I get a nice glare from Rook when I show up to the compound clubhouse on Wednesday afternoon. He wasn’t expecting me, so I start my warm-up without him, knowing that the gossiping wolves will tell him I’m here. I get one slow lap in before the angry werewolf plants himself in front of me. “What are you doing here?”
I knew he wouldn’t be happy, but I don’t care. “I came for training,” I say stubbornly. “You said three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. It’s Wednesday. I’m ready for my first session.”
He’s not amused. “No,” he growls. “No way. You were nearly drained Sunday night. Wulf told me. You’re supposed to rest for a whole week. We are not training today.”
“But Enzo healed me, and I feel fine. I’ve done nothing but lie around for almost three days now. Can’t we just do a little?”
Rook crosses his arms over his chest and keeps up his glare. “No.”
I go for a pout. It’s low, but I can’t help it. “Aw, come on, Rook. I had to get out of the house. I was going crazy. And besides, my attackers aren’t going to wait for me to recover, so neither should I.”
He growls at me—a real snarl—then scrubs a hand over his face, muttering unintelligible things to himself. He sucks in a sharp breath, then lets it out in a huff, eyeing me as if measuring my determination. “You use that move I showed you when you were attacked?” he asks.
“I couldn’t. I was attacked from behind this time.”
He sighs. “Fine. We’ll work on that next.” When I clap, he glares again. “Next week.”
“But—”
“NO BUTS, NORA. You are not training this week. Do you want to kill yourself? You may think you feel fine, but your body needs time to recover and regenerate.”
I get what he’s saying, but I honestly do feel fine. I’m not just saying that. I feel like I’ve been speed healing. I’m stronger today, recovered. I can’t explain it, but I swear I’ve healed. Still, there will be no convincing Rook.
“Fine. No training. I guess I’ll see you next week.”
I stomp out of the gym. I’m being a brat, but I can’t help it. I was almost killed twice, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. That’s not a great feeling.
I don’t get far before Rook calls out to me. “Nora, wait.”
I whirl around, hopeful. “Yes?”
Rook is staring at me, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, you’re already here,” he says. I think this means he’s giving in, and my face lights up. “Damn it, woman, don’t look at me like that. We’re not training.” And cue my face fall…and his sigh. “I was just going to say that since you’re here, you might as well stay for a while. If you want, we can walk—slowly—over to my place, and I’ll cook you a steak.”
Every wolf in the gym—and there are a large handful—gasps. I frown at all their gawking. Why is that so weird? Is it because I’m human? Wulf said shifters generally like humans. And it’s true they aren’t glaring—well, one woman is—but the other men aren’t. They’re just shocked. I decide to ignore them, and I pat my stomach. “Thanks. I could use the walk, but you don’t have to cook for me. I already ate lunch.”
Rook smiles, seeing that I’ve given up my pouting. “You need the protein. Think you can eat more?”
Well, if he’s going to continue to offer… I grin. “I can always eat more. Especially if it’s a nice, juicy steak.”
He matches my smile and cocks his head toward the gym exit. I fall into step beside him, and we both ignore the stares as we head out of the clubhouse at a casual stroll.
Rook passes me his track jacket the second we set foot outside. He’d told me to come for my sessions in shorts and a sports bra so that I could move easier and he could see the way I was moving my body. He swore it was a training thing. But I flat-out refused, and we compromised on stretchy yoga pants and a clingy T-shirt, so that’s what I’m wearing right now. I accept his jacket happily and zip it up to my chin.
It’s a nice day—sunny—but it’s a little chilly. Fall is in full swing, and if Michigan has a best quality, it’s fall. The air is crisp, and the trees are in full autumn bloom. The entire compound is a canvas of vibrant greens, oranges, yellows, and reds.
The walk is revitalizing, and just what I need. Rook must see how much I’m enjoying myself, because he walks in silence, allowing me to take it all in. He’s a very comfortable walking companion.
In the silence, my phone chimes at me. I have a feeling I know who it is, and I don’t want to talk to him, so I ignore it. Rook cuts me a sideways glance, and I just shrug. He lets it go without comment.
We pass through most of the community, and the gasps, stares, and whispers keep coming from every wolf we pass. You’d think they’ve never seen Rook with a girl before, but the guy is freaking hot. And nice. And dominant. Which I know is big in the werewolf world. Wulf claimed Rook doesn’t date, but I have a hard time believing he never dates.
Rook lives on the very outskirts of the community next to the river and up against the park. His home is a modest one-story, light gray with blue trim and shutters, and he has a sprawling lawn. There are no fenced yards in the compound, so I can see a giant wooden deck built off the back of the house that wraps around the side.
