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“And yet, here I am.”
“People might be willing to talk to me,” Amelia said.
Theresa scoffed. “There’s no way you are leaving this territory until we want to use you as bait.”
Amelia’s eyes blazed. “Do you think I want to go back there?”
Teresa looked as cool and unruffled as usual. “I can’t tell. I’m not ready to form an opinion of your loyalty.”
Her words were heavy, weighted, as if the fates of Amelia and her son might rest on Teresa’s judgment. But of course that wasn’t true. As much as I hated it, Stone’s decision was the only decision.
“I’ll be back soon,” I promised Amelia, then turned to Teresa and swept an arm toward the door in exaggerated welcome. I had to get her to the car, partially to get her away from Amelia. The two of them were like oil and water.
As if any of us couldn’t guess why Teresa hated Amelia almost on sight.
I could never stand any tension, unless I was the one distressing people for my own amusement. Call it a survival skill from growing up the youngest son in a dangerous household. I had a need to smooth things over.
I tried everything I could to make conversation with Teresa, but she would not be smoothed. Instead, we had a very quiet drive out to the nearest city near Longroad pack territory.
The diner Amelia had mentioned was a large, rough looking kind of place, the kind of place where everyone minds their own business. The waitress who came over to serve us looked tired and harried. But she aimed a bright smile at us that felt oddly familiar, and I wracked my brain, trying to figure out where I might know her from.
“What can I get you started with?” she asked.
I stole a glance at her name tag. Rose. I still couldn’t place her, but something about her round face and long auburn braid felt familiar.
“Two Cokes, two burgers, and a basket of fries please.”
Teresa looked at me skeptically when the waitress had gone. “We are in a dangerous situation, and you want to have snacks?”
“I always want to have snacks.”
When Rose came back with our drinks, I asked her, “Do you know if Liza is around today?”
She gave me a strange look. “She won’t be in for an hour.”
As soon as she had tossed us straws and departed, Teresa said to me quietly, “She looks familiar, doesn’t she?”
I nodded.
Even though I hadn’t said anything, she threw me an exasperated look. “Does she look like someone you slept with?”
“You are so rude, Tee.”
“I just wondered why you were looking at me that way, because I think she bears a striking resemblance to a certain hapless--but oddly hypnotizing, apparently--shifter who recently wandered into our pack.”
I stared at Teresa, who threw up her arms in exasperation, before I asked, “You think she looks like Amelia?”
I turned to get another look at our waitress, realizing that she was probably right.
Teresa threw up her arms. “So you admit you’re all hypnotized.”
“I don’t know that I’d say hypnotized. She’s very sweet, and she’s been through some hard times, we all have those protective alpha impulses. Of course we want to make sure that she’s going to be OK.”
Teresa gave me a disbelieving look. “Yes. You’re all so….protective. That’s what it is.”
I frowned at all she was implying. “Why don’t you like her, anyway?”
“I don’t think you can trust her, and you and Cole and Stone all act like she’s your mate. And Liam has leveled-up to a whole new kind of crazy.”
