to “men of wolves” . . . When was Latin going to get with the program with their female tenses?).
And the lupi viri gave their habits not much more thought than the sapiens pondered their humanity. When sapiens pondered anything. And weren’t dreaming up more excuses for global devastation. A less potty-trained species she had never met in her life. There was a perfectly good reason most werewolves stayed in Massachusetts, and it had nothing to do with all the beaches. Or the Freedom Trail. Or the New England Aquarium.
“So that’s what this is, Michael? My duty?”
“It’s not just that I need someone to go out there. I need someone who wouldn’t go solely out of duty. Rache, you’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. You’re blood, too. But you’re a better choice because . . .”
“Because . . .” His scent, which had been a mild and unwarlike vanilla, suddenly shifted, and now she could smell dry sea grass, a lot of it, ablaze.
Ah. Here came the precautionary tale.
“Rache, I can’t lie to you.” It was true. He was a dreadful, laughable liar. “The last person I sent out there died in the vampire queen’s service.”
Two
Rachael had known that, had been expecting that, so it wasn’t the shock Michael had feared.
She remembered the incident well, and the memorial afterward, on the occasion where they’d had the chance to meet the queen and her consort. Rachael hadn’t gotten more than a glimpse, or much chance to hear the trial—Wyndham Manor had been crawling with thousands of her kind—but regardless of what little she saw, she still found Betsy Taylor silly beyond belief.
No one had especially liked the late Antonia Wolfton (except Derik, Michael’s best friend), but they’d all been angry that a werewolf had died on a vampire’s watch. And what the hell kind of a name for a monarch was Betsy?
“I need someone smart, someone I can trust, who can take care of herself—they don’t have any cranberry bogs out there for you to fall in—”
“Ha, ha, O Rotund Pack Leader.”
“Back off, I’ve only gained a couple pounds since Lara started all that ruckus. Do you know how many boys have been following her home? She’s in goddamned elementary school and the boys are already trotting after her! I’m gonna have to start beating them off with sticks!”
“The terrible trials of our magnificently round Pack leader.”
“That’s all sheathed in sculpted muscle, Rache.” He patted his (to be fair, reasonably flat) stomach. In fact, Rachael was pleased to see evidence that he was able to relax enough to indulge now and then. Before his mating, before his cubs came, he had the lean look of a man always too close to a bad mistake. Jeannie and the children had changed all that.
It occurred to her, again, that he had changed in other ways. Usually when she saw him, there were dozens of others around, usually the cousins and their kin. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been alone with him. So things she normally never thought of were not only occurring to her, she was thinking of them again and again. Things that had changed . . . and things that never changed.
His looks, for instance. In addition to the change in his coloring, there had been changes to his very nature . . . external and out. He’d been narrow and lean until adulthood, all gawky elbows and long legs. Maturity had helped him grow into a powerful body. He might have relaxed enough to dodge workouts, but he could still put his fist through the trunk of a tree, could still squeeze a rock into gravel.
His eyes, though . . .
His eyes had always been a savage gold, rare and striking even among their kind. From the moment he pulled her from the bog, she knew this boy would be the greatest Pack leader in the history of the lupi viri. And no matter what had happened to the Pack since then, no matter the deaths and births and matings and Challenges, his eyes had never changed.
No, Michael Wyndham was in the right place, the right Pack, and she knew it, and nearly everyone else did, too.
Oh, sure, there were scuffles now and again, mostly in the early years. Jeannie Wyndham, mother of Lara, the future Pack leader, was involved with at least one. That had been humbling for all of them. A human coming to Michael’s rescue and saving them all with time