Scratch the Surface (Wolf Within) (11 page)

“You were so beautiful, Stanzie, in that party dress and those nice shoes. You always have the nicest shoes. I was always jealous of how much Grey loved you. You do believe I voted against you only so you’d get out, have a chance to...be...diff...” She fell asleep in the middle of a sentence.

Chapter 7

Halfway down the stairs on my way back to the others, the doorbell gave its distinctive three-tone chime. Since I was right there, I opened the front door.

Cold air swirled in with two bundled figures, one male, one female.

He helped her off with her voluminous coat, and she was revealed as a tall, voluptuous black woman in a long, gold gown. Striking without being classically beautiful, she was a knockout.

He was no less appealing, with aristocratic features, tousled blond hair and keen blue eyes. Together they were arresting—her so dark, him light.

“Hello,” she said. Her accent was British. “I’m Devon Talbot.” She thrust out her hand and her fingers dazzled with flashy big rings of a doubtful provenance.

“Constance Newcastle.” I shook her hand, noting her strong and confident grasp.

“Ah, you must be Liam’s latest,” he said. He had on a pair of dove-gray wool trousers and a dark blue blazer with a red-and-blue figured tie. He didn’t precisely sneer at me, but there was a certain reserve. “Colin Hunter.”

He shook my hand too, searching my face with his keen blue gaze as if he wanted to memorize it for some future, obscure use. “So was it you who fancy footed Liam’s way back into Mac Tire or was it his pet Councilor then?” Although his features were upper crust, his accent was not.

“There wasn’t any fancy footwork involved. They approached him, actually,” I said, resisting the urge to punctuate my words with a haughty toss of my head. I had the feeling I was not going to like this guy.

“Oh, yeah?” Colin Hunter shrugged with a challenging sneer. “Imagine that one. Six impossible things before breakfast, I suppose.”

Uneasily, I flashed back to the morning after Murphy and I had been bonded, when he revealed we didn’t have a pack. I’d thought it was because of me and my reputation and he’d even confirmed that. Tracing it back, the one who made it sound like Murphy’s former pack wanted him back and that’s why he was attending the Great Gathering in the first place had been Murphy himself. However, even when I’d met the Alpha of Mac Tire, Padraic O’Reilly, there’d been something weird going on.

I’d supposed Allerton had persuaded O’Reilly not to take us back into Mac Tire just yet—so we could perform undercover work for him without pack affiliation. Right after we’d accomplished that, O’Reilly had contacted Murphy and offered us a place in Mac Tire. But maybe that was also due to Allerton’s persuasion.

Colin Hunter read my confusion before I could school my features and a slow grin curled his lips.

“He hasn’t told you a bloody thing about it, has he? Typical Liam Murphy, ignore the problem and it will just dry up and blow away.”

“Colin,” said Devon Talbot, as she laid one long-fingered hand on his coat sleeve, “why can’t we let it go? It’s been over for years. Let it go.”

He shrugged his arm out from under her touch and gave her an amused smile. “I’ve let it go, Devon, but there’s no harm in talking about things, is there?”

“There are enough difficult things happening tonight. We don’t need any more of them,” declared Devon with a sad smile. She turned to me, her eyes filled with compassion. “Constance, I know this can’t be an easy night for you. I think you’re handling it with great dignity.” She gave me a slow, jolly smile. “Are we too late for cocktails and finger food? I’m starving.” She patted her ample hips, laughing. Charmed, I laughed too.

“There’s plenty left,” I told her as she linked her arm with mine and let me lead them into the front room.

During my absence upstairs with Nora, Allerton had moved to sit with Kathy Manning and Jonathan.

Murphy and Peter sat with Callie and Vaughn. Everyone had a plate of canapes and when we walked in, voices hushed and eyes became watchful.

Smiling, Allerton was first on his feet approaching Devon, hand extended.

I took the opportunity to move to Murphy’s side. He was on his feet too; his face shuttered tight preventing any of his true emotions to show.

Allerton brought Colin and Devon around the room to be introduced in turn.

I braced myself for the confrontation but apart from a coldly uttered, “Liam,” and “Colin,” the two didn’t speak to each other.

With the adroitness of an Alpha, Peter managed to corral Colin and Devon in the farthest corner of the room from Murphy and engage them in small talk. Kathy Manning joined them while Allerton resumed his place beside Jonathan.

I sat next to Callie in Peter’s vacated seat. After eating a plateful of canapes, some of the color had returned to her wasted cheeks.

“How’s Nora?” she asked me.

“Sleeping on my bed,” I said and Callie’s and Vaughn’s shoulders seemed to sag with
 
relief.

“Thank you, Stanzie. She’s really not herself lately. She probably shouldn’t have come, but she wanted to see you.”

Murphy wandered back to us with fresh drinks for me and Callie. He gave them to us and immediately went to mix more for himself and Vaughn. I thought maybe he was avoiding me but I wasn’t sure.

“What’s it like being an Advisor?” Callie wondered with a wistful smile. She’d curled her strawberry blond hair before piling it on top of her head and it made her look like a princess in a fairy tale. Callie’s face had always conjured up the word ethereal for me. Not quite of this world. Now due to her recent miscarriage, she was all the more wispy and transparent, as if she were being slowly erased. I really didn’t think she could withstand another miscarriage.

For the first time I thought about how I would feel if I found out she was dead. A lump rose in my throat and I struggled to contain my grief.

“You ought to let Colin and Devon be Alpha,” I said. I always spoke before I thought—it was one of my curses.

Vaughn’s face contorted. Callie’s pale cheeks suffused with crimson.

