Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles #2) (18 page)

“Shouldn’t I be focusing more on social stuff? You know, what to do and not do around the others so they don’t want to kill me for breaking some rule I don’t even know?”

“We need to work on that, too,” he acknowledged. “But you have to test yourself, find the limits of your new abilities so that you understand them. Because understanding what you’re capable of and learning how to control it will help the rest of the world not figure out who you are and want to kill you.”

“So, basically it’s all about not getting killed.”

“Pretty much,” he said, pausing under a tree. The lowest branch was about twelve feet off the ground and Justin looked up at it. “Jump up there and grab that branch.”

She gazed at it. “I’m springy, but not that springy.”

“How do you know unless you try? After all, that’s only about two feet higher than the rim on a basketball hoop. It should be easy for you now.”

She crouched and jumped as high as she could, but came up about a foot short. She landed back on the ground and glanced at him.

“Again. And this time actually try.”

“I did try,” she said, feeling irritated. She crouched back down and stared up at her target. She felt all the muscles in her body coiling and then releasing as she sprung upward. Her hands wrapped around the branch and she gave a triumphant shout and looked down at Justin.

“Good! Now do chin-ups,” he said.

She started and couldn’t help but think about the Cordelia and Mike contest on her first day of school.

“So, the most important thing to know about the pack is that as the bottom member you have to be subservient, you have to drop your eyes when someone is talking to you and make sure to give them those ‘ma’ams’ and ‘sirs’. You have to be quiet and polite and respectful to everyone.”

“See, I have a hard time seeing that happen,” Katelyn said, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of her voice as she worked her chin-ups.

“Those are the rules, Kat. Being bottom-ranking sucks.”

“So, how do I move on up?” she asked.

“Just like the rest of the world. You marry up or fight your way up tooth and nail.”

“No way!”

“Well, Kat, sometimes you have to fight. And sooner or later you’ll understand that.”

She was thinking of hitting Mike and realized that Justin had missed her point. “I meant marry up. I’m not doing that.”

She heard a chuckle and glanced down. “What’s so funny?”

“The fact that you think you have a choice.”

She let herself drop back to the ground, bending her knees to cushion her fall. She suppressed the urge to throw her arms backward when she had stuck the landing.

“What do you mean?” she asked. She thought of some of Cordelia’s diary entries, about her dad telling her he’d choose her mate.

“Everyone marries in the pack, and younger than you’re probably used to, being from California. It’s your duty.”

“I’m not marrying a werewolf,” she said.

He gave his head a weary shake. “You’re not going to have a choice about that. In fact, it’s likely you won’t even have a choice as to which werewolf. These things can be complicated and given how you came to be here . . . Uncle Lee will probably be choosing your mate.” He flushed slightly and glanced away. She wondered why. Was he jealous? She wondered again if his uncle had arranged his romance with Lucy.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not.”

“I won’t do it.”

“We’ll see,” he said, effectively shutting down the conversation. “Now, jump to the next branch over, the one that’s a foot higher.”

An hour later Justin declared that training was over for the day. They headed back to the house and reached it just as Jesse trotted from around the back. He was holding a mud-encrusted action figure in one hand and a gardening trowel in the other.

“Hi, Kat, hi,” Jesse said, hurrying up to her and giving her a kiss on her cheek, as all the pack were supposed to do. She kissed him back, and he giggled. “Did you marry Justin now? Because then I can marry Lucy.”

“Justin is going to marry Lucy,” Katelyn said carefully.

“My Uncle Lee says you’re going to get married,” he reported, nodding seriously at her. “He says you need a man.”

“He— he
did
?” Aghast, she stared at him, then at the Fenners’ house, where the alpha was.

“When you get married, I can wear my suit. You should stay for dinner. Lucy says I can have a drumstick. You can have the other one.” Jesse looked past her and waved. “Hi, little brother.” He cracked up. “Did you kiss Kat?”

“No, sir,” Justin said.

“You should kiss her cheek. We don’t kiss strangers but Kat is not a stranger.”

“I’ll kiss her next time.”

“See you later,” Katelyn managed, hurrying toward her Subaru. Then, lightning fast, Justin was beside her with his hand wrapped around her forearm.

