She jutted her head, and he followed suit, even though he seemed reluctant to leave Liam and me alone. What did Lucas think I would do? Claw up Liam’s pretty face?
“Subtlety’s not your forte, huh?” I heard Sarah ask. Whatever Lucas answered made her bellow, “Oh my God, get over yourself.”
I uncapped another bottle of water and downed half of it in one gulp. “I’ll be going to dinner at his parents’ house tomorrow night. He’ll be there too, as well as Jeb. I’m telling you this so you don’t get your information from another source and misconstrue a family dinner for a hot date.” I screwed the cap back onto my bottle slowly.
Liam’s gaze narrowed on the steel bench. “Family? Did you get engaged?”
“No. I did not get engaged. I’m seventeen.” I squared my shoulders and crossed my arms. “The Watts have always been like a second family to me. When I was growing up, I spent almost as much time with them as I spent with my own parents.”
Liam still didn’t say anything.
“And just so you stop assuming this, I’m not going to let a mating link drive me into a marriage. No amount of magic will dictate the course of my life. August and I go way back, but maybe we’re all wrong for each other.” We hadn’t felt all wrong for each other the night at his place, but Liam hadn’t felt wrong for me either.
Liam glanced at me, and even though his gaze was still hardened, it sparked, and that spark felt dangerous. I hadn’t planned on giving him hope . . . I’d planned on setting him straight.
“But I won’t know that until I actually date him, which I plan on doing once this duel is over.” My words dimmed the spark but didn’t extinguish it.
“You know, it would’ve been in your best interest to let me duel Morgan yesterday,” Liam said.
“Why?”
“If I’d lost, I would’ve been gone. For good.”
My arms fell alongside my body, the half-empty bottle clapping against my thigh. “Don’t say stupid shit like that.”
He balked at my sharp words.
“I’ll see you tomorrow. Bring Sillin. Or I’ll bring what I have left.” I turned to go, but Liam’s voice stopped me.
“I have to take care of some things tomorrow, so I won’t have time to meet you. But I’ll pick you up on Sunday morning at seven. Pack an overnight bag.”
“Overnight? What about the pack run?”
“We’ll be running, but not with the Boulders.”
My pulse picked up speed. “Who will we be running with?”
“The Rivers.”
“The Rivers? One of the Eastern packs?”
Liam nodded, then tipped his head to the side, his gaze hunting mine.
I wasn’t sure if it was the sweat drying on my skin or the idea of running with lots of foreign wolves or traveling out of state with Liam, but I suddenly felt incredibly cold. “And it’ll be just the two of us going out there?”
An emotion crossed his face. Hurt, maybe? He shrugged his shoulders that seemed to have gotten a little broader since he’d become Alpha. “I can ask Matt to fly out with us if it makes you feel more comfortable.”
I didn’t need a chaperone, or did I? “I trust you to keep this professional, Liam.”
This would be the first time I would be physically far enough from August for it to affect the link. What if . . . what if my attraction to him faded? Why was I scared of this? I’d told Liam that wasn’t the reason I wanted August in the first place. I stretched my neck from side to side, finding a little solace when it cracked.
“You seem nervous?”
Instead of confessing the true reason I was jumpy, I said, “I’ve never flown before. What should I pack?”
“Nothing fancy. The Rivers are denim-and-tees sort of people.”
“Okay.” I rubbed one clammy palm against my workout leggings.
“The Rivers, huh?” Sarah said. I hadn’t even noticed her return. “I heard they hate the Creeks because Morgan killed the Alpha’s daughter. The girl was visiting the Aspens the night Morgan demanded to duel the Alpha.” I supposed she added that last part for my benefit, since I imagined Liam and Lucas were well-versed in pack facts.
Liam stared at her as though her presence had slipped his mind. “If my trip gets back to Morgan, I’ll know where she got her information.”
Sarah’s gaze turned incendiary. “You should stop confusing allies for traitors. Didn’t work out so well for you last time,” she added under her breath.
Liam’s posture locked up.
“Anyway, I need to get home. Ness, you done here?”
“I’m done,” I said, lifting my bag off the bench.
I didn’t look back at the boys as I left the gym with Sarah. The second we stepped out of the brick loft-like building that housed the gym, she muttered, “I can’t believe he thinks I’d tell Morgan anything.” Her blonde hair was starting to frizz, as though her kinky curls were desperate to bend her straightened locks into their original shape.
“I don’t think he fully trusts me, Sarah.”
She side-eyed me as she unlocked the door of her red Mini. “Do you trust him?
“What do you mean?”
“You’re going on an overnight trip with him. Do you trust he’s not going to try anything on you?”
I bit my lip, which made Sarah raise an eyebrow.
“I don’t think he’ll try anything,” I said a little hoarsely.
She gave a me a tight-lipped smile. “I wish I could come along.”
“I wish you could, too.”
But Sarah was a Creek. There was no way she could come with us. First, because Liam wouldn’t allow it, and second, because then Cassandra, who was able to track her wolves through her Alpha blood-link, would know Sarah was double-crossing her pack.
Jeb couldn’t make dinner at the Watts, so I ended up going alone. Since he’d needed the car, I took a cab. During the entire ride, I alternated between crinkling the brown paper wrapped around the bouquet of black parrot tulips resting on the seat next to me and smoothing the fabric of my red silk dress-the one that had belonged to Mom and that I’d worn only once before, for my “date” with Aidan Michaels. If it had been any other dress, I would’ve burned it, but it had belonged to Mom.
“That’s a mighty nice house,” the cab driver said as he pulled up in front of the Watts’ high-ceilinged log cabin.
The wood façade glowed amber in the setting sun, and the beveled windows gleamed like diamonds.
August’s pickup was parked up front, which meant he was already here.