“Aaron?” she prompted.
Addy’s eyes took on a dreamy expression. Dang, this girl had it bad.
“He’s eighteen, is a senior, and has a motorcycle,” she said softly, throwing a glance from the corner of her eye at her parents sitting at the table on the floor below, like they might overhear, then leaned in a little closer to Rachel. “My mom and dad won’t let me ride with him, but I’ve sat on it once. When he asked me to the dance, I seriously thought I was going to pass out!”
Rachel briefly wondered if she’d ever been that dramatic when she was a teen. Man, she hoped not.
“Something tells me he wears a cool leather jacket when he’s on his bike, right?” she asked with as much seriousness as she could muster.
“Ermahgerd, yes! He wears it all the time, even when it’s not cold. He looks so amazing in it.” Addy giggled. “How did you know that?”
Rachel grinned. “Just a guess.”
As Addy continued to gush about Aaron and his black leather jacket and how the boy was so gorgeous and smart and funny, Rachel nodded and smiled. While she couldn’t remember if she’d ever been as gaga over a boy in high school, she vaguely remembered what it was like to be a teenager, so she knew there was a good chance the girl wouldn’t even be interested in Aaron by the end of the school year.
Somewhere in the middle of Addy’s soliloquy, Rachel found her gaze drawn to the floor below and Knox. As if feeling her gaze on him, Knox glanced up at her. Rachel didn’t look away but instead locked eyes with him, blatantly studying him.
His face was a bit more rugged, with more scruff, compared to the guys she was normally attracted to, but in Knox’s case, she had to admit it worked. Not that she really cared, since he was a former hunter. The guy could be David Boreanaz’s twin and she wouldn’t have looked at him twice.
Riiiight.
“I think they’re finishing up down there,” Addy said.
Rachel dragged her gaze away from Knox to look at everyone else at the table and realized Addy was right. By the time she and the teen girl got down to the main floor of the library, Jennifer and Conrad were already heading out the door with Theo and Ethan to show them the room where they could set up the security command post. Addy gave Rachel a wave and raced after her parents, saying something about needing to remind them about the new dress they promised to buy her for the dance.
That left Knox alone with Rachel and her pack mates.
Zane leaned back in his chair and regarded Knox thoughtfully. “You’re new in Dallas, aren’t you?”
Knox nodded. “I’ve been in town a few weeks.”
“Did you come here looking for protection from the hunters?” Diego asked.
Knox glanced at Rachel and she tensed, suddenly terrified he’d admit he used to be one. No, he couldn’t be that dumb. She had no idea if he knew how to lie convincingly, though. Since he was talking to a group of werewolves, he’d better nail it, or he was screwed.
“The hunters did play a big part in my coming here, but I wasn’t looking for protection as much as information,” Knox said smoothly, looking at Diego. “I wanted to find someone who could help me understand what was happening to me.”
“When did you go through your change?” Zane asked.
“A little before Christmas,” Knox said. “I ended up in the middle of a shooting, and long story short, I took a bullet in the thigh that hit an artery. I thought for sure I was going to bleed out.”
Rachel thought Knox had done an exceptionally good job of lying until she saw the expression on Diego’s face change from curious to suspicious. Crap, maybe Knox should have been a little more vague on the details. Something he’d said had obviously caught Diego’s attention. But what?
“Wait a minute.” Diego’s eyes narrowed. “You expect us to believe you turned into a werewolf and were calm enough to not only understand what happened to you but to also figure out you needed help from a pack of werewolves? I’ve met a lot of new werewolves, and in my experience, most of them were still in denial at the eight-week point, and those who weren’t were completely freaking out instead. What’s so different about you, and how did you know there was a pack in Dallas?”
Rachel bit back a growl. Diego was like a dog with a bone once he thought something sneaky was going on.
Knox chuckled. “Wish I could take credit for being a genius, but I can’t. By pure happenstance I ended up being around some people who knew a thing or two about werewolves. When the bullet wound in my leg healed up on its own, I had a pretty good idea what was going on. I was familiar with the Dallas pack and knew this was the best place to come to find answers. So I came out here and got a job, hoping to run into one of you.”
Rachel held her breath as Diego considered that, but luckily, he seemed to accept Knox’s story. Zane and Trey continued to ask questions, wanting to know more about him. Knox kept his answers vague, but thankfully, it seemed to satisfy her pack mates’ curiosity.
“Why don’t you come by the SWAT compound sometime, and we can introduce you to our alpha and commander of our team,” Zane suggested. “Gage would like to meet you, and if you want to learn how to be in touch with your inner werewolf, he’s the best teacher.”
Double crap.
“I could teach him!” Rachel said quickly.
Everyone turned to her in surprise, Knox included. She didn’t know why he was so stunned. Maybe because her voice was suddenly so high it practically squeaked. She tried to look relaxed, as if offering to teach Knox how to be a werewolf was the most natural thing in the world, but from the way her pack mates were eyeing her, she was pretty sure she didn’t pull it off. Probably because they knew what a train wreck her life currently was.
