And to try not to question why Joanna’s‘see you later’sounded like her swan song.
???
Silas’s mansion sat on a massive estate, with acres of forest between the house and the noisy highway.
From Range Rovers to Toyotas, all types of vehicles filled the long, spiraling dirt path leading up to the driveway. I parked my Hummer behind a Nissan more beat up than Joanna’s old safehouse car and checked my pocket for Grace’s device one last time.
The cloner looked like an old-school pager, only thinner. With the push of a button, the small LCD screen normally displaying phone numbers would instead reveal the progress of the device. With my phone in its orbit, the cloner read a satisfying one hundred percent, but that no doubt changed as I approached the front door.
A group of werewolves stood by the water fountain, drinks in their hands and wide smiles on their faces. They waved when they saw me—even though I was a stranger.
I was relieved I’d chosen to wear a casual outfit, as I almost wore fucking dress pants. Joanna’s text contained only the address. And after the way she’d left the compound, I didn’t want to bother her with trivial questions. I’dlikedher message and silenced my phone.
None of the wolves by the fountain were alphas. I slowed my pace, trying to determine whether I should introduce myself to them or enter the mansion through its arched, double-entry front doors.
A whistle from atop the massive stone staircase made my decision for me.
“Yo!” The shifter pointed to my head. “Did you dye your hair or is that natural?” I realized he was referring to my silver streak.
Climbing the stairs, I pulled at the lock of hair. “I was born with it. Have years of being picked on to prove it.”
A hint of a smile appeared on the man’s face. He was lighter than Jerome, with an orange-reddish tincture to his dark brown skin. “Can I touch it?”
My genuine laughter caught me by surprise. “Have at it.” I lowered my head. “I think my guilt-ridden ancestors would haunt me if I turned down this moment of retribution.”
“Damn, it’s soft,” he exclaimed. “When I was a boy, my great-gran told me stories about how we all had streaks in our hair in the color of our wolves. How humans hunted anyone with them down.”
I lifted my head. “The bullies heard those stories too. They picked on me because evolution apparently skipped me.”
He held out a fist. “Lamar.”
“Marcus.” I tapped his fist with my own.
“When did the fuckers stop picking on you, Marcus?”
I smiled. “When they realized I could kick their asses with my eyes closed and hands tied behind my back.”
As luck would have it, Lamar wasn’t merely the first high-ranking wolf I’d found; he was Silas’s beta. We conversed on the front steps for a few minutes, enjoying each other’s company. He was easy to talk to, albeit easily distracted by a pretty face.
Thanks to a redhead in daisy dukes, it took him two tries before he finally asked me who I knew at the party in a complete sentence. And when a model-thin werewolf with a thick afro and mesmerizing skin the color of the new moon sauntered up the walkway, I couldn’t even mention Latoya’s name before he excused himself to help the woman findthe stairs.
I entered the house, less anxious than I’d been when I exited my SUV.
Damn, I thought I had money.
Every visible inch of the mansion screamed wealth. The lustrous marble floors. The ornate paintings on the wall. Even the buffet in the back of the room wasn’t on a dusty folding table; instead, its legs emitted the rare fragrance of Brazilian rosewood.
The humans weren’t hard to find. By listening in to their conversations, I learned they were strangers to each other prior to the party. Yet, the five of them still found themselves huddled in a corner of the enormous living room, drawn to each other like a flock of sheep.
“I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that one,” a fellow alpha said behind me, pointing to one of the humans. “Do you see one you like?”
I took a sip from the bottle of beer in my hand as I shrugged my shoulders. “I didn’t drive all this way for a snack,” I replied plainly. “My friend promised me an opportunity to hear from a visionary.”
“Ah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “You mean Silas.”
“This is his party, isn’t it?” I arched an eyebrow.
The alpha cocked his head. “He’s the type of nut who says nothing is truly his alone. So, he normally brags that it’sourparty. Everyone in his house.”
