Iarrivedfor the meeting five minutes early, but I was still the last one there. I breezed past Liam sitting at the sleek wooden bar that separated the kitchen from the livingroom.
Lucas was his usual jovial, annoying self, leering at me from underneath the baseball cap he’d fit sideways on his head. “Have a good time at Robbie’s engagementparty?”
Instead of freezing up or ignoring him, I pasted on a fake smile. “It wasawesome.”
The five elders clenched their jaws, and gazes met and lowered to the chopped centennial tree trunk used as a coffee table. I guessed they’d all been brought up to speed about my visit to the PinePack.
Lucas’s gaze tightened on the elders, their lack of condemnation obviously irritating him. “I have an ethical problem with Ness competing in thistrial.”
Eric shifted on the tan suede couch. “Perhaps she had a good reason for attending.” The clear glass globe pendent suspended over the living room cast a white sheen on his baldhead.
“I did. I wanted to get to know our neighbors,” I said. “Isn’t that required of Alphas? To be aware of everything and everyone around them? Besides, wouldn’t it be nice if the Boulders and the Pines could interact withoutviolence?”
“They’re calculating pricks,” Lucashissed.
“Because you’re not?” I tossed back into hisface.
Lucasscowled.
“You’vebeen plotting my downfall since I signed up for this, Lucas. That’s the very definition of being calculatingandaprick.”
“Aren’t you a little firecracker today?” He laid both his elbows on the bar behind him and leaned back. “Why are we even allowing her to continue? She broke therules.”
“She shifted to help Matt,” Frank said, his bushy white eyebrows shadowing hiseyes.
Lucas snorted. “He would’ve beenfine.”
“Still,” Eric said, “empathy iscommendable.”
Lucas’s nostrils flared. His hatred for me was as acrimonious as the sweaty half-moons staining his gray muscletee.
“Ness, why don’t you take a seat so we can discuss the second trial?” Frank tipped his head toward the barstool between Liam andLucas.
Like hell I would sitthere.
“I’m good standing.” I leaned against the built-in bookcase that was stacked with hundreds of books. Horrible Heath had apparently been an avid reader. Too bad it hadn’t made him a kinderperson.
Frank rose from the couch and grabbed a wooden box from the coffee table, then walked over to Liam and Lucas. “An Alpha should be cunning.” He waved the box in the air. “You might be wondering why we decided to hold the meeting here. There is a reason for our choice of location. When Heath was sworn in, he was ordained to protect a very valuable pack artifact, which rested within these six little walls.” He slowly pivoted the box. “I use the past tense because it wasstolen.”
“Maybe Heath got rid of what was inside,” Isuggested.
Frank raised a single bushy eyebrow. “Why would he have broken thelock?”
“Because he misplaced thekey?”
Eric grunted. “We’ve known about the theft for some time but haven’t acted upon recovering it until now. First we needed to locate the artifact, and we have. Julian Matz hasit.”
Goose bumps the size of mosquito bites coated my arms. “So someone from the Pines stoleit?”
“We don’t know who took it; we just know they have it.” Frank turned to Lucas. “So you see, Ness’s sociability with the Pines might serve her in this secondtrial.”
Lucashuffed.
“What exactly is it that we’re looking for?” Liamasked.
Although Frank looked at Liam, I didn’t. If I could, I would never, ever set my gaze on his face…everagain.
“A piece of petrifiedwood.”
