as he hadn’t made any indication he needed her, Mouse signed on guard to Brian and resumed her previous stance.
Royce scrolled through his contacts on his phone until he found the number the alpha had given him for his second. He rapped lightly on Analie’s door, clamping down on his worries so the wolf wouldn’t be able to detect his agitation.
Analie crawled out of her den at the sound of the knocking. She was wearing a new blouse and pants; quite nice, but they felt weird and overly fancy on a frame used to shrugging on yesterday’s T-shirt. She still wore her corduroy jacket.
She opened the door and took a couple steps back from the outline there. A few surreptitious sniffs told her who she was sort of looking at.
“Hi?”
The shadows on Royce’s face shifted. Was he smiling? Maybe. She stepped aside reluctantly to let him in. He immediately held out a cell phone.
“I need you to call your pack’s deputy.”
That was abrupt. Analie gingerly took the phone and looked at the screen. A number was waiting. She hit send, shifting her weight from foot to foot. It didn’t take long for Gregory to pick up.
“Hi, it’s, um, Analie,” she said, belatedly adding a respectful cough and mentally putting her tail between her legs.
“Analie! Are you alright? Is Royce there?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. And yeah, he is.”
“Are you sure you’re fine?”
“Yeah, I mean—I think I am. Are... are you coming to... um...”
“No.”
Analie felt the blood drain from her face. “What?”
“There is a situation in California that requires safety measures to be taken for all underaged Weres.”
Safety measures for underaged Weres? That sounded like a cub-hide. While she’d never experienced one in her lifetime, Gavin had told her about them.
Analie glanced at Royce before shifting into the secret River-Goliath dialect. “A cub-hide?”
Gregory sounded surprised. He hadn’t known Gavin had educated her in their secret tongue. “Yes. You’re in the safest place possible—for now.”
Analie felt a little dizzy, a little sick. “I’m staying here?”
“Yes. Am I going to hear anything unfavorable, or are you a Goliath?”
Analie snapped to attention, adding a respectful cough. “I’m a Goliath.”
“Good. Keep your location secret. You will be contacted when the cub-hide is over.”
“Okay.”
“Stay strong.” Gregory hung up.
Analie held the phone out for Royce. She was staying here. They weren’t coming to get her. Per cub-hide rules, she couldn’t even call Gavin and tell him where she was or how she was doing. Would he worry? Of course he would. Where was Jo-Jo going? Where was Freddy going?
She needed her bear.
Royce watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, particularly when she shifted into that strange dialect the alpha had been using. He noted her deliberate coughing, and started piecing some things together.
By coughing, the alpha had been paying some odd form of respect to someone. It was a key to pack structure. They used this other language to hide things from him. Judging by Analie’s expression, Gregory told her the same news someone had earlier given the alpha.
He took the phone when she offered it, his tone concerned and expression as neutral as possible. “Is everything okay?”
Obviously it wasn’t. He hoped that by acting as a sympathetic ear, she might let something slip. It would save him the effort of having to call Clyde Seabreeze. He prayed she’d feel safe enough to tell him something useful.
In times of agitation, Analie would normally leave the house and run around in the hills until she wore herself out or she’d knocked over enough trees. Right now she had no hills or trees, so she stood awkwardly in an unfamiliar room across the country and felt bad.
“The deputy called for a cub-hide,” she said quietly, staring at the floor.
Royce was silent, waiting for her to continue. Analie rubbed her arms. It couldn’t hurt to define what that meant. Besides, she couldn’t tell him where anyone was going and he already knew where she was.
“It’s this thing we do during wars where they take all the kids and spread them out all over the country. For safety. No one likes them.”
She realized that in addition to not knowing where her best friend Freddy was, or Kimmy, her friend from the pacifistic pack Walker, or any of her other friends, she might not hear from them for the duration of the cub-hide. It could last months or even years.
‘Don’t barf.’ Analie closed her eyes and tried not to breathe so much. The reek of vampire was getting too overbearing.
'Curse that damn alpha to the