“It’s Megan. She’s a freshman at UCB.”
Glancing outside, at the narrow sunlit road hedged with pines, I rubbed my thumb over my bag’s strap. “What about Becca?”
“What about her?”
“What happens if she wakes up?”
“It’s been a month, Ness.”
“So you’re giving up?”
“I’m not giving up, but neither am I going to wait by her bedside for the rest of my life.”
I was no relationship expert, but moving on from someone he’d loved after just a month felt incredibly brusque
“I didn’t mean to make you feel guilty,” I ended up saying.
“I don’t feel guilty.” His answer was dry, brittle almost.
For a long moment, we both watched the ribbon of road we were traveling in silence.
When we crossed over into the Pine Pack territory-a border delineated by sour piss and a pristine, ten-foot metal fence guarded by two wolves in skin, I asked, “How come you went to the Pine Pack for help?”
Everest eased his window open and gave the guard our names. The man waved us through, and we set off down a cedar-shaded alley lined with floating white balloons.
“Because they hated Heath.”
I mulled this over. “What’s in it for them?”
“Julian will tell you.”
“Why don’t youtell me?”
“Because he’ll explain it better.”
“Do they want something-”
Everest slapped his steering wheel. “God, Ness, have a little patience, okay?”
I bristled from his snappishness. He was delivering me to a den of wolves-literally. The least he could do was hint at what was expected of me.
“Are you coming in with me?”
“No. It wouldn’t look good if I were there.”
“But my presence won’t set off warning bells?”
“You are not a Boulder wolf. You have every right to be here. And if anyone gives you grief, tell them Julian paid you for your company. He’ll corroborate the story.”
I wanted to scream that I wasn’t an escort but reined in my irritation.
He came to a stop in the looping driveway of the Pines’ headquarters-an all glass and wood structure that resembled a luxurious country club. A cut above the simple gray stone building the Boulder Pack convened in. Then again, the Boulder Pack made good use of the inn, which was perhaps the reason they’d never invested heavily in expanding their headquarters.
A white-gloved waiter opened my door.
“Are you picking me up?” I asked.
“Julian will have someone drive you home.”
“Can’t you pick me up?” I sounded like a whiny child, but I didn’t like being in unknown territory.
He sighed. “Fine. Call me when you’re ready to go.”
“Thank you.” I shot him a weak smile. “Thank you for everything, Everest.” My throat was closing up again.
He didn’t look at me as he answered, “What’s family for?”
Clutching my bag against me, I turned and ascended the wide, peony petal-dusted stone steps like a prisoner walking toward their execution.
I’d researched Julian on the internet to find out what he looked like and what he enjoyed doing. He wasn’t a particularly private person, so I’d unearthed plenty of shots of him surrounded by his “family.” I even got to see my favorite Pine Pack member, Justin Summix, in a couple shots. I’d had the urge to print one out of Justin so I could stick pins into his face and crotch. Misogyny brought out the worst in me.
As luck would have it, Justin was the first person I laid eyes on. Perhaps I noticed him first because he was the only person I knew. Others were vaguely familiar, but grief and distance had blurred my memories of them. Justin elbowed the boy he was standing next to and pointed me out. Subtle.
A girl, not much older than me, with a mass of long kinky blonde curls and lips colored a bright pink, placed a hand on my forearm.
Her nostrils flared. “Excuse me, sweetie, but I believe you have the wrong pack gathering. I smell Boulder wolves all over you.” She pressed on my arm to turn me around. “We don’t take their leftovers here,” she explained sweetly.
I pasted on a pert smile and brushed her hand off my bare arm. “Good thing I’m not a Boulder leftover then. I’m looking for…” His name withered in my throat when I spotted him at the center of the room. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, everyone rippled around Julian.
As though he sensed me looking at him, Julian turned his clear-blue eyes up toward me. A frown gusted over his face, followed almost immediately by a slow, slow smile.
I walked down the steps, my heels clicking on the stone. Nostrils flared, and more than one set of eyebrows hitched as I approached my date.
“Mr. Matz,” I said.
“My, you are striking, Miss Clark.” He picked up one of my hands and held it to his lips as though he were about to kiss it. His lips never met their mark, but his gesture did. The weres I’d felt closing in around me began to back up. He twirled me around so that I had my back pressed against his bordeaux-colored dinner jacket. A tiny gasp escaped my lips, and he loosened the arm he’d wound around my waist.
“Everyone, Ness Clark is our special guest tonight. I expect you all to be on your absolute best behavior.”
My gaze crossed paths with many sets of wide, startled gazes. Everyone seemed to wait for an explanation as to why I was their special guest, but instead of adding anything, Julian released me and then offered me his arm. I supposed not taking it would be in bad form, so I looped my arm through his.
“Let me introduce you to the couple of the hour.”
He led me through a set of open doors that gave way onto a sprawling, manicured lawn planted with perpendicular hedges. Their corners were so straight I imagined the gardener using a ruler to chop them.
Julian raised one of his hands, where a pinkie ring glittered with a diamond the size of his nail. “Robbie, Margaux!” he called out to the couple who were having their picture taken by a team of professionals.
The photography equipment looked as expensive as the bride-to-be did with her white lace dress and the river of diamonds wrapped around her swan-like neck.