Liam and Julian waded through the throng of Pines and Boulders, positioning themselves in front of theirpacks.
“Cassandra,” Juliansaid.
“Julian.” She didn’t smile at him. She turned toward Liam, looked him up and down as though sizing him up. She was slightly shorter than he was, but that could’ve been because she was barefoot, whereas he wore boots. “Your resemblance to Heath is simply alarming.” She didn’t smile at himeither.
Tendons shifted like windblown branches in the back of Liam’s neck, the only part of him I could see from my vantagepoint.
Lori, who was standing just behind her Alpha, regarded Liam, but unlike her Alpha, she seemed to like what she saw because her pink lips lilted into a seductivesmile.
“Aidan Michaels abhors wolves, Cassandra,” Julian said, just as more of her pack walked up the porch steps, creating a thick wall behindCassandra.
“You must be mistaken,” she said, wrapping one of her hands around Aidan’s wrist. “Aidan’s a great animallover.”
“He might love dogs and his fellow rats, but he has no love for wolves,” Liamsaid.
“Aidan!” She released his wrist to clap a hand over her chest. “What am Ihearin’?”
A smile tugged at Aidan’s thin lips. A matching one clung to the lips of many aCreek.
I stepped around Sarah and the girl from her pack to better see the Alphas, but something tugged on me, stopping me from moving any closer. I looked around me, wondering who’d grabbed onto my dress, but no one had. When I met August’s green gaze, I realized it wasn’t a hand that had held me back, but a tether. He shook his head, as though warning me from going closer. I bit my lip, turning back toward theAlphas.
“Grandma’s bones must be rattlin’ around in her grave,” Cassandrasaid.
Ifrowned.
“Why would your grandmother’s bones berattlin’?” Julian asked, accenting the last word to match herdiction.
Cassandra smiled. “’Cause Grandma was staunchly opposed to wolves hatin’ theirown.”
I inhaled so fast white dots danced on the edge of my vision. Was she saying Aidan Michaels was a . . .a—
Julian gasped. “Aidan Michaels is awolf?”
“Yes.” Cassandra cast Aidan an affectionate glance. “Mycousin.”
No one spoke, but a couple of the Creekssnickered.
“He doesn’t smell like a wolf,” Liamsaid.
She stuck her nose in the crook of Aidan’s neck. “It’s slight, I’ll admit. The Sillin he’s been ingestin’ during all the years he’s lived amongst you has weakened hisscent.”
Aidan Michaels is one ofus.
It made absolutely no sense. Why would he threaten to reveal the existence of werewolves to the public if he was onehimself?
Everyone turned to me, and I realized I’d spoken this out loud. I was so shocked I didn’t even flinch from the onslaught ofattention.
“It enhanced my cover story,” Aidansaid.
“So you don’t have files on us?” Iasked.
“Oh, I have files on each one of you, or rather Sandydoes.”
“But not yourlawyers?”
He took off his wire-rimmed glasses and cleaned them on the hem of his blue dress shirt, then placed them back on his nose and peered at me through them. “I know what you’re getting at, Miss Clark. You’re thinking nothing’s standing in your way of killingme.”
I held his gaze. “Isn’ta life for a lifethe law of all packs? Or do the Creeks play by differentrules?”