Instead of going inside, he leads me around the side of the house and up the steps onto the deck. I whistle. The deck is huge and has a view of both the river and the park. He’s got a grill and a patio table in one corner and a set of couches around a built-in fire pit. It’s a nice deck. “Wow. You’ve got quite the spread here.”
He grins, not a shred of humility. “Thanks. I built it myself. I don’t like to be indoors much.”
“You built this?”
Now he does shrug modestly. “I’m good with tools.”
He turns on the grill and then disappears into the house through a wide sliding glass door. I take a seat on one of the couches, and seconds later he calls out, “I have red wine, beer, Coke, milk, and water.”
“Water or Coke is fine, thanks!”
“The fire pit’s gas. There’s a switch on the side, if you want a fire.”
I’ve never seen an actual gas fireplace, so I turn on the fire. I can’t believe it dances to life literally as easy as the flip of a switch. It’s somehow not warm the way a wood fire is, and it doesn’t smell like one, but it’s still pretty, so I sit back and stare into the flames.
My phone dings again. I break down and look at the messages. Sure enough, they’re both from Parker.
Parker: I understand you’re angry with my clan, but I really need to speak with you. Will you at least call me?
Parker: If you’re ignoring me because of Josephine, please remember she was one vampire out of many. Nora, what can I do to make this right? Please tell me.
I sigh. He doesn’t deserve to be ignored like this. Losing the battle with my conscience, I respond.
Nora: I’m sorry. It has nothing to do with Henry or Josephine. I don’t blame you for their actions. I just don’t think us seeing each other is a good idea. You want more from me than I can give you.
He answers immediately.
Parker: You want it, too; you’re just scared. You don’t need to be afraid of me. I would never hurt you.
I’m not afraid of him hurting me. Not exactly. I’m afraid of losing control with him.
A long whistle over my shoulder makes me nearly jump out of my skin. “Rook!” I drop my phone in my lap and quickly scoop it back up. “Shit! You scared the crap out of me!”
The man is leaning over the couch behind me, shamelessly reading my texts. He’s got a couple of Cokes in one hand and a plate with two steaks on it in the other. I pull my phone to my chest and glare at him. “Nosy much?”
Rook laughs. “Yes.” He hands me one of the Cokes and cheerfully says, “Who’s Parker? I thought you didn’t date,” as he makes his way to the grill.
“He’s a vampire in the Detroit clan. And I don’t date. Hence, the slightly desperate texts. I don’t think he’s ever been turned down before. He doesn’t seem to know how to give up.”
“Parker…Parker…” After placing the steaks on the grill, he turns around to face me with wide eyes and a gaping jaw. “Parker Reed? Henry Stadther’s chief enforcer?”
I nod. “That would be the one.”
He whistles again.
“Tell me about it.”
While he’s still blinking in disbelief, I finally notice the apron he’s wearing. It says All this…and I can cook, too. I laugh, and when I point at the apron, Rook looks down at his chest and rolls his eyes. He stares me down for a minute, as if debating whether to let me change the subject, but then, thankfully, lets the topic of Parker drop. “It was a Christmas gift from Wulf one year. That man is worse than a meddlesome old lady. He’s determined to see me mated off. Never mind that he’s so scared of pack females he’d rather live as a lone wolf in the city.”
I smile at that. True, Wulf often rants about the pushiness and clinginess of pack females, but it seemed to me the last time I was here that romance isn’t the only thing Wulf dislikes about pack living. “Aw, I think Wulf’s happy living the way he does. He really does strike me as a bit of a lone wolf. You should have seen him on the drive here the other day.”
“I’m sure.” Rook shakes his head with a chuckle. “I can’t believe he came back.”
Rook snaps his mouth shut and turns to the grill, as if suddenly remembering that setting him up with me was the reason for Wulf’s return. I try to break the awkward silence.
“So, can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.” His word is friendly, but he sounds wary and keeps his face to the grill instead of me.
“Okay, so packs are ranked, right? Like the alpha is the most dominant, and the second strongest is his beta, and so on…?”
His whole body sags with relief at the change of topic, and he gives me a cheerful, “Yup. The books get that part right.”
“But you’re more dominant than Alpha Toth, aren’t you? Wulf is, too, right? If I ranked you all, I’d place you first, Wulf second, and Alpha Toth third. What am I missing?”
Rook closes the lid on the grill and turns to gape at me, slack-jawed and bug-eyed. “You can feel dominance?”
“I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to.”
Rook comes over to sit on the couch near me. “Most non-shifters can’t, and humans never.”
I shrug, vulnerability washing over me. “I’m a bit of a psychic. Maybe that’s why. I can feel magic, too, and Terrance told me humans don’t feel that, either.”
“They don’t.” Rook shakes his head, eyeing me like I’m something special.
I squirm under his gaze, hating that I’m different, yet again, and turn the conversation back on him once more. “So, I’m right? You’re the strongest? How come you aren’t alpha, then? What’s your place in the pack?”
