Julian advanced toward us. “Miss Clark, it has been too long.” He let go of his sister and picked up my hand, bringing it to his pouty lips, the diamond on his pinky ring glittering wildly. “Much too long.” His breath, like his kiss, skated over my knuckles.
I snatched my hand away. I wasn’t afraid of Julian, but he still unsettled me. “Good evening, Mr. Matz. Mrs… ” What was I supposed to call her?
“Matz,” Nora supplied. She offered me a smile that gleamed as brightly as the sapphire hoops speared through her earlobes. “Ooh, Robbie and Margaux have arrived. I’ll be right back.”
She tottered in her sky-high heels toward her son and his wife. Both were dapperly dressed. Unlike my pack. I resembled a Pine more than a Boulder tonight, and that didn’t feel right, but it wasn’t Sarah’s fault. She couldn’t have guessed my pack would make no effort.
Once Julian had gone off to greet some more arrivals, I asked, “Why is your mom’s last name Matz?”
“Because Dad’s not a wolf,” Sarah said, as though it were obvious. “Last names are pack names. If you ever married outside the pack, you keep your wolf name, and your kids get your last name. It makes tracing bloodlines easier.”
I raised a brow. “Huh.”
She rolled her kohl-lined eyes. “Babe, you’re such a newb.”
Lucas, who was standing beside us, smirked.
“What are you smirking about, Mason?” Sarah shot him a little glare. It was more playful than vicious though. She was probably stockpiling the vicious ones for when the Creeks arrived.
“Your hair. What’s wrong with it?”
Color rose to her cheeks. “I straightened it.”
I became distracted by Julian and Liam walking toward one end of the terrace, heads bent in conversation, two burly Pines in tow. Matt and Cole strode closer too, dividing their attention between Liam and Julian’s bodyguards. I watched the two Alphas for a long moment, wondering what they could be discussing, hoping they had a strategy to get us out of here safely if the Creeks attacked or set fire to the inn.
My heart juddered. Where had that contemplation even come from? From the logs burning in the massive stone fireplace beyond the sliding glass doors? I glanced toward the staircase at the side of the terrace. It was wide, but if everyone suddenly started running for it, it would clog up. I peered over the railing. I’d survive the two-story fall, but it would surely break some of my bones.
“What are you thinking about?” August asked, stealing me out of my dire musings.
He’d gone over to see his father and the elders but had come back without my noticing and was now standing with his hip propped against the wooden handrail and his arms crossed. I needed to be more aware of my surroundings.
“Fire,” I whispered, gripping the smooth log.
He cocked up a dark brow.
“What if they’re not here because they want to set fire to the inn?” I murmured.
I wanted August to tell me that was crazy-talk, that they’d come in peace, but he didn’t.
“We’ll jump and make a run for it,” he said.
I swallowed.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, kid.” He tendered me a strained smile.
Kid? I’d take Dimples over kid any day. I clutched my elbows and turned to face the forest.
“Ness?” August asked.
Why did it even bother me that he thought of me as a kid? I made no sense to myself. It was the link. The link was screwing with my emotions.
I didn’t say anything, just concentrated on the woods.
And that’s when I heard them.
The distant sound of hearts pounding in unison, of paws stamping the earth.
August had sensed them, too. “They’re here,” he whispered.
Every single Pine and Boulder had sensed them because every face turned toward the woods.
The Creeks came, pounding our land underneath their giant paws, breaking our blades of grass, ploughing our soil with their claws, stealing our air and lacing it with the scent of their damp, furred bodies. They raced toward us, moving like columns of soldiers with a wolf larger than all the others up front.
Their Alpha.
Morgan.
The light-brown wolf led her wolves toward us with a determination that made me step back from the railing, that made many of us retreat from the balustrade.
Silly since there was no way her shifters could leap onto it.
When she stopped and let out a long howl, the fine hair on my arms thickened.
No one shift, Liam ordered.
My skin felt uncomfortably tight, but I reined my wolf back.
Julian must’ve given the same order to his pack, because everyone stayed in skin.
On the great expanse of grass below us, the Creeks began to rise onto two legs, their fur vanishing into human pores, their pointed ears migrating to the sides of their faces, their muzzles shrinking into noses. Breasts developed on certain bodies, and chest hair on others. The smaller bodies had no body hair and no breasts.
I moved my attention off the sea of naked bodies and onto the woman at the helm. Her hair was short like a man’s, but her face was thin and feminine, just like the rest of her body. She had muscle, but nothing like the bulk of some of the wolves crowding her. I kept my gaze fixed to their faces, or attempted to. It was a feat when appendages swung each time someone so much as twitched. Clearly, the Creeks weren’t prudes…
I wondered if anyone else was bothered by their nudity. Some Pines were grimacing, but I didn’t think it was for the same reason. I checked Liam’s face. What was he thinking? How I wished he would speak to us through the mind link, because I wasn’t sure how to take the display beneath the balustrade. His features were hard-set, his gaze amber and glowing, his shoulders pulled tight.
Julian spoke, breaking the thick silence, “You have accomplished a great feat tonight, dearest Cassandra.”
So Morgan was her last name.
Small wrinkles bracketed the Alpha’s pale eyes as she carefully examined the rows of faces looking down at her.
“You have accomplished the feat of making me feel overdressed.” Julian guffawed, and so did many other Pines.
With bated breath, I scrutinized Cassandra’s face, waiting on her reaction to Julian’s comments. When her lips bent with a smile, a collective exhale of breaths whooshed around me.
“I apologize, Julian,” she said, her voice making me blink and blink.
She skimmed the row of faces again until she found mine.