing himself from the clutches of this wretched smelly she and her cloying pack would do him a world of good.

  Holding Darinda in his arms so he could drink in her unique scent and revel in her warmth would do him the most good of all.

  “It’s settled, then,” Ellis announced. “The marriage will take place at Meadowlands a week from Saturday. I think that’s even a full moon. Lycaon’s smiling on all of us.”

  Coraline squealed and shoved herself up against his side. He forced a smile into the face of the assault from her perfume and wondered what Darinda had found out and if she was all right.

  * * * *

  Away from the psychic and sensory overload, Darinda managed to get her heart rate back down to near-normal levels. Shaking off the effects of Roderick’s blatant desire wasn’t so easy. He’d gotten inside her, and that shouldn’t have happened. She was more careful than that. Or had always been in the past.

  Her headlong flight had taken her back to the foyer. She yanked the front door open, stuck her head outside, and sucked in long, desperate drags of night air. Come on, she cursed the air. You’re supposed to help out.