A Pack of Blood and Lies

CHAPTER 1 - One month later

The inn was packed.

Brawny men of all ages had arrived sometime before lunch, alone or accompanied by their wives, girlfriends, or sons.

I recognized many of the men, but they didn't recognize me. In my gray housekeeping uniform, I blended with the rest of the staff. Every time someone looked my way, I disappeared into the kitchen where Evelyn was cooking up a feast, or entered one of the unoccupied bedrooms I'd helped prep for the occasion.

Energy crackled in the carpeted hallways, in the living room with its high-beamed ceilings and two-story glass panes, and in the tartan-covered adjoining dens. Every Adirondack on the sprawling porch held a reclined body. Voices chirped. Laughter rang. It was as though the Boulder Pack hadn't come together in years. But I knew for a fact they met once a week. Well, the men did. The women and children were not invited to regular pack gatherings.

"If you go at it much longer, the metal will start peeling."

I froze, and the feather duster I'd been using on the sconce next to the elevator tumbled onto the burgundy runner.

That voice...

Deeper, but nonetheless familiar.

Slowly, I turned to face Liam Kolane, one of the men who'd opposed my plea to join the pack the day my father was shot. I wasn't short for a girl—five-seven like Mom—but I still had to crane my neck.

I hid my loathing for him underneath a smile. "Sometimes the filth is not visible to the naked eye, but it doesn't mean it's not there."

A small crease appeared between the dark brows shadowing his reddish-brown eyes.

I picked up my feather duster and continued down the hallway, swiping the long gray feathers over the other sconces.

He didn't move. "Have we met?"

I looked over my shoulder at him, fake smile still in place. "Not in this lifetime."

That made his entire forehead groove. I tossed him a wink as I turned the corner.

The second I was out of sight, I dropped the smile and hurried to the bedroom my aunt and uncle had loaned me. I shut my door and sidled against it. My heart was thumping so hard it threatened to derail. Liam hadn't recognized me. I was safe.

At least, that was what I believed for the next few minutes.

Two knocks on my door made me spring away from it.

"Open up."

I sniffed the air. Evergreen. Not Liam. I turned the knob to let my cousin in.

It had taken his girlfriend almost dying for me to forgive my cousin for being such an ass back in LA. I hadn't forgiven his parents, though. They'd yanked me out of my life one too many times to forgive.

"I just overheard Liam mention to his buddies that he ran into a hot blonde housekeeper." Everest dropped into the flannel-covered armchair in the corner of my bedroom. "Was it you?"

I crossed my arms. "I'm offended you need to ask."

"Only reason I'm asking is 'cause I thought you were planning on holing up in your bedroom until the pack left."

"Can't a girl change her mind?"

"You can change your mind, but if I were you, I'd stay the fuck away."

"Noted."

"I'm serious, Ness. Especially from Liam Kolane. He's cut from the same cloth as his dad."

A chill whorled beneath my ribs. "He rapes women too?"

"There are rumors..." Everest dragged his long fingers through his red hair.

I hated that I'd just reminded him of his girlfriend's fate—raped by Liam's father, Heath...the horror.

I sat on the edge of the duvet I'd fluffed upon waking, folding one leg underneath me. "Go against Liam."

"What?"

"For Alpha. Go against him."

Everest exhaled a rough breath. "I have no desire to lead the pack."

"You'd rather have Liam lead you?"

"No."

Ever since Everest's girlfriend had attempted suicide the week I arrived in Boulder, I'd softened toward my cousin. His loss, although different, reminded me acutely of my own. Maybe that was why I'd found it in my heart to overlook Los Angeles. Gone was his cockiness, replaced by this oppressive despondence that had turned him into a bit of a recluse.

"I can't stop thinking about what Heath did to Becca," he whispered, hazel eyes slickening with emotion. Not many things got to me, but a man crying...yeah, that got to me.

I leaned across the narrow space and touched his clasped hands. "Heath is gone, Everest. He got what he deserved."

Even though Heath had died a week ago, the realization hadn't settled in Everest yet. Perhaps because Liam had decided to bury his father in an intimate ceremony to which only a handful of pack members had been convened. Although brutal, seeing my mother's body lowered into the earth had brought me closure.

"He may be gone, but so is Becca," he muttered.

"She's not gone-gone."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Her odds of waking are fucking ridiculous."

"Ridiculous is better than no odds at all."

He snorted. "Can't believe you're the optimist."

He was right. I was a half-empty sort of girl.

He sighed then stood. "I should go. The meeting starts soon."

"Think about what I said. About tossing your name in the hat."

"There won't be a hat. No one's going to go up against Liam."

"You don't know that."

He shot me a how-many-shades-of-clueless-are-you look.

And here I thought the pack had balls. Many pairs of them. Was there truly no one to challenge a Kolane?