Ember pushed to her feet and faced the alpha. Like Quinn, he filled the room differently now, as though his presence before had been a puzzle piece slightly unfitted to its place. She met his eyes, and—yes, he met hers. She could feel it now; hehadwithheld his gaze before. A final shudder ran down her spine.Alpha wolf. Top-class apex. Ultimate power.Her brain knew all this; her body felt it. Yet she was not prey, not to this man. She knew that too, now.
Didn’t mean she could trust him to rule the other wolves, to treat her nephew well. Far from it, in fact. As they studied each other, awareness lay behind his eyes. He could read her caution. Or he could smell it.
“Thank you again,” she said. “For letting me stay with Quinn.”
He nodded. Then he looked past her into the room. “Aaron.”
Aaron stood, his posture and movements easy, painless. So he’d recovered from his distress. Good. “See you tomorrow.”
The alpha nodded. With a final nod to Ember, he left the house.
“Quinn,” Aaron said without raising his voice, “you okay?” To Ember he said, “He’s fine. He’s coming back.”
Less than a minute later Quinn reentered the house. His eyes were a little wide, but he reclaimed his place on the couch—or more accurately claimed the couch—and spoke in a solid voice.
“Sorry, Aunt Em,” he said. “That sucked.”
“For a minute or two.” She smiled to demonstrate her recovery, but…yeah, time to sit. She curled up in a massive chair. Come to think of it, all the furniture in this house was massive. Wolf-sized. “I’m okay, Quinn. Worth it to stay here for a little while.”
“Little while?” Quinn said, looking to Aaron.
Aaron nodded.
Ember didn’t need wolf senses to witness the flood of anxiety that consumed Quinn. “But—conditionally? She has to leave before the moon?”
“No, Malachi says it’s okay. It wouldn’t be right for her to leave worried about you.”
Aaron kept his tone neutral, his gaze away from her. No doubt trying not to remind her of her leverage, as if she’d forget for one minute that she was here on her own demand. The wolf pack wasn’t likely to tolerate her otherwise, wasn’t likely to welcome her at all, ever. Fine by her.
Quinn was shaking his head. “You shouldn’t be here then, Aunt Em. When we change.”
“Why not?” Ember said.
“B-because it’s not…not good. For you. To be here.”
What on earth?
Aaron said, “It’s perfectly safe for her, Quinn. You know that.”
“I know. I just… Would you compromise and stay until the night before?”
“No, Quinn. I’m going to stay through the full moon and see you’re okay. That’s my responsibility as your aunt.”
Quinn ducked his head and hunched up on the couch.
“Can you tell me why you don’t want me to?” Ember said.
He shook his head and kept his eyes down. Ember glanced at Aaron, but he only shrugged. Well, if he didn’t understand this either, then it wasn’t about some wolf custom. It was something else. After a long moment Quinn sighed and looked up.
“I guess I could show you around,” he said.
“I’d love that,” Ember said.
“Aaron’s got fifty acres. All the wolves do, except the alpha has a hundred and fifty. And there’s an unused bedroom across from mine, and it’s even got a bed.”
“Oh?” Ember said. “I assume not for lost wandering vanillas.”
Aaron choked loudly, and Quinn nearly upset the Battleship board beside him, laughing as though he hadn’t been anxious minutes ago. “I told you, Aunt Em’s used to that word.”
