“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Whatever you want, I guess. You could leave. It would be hard at first, because you’d have a bond with me and with the pack, but those bondsdobreak, with enough time and enough distance. You could go back to your life like nothing ever happened. Werewolves don’t change with the full moon. Most of the time, you could ignore everything about being a shifter. But your wolf would be happiest if you let it take a run in the woods sometimes. Just speaking from experience.”
“And you would ... be okay?”
She would be lonely. Without her grandmother, without Case, she would have responsibilities but no allies.
But that wasn’t important, and she couldn’t use it to manipulate him. Besides, it probably wasn’t what he meant anyway.
“We’ll be safe,” Lydia said. “Reeve is only allowed one challenge. When he doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll skulk away with his tail between his legs. He knows that if he doesn’t, I’ll have him brought up before the Overpack.”
Case frowned. “Overpack?”
Oh, right, that wouldn’t exactly be common parlance among humans, would it?
“The governing body for werewolves. Sort of like our Senate, police, and EPA all rolled into one. They handle everything from violations of wolf law to declaring what land belongs to what pack. Right now, Reeve is trouble, but he’s on the right side of the law. If he keeps harassing us after he’s lost a challenge, then the Overpack will shiftsilver him. –Sorry, you probably don’t know what that means either, right?”
“Not even a little.”
“Shiftsilver is a kind of metal. If it’s touching your skin, it stops you from shifting. If it’s implantedunderyour skin—” She had to suppress a shudder from talking about it. She knew that sometimes locking someone’s wolf away was the only option, but no shifter liked thinking about it. “If it’s under your skin, then the effects will last until it’s removed. It’s the closest thing we have to a prison sentence, only used for the worst crimes, and Reeve would hate it. Anyone would.”
She didn’t expect Case—or any human—to understand the severity of it, but against all odds, Case looked like he did. He nodded, but there was a shadow across his eyes. She liked that. He understood that sometimes you had to use hard methods, but he also understood how hard they were.
In Lydia’s experience, that was a rare combination.
I want him, she thought.Not because I need a co-alpha, and not because I like his looks. I wanthim.
“I’ve asked everyone I know who could possibly fit the bill,” Lydia said, digging her fingers into her thighs to try to hold herself still. “They all turned me down. They’re afraid of Reeve. And then I met you, and the first thing you did was try to help me. And you spent a night in jail because you wouldn’t let an innocent dog get hurt. You stand up to people. You stand upforpeople. So—I know it’s an impossible thing to ask of someone, especially someone I don’t know. But I’m asking. I have to.”
“I ....”
He was going to turn her down. She had to accept that.
No, you don’t. That cold whipcrack of a voice wasn’t her wolf, it was her grandmother. It was generations of alphas telling her not to let them down.Tell him what’s in it for him.Sellhim on it.
How? She was already sure Case couldn’t be won over by money, and even if he could be, she didn’t have that much to offer. Pack clout wouldn’t mean much to a human, so she doubted he felt any particular allure to being an alpha.
What did Case want? He wanted to help, she knew that. He would probably agree if she emphasized the kind of men she would have to go to next, but she didn’t want to do that. It was awful and manipulative and she hated it. The mere idea of playing that card made her feel like she was covered in a thin layer of slime.
He was a good guy. He didn’t deserve to have his goodness used against him. He deserved an honest-to-God reason,somesign that this wouldn’t be a catastrophically terrible deal for him.
Her wolf stirred. It didn’t usually pay much attention to humans, but it had been eyeing Case with silent interest.
He wants to help you, but he doesn’t want to lose himself, it said.
He won’t!
It growled at her impatiently.Sotellhim that!
“It’s good,” Lydia blurted out. “Being a wolf. I know I’ve always been that way, so I don’t know the difference, but it’s good. When I’m in tune with it, I feel more myself. Your wolf, um, talks to you sometimes? It’s like what your own instincts would say to you, but it’s also sort of like having a pet.”
Hey!her wolf objected.
Sorry, but it is.
“And when I’m out in the woods, as long as I’m not running into Reeve—God, it’s the best I’ve ever felt in my life. I’m free, and there’s nothing between me and the world around me. It’s incredible. And—and you don’t have to stay with us if you don’t want to, like I said. You can live your life however you want to, and you’ll have a friendly wolf in your head and a cool new superpower. You look like someone who should be a werewolf, if you ask me. So that’s—that’s my pitch, I guess.”
You look like someone who should be a werewolf?she said to herself incredulously.What the hell is that supposed to mean?
He does, though, her wolf said, utterly unrepentant.
