come across a cure for lycanthropy in all the years he’d wandered the Earth.
Either way, I needed to talk to him. Somehow he’d known that something bad was going to happen on this trip. Even Jack had known. I needed to dig deeper and find their sources, and see if I could use them for my own ends. I wouldn’t ever let myself be hurt like this again.
“We’re here.”
I’d been so deeply engrossed in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed that we’d arrived. I dug my house keys out of the bottom of my purse while Mario went to the trunk for my suitcase, pulling out a cell phone and dialing with his free hand as I led the way. I half-listened to his end of the conversation as he gave a brief account to Rohrik of what had happened and where to find me.
Once upstairs, Mario stopped at the doorway to my apartment, setting my bags down. He made me promise I’d open the door for Rohrik when he came, and not do anything “rash” (a kinder word for “stupid”) in the meantime. I settled before my computer with a cup of coffee as I contemplated what I would say to the Moonwalker pack leader when he arrived, and waited.
Chapter 24
Rohrik Donovan looked more like a construction foreman than a seasoned werewolf pack leader. Though it hadn’t been that long since the last time I’d seen him, I detected a little more salt than pepper in his short hair this time around, and there were more laugh lines around his eyes and mouth than I remembered. When I opened the door, he was looking casual in jeans and a plain white T-shirt, his dark brown eyes widening slightly at my no doubt frighteningly pale features.
I stepped back to let him in. He hesitated at the threshold of my apartment door, and I belatedly remembered the seal keeping out any Others I hadn’t keyed to it. He didn’t protest as I took his hand and pulled him inside. The magic barrier Arnold had installed for me, after some nasty vampires had tried to break in, grudgingly let him pass; I could feel it sticking to his skin and clothes like invisible glue as I drew him through it.
“Ms. Waynest,” Rohrik spoke first, cautious, unsure. His deep voice was soothing, mellow, but with the rougher edge of a Jersey accent and a smoker’s husk. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too,” I replied, gesturing for him to take a seat. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please. Black, one sugar, if you would.”
Heathen. What’s coffee without real cream?
I got him his drink, refreshed my own, and we settled across from each other at the table. The silence stretched too long, neither of us quite knowing where to begin or what was safe to say. It felt uncomfortably like a stare down, so I looked away first. He cleared his throat and tossed the opening salvo.
“Mario tells me you’ve got a problem we might be able to help you with. I’d like to know what happened, if you don’t mind telling me.”
I sipped my coffee to buy time and compose myself. My voice still wavered despite my best efforts to stay calm while relaying my story.
“I’m sure you remember Chaz. We were making plans for the future—our future—together. Part of that plan was for me to meet the rest of his pack and go somewhere I could get to know them without interference. We rented some cabins upstate. We thought if I could handle seeing the pack as they really were, maybe I could handle being a part of it someday. Chaz didn’t know, but I brought a contract with me. I signed it, but never got up the courage to show it to him.”
“You planned to be one of the Sunstrikers?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I was more interested in showing good faith and commitment to Chaz than being furry—no offense.”
He nodded, thick hands cradling the coffee mug as he lifted it to his lips. “None taken. Go on.”
“I caught him with another woman. Another Were. After I found them together, I ran back to my cabin and had to get a couple of the other pack members out who were on the verge of shifting. It’s a long story, but I didn’t get their chains off in time, and one of them scratched me.”
I didn’t say anything else after that, uncertain, not knowing what else he’d need to know or what I’d be comfortable enough to tell