CHAPTER 1
Astrange chime echoed through the apartment. I froze, halfway between my bedroom and the kitchen.
What the hell was that?
The chime came again, resonating from somewhere near the front door. A muffled knock followed. Michael left an hour ago. He wouldn’t knock on his own door, and from the itchy sense of anxiety our bond was causing, he was still a few blocks away in his office building.
So who the hell was here?
It couldn’t be an intruder. Michael had made a hasty phone call on our drive down from New Hampshire, telling Ronald to double security, and now his enforcers were on high alert. There was no way someone had snuck by them or taken them all out to get to me. Was there?
I shook my head and pushed my worry away. If someone had fought their way up here, I would have heard it. I would have felt it.
Actually, scratch that. If Anna and her thralled vampire were anything to go by… I might not have.
A low growl slipped through my lips. Michael couldn’t get back here soon enough. I was just as ignorant about the abilities of other preternaturals as he was about our bond, and we needed to fix both of those things before either of them blew up in our faces. Again.
The doorbell chimed in rapid succession, like my unexpected visitor was getting impatient.
I didn’t think an intruder would announce themself like this, which meant whoever stood on the other side of the door was probably on our side.
Who would the guards let into the building without feeling the need to tell me about it? A trusted friend? A family member?
The blood drained from my face. Please, Goddess, don’t let it be Michael’s mother.
I crept toward the door, straining my ears.
The apartment was fortified, the walls soundproof, the windows blastproof, and the door thick enough to withstand a direct hit from a rocket launcher.
There was no helpful keyhole for me to peer through, no crack at the bottom for my visitor’s scent to slip beneath.
I would have to open the door totally blind, and I didn’t like that one bit.
I planted my feet and loosened the bars that caged my power. Most likely, this was someone close to Michael, someone security didn’t see as a threat, but if my recent run-in with a five-thousand-year-old vampire had taught me anything, it was that assumptions could get you killed.
I readied myself for a fight and yanked the door open, hoping to catch whoever stood on the other side of it unawares. I was met with the sight of Michael’s heavily pregnant sister, who looked more annoyed than surprised. Behind her, two massive, unfamiliar shifters loomed.
I frowned. “Amy? What are you doing here?”
She threw a glance at the wolves, her dark cropped locks brushing over her shoulders. Her brown eyes sparked with emotion, and she smelled pissed.
“Happy?” she asked the guards. “I’m here, you’ve successfully chaperoned me to the door of my brother’s apartment. Good puppies. Run along now.” She waved her fingers at them in a patronizing gesture.
One of the wolves cast a stoic look at her, but the pair ambled off without a word. What the hell was that about?
Amy started grumbling as she waddled past me into the apartment. “Treating me like I’m a threat to my own damn brother.”
I shut the door behind her. “I’m sorry. Everyone’s amped up here. Are you okay?”
She put a hand on her belly and eased herself into the nearest chair. “I’m fine. Just cranky.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“A filthy dirty vodka martini, light on the vermouth, heavy on the Grey Goose.”
I stared at her swollen belly, 99 percent sure she was being sarcastic. I’d only known her for a few days, but she was proving herself to be the kind of person who said outrageous things just to rile those around her. “Um…”
She sighed. “Water is fine.”
I went to the kitchen and poured her a glass, handing it to her when I returned to the living room. “Are you sure it’s safe for you to be here?”
The Back Bay of Boston was the front line of the Kolbecks’ defenses in the city. Amy was the alpha’s daughter, and she was pregnant, which must have painted a huge target on her back for the pack’s enemies.
She took a long sip of her drink before answering. “It’s safer here than being trapped inside a house with my mother right now.”
I cringed. “Sorry if that’s because of me and Michael.”
“Don’t be. There’s nothing you could have done differently and had it turn out any better.” She eyed me for a moment before asking her next question, as if mulling it over. “Can I be frank?”
I nodded.
“You two hiding out here is only delaying the inevitable. Mom always gets her way, eventually. Better you come back home on your own terms instead of hers.”
Alarm bells blared through my mind at the suggestion. I’d been wary of their mother since our first meeting, but this elevated response was new. Something in the back of my mind was screaming at me not to go.
