“You sure about that?”
“Yep.”
“What do I get if I win?” He submerged his chin and mouth and blew out bubbles as he treaded water next to me.
“You want a prize for beating a girl?”
He popped his head back out of the water. “That’s a low blow. How am I supposed to beat you now?”
I grinned at him, my dimples feeling like they were excavating my cheeks. “Ready?”
He grunted, which I took as a yes.
I propelled my limbs, wheeling them so fast they blurred, and my pulse skyrocketed. Unlike August, I had always been competitive. Which had been one of the reasons I’d entered the Alpha trials.
His body plundered the water parallel to mine. I didn’t stop to check who was in the lead though, not until I reached the embankment. The minute my fingers grazed the shore, I shot out of the water and whipped my hair off my face. August touched the shore a couple seconds after me.
“Yes!” I smacked the water triumphantly, but then I noticed he was barely out of breath, and my triumph waned. “Did you let me win, August Watt?”
He pivoted and sat facing out. “Nope.”
“Liar.”
He side-eyed me, and there was something in his penetrating gaze that made my grin crumble like crushed chalk. It was as though he was saying, that makes two of us. Maybe I was reading too much into his expression. Maybe I was only seeing what I was feeling.
Whatever it was, I got out of the lake, cool water bleeding down my legs and between my breasts. When I reached the picnic blanket, I sat down and wrung out my hair. Isobel tendered me a towel, which I wrapped around myself.
“Remember those parties we used to throw down here, Jeb?” she said to my contemplative uncle.
His gaze was fixed to the pines swaying gently around the crystalline body of water. “I remember Nelson tossing me in one night with all my clothes on because I mentioned how pretty you looked.”
Nelson chuckled, a tad sheepishly, whereas Isobel flushed but smiled as big as her son.
Keeping her gaze trained on August’s back, on the caterpillar-like scar that extended the length of the waistband of his black briefs, she said, “Those were the days.”
I didn’t ask whether my parents had attended those lake parties. I sensed they had. They’d all grown up together. They’d all splashed around the lake together. They’d all kissed and gotten married and birthed babies together.
Shifters were a community, and like all communities, they’d been rattled by tragedy, but somehow, they’d all stuck around and lifted each other up when life had weighed them down. Until my father died.
Would our generation be supportive? Would I one day picnic with August and Matt and their respective wives and laugh about the good old days?
I hoped so. I hoped I would get what Isobel, Nelson, and Jeb had. I hoped I would get a real family again.
The week following Everest’s burial smeared into a long blur. Every day, someone from the pack would bring us breakfast and suggest an activity-a movie, a card game, a walk. At some point, Jeb started to turn people down, and then he stopped coming out of his room altogether, which meant I got to hang out with our visitors and prove I had everything under control.
And I did.
I ached, but my sadness was tempered by the fact that Everest had dug his own grave, even though I still didn’t understand why he’d done all that he’d done, or why the Creeks had silenced him. Was it for the Sillin, or was there more?
When Matt dropped by at the end of the week, brandishing a bag of homemade blueberry muffins his mom had baked, I made him sit and tell me what was going on, because I was certain a lot was going on.
The blond bear of a man sank down onto the couch, palming the pale stubble on his square jaw. “Julian and Liam have contacted the Creek Alpha to ask for a meeting. She hasn’t gotten back to them yet, so Robbie suggested heading out there to confront her.” He sighed and sat back, hooking one arm around the back of the couch and dropping the other on the armrest.
I handed him a mug of the minty tea I’d just brewed and sat on the opposite end of the couch, folding my legs beneath me. “Do you think he was killed because of the drugs?”
“It’s the likeliest scenario.”
“Has anyone spoken to Aidan Michaels?”
“Aidan Michaels?” Both of his honeyed eyebrows shot up on his sun-reddened forehead. I guessed he’d been working outdoors this week. “Why would he know anything?”
“Because one, he had his own business dealings with Everest. And two, he’s made it his mission to know everything there is to know about werewolves. Why would his interest in packs not extend over the Boulder town limits?”
Matt thought about this so hard his large forehead puckered. “True. I’ll talk to Liam.” He took a sip of his tea. “Or maybe you should?”
“No way.”
“Why?”
I set my mug down before I could squeeze the tea right out of it. “Seriously, Matt? You’re asking me why? You were there.”
“I know, Ness, but we were all under pressure, and between the text and the voicemail-”
“He should’ve given me the benefit of the doubt. You all should’ve.”
Matt chewed on his lower lip. “He hates himself for it, but you gotta understand, that’s Liam. He’s always been a little… impulsive.”
Impulsive? “So I’m supposed to forgive and forget?”
Matt went back to rubbing his jaw. “No. But I think you guys should talk. You don’t have to get back together or anything, but he’s real miserable, Ness. And his temper’s gotten even shorter.”
“Not my problem.”
“He’s your Alpha, so it sort of is your problem. It’s all of our problem. If he flips a switch, he could do something that could endanger the pack.”
“I’m not a shrink, Matt. Liam needs therapy. And I’m not saying that out of anger, but because his father really screwed him up. There’s nothing I can say or do that can fix that sort of damage.”
Matt screwed up his lips. “Tamara’s sniffing around him again.”
“Did she ever stop?”
“I guess not, but she’s really coming on strong this time.”
I stared out the window at the rolling mountains flecked with evergreens and grass. My heartbeat slowed as I pictured Liam’s red-haired ex and the sneer she’d directed at me the night I’d gone out to Tracy’s with the pack. The night she’d all but called me a hooker.
“She can have him,” I said.
“Are you sure?”I finally dragged my gaze back to Matt. “Yes.”