About Face. Amy Lee Burgess

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СКАЧАТЬ who understands?”

      “I thought you were such a dick when I first met you.” I shook my head in amazement.

      Laughter was his only response.

      I turned back to the bar and squared my shoulders. Maybe Scott was right. Hell, he was. I had to face my wolf. If the worst happened and she wouldn’t come out, Scott would be the only one to see it. And he understood. He was Alpha of Mayflower. He knew how my father’s pack bond had dominated the pack for thirty years and made everyone who’d activated the bond into slaves. I’d run from my birth pack and never activated the pack bond. It had remained an invisible wall between my psyche and my wolf. The reason she’d been childish and stubborn and so different from everybody’s wolves was because she couldn’t get past the pack bond.

      For years I’d let her do whatever she wanted. I’d never tried to reach her. I hadn’t known about the pack bond. I’d just thought she’d been different and hadn’t wanted to force her to be like other wolves because I didn’t think she could.

      Then I’d met Murphy and he convinced me she could be changed. From the start my wolf had adored his wolf. For him, she’d tried to change, but had been so frustrated because of the unactivated pack bond. The more we pushed, the more she suffered. She’d been so mad at me and her circumstances. She refused to come out the last time I’d tried to shift. But there was nothing holding her back now. Scott was right.

      If we hunted together, she’d come out, she’d be normal. And what the hell would that be like? Even if she did look for Murphy’s wolf and he wasn’t there, she could handle it as a normal wolf. After all, I was handling it as a normal human.

      I snorted and drank more of my damn beer.

      * * * *

      “Can I talk to you?” Jason Allerton approached the dessert table at the same time I did. Neither of us was aware of the other until we both reached for the same piece of cheesecake.

      When I spoke, he let his hand drop away in an indication I should take the cake.

      “Please?” I added when he didn’t say anything.

      Behind us the dance floor was full of couples moving sinuously under flashing strobe lights. Faith’s laughter rang out above the music as she and Scott danced together and he whispered crazy, naughty things in her ear.

      Alan hadn’t left the floor since the music started. He’d had a different partner for nearly every song, including me once. He was full of confidence, brimming over with excitement.

      “I’ve met more people tonight than I have my entire frigging life, Stanzie,” he’d confided to me as we’d danced together.

      “Found a hunt partner?” I’d teased, and he blushed.

      “She asked me,” he whispered, awestruck, as if the thought of it was too weird to be possible.

      He’d changed so much from the frightened, sheltered boy he’d been when I’d visited Mayflower two months ago.

      “Who’s initiating your wolf?” I’d asked him and he’d grinned.

      “Dorothy. Can you believe it? She asked me if she could. She remembered when I’d asked her and she’d turned me down because of the pack bond. But there is no pack bond now, so she asked me. It’s going great, Stanzie.”

      I remembered I’d told Scott about Alan’s preference for a teacher and wondered if he’d had a hand in Dorothy’s recent offer. I suspected he had. He was a good Alpha.

      The slice of cheesecake was the last one. Bright red strawberries decorated the creamy frosting, and I could smell their juice above all the other desserts. My mouth watered at the thought of sinking my teeth into one of the plump, ripe berries.

      “Not tonight.” Jason’s voice was cold, as if he didn’t even know me and I was some stranger who wanted an audience when he had better things to do. Right now better things to do translated into what dessert should he choose now that he couldn’t have the cheesecake.

      “Take it.” I pushed the cheesecake in his direction. “I bet you’re getting it for Wren. Cheesecake’s her favorite. She never got it much. Paul preferred chocolate cream pie.”

      He pulled his hand back from the piece of chocolate cream pie he’d selected and I walked away.

      * * * *

      I needed air so I pushed open the reception hall door and walked out into the salty breeze.

      A wooden deck overlooked the sandy beach. Moonlight streamed down upon the glassy black waves and made a path of shimmering silver.

      A woman stood by the stairs that led down to the sand and gripped the rail, her head bowed. She had pixie-short brown hair highlighted with streaks of dark gold and wore a nude-colored sheath dress with a black colorblock hem and black Jimmy Choo pumps. Diamond drop earrings glittered from her earlobes.

      She’d taken off her ceremonial robe and looked small and vulnerable as she huddled against the rail.

      “Kathy,” I whispered and she swung around guiltily as if she’d committed a crime instead of gazed at the ocean.

      “I did the right thing.” She made no pretense that I hadn’t caught her almost in tears. “But it’s still hard to watch the way he looks at her. He used to look at me that way.”

      Before I could stop myself, I went to her and put my arms around her. The strength of her return embrace hurt, but I held her as she buried her face in my neck and we rocked together.

      Our eyes were wet when we drew apart, but some of the wild sadness had lifted from her face.

      “It would never have worked.” Her tone was conversational as she slipped her shoes from her feet and waited for me to do the same thing. We left them on the deck and descended the wooden stairs to the rough sand.

      In common accord, we moved toward the black expanse of the restless ocean, which muttered secrets to itself that grew louder as we approached.

      “He wanted me and Matt to leave Darkhunt and join Silverlake. I would have had to leave the New England Regional Council. He told me he believed I would be appointed to the First Western Regional Council, but he couldn’t guarantee it. He knew damn well Matt wouldn’t leave Darkhunt. He was counting on that, counting on us severing the bond. He had no real interest in a triad but was willing to compromise on that for me. His exact words. Can you just hear him saying it, Stanzie? The colossal gall of the man.” Kathy linked her arm with mine as we turned parallel to the ocean and continued to walk. We left bare footprints in the wet sand behind us.

      “The First Western Regional Council is bigger and more influential than the New England one.” I spoke before I thought as usual. Kathy just laughed.

      “Do you really think I would have been appointed? As Jason Allerton’s bond mate I would have had two strikes against me as the Council leaned backward to avoid making it seem as if they took orders from Jason and the Great Council. And the third strike would have been that I knew absolutely nobody in the region. How exactly was a stranger supposed to swoop in and become a Council member?”

      “You could have pitched it as a fresh perspective СКАЧАТЬ