“You need to say goodbye to the alpha,” he said. “Show respect.”

She looked up at him. “Justin, he’s talking about me getting married. I’m a senior in high school! Did you know about this while we were talking in the forest?”

“No, but I’m not surprised.”

“I’m not getting married.”

“All you need to do right now is say goodbye,” he reminded her. “Don’t stir the pot when you don’t have a spoon.”

“Oh, that’s so quaint,” she flung at him. If she saw Mr. Fenner, and he told her he wanted her to get married—

“Kat, I’ve got your back,” he said quietly. “Just go say goodbye.”

He walked her to the front door and it opened before she could turn the knob. Arial, one of Cordelia’s older sisters, stood on the threshold with her arms tightly crossed. Her blonde hair had been pinned up in a messy bun, but one section had come free and coiled loosely around her shoulder, as if she’d been doing something physical. She looked warily at Katelyn, then visibly relaxed just a little when she shifted her attention to Justin.

“No,” she said to him. “We can’t have visitors.”

“Kat is a member of the pack,” Justin reminded her. “She wants to pay her respects before she leaves.”

“I’ll tell him.” Arial reached for the doorknob, charms on her bracelet jingling.

Justin put his hand around hers. “No. You know that’s something she should do,” he said in a quiet but firm voice. “The alpha deserves her respect.”

Arial sucked in a breath. “The alpha,” she began, then toyed with one of the charms. “Daddy’s resting before dinner.” Then, as if she had to explain, she added, “He’s been through so much. You know what I mean.”

Justin grunted. “I surely do. And I’m wondering who it was that put him through most of it.”

She gave him a wicked scary smile, seductive, dangerous. “Careful, Jus. Remember who you’re talking to.” She still didn’t look at Katelyn as she added, “I’ll tell him she said goodbye.”

Then she shut the door in their faces.

“Sure you will,” Justin muttered.

“I heard that,” Arial said through the door.

Justin smiled sourly. “Knew she would,” he said to Katelyn. He walked her back to her Subaru and politely opened the door. Southern men had manners; she had to give them that.

“Why does she blame me for getting bitten?” she asked him flat out. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You remind her that he didn’t pick her to succeed him,” he said, as she got into the car. He shut the door and she rolled down the window. “And that her alpha’s not in control. Packs are only as strong as their leaders. When the alpha shows weakness, it throws everybody off.”

“So I’m a source of shame to her, too.” Katelyn jabbed the key in the ignition.

“In a word, yes,” Justin said.

“When won’t I be?”

He leaned his elbows on the car door and gave her a sad smile. Then he dropped his arm toward her and tugged on a tendril of her light blonde hair.

“When you’re settled,” he said. “When you fit in. You’re the omega — the lowest-ranking — but the alpha and I are both paying attention to you. That elevates you, and that’s confusing everyone.” One half of his mouth curved up in a cynical grin. “It’ll be less confusing when you’re not such an oddball.”

“Oh,
thanks
.” She tried to jerk her hair out of his grasp.

He held it tighter, chuckling. “Try to have a little compassion.” He tugged. “Our whole lives are built on pack order. And we’re in disorder. It’s not good for us.”

“Compassion?”
Katelyn cried. “For her? She made sure Mr. Fenner knew about me. She nearly got Cordelia killed.”

“Her loyalty didn’t lie with Cordelia. It lay with her father. You know that’s a strong bond.”

“No, I wouldn’t know,” she said hotly. “My father was murdered when I was twelve years old.” She swatted his hand like he was a pesky fly and he released her. Then she started the engine and put the car in reverse, barely giving Justin time to get out of her way.

She sped through the forest, eager to be safely out of it, replaying her conversation with Justin. Remembering that his father was dead, too, and that he suspected Lee had killed him on purpose. Either way, his father was dead. There were a lot of deaths within the pack, so maybe that was why Justin didn’t cut her any slack about what had happened to her.

Her thoughts drifted to her father’s funeral, and how everyone had kept asking her if she was okay. No one had asked her mother, and it was obvious that Giselle Chevalier — her mom — hadn’t been handling it okay at all. And Katelyn had suddenly understood that anyone who asked didn’t really want to know. They just wanted to feel as if they’d done the right thing.

