Moonlight's Ambassador (Aileen Travers Book 3)(3)

Caroline accepted the glass I handed her and took two big gulps of the wine. I watched her chug it before taking a small sip of mine.

"You're closer than you think," Caroline said when she had finished draining the wine. She held her glass out for more. So, it was going to be that kind of conversation. I set mine down and retrieved the bottle, pouring her an even larger portion than I had last time. "He has a piece of property down in Kentucky. Over one hundred acres of untouched land that his pack has owned for several decades. It's where they send their pups."

"Pups?"

"It's what they call the newly bitten." This time she sipped her wine.

"Ah, the vampires call the newly fanged yearlings." I started to lean against the cabinets at my back before straightening at the last minute when I remembered what I was covered in.

"Sounds better than pups. As if we're children needing to be told what to do."

Sounded familiar.

"They expected me to stay there a year. Longer if I couldn't control my wolf." She set the glass down hard. I winced as the glass stem cracked, enough that I suspected it would be going into the garbage once she was done. "I have a life. I have a career—one I worked my ass off for. Do you have any idea what it's like to deal with an entirely male teaching staff? The comments? The snide jabs at my gender or intelligence?"

I took another sip of my wine. "I may have some idea."

Being in the military meant getting used to being one of the few females in any unit I joined. For combat camera, whose specialty oftentimes demanded we go out on patrol with the infantry, it meant even less women. During a mission outside the wire, it was relatively normal to be the only American female around; sometimes for weeks.

Caroline's shoulders relaxed, and her lips loosened, some of the anger that had been brewing sliding away. "I imagine you would. I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to get back, to remind myself that everything wasn't about this." She waved her hand in the air as if to indicate everything. I could only assume she meant the supernatural detour her life had taken.

"How did Brax and Sondra feel about that?"

Caroline's face darkened at the mention of the woman who'd turned her. At the time, Sondra was being controlled by a demon, but that didn't change the fact that Caroline's entire existence had been upturned as a result. I'd guess that even though Brax had made Sondra Caroline's mentor, the relationship was off to a rocky start. I didn't blame Caroline. My own relationship with my sire could be categorized as nonexistent—not for lack of trying on his part.

"They don't know."

I blinked. Then I blinked again.

Caroline’s expression was set.

"Wait. What do you mean they don't know?" I set my glass of wine down hard, barely flinching at the sound of a crack.

Caroline drummed her fingers against the chipped counter and looked away. "I may not have had permission to leave."

My mouth dropped open. The sound that escaped was closer to sputtering then actual words. "Explain."

"I found a way off the farm and then stole a car."

"Please stop explaining."

Caroline watched me as I ran through all the awful scenarios that could result from what she'd just revealed. It didn't really surprise me she had stolen a car. We'd done that a time or two in our misspent youth, and Caroline had never been one to let pesky details like ownership get in the way when she needed something.

“What did you do with the car?” I asked. I hadn’t seen it when I came in.

“I ditched it on the other side of the city and then caught a ride here.”

Smart. This way she wasn’t leading them directly to my doorstep once they figured out she had stolen a car.

Brax and the wolves were not going to take this well. If there was one thing my experiences have taught me, it was that they took one of the newly turned bucking the system very personally.

"We need to call Brax and explain," I told her, heading for my phone.

"No, you said you'd help!"

"I am helping. He’s going to show up looking for you, angry and ready to blow my house down. It's best to take care of this now. Manage expectations and head it off before it gets blown out of proportion. We'll just tell him you don't want to stay on the farm and get him to work with us."

"That won't work," Caroline snapped.

"Did you already try?"

Her expression made it clear she had.

"Perhaps it'll go over better coming from me." Caroline wasn't good at arguing with people. She was too autocratic—and given Brax was an alpha, unused to doing as other people ordered, that probably hadn't gone over well.

She huffed. "I'm not as bad at communicating as you make it sound."

I arched an eyebrow. Did she not remember the time when we got detention in high school because she pissed off the chemistry teacher while trying to convince him to let us perform an advanced experiment? Caroline was a great liar. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but when it came to persuasion or the truth, it was better she not be involved.

"I've somehow managed to stumble through the last few years without you," she said.

What lingered in the air was the thought that she would probably have continued to be just fine if I hadn't involved her in my problems.