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He was male, with pale skin, dark blond hair, a trimmed beard, and angular brows. His eyes were hazel, his mouth a firm line. There was something familiar about his face, his magic. But I couldn’t place him.
The shifter whispered something to Connor, face turned away so we couldn’t read his lips.
After a moment, Connor nodded. “Ten minutes,” he said, and the man walked away without so much as a word to us.
“He’s friendly,” Theo said.
“Who was that?” I asked. “He looks familiar.”
“Alexei Breckenridge,” Connor said.
My grandparents were friends with the patriarch of the Breckenridge family, Michael Sr. But the family was less friendly with my parents. Alexei was our age, but I hadn’t seen him in years, and probably only a handful of times before that.
“I didn’t know Brecks mingled with the rest of the Pack these days,” I said.
“He’s one of the few,” Connor said dryly. “The Brecks prefer to live within the human world. But Alexei’s good Pack. If not entirely sociable.”
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“It will be. Business as usual. And I’d like to talk to you about that.” He looked at Theo. “Mind giving us a minute?”
“No problem,” he said. “I’m going to see a shifter about some meats.” He cut through the crowd, disappeared, leaving Connor and me alone.
Connor looked down at me, a corner of his mouth lifted in a smile that was partly cocky, partly unsure. He knew exactly who he was. But we were both still figuring out whowewere. Our beginning had been sandwiched between years of teenage sniping and weeks of separation. Uncomfortable, given I generally preferred clear steps. Rule books. Plans and procedures.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey back. It’s good to see you,” I ventured, and his face lit, his smile widened.
“It’s good to see you, too, Lis.”
“The Pack’s good?” I asked quietly, not wanting to force him to spread internal struggles through the room, and betting he’d tell me more than he’d said in front of Theo.
“Drama,” he said. “Almost as bad as dealing with vampires.”
“Oh, that’s funny.”
“I thought so.”
We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other. Want and trepidation dancing in the air around us.
“I’m going to Minnesota,” he said. “I’d like you to go with me.”
I stared at him. “You want me to go to Minnesota with you.”
“Yes. Grand Bay, on the north shore of Lake Superior. Beautiful place. My cousin—a second cousin, actually—is being initiated into the Pack, and I’m going. Night to drive, night to attend the initiation, night to drive back.”
“Why would you want a vampire at a Pack initiation?” They were notoriously secretive events, just for family and close friends.
“Maybe I’m interested in your company. Does there always have to be an ulterior motive?”
“I’m a vampire. So yes.”
A corner of his mouth lifted. “Colorado wasn’t the last of the Pack’s troubles. The initiation is happening within a clan—a small community—that’s got issues.”
“What kind of issues?”
“That’s the question. The clan is being mum on the details, and I want a firsthand look at it. Ineeda firsthand look, but I know I’m biased; you won’t be. And in case there’s trouble, I know you can handle yourself.”
