“I had dinner with my father’s killer?” My voice was loud, too loud. It echoed inside my ears.
Julian’s lips settled into a grim line. “Aidan Michaels.”
Every sound, color, flavor, and scent faded as the name sank into my mind.
I’d sat at a table with my father’s assassin. I’d made conversation with him. I’d taken his money.
I raised a hand to my neck and gagged on the bitter taste careening up my throat. I clamped my teeth shut, and sweat broke out over my upper lip. An arm wound around my waist, steadying me. The world eddied, before coming back into sharp focus.
“I’m sorry to be the bearer of such dire news, Miss Clark.”
Stupidity left a vile taste in my mouth. Here I’d thought my pack disliked me, but if they hadn’t avenged my father, then their dislike ran deeper than I’d assumed. Loathing throbbed beneath my skin. Claws curled from my nailbeds.
“Breathe. Your eyes have shifted,” Julian instructed
I breathed, and the simple act of inhaling and exhaling managed to drive my claws back. What it didn’t manage to do was ease my fury.
“Heath had too many business dealings with Aidan Michaels to afford killing him.” Julian leaned toward me, his whisky-scented breath brushing my ear. “You did the world a great favor by killing him.”
My heart felt like a shard of ice. “Everest said you could help me.” For the first time since my cousin had informed me I was a murderer, I didn’t care.
An amused, almost satisfied expression creased his eyes. Unlike what humans believed, werewolves aged at the same rate as humans, yet Julian looked ancient, like he’d been alive far longer than his forty-seven years.
“I am well acquainted with the PI Liam hired. One word from me, and he will direct the focus of the investigation off of you.”
“What will that word cost me?”
“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”
I squared my shoulders, and the leather dress tightened around me like a second-skin. “What will it cost me?”
“You go on with that little game your elders have organized.”
I jerked my head back. “I don’t want to be part of my pack.”
“You wouldn’t just be a part of it. You’d rule it.”
“I have no desire to rule a bunch of pricks.”
“Why did you enter your name in the first place, then?”
“Because I didn’t want another Kolane to have that sort of power.”
“And you’ve changed your mind?”
“No.”
A slippery smile eased over Julian’s lips. “You go on with those silly trials then, and I will not only make sure that your name is cleared, but also that you win.”
“How and why?”
“Don’t bother yourself with the how. As for the why…” Julian closed his hand over my elbow and steered me up the lawn. “I want there to be peace between our packs, and I believe you are the instrument of that peace. There is something incredibly special about you, and not simply because you are the first female born to your pack in a century. Although, perhaps your sex does color my conviction.” He pulled me to a stop on the first step of the grand stone staircase leading up to the terrace. “Do we have a deal, Miss Clark?”
His flattery and backing were honing my ego into a dangerous weapon. “The Boulders detest you. They believe you are the source of all evil.”
“I don’t doubt this.” His eyes flared like silver bullets. “But would an evil man desire peace?”
I tried to glimpse the wolf lurking beneath the human casing of tanned flesh, pouty mouth, and powder-blue eyes that were Julian Matz. I sensed his wolf was an impressive specimen.
“I could sweeten the pot by having my weres deal with Aidan. Would you like that?”
“I like to clean up my own messes, but thank you for the offer.”
“So, will you go on with the trials?”
Did I have a choice? Besides hitchhiking away from Boulder, I had no way out. “Yes.”
Julian’s teeth flashed. He lifted my hand to his mouth and laid a kiss there to seal our deal. “How proud you would’ve made your father.”
Glass shattered against stone, and then screeching voices exploded above us. I wheeled around and found an almost unrecognizable man glowering down at me and Julian. Blood poured from Liam’s temple and gushed from his nose.
“Get away from him, Ness!” Liam’s voice struck me like a bolt of lightning, but instead of making me tremble, it electrified me.
With an almost clinical detachment, I cocked my head to the side and watched as he struggled against the three shifters restraining him. I wondered if they were the same weres who’d rearranged his features into a bloody, pulpy mask. Liam bared his teeth, then whacked the back of his head against one of them. His captor gasped and teetered back. Blood dripped from his nostrils, mixing with Liam’s on the slabs of limestone.
“Release him.” Julian’s voice cut through the pregnant air.
Liam was freed so suddenly he stumbled forward, but he regained his footing instantly.
“To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, Liam?” Julian asked.
Liam’s eyes roamed over my face. “I’ve come to collect my wolf.”
Hiswolf? I was no one’swolf.
Julian echoed my musings out loud. “Yourwolf?” His voice cocked in time with his eyebrow.
Color prickled Liam’s jaw. “Ness is a Boulder wolf.”
“As far as I understand, your pack hasn’t let her pledge herself.”
“Ness, come on. I’ll take you home.” Desperation rolled off him and banged into my toughened shell.
Nowhe cared? I hugged my arms around my torso. In my mind, I whispered, Go away. You’re making a fool of yourself.
Julian wound a possessive hand around my bicep. “Ness is my date for the evening.”
Liam’s gaze rocketed toward the Pine Alpha, then slammed back into me.