Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson(64)

She looked at Charles, but he looked as though he might have fallen asleep. The muscles in his shoulders were relaxed and his breathing was slow and easy.

“We dated a couple of times. He took me to this little restaurant near a park, one of the forest preserves. When we were finished he took me for a walk in the woods. ‘To look at the moon,’ he told me.” Even now, with the night long over, she could hear the tension in her voice. “He asked me to wait a minute, said he’d be right back.”

He’d been excited, she remembered, almost frantic with suppressed emotion. He’d patted his pockets, then said he’d left something in his car. She’d been worried that he had gone to get an engagement ring. She’d practiced gentle ways of saying no while she waited. They had very little in common and no chemistry at all. Though he seemed nice enough, she’d been getting the feeling that there was something a little off about him, too, and her instincts told her that she needed to break it off.

“It took longer than a minute, and I was just about to go back to the car myself when I heard something in the bushes.” The skin on her face tingled with fear, just as it had that night.

“You didn’t know he was a werewolf?” Charles’s voice reminded her that she was safe in her apartment.

“No. I thought that werewolves were just stories.”

“Tell me about after the attack.”

She didn’t need to tell him about how Justin had stalked her for an hour, herding her back from the edge of the preserve every time she came close to getting out. He only wanted to know about Leo’s pack. Anna hid her sigh of relief.

“I woke up in Leo’s house. He was excited at first. His pack only has one other woman. Then they discovered what I am.”

“And what are you, Anna?” His voice was like smoke, she thought, soft and weightless.

“Submissive,” she said. “The lowest of the low.” And then because his eyes were still closed she added, “Useless.”

“Is that what they told you?” he asked thoughtfully.

“It’s the truth.” She ought to be more upset about it—the wolves who didn’t despise her treated her with pity. But she didn’t want to be dominant and have to fight and hurt people.

He didn’t say anything so she continued her story, trying to give him all the details she could remember. He asked some questions:

“Who helped you gain control of the wolf?” (No one, she’d done that on her own—another black mark against her that proved she wasn’t dominant, they’d told her.)

“Who gave you the Marrok’s phone number?” (Leo’s third, Boyd Hamilton.)

“When and why?” (Just before Leo’s mate stepped in and stopped him from passing Anna around to whatever male he wanted to reward. Anna tried to avoid the higher-ranking wolves—she had no idea why he’d given her that number and no desire to ask.)

“How many new members have come into the pack since you?” (Three, all male—but two of them couldn’t control themselves and had had to be killed.)

“How many members of the pack?” (Twenty-six.)

When she finally wound down to a stop she was almost surprised to find herself sitting on the floor across the room from Charles with her back against the wall. Slowly Charles let his chair drop back to the floor and pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed heavily and then looked at her directly for the first time since she’d begun speaking.

She sucked in her breath at the bright gold of his eyes. He was very near a change forced by some strong emotion—and despite seeing his eyes, she couldn’t read it in his body or his scent—he’d managed to mask it from her.

“There are rules. First is that no person may be Changed against their will. Second is that no person may be Changed until they have been counseled and passed a simple test to demonstrate that they understand what that Change means.”

She didn’t know what to say, but she finally remembered to drop her eyes away from his intense stare.

“From what you’ve said, Leo is adding new wolves and missing others—he didn’t report that to the Marrok. Last year he came to our annual meeting with his mate and his fourth—that Boyd Hamilton—and told us that his second and third were tied up.”

Anna frowned at him. “Boyd’s been his third for as long as I have been in the pack and Justin is his second.”

“You said that there is only one female in the pack besides you?”

“Yes.”

“There should have been four.”

“No one has mentioned any others,” she told him.

He looked over at the check on her fridge.

“They take your paycheck. How much do they give you back?” His voice was bass-deep with the heat of the change behind it.

“Sixty percent.”

“Ah.” He closed his eyes again and breathed deeply. She could smell the musk of his anger now, though his shoulders still looked relaxed.

When he didn’t say anything more, she said quietly, “Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want me to leave or talk or turn on music?” She didn’t have a TV, but she still had her old stereo.

His eyes stayed closed but he smiled, just a twitch of his lips. “My control is usually better than this.”

She waited, but it seemed to get worse rather than better.