Iawoke with a start.Disoriented, I took in the room that was streaked with dull sunlight. My gaze landed on the peacock feather painting over the stone fireplace. I was in Liam’sroom.
In hisbed.
I twisted around and touched his pillow. It was cold. I tore the sheets off my legs and leaped out ofbed.
“Liam,” I called out, padding about thebedroom.
The door to the bathroom was cracked open, but no one was inside. I picked up my phone and checked the time, reeling when I made out the digital readout: 10:30 a.m. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept in thislate.
My phone’s screen was riddled with messages from Evelyn asking me where I was and if I was okay. I dispatched a quick text to inform her I was fine and on my way to theinn.
Liam had also sent me a text message:On the road to Denver. I already missyou.
My heart began jackknifing my throat, making breathing afeat.
I checked the time stamp on Liam’s text: 7:30 a.m. That meant he was already in Denver. Had been for more than two hours. The fact that I hadn’t gotten a message from him made me queasy as hell. Did that mean they were out looking for Everest? Or did it mean they’d already gotten to him and were on their way back? Images of what they could be doing to him wafted through my mind like sticky chimneysmoke.
I quieted my imagination. I needed to corral my mind, keep it from crafting scenarios. I looked for my clothes but remembered they were in the living room. In my underwear, I padded toward thedoor.
When I opened it, Lucas looked up from his magazine. “She finallyawakens.”
I shut the door with such force that the hinges rattled.Crap. Crap. Crap.I cupped my hands over my bare breasts as though he could somehow see them through thedoor.
“Would it help if I got nakedtoo?”
Help?How did Lucas think that wouldhelp?
“I take your silence as anegative.”
I hunted down a towel and wrapped it around myself. Pulling in great big gulps of air, I trudged back to the door and yanked itopen.
Lucas smirked. “You do know you’re pack now, Ness. You’re going to have to get used to getting naked in front of us. It’ll help you bond with yourpeople.”
“You and your bonding . . . ” I muttered, trudging to thecouch.
“Paintball was fun, eh? We should do itagain.”
“I’d rather eat a rottensquirrel.”
He chucked his magazine on the wrought-iron coffee table before readjusting the royal-blue baseball cap he wore backward. “So cold,Clark.”
“What part of paintballing was fun? Getting shot by my own teammates?” I plucked my bra off the couch before grabbing my jeans and T-shirt. “You guys were awful tome.”
“It’s called hazing. Everyone goes throughit.”
“Really? Who else in the pack got to experience the samefuntreatment asme?”
Lucas shot me a sheepishgrin.
“That’s what Ithought.”
“Did you ever hear that holding onto resentment is like drinking poison? Only hurtsyou.”
I gritted my teeth. “What are you doing here, anyway? Come to play guard dogagain?”
He puffed air out of the corner of his lips. “First off, I’m a wolf, not a dog. Secondly, even though spending the day with you is as exciting as clipping my toenails, I take my jobseriously.”
Did he have to give me a visual of his feet?Yuck.
