Hes coming, Mom, Jesse said.
Please, Christy said. Tell him to hurry.
Desperate, hysterical tearsthose werent unusual. But she sounded scared, too. And that wasnt anything Id heard before.
Adam walked into the room, and from his grim face, I could tell hed heard at least part of what Christy had said. He took the handset from Jesse but hugged her with the other arm. Jesses eyes grew watery under his comforting hold. She gave me a frantic look before bolting away, out the door, and up the stairs, presumably to her room, where she could collect herself.
What do you need? Adam said, most of his attention still on his daughter.
Can I come home?
Auriele glanced at me, but I was already wearing my blank face. She wouldnt be able to tell what I was thinking from my expression.
This isnt your home, Adam said. Not anymore.
Adam, Christy said. Oh, Adam. She sobbed, a small, hopeless sound. Im in trouble, I need to come home. Ive been so stupid. He wont leave me alone. He hurt me, he killed a friend of mine, and he follows me everywhere I go. Can I come home, please?
That wasnt anything Id expected. Auriele quit trying to pretend she wasnt listening to every word and jerked her face toward the phone.
Call the police, Adam said. Thats what they are there for.
Hell kill me, she whispered. Adam, hell kill me. I dont have anywhere else to run. Please.
Werewolves can tell when people are lying. So can some of the other supernatural critters running aroundlike me, for instance. Over the phone is a lot trickier because a lot of the telltale signs involve heartbeat and smellneither of which is possible to detect over a phone line. But I could hear the truth in her voice.
Adam looked at me.
Tell her to come, I said. What else could I say? If something happened to her when we could help I wasnt sure if I could live with that. I knew that Adam couldnt.
Auriele continued to watch me. She frowned, finally turned away, and started to dry the dishes again.
Adam, please? Christy pleaded.
Adam narrowed his eyes at me and didnt say anything.
Adam, Mary Jo said from the doorway. Mary Jo is a firefighter, tough and smart. She is owed by the pack for the years that she was yours. Let her come home, and the pack will protect her.
He gave Mary Jo a look, and she dropped her eyes.
Its okay, I said to Adam, and tried to make it not a lie. Really.
I bake when Im stressed. If I had to make enough chocolate chip cookies to feed Richland while she was here, it would be okay because Adam needed me to be okay with it.
If she tried anything, she would be sorry. Adam was mine. She had thrown him away, thrown Jesse awayand I had snatched them up. Finders keepers.
Maybe she didnt want them back. Maybe she just needed to be safe. My gut wasnt convinced, but jealousy isnt a logical emotion, and I had no reason to be jealous of Christy.
All right, Adam said. All right. You can come. Then, his voice gentle, he asked, Do you need money for plane tickets?
I went back to the dishes and tried not to hear the rest of the conversation. Tried not to hear the concern in Adams voice, the softnessand the satisfaction he got from taking care of her. Good Alpha werewolves take care of those around them; its part of what makes them Alpha.
I might have been able to ignore it better if all the wolves still in the house hadnt drifted into the kitchen. They listened to Adams finalization of the details that would bring Christy here and snuck occasional, furtive glances my way when they thought I wouldnt notice.
Auriele took the last cup from my hand. I unplugged the sink and shook the water from my hands before drying them off on my jeans. My hands arent my best feature. The hot water had left my skin pruney, and my knuckles were red and swollen. Even after washing dishes, there was still some black grease embedded in my skin and under my nails. Christys hands were always beautiful, with Frenchmanicured nails.
Adam hung up the phone and called the travel agent he used to coordinate his notinfrequent business travel: both business business and werewolf business.
She can stay with Honey and me, said Mary Jo to me, her voice neutral.
Mary Jo and Honey were the other two female werewolves in the pack. Mary Jo had moved in with Honey when Honeys mate had been killed a few months ago. Neither of them liked me very much.
Until Mary Jo made the offer of hospitality, Id been half planning to put Christy up with one of the other pack members because I hadnt thought it through. I knew that putting Christy in with Mary Jo and Honey would be a mistake.
Adam and I were working hard to increase the pack cohesion, which meant that I was trying very hard not to further alienate either Mary Jo or Honey. I was doing pretty well at keeping our interactions to polite neutrality. If Christy moved in with them, she would use their dislike of me and fan it into a hurricaneforce division that would rain down on the pack in a flood of drama.
Once I recognized the power of Christy as a divisive force, I realized that it wasnt just a problem for my relationship with the pack, but also for Adams. Putting Adams exwife in the same house with Honey and Mary Jo would be stupid because it would force Mary Jo to take Christys side on any tension between Christy and Adam or Christy and the pack. The same thing would be true of anyone Christy stayed with.