Thunder rumbled through the forest, and the trees shook their gnarled fists at her as she wiped her tears away and fought to pull herself together.

Even though she had wanted to be through the woods as fast as possible, she still wasn’t ready to be back at the cabin when she parked outside. Grateful for the rain, she let it run down her face to hide her tears before going inside.

A sharp odor hit her. Her grandfather was at the table beside her computer, cleaning a gun. He looked up at her and gave her a nod, almost a smile, and she smoothed back her soaking wet hair.

“I forgot an umbrella,” she said, even though that was pretty obvious.

“I was just fixing to make hot chocolate,” he said, and she felt a rush of pent-up tenderness toward him. There was no way in the world Mordecai McBride drank hot chocolate when he was alone.

“I’d love hot chocolate,” she managed, her voice cracking slightly. “Thanks, Grandpa.”

He put the gun on the table and went into the kitchen. She sank down beside her computer and powered it up. Mail from Beau. The subject header was
Anything?
with no message content.

She thought about Mr. Fenner. How old had he been way back then? Cordelia had told her that her father was approaching sixty, so he could have been a teenager then, or a young man. Were they his fault? Six murders. How many had there been, all told?

Nothing
, she typed back. Then she shut her computer down.

Taking a breath, she walked into the kitchen. Mordecai was stirring a pot of milk and spooning cocoa mix into it, and Katelyn picked up the container and inspected it; the expiration date was five years old. Given how long hot chocolate mix kept, it was possible that he’d bought this jar before the last time she’d been there as a little girl — with her father, not long before Sean McBride had been murdered.

“You have a fight with that boy?” he asked her.

She set down the jar. “Trick?”

“The other one.” He gave the milk a stir. “Still wondering if I invited the wrong one to Little Rock.”

“No,” she said in a rush. Then she realized there was no way she wanted to talk about boys with her grandfather, and let out a heavy sigh. “I just . . .” Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “I miss my parents.” Words started rushing out of her. “It was so amazing of Trick to make that bust of Mom for me, you know? But I don’t have anything of Daddy’s, except for that suitcase. It’s all gone, from the fire.” She cried harder. She just couldn’t stop herself.

Looking pained, her grandfather stirred the milk. He poured in the cocoa slowly, deliberately, then ventured, “I’ve got some stuff of your dad’s. Out in the garage. Your grandma kept it.”

She caught her breath and looked at him hopefully. “Really? Like what?”

“Probably everything he ever touched,” he said. “He was our only child. Doted on him so. You never dream you’re going to bury your own son.” A stricken expression clouded his face. Then he shook himself and reached for two cups out of the cabinet. “We’ll go through it. There’s a lot of stuff out there, but I’ll find it and bring it in for you. Don’t go in there, Katie, though — some of the boxes aren’t stacked too safe.”

“Oh, thank you, Grandpa.” She hugged him, putting her arms around his surprisingly brawny body and squeezing tightly. He patted her back, and she did the same, feeling ridges beneath the fabric of his shirt. His terrible, deep scars.

His showed. Hers didn’t.

She watched as he measured out the steaming liquid into two cups and handed one to her. She clinked cups with him, the way she and Kimi used to do, while wondering privately if they’d get sick from drinking such old stuff; but she didn’t want to spoil the mood, so she took a tiny sip.

So did he. And then he looked out the window and said, “We might have a white Thanksgiving this year. Gotta warn you. When the snow comes, we’ll be holed up.”

“Trick invited us to his place for the winter,” she said.

“Did he?” He took the spoon to the sink and rinsed it. “Is that where you want to be when the storm hits?”

She wasn’t sure what he actually was asking, and she wasn’t sure she would have known the answer anyway. “Better there than here, I guess. He’s closer to town.”

“Sokolovs own a snow plow,” he remarked. “I never got that fancy.” He put the spoon in the dish drainer. He seemed to be moving slowly, as if he was in pain.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Just tired. Do you have homework?” he asked, and she nodded, grateful for the excuse to escape to her room. She was feeling edgy again.

She crossed the kitchen and was just about to make her way to the stairs when she impulsively turned back around.