Cleaning windows brought out my anal-retentive side, so I couldn’t really blame Keith for wandering off to work with the guys. Unfortunately, it didn’t make my task any easier to have to keep my nephew in sight while scrubbing down grimy glass.
“Oops, was that your face?” the kid said. “I thought it was the window.” Wolfie wiped a dribble of window-cleaning fluid off his forehead and I tensed, waiting for the explosion that was bound to follow. But Wolfie merely reached calmly behind them for the mop bucket and upended it over my nephew’s head, foamy water spilling down over the teenager’s ears. Before long, the two were wrestling on the industrial-tile floor, which, given their soapy exteriors, could loosely be considered mopping.
“They’re like wolf cubs,” Chase said, coming up behind me and handing over a paper mug of hot chocolate. I turned to smile at the beta, enjoying his presence despite myself. The packless ache in my stomach returned in a rush, and the warm liquid I was sipping didn’t do much to dull what was obviously a psychosomatic pain. “Wolfie told you he’s a bloodling,” his friend continued, watching the rough-housing in front of us with fond eyes.
“My little brother was a bloodling,” I answered, the non sequitur drawing Chase’s gentle attention back to me. “Father drowned him,” I added. “I always figured there was no way for bloodlings to fit in around humans, or even around other werewolves, but Wolfie seems to manage.” I hated to admit it, but the evidence in front of me also suggested I had been overreacting about the alpha’s potential for harming Keith, and I wondered how else I’d misconstrued Wolfie’s actions.
“He takes some getting used to,” Chase said thoughtfully, parsing my mood correctly. He scuffed his boot against the floor before continuing tentatively. “Maybe you’d like to come and meet the pack sometime. I think you’d understand Wolfie better if you saw the outcasts he’s pulled together into a solid family.”
“Outcasts?” I was intrigued in spite of myself. Not that I didn’t have plenty of issues of my own without getting sucked into Wolfie’s drama, but it felt good to spend a minute not worrying over my wolf, Keith, and my father.
“Halfies and full humans, and a few crazy purebloods like me,” Chase said with a self-deprecating laugh. “Although Wolfie says you’re a werewolf princess, too good for the likes of us.”
I turned away from Keith, giving Chase my full attention at last. “I hope you know that’s crazy,” I chided him. “That’s not what’s going through my head at all.” There was a little zing of heat between me and Chase suddenly, although nothing like what Wolfie had yanked out of my baser nature in the car. Chase was a good-looking guy, and I wished I wasn’t irresistibly drawn to the bad boys—troubled alphas like my father. Not that attraction made any difference since I was celibate by choice given the options: human men, who I might accidentally change in front of, or asshole werewolves. Focus, reminded my wolf, for once proving herself the smarter half of our alliance.
“I know,” Chase said, checking in with his alpha with a quick flick of his eyes before looking back at me. “I just meant that if you’re in trouble, Wolfie will want to help. Heck, we’ll all want to help.”
He paused, giving me the opportunity to spill my guts. And I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. But no matter how nice Chase seemed to be, he was a male werewolf, and I knew I couldn’t trust him.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say next, but footsteps echoing off the tile floor put an abrupt end to our conversation. We turned to see who was walking through the front entrance, and I squinted against the strong light beaming in from the outdoors. Werewolf, my wolf reported before my eyes had adjusted to take in the stranger’s features.
Only he wasn’t a stranger. “Milo?” I asked, recognizing a cousin who had been Keith’s age when I left home.
“Terra the Terror,” Milo answered, the smile on his lips not reaching his eyes. “The Chief sent me to check on you.”
Chapter 9