A Pack of Blood and Lies

CHAPTER 2

The second Everest left, I swapped my gray housekeeping uniform for skinny jeans and a white tank top. Mom's wedding band drummed against my chest as I headed for the inn's common area. Conversations and laughter frothed through the closed doors and filled the hallway. Steeling my nerves, I pumped the sculpted copper handle and drew the door open.

Squares of sunlight dappled the airy room. People were huddled in large groups, either sprawled over the leather sofas, or standing by the buffet of sweets and drinks set up next to the massive stone fireplace. No fire snapped in the blackened hearth, and yet the room smelled of warm smoke, as though the scent of winter fires had penetrated the pale-yellow stucco walls and Native-patterned area rugs.

As I dragged my gaze over the crowd, I caught Lucy's attention. She shot me a look that could've withered one of her prized rose transplants. She wasn't the only one glaring. I garnered many a glare. For example, Liam and the two guys standing on either side of him gave me the stink-eye.

I was the new kid all over again. Good thing it didn't frighten me.

Lucy elbowed her way through the sunlit room toward me, then latched onto my bicep and tugged me aside. "What are you doing here?"

I shrugged her off. "I've decided you were right. That I should get out and meet people."

Lucy dipped her chin into her fleshy neck. "Ness..."

"Yes?"

Her warning died in her throat. My aunt wouldn't dare make a scene, and considering how quiet it had gotten, she chose silence over a messy confrontation.

One of the guys broke away from Liam's little group and approached me, black eyebrows slanting over piercing green eyes. He stopped mere inches from me and tipped his head down. I crossed my arms, expecting him to tell me to beat it.

"Dimples? Is that you?"

If I were the type of girl to blush, I would've turned crimson at the nickname. Not because it wasn't true...I had deep dimples—craters really—but because it was spoken loudly.

"I go by Ness now. And you are?"

He grinned. "Shit. Ness. You're all grown up."

"Six years does that to you." I raised an eyebrow as I studied his face, took in the light-brown skin with the dusting of freckles, the prominent but straight nose, the dark stubble, the cropped black hair, the hazel eyes. "August?" I asked hesitantly. "August Watt?"

He smiled wider.

And then I smiled, because August had been my absolute favorite person in Colorado after my parents. When I'd asked the pack to allow me into their ranks, he and his father had fought in my favor, joining their voices to Everest's. They'd been drowned out by the chorus of absolutely-nots.

A girl in an all-male pack? What a revolting idea.

I couldn't help that I'd been born a girl. And it wasn't like I could pledge myself to a neighboring pack, because werewolves couldn't switch packs. The only thing werewolves could do was either be a part of their own pack, or move away—far away—so the distance prevented their bodies from changing. Those who stayed—lone wolves—were loose cannons hunted down by all.

August shook his head. "I didn't think you'd ever come back."

"I wasn't planning on it, but shit happens."

He got that look that drove me insane. Pity. I probably shouldn't have mentioned the shit-happened part.

"You okay?"