Two men with bulging muscles entered the room, hefting a stretcher. On top rested Julian’s naked body. No sheet covered it. No blood or dirt either. The Creeks had cleaned him up and sewed his thorax shut with thick black thread. Considering how waxen his flesh was, I assumed they’d syphoned away his blood. Unless they’d left him in the field until he’d bled out completely.
Gasps thundered through the crowd, and then a jarring sob ripped across the room, louder than all the gasps.
“Justin urged me to return your fallen Alpha. So here I am, returning’ him. Consider it a peace offerin’.”
The men behind her crouched, depositing the stretcher beside the framed picture; then they backed up and remained standing shoulder to shoulder by the front door.
A raucous voice swam through the bewildered crowd. “Cover. Cover,” it said, and then heels clicked on the stone stairs as a gray-haired woman tottered up to the landing. She vanished through a small door, before returning with an armful of lavender hand towels monogrammed with golden Ps. Complexion almost as pallid as her dead Alpha’s, she kneeled and gently covered him, strip by cottony strip.
Once Julian was mummified in terrycloth, Casandra started down the stairs. “Aidan said Boulders weren’t empathetic, but I see my cousin was wrong. I thank you”-she inclined her head toward us-“for showin’ my people such kindness.”
“We are not your people!” Sarah’s voice pinged against the buffed stone floors.
Cassandra narrowed her eyes, and Sarah clutched her head, shrinking into herself.
“You can hear my voice in your head, can you not, Miss Matz?” the Creek Alpha asked pleasantly.
Sarah didn’t say anything, but her spine tautened.
“If you can hear me, then you are mine.” As Cassandra strolled through the room, shadows played across her features, staining her eyes. “Just as I am yours.” She stopped when she reached Sarah’s brother, who’d gathered his shoulder-length blond hair into a ponytail. “You were next in line if I’m not mistaken.”
Robbie nodded cautiously, his hair glinting gold in the dim lighting.
“I’d like you to tell me about your pack so that I may lead it well. Shall we take a walk in the gardens?”
Before he acquiesced, Robbie’s eyes flashed to his sister’s. I moved in front of Sarah as though I could somehow deflect his glance, but Cassandra trailed his line of sight, and although her gaze paused on me, she tilted her face, which told me she hadn’t missed the true object of Robbie’s attention.
Dread pooled in my stomach. Robbie probably hadn’t considered the repercussion of looking his sister’s way, but I did, and I didn’t like it one bit, the same way I didn’t like that he’d left the Sillin in her care. If he didn’t have all the answers Cassandra wanted, she’d come looking for Sarah, and I didn’t want the Creek Alpha sniffing around my friend.
Cassandra claimed she’d come in peace, but if that were true, she wouldn’t have brought her shifter army with her . . . she wouldn’t have created an escort agency to spy on other packs.
We should leave. Liam’s silent command startled the air out of my lungs.
I sucked in a breath before nodding and turning toward my friend. “Ready to go?”
Sarah’s dark eyebrows quirked. “Go?”
I spread open my eyes to drive my intent home; I wasn’t leaving without her. “My car’s right outside.”
Maybe Cassandra wasn’t after the Pine’s stock of Sillin, but what if she was?
As understanding crept over Sarah, color leached from her skin. “Let me say goodbye to Mom.”
“Of course.”
She wound around her pack toward her mother, who was slumped on a couch, pallid cheeks shiny with tears.
“Ness?” Liam nodded to the entrance.
I set off alongside him and Lucas. As we took the stairs, my gaze wandered to the lavender shroud atop Julian’s still form.
“If anyone ever buries me in fucking tea towels, I’m going to haunt their ass,” Lucas huffed under his breath.
Laughter burst out of me. Even Liam’s lips quirked up. I pressed the back of my hand against my mouth to stifle the sound that was so incredibly inappropriate that even Cassandra’s bodyguards gave me a hard stare, and I doubted they had any love for Julian and his pack.
I elbowed Lucas as we exited. “They’re all going to think I’m heartless now.”
Lucas dragged his hand through his shaggy black hair, grinning. “You should always keep your enemies guessing.”
“The Pines aren’t my enemies.”
“They’re no longer Pines,” Lucas said just as Sarah surged out of the building.
She must not have heard him, because she didn’t react to his comment. She hooked her arm through mine and all but dragged me down the stairs. “I’ve changed my mind. I’d like you guys to take the stuff.”
It took me a second to compute what the stuff was. When I did, I turned and exchanged a quick glance with Liam.
“Lucas”-he tossed him the car keys-“take Sarah home.”
Lucas frowned at first, but Liam must’ve elaborated, because he nodded. “How’re you getting home? Running?”
“Ness has a car.”
I clutched my keys tight enough to leave an imprint. “I think it’s better if you go with them, Liam.”
A dark lock of hair fell into his eyes.
“I’d feel better if Sarah had both of you with her,” I added.
A half-truth.
The other half of that truth was that the drive took a little more than a half hour, and I felt like Liam and I had spent enough time together for one day.
And I might not have trusted his intentions concerning me yet.
It took a couple minutes-maybe seconds-for Liam to unglue the soles of his black boots from the flagstone path. Shoulders wrenched back, he strode to his car.
Lucas looked between us before going after our Alpha.
Sarah bit her lip. “I’ll call you tomorrow, hun.” And then she was gone too.
And I was finally alone.
The drive home took me straight past the Watts’ warehouse. Even though it wasn’t late, August’s apartment, which flanked the warehouse, was pitch-black.
I tried to feel him through the tether, but my stomach was a giant jumble of emotions. I parked on the side of the road, grabbed my phone, and typed out a text: Don’t leave Boulder, ok?
In the starlit darkness, under a moon that was almost full, I waited for August to reply.