If I hadn’t been so tense, the battle of wills as we piled into Chase’s car would have been hilarious.
“Aunt Terra calls shotgun!” my useless nephew noted as Chase got into the driver’s side of the car. The teenager shot me a knowing glance, and it dawned on me that Keith probably thought the tension earlier was purely sexual. He’d apparently parsed Dale’s description of Chase as my “old friend” to mean that we’d dated, and was bound and determined to throw us back together. But despite the kid’s cuteness, there was no way I was letting my pre-change nephew ride in the backseat with a bloodling. Yes, it seemed unlikely that the alpha would attack Keith in plain view, but bloodlings cared a lot less about human social standards than the rest of us did. I wasn’t going to risk it.
“No, really, I’d rather ride in the backseat,” I demurred, stepping toward the back of the car. Unfortunately, Keith wasn’t easy to override.
“You get carsick in the back. Remember, Aunt Terra?” he said pointedly, jerking his head toward Chase. If I actually had harbored a crush on the beta, my nephew’s gestures would have been mortifying. As it was, they were just annoying, especially since Wolfie seemed to have picked up on my real purpose in dragging my feet. The alpha smirked at me and began to open the back passenger-side door, and I knew I had to squash this farce right here. Even if Keith was safely ensconced in the front seat, I still wanted Wolfie as far away from my nephew as possible, which meant the alpha needed to get into the other side of the car.
“Thank you,” I said to Wolfie, pretending he’d been holding the door open for me, and I quickly slid past him into the car. “I’ll really be fine in the back,” I tossed out to Keith. “Your long legs would be cramped back here.”
Keith shrugged, and I could have sworn Wolfie’s smirk grew even wider as the alpha strutted around the back of the car to get in beside me. I should have felt victorious, but somehow ended up thinking I’d been played.
***
“How are you feeling?” Chase asked Keith a few minutes later as we turned onto another winding country road. It was clear that Chase and my nephew knew each other well and were on good terms, presumably because of the volunteer work the beta performed with my brother-in-law. I gathered that this clinic project had been in the works for years and was just now coming to fruition, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that Chase treated my nephew as an honorary little brother.
As Keith chattered away about how his father was pretending he had mono and keeping him home all week, I turned my attention to Wolfie. Despite the fact that the alpha was in human form, I could tell the wolf predominated since he’d rolled down the window so air could rush over his face, a very dog-like thing to do. My wolf nudged me, asking for the opportunity to partake of the same heady array of odors from the surrounding farmland, but I denied her the simple pleasure. We don’t have time for games, I warned, returning my wolf’s focus to Keith. Remember the young wolf? She muttered sullenly, but shifted her attention back to my nephew and away from the scent-laden air.
“Still having trouble with your darker half?” Wolfie breathed, his voice so low that I was sure Keith couldn’t hear. The guy was three for three today—he’d only asked three questions, but each one hit on an issue I truly didn’t want to address. I was silent, and Wolfie turned to look at me, leaning in a bit so he could speak even more quietly. “Chase reminded me how strange it is for a female werewolf to be packless.” He tilted his head to the side, inviting me to fill in the blanks, but I just shook my head and looked away.
My wolf was now toeing the line, staying below the level of my conscious thoughts, but I could feel her attraction to the striking alpha beside me. As much as I hated to admit it, I agreed—the man was every bit as eye-catching with clothes on as with clothes off, but he was also dangerous, both to me and to Keith. I couldn’t figure out how my father’s scouts could have neglected to report on such an obvious threat to my nephew, which made me concerned that there was even more going on than met the eye. Was Wolfie part of some plan to manipulate me, and if so, toward what end?
“We’re here!” my nephew exclaimed, bouncing out of the front seat before Chase had even turned off the engine. I had never been so glad to see a drug-rehab clinic. I unfastened my seat belt, which had started to feel like a torture restraint, and rushed after the teen werewolf.
***