“What’s that?” Brooks prompted.
“She’s a pescatarian.”
It was Zane’s turn to frown. “What’s that?”
“A vegetarian who eats fish, eggs, and dairy, but not meat,” Max explained. “I thought she was joking at the time, but now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t.”
That seemed to shake the guys more than his announcement that there was a werewolf in the room they couldn’t smell. Max could understand why. Regardless of the kind of werewolf they’d run into, two basic facts had always held true. Werewolves ate a lot of food to make up for the speed at which their bodies burned calories. And the majority of their diet was composed of meat. Gage had told them it had something to do with a werewolf needing a lot of protein to repair all the damage they were constantly sustaining. Which was why Lana probably wasn’t a strict vegetarian.
“A werewolf who doesn’t eat meat?” Zane looked at Gage. “Is that even possible?”
Before that question could lead to a long, meaningless argument that had nothing to do with the current situation, Max figured he should tell them the big news.
“Oh, and while we’re talking about what makes her different,” he said, “I should probably mention she’s Deputy Chief Mason’s daughter.”
His teammates stared at him, stunned. Gage in particular looked as though Max had just smacked him with an axe handle.
“What makes you so sure Mason is her father?” Gage asked hesitantly, not like he doubted Max, but as if he was praying Max was wrong.
“Well, there was the part where she said, Hey, Dad, when he came over to us. That was sort of a dead giveaway,” Max said dryly. “Then there was the part where Mason told Lana he wanted to introduce her to some pretty boy lawyer and suggested I was going to be too busy with overtime for the next month to even think about seeing her again. That kind of screamed overprotective father to me.”
Gage blew out a breath. “Okay, I didn’t see that coming.”
“You think Mason knows we’re werewolves?” Brooks asked quietly. “If his own daughter is one, he has to be able to recognize the signs.”
His teammates looked at each other, concern written plainly on their faces. It was one thing having people like Jeremy Engler or Armend Frasheri know about their identities. Those guys were psychopaths no one was likely to ever believe. But a deputy chief in the Dallas PD was someone people would take seriously.
“If you’d asked me five minutes ago, I would have said there’s no way in hell Mason knows,” Gage said. “But now? It would be pressing the limits of credibility to assume he doesn’t.”
“What do we do?” Diego asked softly. Crap, he looked ready to bolt.
“For now, nothing,” Gage said. “If Max is right about this, it’s likely Mason has known about us for years. If he’d wanted to do something with that information, he already would have done it. He’s probably just as worried about this secret getting out as we are. He wouldn’t want it coming back on his daughter.”
Brooks nodded. “Makes sense. Are you going to talk to him about it?”
“When the time is right, yes,” Gage said. “It’s not like I can walk into his office and bring it up.”
Max snorted. No kidding.
He was just wondering if he should circle the room looking for Lana again when a now-familiar scent drifted across his nose. His pack mates forgotten for the moment, Max turned to see Lana coming his way, her hips swaying suggestively and doing crazy things to his pulse. He was so focused on the dazzling smile Lana gave him that he didn’t even realize Brandy was with her until both women were right in front of him.
“I was worried you’d already left,” Lana said, her intoxicating scent washing over him like a gentle wave. “I wanted to apologize for my father. I don’t know why he was acting like that. Sometimes I think he forgets I’m twenty-three years old and can take care of myself.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Max grinned. “I’m glad you found me. I thought you might have run off with that guy in the fancy suit.”
Lana laughed. “Oh, the suit definitely tried to get me to leave with him. He even said he’d take me out to some fancy French restaurant named Chambre Française that everybody raves about. I told him I wasn’t interested because I already had another offer for dinner.” She gave him a sexy smile. “You were going to take me out for that slice of pizza, weren’t you?”
“Definitely. I love pizza.” He grinned, about to suggest they split right then until he remembered he was wearing his dress blues. “I need to stop by my place and change out of my uniform first, if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all,” she said. “In fact, I was going to mention that I need to get out of this dress.”
“I could help you with that, if you need a hand,” Max said before he could stop himself.
Lana gave him an appraising look, her lips curving. “Thanks for the offer, but I think I can manage…just this once. Why don’t you pick me up at my parents’ house? That’s where I’m staying while I’m in town. I can be ready to go in forty minutes.”
Max didn’t like the sound of that. If she was staying at her parents’ house when she was in Dallas, that meant she didn’t live here and was only visiting. Crap, dude, slow down and take this one step at a time. They hadn’t even gone on a date yet and he was already worrying about the future.
“That works for me,” he said. “Let me get the address from you.”
