water sometime today.”
“Buzz off.”
Analie stuck her tongue out at the door and started to leave. At the doorway she paused, then stormed back, opened the closet, and glared down at Ashi.
“Okay, listen up,” she snapped. “This is from packmate to packmate, and don’t give me any of that dominant nonsense.”
Ashi stared up at her.
“The people here can be nice. Okay, I don’t know about John. But everyone else I’ve met can be nice. This place is exactly like a pack, with the exception that you can’t dominate others to rise in rank. It doesn’t work like that here. I figure you can’t make friends—whatever. You can make yourself tolerable to be around. If someone shows an interest in you, I suggest that you be silent, because ninety percent of the time what comes out of your mouth is caustic. I don’t want someone to own you. I don’t want someone to own any of my packmates. But Christoph isn’t going to be bitten by anyone but Mouse and she’s really nice. So try not to be a big, fat, whiny sourpuss and make the best of your situation until you figure out something else.”
Analie slammed the door and hurried downstairs. She had homework.
When she got back to the first floor, Wesley was consoling Thad, who was quietly having hysterics at the end of the hall. The vampire was looking a bit sour about it, but Thad was shaking and demanding to know what the hell a monster like that was doing in the house, was it really safe here, should he and Sebastian leave come nightfall, and so on. Christoph had long ago lost interest in trying to explain that she wasn’t a monster, and he’d retreated back to Mouse’s apartment and shut the door.
Wesley glanced up when he saw Analie standing there, and casually put a hand on Thad’s shoulder so he wouldn’t look back and see her. All he needed was to have the poor guy clawing the walls to get out again.
Analie quickly, quietly hurried back into Mouse’s apartment, grabbed her studies off the table, and shut herself in her room.
She’d had very little experience with humans. She was homeschooled, she hung out with Were friends, and the only interaction with non-Weres before she came here had involved them taking her order at the taco stand on the corner or ringing her up at a cash register. Humans were like little incomplete Weres; they were physically weak, didn’t have a fuzzy side, and regarded her as a monster.
This didn’t bother her, usually. Humans spooked easily. Avoiding them was easy at night. It weirded her out that Thad was so distressed over her full wolf form. Living here, shouldn’t he be used to some pretty freaky stuff? Sure, big animals were scary, but jeez—wasn’t that overreacting?
Analie heard her phone buzz under her bed. She walked over and dug it out. Freddy had texted her.
hey, u asked R if w/h r in penn? need 2 kno, don’t want to get shot runnin in woods. kk, thx.
She’d forgotten to ask. She’d check with Mouse when she saw her next.
Mouse, like Analie, had holed up in her room. She was a little afraid of Analie now and, even more so, was horribly embarrassed of what either Analie or Christoph must think of her after Clarisse started yammering away. She usually took months to cultivate relationships with potential donors, not hours, so she was feeling particularly self-conscious about herself and her needs. Now that the initial bout of possessiveness and “Look what I got!” had worn off, she also felt badly about how much she must have scared Christoph.
The bet on how long it would take before Christoph gave in made her feel even worse.
Chances were, she wouldn’t come out of her room for quite a while.
Chapter 11
Christoph watched Analie dash from her room to the bathroom and back to her room. She’d changed from jeans and a T-shirt to black slacks, a clean white shirt, and she was carrying a white jacket with a stiff collar. Her hair was mostly hidden underneath a black bandana.
“I have to say, I have never seen a woman get ready that fast.”
“I forgot the time and I forgot I don’t have a ride,” Analie said, grabbing her brand new backpack. “Jacques is going to murder me and serve me with mint.”
“Where are you going, anyway?” Christoph asked.
“Cooking class. I’m being taught by the best. I really like it, actually. Jacques would make one scary pack