Chicago: NovemberLauren tried to disappear into the passenger seat. She hadn’t realized how much of her confidence had been tied to having Toby beside her. She’d only known him a day and a half, and he’d changed her world, at least while he was still next to her.Without him, all of her newly regained confidence had disappeared. Its mockingabsence only pointed out what a coward she really was. As if she needed reminding.She glanced over at the man who was driving Malcom ’s rented SUV with casual ease through the light after-morning-rush-hour traffic on the slush-covered expressway as if he were a Chicago native, instead of a visitor from the wilds of Montana.Toby’s father, Brian, looked for all the world like a college student, a computer geek or maybe an art major. Someone sensitive, gentle, and young, but she knew he was none of these things. He was the Marrok, the one all the Alphas answered to and no one dominated an Alpha werewolf by being sensitive and gentle.He wasn’t yo
She could look at Brian, and so she watched his eyes assess the wolves Shawn had brought like a general surveying his troops. His gaze settled on Michael.Lauren looked, too, seeing what the Marrok saw: old jeans with a hole in one knee, tennis shoes that had seen better days. It was very much like what she was wearing, except that her hole was in her left knee, not the right.“Will the time it takes to drive to Montana and back put your job at risk?” Brian asked. Thomas kept his eyes on his toes and answered, soft-voiced, “No, sir. I work in construction, and this is the slow season. I okayed it with the boss; he says I have two weeks.”Brian pulled a checkbook out of his pocket, and using one of the other wolves’ shoulders to give him a solid surface to write on, made out a check. “This is for your expenses on this trip. We will figure out a pay rate and have money waiting for you when you get to Montana.”Relief flashed in Michael’s eyes, but he didn’t say anything.Brian went thro
She could look at Brian, and so she watched his eyes assess the wolves Shawn had brought like a general surveying his troops. His gaze settled on Michael. Lauren looked, too, seeing what the Marrok saw: old jeans with a hole in one knee, tennis shoes that had seen better days. It was very much like what she was wearing, except that her hole was in her left knee, not the right.“Will the time it takes to drive to Montana and back put your job at risk?” Brian asked. Thomas kept his eyes on his toes and answered, soft-voiced, “No, sir. I work in construction, and this is the slow season. I okayed it with the boss; he says I have two weeks.”Brian pulled a checkbook out of his pocket, and using one of the other wolves’ shoulders to give him a solid surface to write on, made out a check. “This is for your expenses on this trip. We will figure out a pay rate and have money waiting for you when you get to Montana.”Relief flashed in Michael’s eyes, but he didn’t say anything.Brian went thr
“No,” she lied. She just wanted to get her apartment packed and get done with this, so she never had to see Scott and those like him again. “No.” This time she meant it. Brian tilted his head, and she saw his eyes shift, just a little, gleaming gold in the dimness of the outer hall. “Let him up.”She waited until everyone was in her apartment to leave the anonymity of the landing. Brian was stripping her futon down to the bare mattress when she entered her apartment, It was sort of like watching the president mowing the White House lawn or taking out the trash. Shawn approached her and handed her the check she’d left on the fridge door, her last paycheck.“You will want this with you.”She took it and stuffed it in her pants. “Thanks.”“We all owe you,” he told her. “None of us could contact the Marrok when things started getting bad. Leo forbade it. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent staring at the phone trying to break his hold.”She was startled into meeting his eyes.“It too
“What will happen if he breaks out?”“It would be good if we get there before that happens,” was all he said. They left the expressway, and he slowed to the posted speed limit. The only sign of his impatience was the rhythmic beat of his fingers on the steering wheel. When he pulled up in front of the mansion, she jumped out of the SUV and ran to the front door. He didn’t appear to hurry, but somehow he was there before her and opened the door. She ran down the hall and took the cellar stairs three at a time, Brian at her shoulder. The lack of noise was not reassuring, Usually the only way to tell the safe room from the basement guest rooms was the steel door and frame.But great plaster chunks had been torn off the wall on either side, revealing the silver-and-steel bars that had been embedded in the wall. The wall paper from inside the room hung down in strips like a curtain, keeping Lauren from seeing inside.There were three of the pack in human form standing in front of the doo
AFTER the disaster this morning, Lauren had dreaded the flight to Montana. She’d never been on a plane before in her life, and she’d have thought that it would be terrifying, especially in the little, six-passenger, twin-engine Lear Brian led them to. Brian sat in the copilot’s seat, which left all six of the passenger seats empty. Toby pushed her past the first set of forward-facing seats with a nudge of his nose and stared at the pair of backward seats until she sat down. When hesettled in the space on the floor and put his head on her feet, she set her box on the seat next to her, buckled up, and waited for takeoff.She didn’t expect to have fun, especially when Toby so emphatically was not.He rode stiff and grumpy at her feet, growling softly when the plane bounced a little. But riding in the smal plane was like being on the world’s tallest amusement-park ride. A gentle one, like the Ferris wheel, but with an edge ofdanger that just made it al the more fun. She didn’t really th
She glanced back at Hank. “Tell them what we are.”“Oh, this is Aspen Creek,” Hank answered her. “Everyone knows about werewolves. If you haven’t married one, you were fathered by one or one of your parents was. This is the Marrok’s territory, and we’re one big, happyfamily.” Was there sarcasm in his voice? She didn’t know him well enough to tell for certain.The air blowing in her face had warmed up, finally. Between that and Toby, she was starting to feel less like an ice cube.“I thought that werewolves have no family, only pack,” she ventured.Brian glanced at her before looking back to the road. “You and Toby need to have a long talk. How long have you been a werewolf?”“Three years.”He frowned. “Do you have a family?”“My father and brother. I haven’t seen them since…” She shrugged. “Leo told me I had to break all ties to them or else he’d assume they were a risk to the pack.” And kill them. Brian frowned. “Outside of Aspen Creek, wolves can’t tell anyone except their spouses
Nothing fancy, just jeans and a plain white T-shirt, but she’d never known a werewolf who could do that. This was real magic. She didn’t know how much real magic he could do. She didn’t know a lot about him other than hemade her heart beat faster and nudged her usual state of half panic away. She shivered, then realized it was cool in the house. He must have turned down the heat when he’d come to Chicago. She looked around and found a small quilted throw folded over the back of a rocking chair and snatched it up. Careful not tobrush too hard on his oversensitized skin, she laid the blanket lightly over him.He lay with one cheek against the floor, shuddering and breathless."Toby?” Her impulse was to touch him, but after a change, the last thing she wanted was touch. His skin would feel new and raw. The blanket slid off his shoulder and when she lifted it to cover him again, she saw a dark stain growing rapidly on the back of his shirt. If his wounds had been of the usual sort, the c