There are a whole host of things that McCaffrey doesn’t like about me. That I look at him directly. That Ty has given me enough rope to hang myself with, or so McCaffrey claims, when what he’s really worried about is that I might provide an alternate route for other queens to take. And then what would domineering wolves like McCaffrey do? They like things the way they are. The way they’ve always been. They see any hint of change as a personal assault.
“Welcome to Oregon,” I say. I smile wider. “Have you been here before? If so, it was before my time. I hope you’ll enjoy our wild forests. These gorgeous mountains. I don’t believe you have their equal back east but I’ll admit, I’m biased.”
“Where is your king?” McCaffrey asks. He makes a show of taking a deep, heavy, scenting breath. And then a bigger show of blinking around in astonishment, like he’s on a stage. “You don’t smell appropriately mated, Maddox. Has the king finally tired of your insolence and chosen a more biddable, deserving queen? Is that why you live here like a human, exiled from your people?”
I shake my head like he’s being silly. “If you think I’m in exile, why would you take the trouble to hunt me down?”
Then I laugh likeI’mbeing silly, because I can’t actually get in fights with other pack leaders. Not because I don’t want to, and not because Ty would object. He doesn’t like McCaffrey either. He would probably egg me on if he was here, but it’s a good thing he’s not. It’s not good politics.
And there’s nothing about wolf week that isn’t political.
Including what McCaffrey’s doing right now. Turning up a week early and flinging accusations around. He almost certainly intends to turn them into rumors he can flood all the other packs with. To create dissension in the ranks. To make the nearly untouchable and invulnerable Ty look like a weak leader.
Textbook, really.
“Our denishard to find,” I continue merrily. “I’ll be happy to lead you over there. And I hope you’ll tell Ty how difficult it was for you to locate it. We do take pride in that.”
I congratulate myself on subtly insulting him on his inability to find his way to our den—which I’m sure he could locate easily if he hadn’t come here to harass me—while dressing it up like a compliment. Much more deftly handled than him accusing me of being in exile because I’m staying in this cottage. This isn’t to say that I’ve won.
Still, McCaffrey and I look at each other, and we both know what happened.
“Again,” he grits out, “what I fail to understand—”
But there are suddenly even more wolves in the yard, with hackles raised and loud cries, as my pack finally makes an appearance. As the so-called patrol that would have heard all that howling the same as I did finally comes to see what’s going on.
It doesn’t sit right with me.
Even if we hadn’t had our little meeting last night—or earlier this morning—about the weird things going on around here, I don’t think that I would have appreciated how long it took for my supposed guards to make an appearance. I especially don’t like it when I see that one of them is my cousin Beaudry. He bares his teeth at McCaffrey, as well he should.
But he certainly doesn’t look like herushedhere.
“Took you long enough,” I mutter, as the other wolves are busy barking and showing their teeth and doing all the other things wolves do to indicate that they’re the toughest of them all. “I guess I’m glad it wasn’t a real attack.”
Beaudry doesn’t shift. He looks at me in a way that I can only describe as disparaging.
“If you were in the den where you belong, it wouldn’t matter who showed up, would it?” he asks me in the old language, the language we speak in wolf form. I’m just happy there’s too much noise for McCaffreyto hear him. When I only glare at him, he growls. “Sounds like a you problem, Maddox.”
“Thanks for your hospitality, Maddox,” McCaffrey says as the howls die down, with that sneer of his that I also haven’t missed. He didn’t like that I was unmated five years ago. He didn’t like that Ty made it clear that I had a voice in his decisions then. I suspect he’sreallynot going to like hearing how much of a voice I have in our daily pack operations now, so that’s something to look forward to.
All I do is smile. Then I wait for Beaudry and the other wolves to escort McCaffrey off the property.
Deirdre hangs back, lifting her bowed head enough that she can peer over her shoulder at me.
“Looking forward to talking with you later,” she says, and while I’m sure that’s true, I’m also sure that she’s not being friendly. “Can’t wait to see what you’ve learned in these past five years. Or how you got the idea to live apart from your pack. Alone and unprotected.”
My smile feels a little harder to fake. “I can protect myself, Deirdre, but thanks.”
“Goodness. Why should you have to?” She lets out that tinkling laugh of hers that always makes my shoulders try to touch above my head. “I mean, it couldn’t be me. I’m much too concerned about my young to risk myself like that.”
We both know where she’s going with this. I sigh. She leans in.
“But of course, you don’t have any young, do you, Maddox?” I only nod, and even roll my eyes, but she’s not done sticking that knife in. “Ty is a hundred-year king with no queen, no issue, no legacy. If there aren’t already whispers that he’s not favored by the moon, there are sure to be some soon. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
She lets out a laugh at that—not one that suggests she thinks she’s been the least bit silly—then shifts and runs after her shady king.
I wish I could say she didn’t get to me, but I’m still feeling the bruises from that conversation I had with Ty before. Her little jab sank in deeper than I’d like to admit. I stay there in the doorway to mycottage, willing my heartbeat to slow down. And for every other part of me to edge back away from the cliff of pure fury that I’d very much like to throw myself right off.
I know that’s what they want. It would play right into their hands.
