neck. She slumped against the door and offered a tired, but nonetheless welcoming, smile.
“Hi, Christoph. What’s up? What was all that noise a little while ago?”
“I broke a door. Can I come in? Right now?” Christoph asked quickly.
Jessica’s eyes widened. “Yeah. Sure. Just don’t break any of my stuff please?”
She stepped aside so Christoph could come in, then moved to the kitchen, gesturing for him to follow. She nudged a chair out for him, and wearily settled into her own.
“Thanks,” Christoph said, sitting down. He eyed her neck. “Are you okay?”
Jessica dragged the textbook she’d been working on closer, shoving some papers in to save her page and shutting it with a thump. She smiled at Christoph, a lazy, pleased grin that said more than words that she was still feeling the afterglow.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little wiped. I’ll be okay in an hour or so.”
She eyed him thoughtfully, arching a brow as she took in the bruises and splinters. “What’s up? Did you need help with something?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how to properly apologize to Mouse and I was wondering if you could help me figure something out.”
* * *
Mouse waved frantically at Analie to calm down. When she tried to slip past to give chase to Ashi, Mouse matched her movements, blocking her path. She didn’t want to get caught up in more fighting, but she would knock Analie on her ass if she didn’t stop. She was not in the mood.
Analie finally realized she wasn’t going to get past—Mouse. The last person she needed to freak out and make feel bad was Mouse. She backed off, her claws shrinking and fangs retreating, the gold dissipating in her eyes.
“Sorry,” she muttered, brushing her hands through her hair to get it to lie flat. “Ashi tried to pull some dominance crap with me and I sorta flipped.” She hung her head, embarrassed.
Mouse relaxed and reached out to give Analie a light pat on the shoulder to show there were no hard feelings. She even managed to dredge up a smile. Gesturing for Analie to go back to the apartment, she went inside and headed straight to the kitchen to make tea. Not for Analie, who she’d figured out didn’t like the stuff, but for herself.
Analie went to the bathroom to wash Ashi’s blood from under her fingernails, then to the kitchen to grab a cookie. They were Chinese almond cookies and she was quite pleased with how they turned out.
“I wish you could meet the rest of the pack. Ashi is a bad example of a Goliath. Hell, he barely has Were instincts. He doesn’t care if he sleeps out in the open on top of a bed, he doesn’t scent for stuff, he doesn’t like getting close to people—it’s ridiculous. He’ll kill you if you try to scratch his head or anything.” Analie brightened. “Hey, that reminds me—if you rub the back of Christoph’s head—like under the hair—he practically goes comatose. Try it sometime, he’ll totally do anything for it.”
Mouse leaned against the counter, waiting for the water to come to a boil on the stove. She watched, eyes heavily lidded, feeling warm and sated, as Analie moved around. Her interest was piqued by that tidbit about Christoph, too. Not that she thought he’d be interested in her touching him, which sent a brief pang of regret through her. She dragged a pad and pencil over, scrawling out a few words. She didn’t feel terribly bad writing them; it was more a fact of life.
I don’t think your pack would be too happy to meet me. We’re not very popular with your kind.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Analie sighed. “But you guys are so different from California vampires. Like the Weres here are different from California Weres. Like, way different. Anyway, try the head scritches on Christoph. Don’t freak out if he crams against you. We all do that. You should see UFC nights. We can get eight people on a loveseat.”
Mouse nodded, a smile tugging at her lips. She wrote a bit more, gave the page to Analie, then poured her tea. Her expression had turned very neutral, and she gave no sign of how much writing those last few words hurt.
Very different.
I don’t think Christoph will want me to touch him after what happened yesterday.
His apology notwithstanding, she’d seen the horror on his face when she’d tried to make sure he was okay.
* * *
Jessica gave a rather unladylike snort of laughter at Christoph’s request.
“Sure. Question for