Chapter 16 #2
“Focus, Killer,” Max says, using his pet name for Honey. Yeah. The Alpha calls his innocent opossum mate ‘Killer’. Go figure. He also has good timing so I let it go as he lifts up the raccoon so we can all see her. “Remember?”
“Right. Sorry. Well, it’s obviously not Roxy since she’s here. What do you think? Do you recognize this raccoon? Do you have any idea why was she sneaking around the bakery?”
Unfortunately, I do.
I have no idea what she’s doing here. Wearing the scent-free charm? That doesn’t make sense… though it does give me a little idea for a taste of revenge.
“Hey, Hon. Remember how you were wearing that witch’s charm that washed off when you were in the shower? And then your scent came back?”
Max’s gold eyes simmer as he glances over to his mate. “I remember.”
Honey blushes. “I do, too, Max. And I think I get your drift, Roxy. If we wash the raccoon, maybe we can get a scent. See if it’s really a shifter.”
Oh, it’s a shifter, all right. “I have a sink upstairs, if—”
Max muscles his way past us, still scruffing the raccoon. “Upstairs? Got it.”
He takes the stairs two at a time. Honey plops Gus on her shoulder and scurries after her mate. Since I don’t want to miss what happens next, I follow, and I drag Ash with me.
By the time I’ve reached the hall, I hear the sink in my kitchen running, the angry hissing sounds of a pissed-off raccoon, and Max calling out, “I get ice and… caramel? No. It’s darker than that. Burnt sugar.”
It’s burnt sugar. Her scent is ingrained into me almost as much as her fur pattern.
I step into the kitchen and smile at the soaked raccoon.
“Crystal Kane. What the hell are you doing in Moonburrow?”
I don’t know what gives me more pleasure: seeing my older sister with her black and white hair plastered to her face like a drowned rat, or putting her in an old raccoon t-shirt of mine— “YES, I’M A BAD GIRL” with the image of a raccoon’s mugshot beneath it—and a pair of my sweatpants because she would’ve shifted back and been naked otherwise.
Honestly? Probably the shirt.
It was easy to convince her to shift. She was caught, she knew it, and all it took was a schoolyard taunt, telling her that she was too chicken to face me in her skin, and she was buck naked in the blink of an eye.
Luckily, I thought ahead and sent Ash and Max into the spare room before grabbing a change of clothes.
I told Crystal she could walk around Moonburrow naked or wear my clothes, and though she actually thought about it for a second—and suggested she could stay in her fur until she got a better outfit—eventually she begrudgingly pulled on my threads.
The fact that Max was growling in the other room, letting his dominant wolf terrorize Crystal’s raccoon from behind closed doors probably helped…
Once she was dressed, I let the males back in.
I didn’t send them away for Crystal’s sake, either.
My mating with Ash is too new to tolerate the idea of any other female being nude in his presence.
Luckily, Honey’s just as possessive of her wolf because she actually pushed Max into the room with Ash herself.
Now the four of us—five if you count Gus… and, hell, you gotta count Gus—are standing around Crystal, waiting for her to explain herself.
And, just like she did when we were kits, she immediately opens with, “I didn’t do it.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “I didn’t ask if you did. I asked what you’re doing here. You’re supposed to be in Virginia.”
Instead of answering me, Crystal’s yellow eyes dart over to Ash. Not me. Not his mating mark. Just Ash.
She bites down on the corner of her mouth.
My fingers flex and fold into fists, my nails digging into the flesh of my palms. I know that look.
That’s the look she’d get whenever she did something to fuck up my life, got caught, and is trying to come up with a story that makes me look like the villain and her the victim.
And she’s still eyeballing my mate.
“I take that back,” I say flatly. “What. Did. You. Do?”
Crystal hears the threat in my tone and suddenly remembers she’s dealing with twenty-eight-year-old Roxy and not the scrawny raccoon she used to toss into dumpsters—
Toss into dumpsters…
Fuck.
“Crystal,” I snarl.
“It’s not my fault,” she snaps. “It wasn’t supposed to turn into a whole thing. I mean it, Rox. It was just supposed to be a little fun.”
“Fun?” I ask. “Fun for who?”
Her tongue darts out, swiping her bottom lip nervously.
“You should blame Eddie.” Edward, her mate.
“He got pissed because I got into a stupid drunken fight when I was hanging out with the girls. It was only two nights in county, but he said I was a bad example for our kits. He went to spend a couple of weeks with his clan in Winchester.” She makes a face.
“That’s, like, five hours away by car. He left me behind and I got bored, okay?
Lonely and bored. And there was Ashton. After all those years in Onancock, he finally realized that Roxy abandoned the rest of her clan and wasn’t in town for him to find.
Off he went in his car, to Moonburrow… and wouldn’t you know?
That’s where Roxy is now. Of course I had to tag along for the ride.
Right under the back seat for the entire drive. ”
There’s so much in what Crystal said that I’ll have to unpack later.
Abandoned her? Is she serious? Ash admitted that he moved to Onancock because his opossum told him that he would find his mate there, but how does Crystal know that?
And Edward left Crystal? It takes a lot for a bonded mate to separate from his female that long…
what exactly did she do? Because two nights in county is nothing for a raccoon. Unless—
I shake my head. The only thing I care about is how she said she snuck away and hid in Ash’s car.
I look at him. “Did you know?”
Ash’s eyes are wide. “I had no idea, Roxy, I swear.” A sheepish expression crosses his face. “I told you that my car was packed with as many boxes of books as I could fit. I could barely see through my rearview mirror on the drive, let alone notice a furry stowaway.”
Crystal snorts, and I hate that it sounds so much like the noise I usually make.
“Please. He was oblivious. He had no idea that I was in the car, or that I stole one of his shirts to change into after I shifted. Not that he would know. I’ve been wearing a scent-reducing charm for a couple of months now.
” She puts her hand to her mouth as an aside and says, “It’s a lot easier to get away with shit if none of the local shifters can catch your scent. ”
I clench my jaw as I glare at my sister. “Yeah? And what sort of shit did you get up to in Moonburrow?”
Crystal mutters something under her breath.
“What was that?” demands Max, pouring all of the aggression of an Alpha wolf into the question.
My sister squeaks. “I’m the one who did that to Ashton.”
I blink, stunned. At the same time, Honey looks from me to Ash to Gus. She settles on Gus. “Do I want to know?”
Gus chitters in answer.
Honey gasps, swiveling to look at Ash. “You died?”
Ash takes a step behind me. He’s a half foot taller than me, even taller than Honey, yet he quails as she glares up at him. “I got better,” he offers.