Wolf's Kin (Monstrous Hearts #3)

Chapter Seven

Alice studied the front of her parents' house while she and Colton pulled into the driveway. It had been a week since they'd all returned from the resort, a week since she had seen them. She didn't know what to expect.

The path through the yard looked freshly swept and the surrounding hedges neatly clipped. Bird feeders coaxed in jays and finches with their full trays of seed. Flower beds blazed with color, the lush scent from the roses following them up the porch steps. With its neat brickwork and white trim, the house fit with its neighbors like perfectly aligned teeth. Only a note taped to the front door implied anything being out of place.

TO THE MEDIA: WE HAVE ALREADY MADE A STATEMENT. FOR FURTHER INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT JOHN GARNER & ASSOCIATES AT THE NUMBER BELOW.

Alice read it and murmured, "It's the same one Dad told me to use. And now I remember why the name sounded familiar—it's the firm he hired after a documentary about my mother's disappearance came out and implied he murdered her. He must expect the frenzy to linger."

"Probably will," said Colton, tone already sinking into a particular indifference that was his form of civility during dinner get-togethers. Considering how his usual response to anything social was to disappear if he grew bored and maul egos if he grew irritated, Alice felt flattered that he tried this much with her family.

She watched while he knocked on the door, movements easy and calm. "It really doesn't bother you, does it? Being part of so much scrutiny when you're used to living away from humans."

Even before he shook his head, she knew the answer and marveled at it. A childhood in suburbia had shaped her ideas of danger like a back brace correcting a crooked spine, and she always felt stunned by the concept of simply not caring what others might say. And yet it came so naturally to him, this monster from the woods. What reputation was there to ruin? What weakness could be exposed? The power of whispers shriveled against jaws that crushed throats.

It made her smile despite the numbness behind her ribs and the headache behind her eyes, made her remember how to tease him. "Does anything bother you?"

"Sure." In the late afternoon sunlight, his eyes looked more yellow than green, bright and wry and direct. "When you stop sleeping, eating, and talking."

At that, Alice realized he'd waited all week for her to admit the obvious: that something kept her awake at night and left her sick in the day. That she wouldn't speak about Fleur's kidnapping or the glimpses they'd caught of the coven. That she withdrew into a shell of silence unless answering a direct question.

It hadn't been a conscious decision, not at first, but the more her heart had hurt, the less she'd wished to examine it.

"I'm fine," she said, and knocked on the door to give herself something to do. "Just a little tired."

That drew out his full stare, the one that left people shrinking back. She rarely experienced this side of his intensity but still understood exactly what it meant. Don't bullshit me.

A pang went through her—not fear, nothing he did could ever scare her. It felt more like anguish. "I'm not trying to shut you out. It's just that..."

Then the door opened, revealing Denise with her bright smile. "You're here!"

Alice felt a smile of her own snap in place, felt the tension between her and Colton thicken as she turned to her stepmother. There were streaks of flour on Denise's face, and splatters of chunky, red sauce covered her peach-colored apron, but she otherwise looked as fresh and well-kept as ever. "I'm so sorry nobody answered right away. Fleur and I were up to our elbows in sauce, and whenever your father is in his office, he can't hear anything outside it. Come in, come in!"