I gaped at him, and then I gaped at all of the Pines and Boulders who’d turned to look at me, and then finally I gaped back down at the CreekAlpha.
Aidan Michaels crossed the lawn, coming to a stop next to her, and then, like her, he smiled up atme.
43
“What is it?”August asked, the only person who was still staring atme.
Everyone else was peering downward as Cassandra pressed her cheek into Aidan Michaels’s, as though marking him, as though he were a wolf instead of ahunter.
August stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the Creeks so I would focus on him. “Ness? Why are you so freakedout?”
I blinked up at him. “Cassandra . . . she’s . . .I. . . ”
He placed a hand on my shoulder, leaking warmth into my frozen skin, not enough to thaw me out of my stupor though. “What isCassandra?”
“Her voice,” Iwhispered.
“What about hervoice?”
“IknowitIknowher.” I whipped the words out so fast they blended into oneanother.
He frowned. “How?”
“She’s . . . she’s the woman who . . . who operates . . . Red Creek Escorts. Called herself . . . Sandra.” I slammed the back of my hand over my mouth. “Oh my God. I’m going to besick.”
“Shh.” He pulled me into his chest while I dry-heaved.
Thankfully my lunch didn’t come up. Just my anxieties. They rose and rose like steam from a pressure cooker. I was going to blow. I pressed away from August and rushed back to theguardrail.
“You!” I yelled at her, at Aidan, my voice ringing through the night, quieting all theothers.
Gaspsarose.
“Hi,Candy.”
“Candy?” Sarahechoed.
“Probably some Creek-way of saying sweetie,” the girl next to hersaid.
For a long moment, the woman I’d come to know as Sandra stared at me, and I stared back at her, and the rest of the world faded aroundus.
Had she manipulated Everest into working for her the same way she’d manipulated me into going on a date with Aidan? I turned my searing gaze onto Aidan, who was thumbing his ear. What connection existed between the hunter and theAlpha?
“Get dressed!” the Creek Alpha bellowed, shattering thesilence.
“What was that about?” Liam askedme.
I was still too rattled to talk, so I let Augustexplain.
The Creeks poured past her, trickling into the inn by the doors beneath the terrace, the ones that led to the pool. A moment later, the first clothed ones reemerged. One of them, a young girl with hair the color of Cassandra’s fur, returned toward the Creek Alpha, brandishing a light-blue shift, which Cassandra pulled over her head. It settled shapelessly above the Alpha’sankles.
“Thank you,Lori.”
Lori craned her neck to look at us. Her face was thin like Cassandra’s, eyebrows thick and curved like the Alpha’s. I bet they were related. Mother and daughter perhaps? I wished I’d studied the Creeks. It would’ve spared me the shock of finding out that I’d been casually conversing with theirAlpha.
Cassandra Morgan.Ishivered.
She’d barely even bothered to disguise her identity. Had she wanted me to figure it out? Both women and Aidan started toward the terrace stairs, making their unhurried way onto thedeck.