Rook sighs and then goes back to the grill to flip the steaks. “It’s a long story. How do you like your steak?”
“Medium rare. And we have to have something to talk about while we eat, right?”
Rook slides me a wry glance.
When the steaks are done, we move to the patio table and I give him a look. I’m still waiting. “You are relentless, aren’t you, woman?”
I just grin.
“Oh, all right. I used to be alpha.”
My brows shoot up. I hadn’t expected that.
Rook grimaces at my look and shrugs. “Our father—Wulf’s and mine—was the previous alpha of the pack. Our great-grandfather was the one who started it when the Detroit area pack split into two. Wulf and I were both groomed from the time we were born. Wulf always hated the leadership, but I was good at it. I think everyone was relieved when I turned out to be more dominant. Just before I was ready to take over for my father, I found my mate.”
I almost spit my drink out. “You were mated?”
Rook chuckles. “Is it really so hard to believe?”
I blush and shake my head. “No, of course not, but…you just seem so adamant about not dating.”
His face crumples, and I know immediately what happened. “Rook…I’m so sorry.”
He forces a pained smile at me. “Lily was everything to me. We were mated for nearly forty years.”
I choke on my food. “Forty years! How old are you? You look thirty, at best!”
Rook rears back, startled by my outburst, then throws his head back and laughs so loudly we catch the attention of all the wolves using the park or enjoying the river. Then again, the number of wolves in view has nearly doubled since we got here, so they may have already been spying on us. But now they’re openly staring.
“Sorry,” Rook says, trying to calm his laughter. “I thought you knew about shifters’ life spans.”
“Hu-uh. Just how long is it?”
“Wolves live to be around three hundred.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah. I’m one hundred fourteen, so that’d be closer to thirty-five, in human terms.”
The man was one hundred fourteen years old. It took everything in me to play it cool. “Huh.” I blatantly ogled him for a moment, then said, “Well, you look great for your age, old man.”
Rook burst into laughter again.
When he quieted down, he seemed ready to talk about his mate without falling apart, because he continued his story without my having to ask. “So, like I said, Lily and I were mated for forty years, and though that’s not necessarily a long time to a werewolf, we were mated young, and we were happy together. Soon after we were mated, my parents stepped down, and Lily and I became the alpha pair. Thirty years ago, there was a vampire uprising in Detroit. A couple different clans who were having trouble with rogue shifters decided they were going to rid the area of all shifters. My pack was the largest and the strongest, so they attacked us first.
“We had no warning, and we were massively outnumbered. It was a slaughter. Over half of my pack was killed before we stopped them, including my parents and Lily.”
I gasp, completely caught up in the story.
He swallows, and it takes him a moment to speak again. His voice falls to a mere whisper. “I was devastated after the battle. Completely broken.”
“I can imagine,” I murmur.
“I blamed myself. I was Alpha. I was supposed to protect my pack. Instead, my pack was torn apart, and three of the people I cared for most in the world were dead.”
“It wasn’t your fault. You had no reason to think that vampires wanted to wipe out your pack. It was completely unprovoked and without warning.”
Rook looks at me for a long time but says nothing to my comment. After eating a few more bites of his steak in silence, he finally says, “I couldn’t be in charge anymore after that. Back then, I couldn’t live with myself. I was going to go off on my own, like Wulf had years before. Toth was my beta at the time. I handed the pack over to him and tried to leave.
“I roomed with Wulf for a year or so, but Peter came looking for me. He’d always been my best friend. He knew how much I still needed the pack. I’m not like my brother. I’m a social creature. Being a lone wolf was turning me dark. I would have eventually gone rogue. I’m not sure if Wulf called Peter for help, or if Peter came looking for me on his own, but he convinced me to come back.
“I refused to take the alpha position from him, but I swore my loyalty to him as alpha, so he let me stay despite my dominance over him. I don’t really fit into the pack now. I’m a bit of a misfit.”
I snort. If anyone knows about being a misfit, it’s me. Rook smiles, knowing exactly what I’m thinking. “People still like me well enough, though,” he says. “I’m basically the pack handyman now, and Peter uses me as a special advisor. He’s still my best friend. He tries to convince me to take the pack back every know and then—says I’m better suited for the job than he is—but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it. Can’t seem to get back in the saddle after Lily, either. No matter how much Wulf tries to push me back up on the horse.”
Conversation dies until we finish our dinner. I help him with the dishes and notice a couple of women growl and glare at me when I enter Rook’s house. Again, I wonder if it’s because I’m human. Is hanging out with me some kind of werewolf faux pas, and Wulf just lied to me so I’d spend time with Rook and let him train me?
