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She inclined her head towards the window, gaze meaningful.
My dead heart sank a bit deeper into the abyss.
Sterling.
I heard myself say out of habit, “I’m good.”
I was not good. I had not been good for a long time. Thank Gaia for habits and polite, socially acceptable lies.
A new SUV had arrived in the crumbling parking lot. This one driven by Henri, and from the passenger seat behind him, Sterling unfolded himself, sobrightin the blinding July sunlight. His hair almost seemed white, a stark contrast to his tanned skin. He wore battered shorts and a tee-shirt he’d gotten in Florida and mangled sandals. He had a bag over his shoulder. Small. Not much to it. Sunglasses. He moved aside so Henri could get his daughter out of the backseat.
Even standing still, Sterling was beautiful. All the she-wolves stared at him with open curiosity, taking in the way his muscles flowed and shifted under his tanned skin, the dark, intense prestige that rolled off him like distant thunder behind a mountain, the mottled fading bruises and chapped hands that told the story of intense training.
Right behind was another SUV, and a few moments later, Garrett and Cerys walked into view. Cerys wore a dress that fluttered in the breeze, while Garret matched his son in casual hiking bum attire. Garrett had a large rucksack over one shoulder, though, which had the tips of two hunting bows sticking out the top of it.
“He is so going to die,” the she-wolf to my left said. Her voice sounded like she spoke in my ear.
“You sound like you can’t wait to watch it,” I said, feeling equal parts empty and enraged.
“You smell like you’re going to puke.”
“I won’t.” I waswellpast vomiting. I was dead and empty, and whatever rage I might have felt ran away. I was a sieve with really big holes, and whatever I felt anymore was transient.
“What do you care about some hybrid?” she asked. “You haveSearle.”
I bristled. Hybrid.Hybrid. I elbowed her back off me. “Icarebecause the human is Sterling’s father, and the Mortcombes own the land we’ll be meeting on.”
The two she-wolves looked at me in shock. The one behind my back shoved me lightly. “Bullshit.”
I shoved her off me again. “If Sterling loses, the Mortcombes will surrender massive tracts of land they own to various wolf packs. Includingall of this.”
“And if hewins?” the one on my left asked.
I laughed, but felt nothing. “Good question.”
Emily gave me a nervous look. “You shouldn’t be talking about that, Summer.”
“Guess if anyone outside this truck finds out these two know, they’ll know who the gossips are. And I’ll know where to find the gossips.” I elbowed the one behind me who just couldnotkeep herself off me in the gut. Hard enough she grunted and squished herself as far out of my space as she could manage.
“You don’t think they’re going to hold up their end of the deal?” Emily asked.
“Land’s already in escrow. It’s the rest of the Elders I don’t trust to not do them dirty. Especially if Sterling manages to win.”
“He’s not going to win,” the she-wolf on my right said.
I turned my gaze to the bright blue sky. “Wolves raised on rats are a different breed.”
A nudge. “You honestly think he’s going to win?”
My heart ached with each beat. “I don’t care what anyone says. He’ll win.”
Another strange look from the she-wolves, but we were rescued from the heat and my faltering facade by Demetrius coming back to the truck. The AmberHowl Alpha pulled open the driver’s side door and stuck his head inside. He passed Emily a room key. “Here you go. Second floor. Get lost, you three.”
Didn’t have to tell them twice. They opened the doors and scampered out into the relatively cooler, fresher air of the outside.
I stared at Demetrius, waiting.
“You saw him,” Demetrius stated.
