“Do we tell Leah about the traitor? So she can keep watch for oddities, too?” Anna asked. “Or work it so Asil is her partner, so one of us in each group knows to keep an eye out?”
He unbraided his hair, something Anna never got tired of watching. It wasn’t just that his hair was beautiful—though it was. It was the intimacy of the moment. No one else got to see what he looked like with his hair down.
“No,” he said finally. “Asil and you and I know. That is enough. I’m not convinced any of the wildlings is our traitor—you’ll see what I mean when you meet some more of them. Not only would they have trouble accumulating information—because most of them never see the main pack. But only a few of them are stable enough to hide lies this big without betraying themselves.”
“Okay,” Anna said. “Hester could have. How many Hesters are there among your father’s wildlings?”
He paused, raised an eyebrow, and nodded at her. “Score for you,” he said. “How about I warn Leah that we have reason to believe that these people were asking about the wildlings?”
“You don’t want to tell her that there is a traitor?” Anna asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t trust her to be subtle.”
Anna laughed despite herself. No, subtle was not something Leah was particularly good at.
“Who is Leah going with?” he asked.
“Juste,” Anna told him.
Charles grunted in what sounded to her like approval.
“She gave you and Sage the ones she thought would be the worst to deal with,” Anna said. “She gave Asil and me the most broken. She was careful, she told me, to make sure that ours have trouble controlling their wolves, not the other way around. That way, hopefully, Asil won’t have to kill any of them.”
“She took the easiest,” Charles said, taking off his boots.
“That’s not how she put it—but I think that’s how she sees it,” Anna agreed. “Should I have objected when she paired me with Asil?” She hadn’t planned on asking him, but the words came out anyway. “I probably could have made her send Asil with Sage if I had wanted to push it.”
Charles’s eyes brightened for an instant, and though no word came out of his mouth, she heard Brother Wolf’s yes as clearly as if he’d spoken into her ear.
“No,” Charles said firmly. “She might enjoy stirring up trouble, but she came to the right conclusions. You’ll be safe with Asil. Sage will be safe with me. Leah will be safe because of Da—but Juste will be a good reminder.”
He pulled out clean clothes. “From the standpoint of getting a look at all the wildlings, it might have worked out better if you and Leah had been paired up. As it is, we’ll have to find a way to see all the wolves that Leah and Juste have on their list. Logistically speaking, the wildlings most likely to have betrayed the pack are in Leah’s group—because they are the most stable of the bunch.”
Anna thought about it. “I could probably get her to change it up that much.”
Charles shook his head. “I don’t think that Leah is dominant enough to get the wildlings to back down on her own, and your effect is too unpredictable.” He gave her a laughing glance over his shoulder. “And if Juste and Asil are in a car for a full day, we might be pulling out bodies. Juste has a problem with Asil.”
“Why?” Anna thought about it just a second, and said, “You mean he blames Asil for not killing the Beast of Gévaudan?” The Beast, Jean Chastell, had controlled most of Central Europe for centuries. The Moor had kept Chastell out of the Iberian Peninsula.
Charles grunted agreement. Evidently finished with the subject of tomorrow’s task, he said, “I tried calling Da before I came in. He’s still not answering his phone. I left a voice message filling him in on what’s been happening. He’d have felt Hester’s death. If he’s not getting back to me, it’s because he doesn’t want to. He’s not with Samuel, I checked. So he’s got some other game going on.”
Anna had come to the same conclusion.
“Bastard,” she said with feeling.
It made him laugh. He touched her cheek and pulled back his finger to show her the dirt on it. “Wanna shower with me?” he asked. The laughter hadn’t left his eyes, though his face was serious.
This house, she thought, was a prison in which everyone knew what everyone else was doing. Too many sharp ears and sharper noses to keep their private life private. She understood that Charles didn’t care who knew when they made love—the opposite, in fact.
But he’d taken Anna’s desires into consideration. At the Marrok’s home, they slept side by side in the guest bedroom, and all they did was sleep. Most days they stopped in to check on their own house. The horses were being fed by someone else, but they needed to be worked. Usually, they managed to sneak in an hour of privacy for lovemaking—and just being alone together.
Today hadn’t been most days.
His eyes were tired, she thought, beneath the laughter. Through their bond, she could feel his lingering sadness.
She leaned forward and took his smudged finger into her mouth, feeling his whole body jolt with surprise … and something else. Heat flared, brightening his eyes to gold. His breath caught, but except for that single stiffening, he didn’t move at all—a cat waiting for his prey. She let him feel her teeth while she thought about that.
No. Not prey. Playmate. Lover. But never prey.
His stillness wasn’t a predatory thing, he was waiting for a proper invitation to play. And enjoying the beginning of the game.
She sat back, satisfaction at his response sliding through her skin. She still depended upon her wolf to teach her how to play in intimate circumstances, but she no longer let that bother her—she and her wolf were one in this. She licked her lips, and said, in a voice that came out husky because a good seduction seduces both parties, “Are you, by any chance, implying I might be dirty?”
The smile that only belonged to her slid across his face and did interesting things to her insides. “Who, me?” he said, in a thoughtful voice. “Maybe. But in case you thought it was a complaint …” He leaned forward and kissed her, touching her only with his lips because that was all he needed.
Unlike her initial move into foreplay, his kiss was soft as a cello played pianissimo, hinting at the power of the song but lulling the unwary with its sweetness.
Her body went soft, her lips felt heavy and oversensitive as she closed her eyes to concentrate on her senses, on him. He smelled of smoke, the musk and mint that was werewolf, and the underlying scent that was his alone. Mine. All mine. All of his beauty of body and spirit was hers.
He was worth facing a little embarrassment for. Get brave, Anna, she admonished herself.
He pulled away, his lips hotter than they’d been when they first touched hers. He gave her another smile, this one full of love and kindness. People didn’t always notice how kind her mate was because he was sneaky that way.