When they got on the tiny train to the main concourse, he hung onto her and breathed in her hair. She thought once they got outside of baggage claim and into the fresh air, he would do better, but the moment they left the airport, he tensed.
“We’re almost there. It’s going to be okay.”
“No. I smell a wolf.”
He scanned the milling people, but her eyes were immediately drawn to a mop of red hair, and she gasped.
He tried to shove her behind him, but she wouldn’t let him. “Annie?”
“Wolf,” Mateo said. “The one from the woods.”
Cat hauled him through the crowds to her sister, who jumped out of her skin when she noticed them.
“What are you doing here?” Cat asked as a large hand landed on Annie’s shoulder, and they both looked up at the blond wolf from the other pack in Silver Spring. He was dressed in rough, homemade clothes and had a battered suitcase that looked like it came out of the seventies next to him.
“I mean no harm. I mean to protect her,” the wolf said roughly.
“Good,” Mateo said. “Because you know what would happen if you don’t.”
“Felix would never hurt me,” Annie said.
“Felix,” Cat echoed. How long had this been going on? When did they meet? Was she secretly in love with a werewolf this whole time? She bit her lip as instinctive questions rose in her mind and recognized that she would sound like the twins if she asked any of them.
“Where are you going?” Cat asked.
Annie giggled. It wasn’t a happy sound.
“Turns out you need identification to ride on an airplane,” Felix said slowly.
Cat frowned. “Don’t you have an ID? Driver’s license? Anything?”
He shook his head. “My family didn’t believe in that.”
“The concept of identity documents?” Mateo asked doubtfully.
“Right.”
“Take the plane,” Mateo said.
Cat looked at him and then clutched Annie’s hands. “That’s right! You can go anywhere. They won’t ID you in private. Well, if you don’t have a passport, maybe you can’t leave the country. That would get complicated. But anywhere else!”
“He has a plane,” Annie said with a hint of old humor in her eyes.
“They’re unloading it now. But then you can have it.”
“We can’t—” Felix began.
“Yes,” Annie said.
“You would let me into your territory?” Felix asked Mateo, looking very confused.
“We’re family,” Mateo said simply.
The wolf bristled and then looked between Cat and her sister. He was incredibly pale, and the flush of anger and embarrassment was obvious on his face.
“How odd,” he said and met Mateo’s eyes. “My wolf believes you.”
Mateo shrugged. “Mine too. What does it mean?”
