I quieted my imagination. I needed to corral my mind, keep it from crafting scenarios. I looked for my clothes but remembered they were in the living room. In my underwear, I padded toward the door.
When I opened it, Lucas looked up from his magazine. “She finally awakens.”
I shut the door with such force that the hinges rattled. Crap. Crap. Crap. I cupped my hands over my bare breasts as though he could somehow see them through the door.
“Would it help if I got naked too?”
Help? How did Lucas think that would help?
“I take your silence as a negative.”
I hunted down a towel and wrapped it around myself. Pulling in great big gulps of air, I trudged back to the door and yanked it open.
Lucas smirked. “You do know you’re pack now, Ness. You’re going to have to get used to getting naked in front of us. It’ll help you bond with your people.”
“You and your bonding… uttered, trudging to the couch.
“Paintball was fun, eh? We should do it again.”
“I’d rather eat a rotten squirrel.”
He chucked his magazine on the wrought-iron coffee table before readjusting the royal-blue baseball cap he wore backward. “So cold, Clark.”
“What part of paintballing was fun? Getting shot by my own teammates?” I plucked my bra off the couch before grabbing my jeans and T-shirt. “You guys were awful to me.”
“It’s called hazing. Everyone goes through it.”
“Really? Who else in the pack got to experience the same fun treatment as me?”
Lucas shot me a sheepish grin.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Did you ever hear that holding onto resentment is like drinking poison? Only hurts you.”
I gritted my teeth. “What are you doing here, anyway? Come to play guard dog again?”
He puffed air out of the corner of his lips. “First off, I’m a wolf, not a dog. Secondly, even though spending the day with you is as exciting as clipping my toenails, I take my job seriously.”
Did he have to give me a visual of his feet? Yuck.
He got up and rubbed his hands against his black mesh shorts. “Besides, if all goes well, you’ll be rid of me by tonight.”
His words echoed through me. If all goes well… In other words, if Everest was found and killed.
I clamped my fingers around my clothes. “Do you have any news?”
“No.” He studied me for a long second. “So, what’s the plan?” His voice was a tad less cocky, as though he felt pity for me instead of annoyance. He must’ve figured out that my sullen mood was more due to what was happening in Denver than what was going down in Boulder.
“Do you have a car?” I asked.
“I have access to one.” He gestured to the window. Even though the sky was overcast, Liam’s black SUV gleamed.
However much I wanted to get rid of Lucas, I couldn’t deny how practical it was that he could drive. “You have a license, right?”
He cocked the eyebrow slashed by the white scar. “Since I was sixteen. Why? You don’t?”
I pressed my lips together. “No, I don’t.”
“Seriously?” His eyebrow seemed to rise a couple more millimeters.
“I never had time to get it. But that’s what I wanted to do today. After I stop by the inn to see Evelyn and Isobel.” I started for the bedroom door, holding my clothes against me, but paused and turned back to Lucas. For the first time since I’d woken up, I smiled. “Oh, and then I’m having lunch with Sarah at three at Tracy’s. Or should I say, we’re having lunch with her?”
His lips puckered as though he’d swallowed something sour. As I entered the bedroom, I heard him grumble something that sounded like, “I’m not being paid enough for that.”
I smirked as I donned yesterday’s outfit. When I returned to the living room, tying my hair up in a ponytail, Lucas was gone. I spied him outside, crouched with his nose low to the ground. Heart pounding in time with my feet, I treaded to him, surveying the dirt road and the gently swaying pines.
“Is something wrong?” My low words were snatched up by the blustery breeze.
“I got a whiff of some wolves.”
“From the pack?””No.”
“Pines?”
His nostrils flared one more time before he unfurled his long body back to standing. “No.”
“Real ones, then?”
“Smell.” He nodded to the grass.
I crouched and inhaled. Mixed among the earthy, green aroma of the slick blades was the woolly scent of wolf edged with the distinctive musky scent of humans.
Werewolves.
“How can you tell they’re not Boulders?” I rose from my crouch, morning dew seeping into the fabric of my tight jeans.
“I’m a tracker, Ness.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning while you studied calc, I sniffed scraps of fabric belonging to various bodies before going after them.”
“You didn’t go to school?”
“Oh, I went to school.” He flashed me a smug grin. “I just had more interesting after-school activities than most.”
As we walked toward the car, I said, “I have a lot to learn.”