Rook washes and I dry. As he hands me a dish, I finally bring it up, because people are trying to spy on us from the park through Rook’s sliding glass door. I throw as much sarcasm into my voice as I can and say, “Don’t look now, but I think we’re being watched.”
When we both glance out the window, our lookie-loos scamper off. Rook chuckles as he hands me a plate. “I was wondering if you would notice.”
“Oh, I noticed the second we left the gym. Is it because I’m human? Wulf says you guys are friendly toward humans, but after I learned he was only trying to hook us up, I’m not sure I want to believe anything the meddlesome bastard says.”
Rook laughs again. He does that a lot for a guy who’s been through so much. He’s a lot like Wulf that way. For a loner, Wulf is one cheerful werewolf. “It’s not because you’re human,” he finally admits. “It’s because you’re hanging out with me. I may be well liked in the pack, but I’m not the most social. I’m polite and friendly to everyone, but I keep to myself as much as possible. Peter’s really my only friend.”
“Huh. I wouldn’t have expected that.”
He shrugs. “It’s awkward not having a real rank within the pack. Guys are on edge around me because I used to be their alpha, and the women…” He shakes his head and shudders. It’s the exact same gesture Wulf does whenever he talks about pack females. “They can’t help themselves. They have an instinct to mate, and their wolves are attracted to power.”
“Then that must make you the pack’s most eligible bachelor.”
When Rook grimaces, I snicker. “So, werewolves are the jealous type?” I ask, realizing that all the glares came from females, while the men only looked curious.
“Jealous,” Rook agrees, “and possessive.”
“So I should watch my back on the walk to my car, then?”
“No. I’ll walk you, but you’d be fine even if I didn’t. No one could challenge you unless I turned you and announced a mate pairing. Come on, the kitchen’s clean enough. Let’s get you back so you can go home and rest.”
I groan but follow him good-naturedly back toward the clubhouse and my car. “What do you mean, no one could challenge me? Do you mean fight me? Like your beta fought Wulf?”
Rook nods, like it’s no big deal. “It’s a werewolf thing. Once a mate pairing is announced, wolves can challenge the mated pair—the females for the right to take the female’s place, and males to challenge the male’s place.”
I stumble to a stop. “Wait. Two people announce they essentially want to get married, and other people can fight them for the right to marry their lover instead?” Rook nods. “That’s awful. Why would anyone want to mate with someone who hurt their lover in a fight?”
“They proved they’re stronger—a better match.”
“That’s messed up. What about love?”
Rook sighs. “It’s hard to explain, but shifters have two different personalities—the human and the wolf. When it comes to mates, the wolf instinct is stronger than the human desires. Wolves mate with the strongest eligible pack member. If your wolf doesn’t agree to the pairing…” He shrugs again, a helpless gesture. “The pairing won’t work out.”
That’s insane, and I shake my head to let him know I think so. “Still, that sounds whacked.”
“It doesn’t happen often,” Rook agrees a bit sheepishly. “Most werewolves want their human side to be as happy as their wolves. But it’s always a possibility. Peter and his luna are that way. Marie was the next strongest female after my Lilly. When I gave up the alpha spot, Marie challenged Peter’s girlfriend for the luna spot and won. Peter accepted the pairing because an alpha needs the strongest female to be his luna, but it was hard for all of them for a while. Peter’s lover eventually left the pack when Peter and Marie were mated.”
“Wow. So Alpha Toth just let his girlfriend go and mated the luna, even though they don’t love each other?”
Rook shrugs. “I think they do, now. When wolves accept each other, they can have a strong influence on their human sides.”
“Huh.” I blink a few times and shove my hands into the pockets of Rook’s jacket. It’s hard to imagine having another spirit inside me and having to reconcile with its instincts. “Learn something new every day. Werewolves are strange creatures.”
Rook laughs. “I guess it’s a good thing we’re not dating.”
I smirk. “I guess so.”
We finish our walk in companionable silence. When we get to my car, I shrug awkwardly. “Well…this is my stop.”
I start to take off his jacket, but he stops me. “Keep it. Give the busybodies around here some good rumors to spread,” he says with a wink.
I snort, but push the zipper back up. “As if they don’t have enough gossip fodder already?” I slide into my car. “Thanks for making me lunch. Well, second lunch. I feel like a hobbit, but it tasted great.”
Rook grins. “You’re welcome. Now, go home and take it easy. I don’t want to see you back here until Sunday for the pack social. We’re not training this week.” He means business, so I don’t argue. His jaw relaxes when I nod. “Meet me at my house, and we’ll walk over to the social together.” I cock a brow at him, and he shakes his head. “Trust me, you don’t want to show up to the social alone. They’ll swarm you.”
Yeah, I don’t want to be swarmed by werewolves, no matter how friendly—or not so friendly, in the women’s cases—they may be. “Your place it is. See you Sunday.”