“Who are you to tell me what I should do? Is that one of your Advisor duties? Telling people what they ought to do?” Her voice shook and tears made her blue eyes dark as indigo.

“She’s just trying to help.” Vaughn put an arm around her shoulders, but she shrugged him off. The scent of her fury made me bite my lip.

“I don’t need her help,” she spat.

Vaughn took a deep breath and the look he gave me could have blown a hole through a vault in Fort Knox.

“I’ll give up being Alpha when I am damned good and ready,” she snarled at me, her face glowing with her rage. I could smell how weak and unsteady she was and, for a moment, was sure she was going to pass out. It would be my fault because of my stupid, big mouth.

“I’m sorry,” I said, horribly aware of the attention we were attracting. Peter was one second away from vaulting across the room to get to her. “I just I...I don’t want to lose you, Callie. No matter what happened between us, I still think of you as my friend, I always have, and you just look so awful tonight, I’m scared.”

I was sure I was making it worse but I had to say it. I was scared and I didn’t want her to die, and everyone was tap dancing around her feelings and not actually doing anything constructive. If I’d been Vaughn or Peter, I’d have refused to have sex with her for one damn thing. I’d have refused to be Alpha anymore. She couldn’t be Alpha if they wouldn’t. Nobody wanted to crush her ego and, as a result, she was going to die right in front of them. Ego intact, body ruined. Bullshit.

Abruptly, Callie’s rage died. Instead she laughed, almost condescendingly, but I understood she was simply denying everything.

“Silly Stanzie, I’m not going to die. You talk like I’m dying or something. I just had a miscarriage, but I’ll be all right soon. I always am. Right, Vaughn?” She turned with a sweet smile that melted him like butter in a sauce pan.

At that moment he had a choice—to agree with her or to grow some balls and tell her the truth. She’d always been the leader in their triad. He and Peter had always danced to her tune.

“I...I’m really worried about you, Cal,” he said. “You can’t see what this shit is doing to you, but you don’t actually bounce back after losing these babies. Each time takes more and more of a bite out of you.”

Her smile faltered, but she regained it. “I’m just depressed. But I promise I’ll snap out of it. I do feel sorry for myself, don’t I? And I drag all of you down with me. I’ll do better, you’ll see.” She patted his hand the same way she would a dog and turned back to me, missing the complete despair written all over Vaughn’s face.

“Stanzie, that was awful of me. I’m sorry too, sweetie. Friends again?” She gave me one of her blinding smiles and, just like Vaughn, I melted. Everyone did when she smiled like that.

“We were always friends, like I told you,” I said and she hugged me, burying her face in my neck, burrowing in for comfort I wasn’t sure I could provide. I wanted to wave a magic wand and fix it so the next time she got pregnant—because she would, she was determined—it would stick and nine months later she’d have a beautiful baby who would be perfect and healthy and Callie’s world would be complete. But it wasn’t up to me.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered when she raised her head. We were both crying a little, but they were good tears. Vaughn handed us cocktail napkins which we used to wipe our eyes, carefully because cocktails napkins are stiff and tend to scrape the skin if pressed too hard.

Kathy Manning chose that moment to herd us all to the table for dinner. I’m certain she wanted us to get substantial food in our stomachs to counteract the alcohol we’d sucked down in self defense to get through the awkward reunion.

As we were a party of eleven and the Colonial dining room only seated six, the table in the small conference room had been covered with a fancy white tablecloth and pressed into service.

All offers of help disdained, Kathy had us sit around the table while she bustled back and forth from the kitchen with the food.

Allerton sat at the head of the table and she took the foot. The rest of us ranged out on either side of the table.

I sat between Peter and Devon. Murphy was between Devon and Allerton, and Colin was across from Peter, the farthest he could get from Murphy.

As predicted, the Brussels sprouts were delicious and so was the seafood casserole—a steaming hot combination of scallops, shrimp and flounder mixed with seasoned, buttered breadcrumbs. For appetizers we had lobster bisque and there were hot, homemade dinner rolls that seemed to be in endless supply no matter how heavy the demand.

The wine, a slightly chilled Chardonnay, was excellent and everyone concentrated more on their plates than on conversation.

Devon and I chatted amiably, but we were the exception to the rule. It was not one of the more convivial dinner parties I’d ever attended.

The fireplace crackled behind my back, casting off warmth that at times made me wish I could take off my bolero jacket. Beads of sweat popped out on Devon’s face but she didn’t complain. We both had seconds of the Brussels sprouts.

Nora’s empty chair was a silent accusation and everybody tried to ignore it but we couldn’t.

Once we heard the water pipes gurgle—a toilet upstairs had been flushed and I remembered with a gut-wrenching stab of dismay that Grandfather Tobias was locked upstairs in the bedroom closest to Councilor Allerton’s master suite.

The sound did not help the atmosphere of the dinner.

A pall was upon us all and eventually even Devon and I gave up trying to liven things up.

She wiped her sweaty brow with her linen dinner napkin and I poured a generous amount of Chardonnay in my glass. I’d been going slowly on the wine until then, but there came a point in time where I didn’t care anymore.

“I suppose we should discuss Tobias,” declared Allerton, breaking the silence. He set his fork down in the middle of his Blue Willow patterned china plate and straightened even more in his chair.

“Afterward we’ll have dessert and coffee,” murmured Kathy Manning, as she dabbed her lips with her linen napkin and folded it with precision before placing it in the center of her empty plate.

The sound of cutlery against china was very loud as everyone stopped eating or pretending to eat.

Most of us grabbed our wine glasses. I was the leader of the pack.