“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” I said, trying to push down the unwelcome surge of panic.
“I am. You think I like living in my parents’ house with my husband and two small children?”
I shook my head. Their living dynamic was something I’d wondered about since my first and only night in the Kolbeck family home. “Why are you?”
Amy downed the rest of her drink in one gulp. “Because she left us no other choice.”
I stayed quiet, hoping she’d elaborate, but she set the empty glass down and stood.
Her hand went back to her belly, landing higher on it this time. “I’m starving. There’s a patisserie down the street that makes orgasmic pastries. Want to grab a bite with me?”
I hesitated. The same part of me that didn’t want to go back to the Kolbeck family home was urging me to stay inside the apartment and keep Amy here with me.
As if sensing my sudden worry, she rolled her eyes. “It’ll be fine. I promise we can take as many guards with us as you want.”
I brushed the creeping feeling of wariness aside. I was being paranoid. So much had happened in the past few days that even something as banal as going out for a bite to eat felt like it contained hidden threats and pitfalls.
“Let me just change,” I said, rising from my seat.
Amy waved a hand at me in the same way Michael would have. “You look fine. Now let’s go. I’m so hungry that I might try to bite one of the sentries on the way out.”
I should have changed. Like everything in Michael’s neighborhood, the patisserie was upscale, and I was underdressed in my running shorts and tank top.
Soft classical music played from hidden speakers.
The floor was tiled in spotless white marble.
Glass display cases held shelves of sweets that looked more like artwork than food, and all the other patrons were dressed like Amy—in high-end streetwear made to look casual.
I glanced at the prices on the menu and swear I heard my debit card start to sob.
“My treat,” Amy said as we made our way up to the counter.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Back home, I’d planned to spend the summer working as a waitress in the restaurant on our packland. My bank account was dwindling, and unless I found a way to boost it soon, I’d have to have an awkward conversation with my mate about finances.
The person in front of us paid, and we stepped forward.
Amy ordered several pastries and a cup of herbal tea.
I opted for a large artisanal coffee and a chocolate confection that I had trouble pronouncing the name of.
The cashier gave me a look afterward that was an impressive mix of pity and judgment.
We took our food to a small, round table tucked away in a corner.
Amy insisted on sitting with her back to the room, and as she began meticulously devouring everything she’d ordered, I understood why.
Pregnant women were known for their appetites.
Pregnant werewolves were slightly scary when they ate.
The look on her face was torn between lust and ferocity.
I caught sight of too-sharp-to-be-human canines as she ripped into a scone, and I shifted my gaze past her to see if anyone else noticed.
No one seemed to be paying us any mind, and I relaxed some—well, as much as I could when my spine prickled like someone was watching me and the crushing weight of stimulus overload threatened.
Something flashed past the window. I turned from the strangely enthralling sight of Amy eating and gazed out at the street beyond the patisserie.
Humans streamed by like a living river. Some had their eyes fixed on their phones.
Others wore earbuds and stared straight ahead.
Every now and then a group of tourists passed, moving slower than the rest as they pointed at their surroundings or stared wide-eyed at the hustle of the city.
No one looked back at me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was.
To make matters worse, Michael was in a mood.
I could feel his annoyance in the back of my mind, and it grated like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
The fact that he was annoyed only spiked my own irritation.
At him. He’d been keeping things from me.
His magic. The fact that Kolbeck Industries was cooking up things in laboratories that threatened to bring the wrath of an ancient vampire down on all our heads.
Part of me understood his secrecy. I’d known Michael less than a week, and already understood why he held his cards so close to his chest. Between his problematic mother, a city on the brink of war, and the complexity of interpack politics, the less your enemies knew about you, the better.
But damn it, I was his mate. The one wolf he should trust above all others.
Across from me, Amy let out a carnal moan, and I shifted my focus back to her. She wore a look of unadulterated bliss. There wasn’t so much as a crumb left on her plate. How long had I been staring out the window?
She dabbed at her lips with delicate care and then set the napkin aside. “Thanks. I needed this.”
“Any time.”