Chapter 4
FOUR
KOR
The woman who had stood up for my claim on the Pack Leadership, had a soft and gracious voice and a gorgeous figure. I tried not to notice but it was impossible not to—the way the rain had drenched her black mourning dress and caused it to cling to her curves was pretty damn distracting.
As for her face, I didn’t know. She was still wearing that black lace veil that covered everything from her forehead to her chin.
I wondered if maybe she was disfigured in some way.
Or maybe she just didn’t like showing her face in public.
Either way, it was her business—though I had to admit I was extremely curious about what she looked like under there.
I had taken an Uber from the airport to the funeral and had expected to Uber back as well.
Strangely, there were no hotels in the little town where my uncle had lived—maybe because Blackridge was a Pack Town—that is to say, a town where the local Weres lived freely without fear of being discovered by regular humans because there were no regular humans.
If that was true, then it wasn’t surprising they didn’t have any place to stay because they would want to keep tourists and visitors of the human variety out.
I was glad again that my mysterious Vivienne had been kind enough to offer me a place to stay. Then again, it wasn’t likely she was lacking spare guest rooms—not in a huge mansion like this.
I stared at the towering home again as I came around to open her door to help her out. Yes, I know my manners are old-fashioned, but that’s the way my mom trained me. She always said, “Good manners never go out of style,” and so far, she’s always been right.
I helped Vivienne out of the car—noticing that strange tingle I’d felt the first time I touched her. What was that? It was almost like a very mild electrical shock. Except getting shocked doesn’t usually make your cock hard—what the fuck was that about?
I didn’t know but I let go of her hand as soon as she was out of the car.
I didn’t want her looking at the front of my trousers and thinking I was getting excited just to be alone with her.
That might make her think I was some kind of serial killer or rapist—I didn’t want that.
I didn’t want to do anything to scare her—she’d already been so kind to me, standing up against that fucking bully back at the funeral home and offering me a place even after he told everyone not to.
Of course, I had never expected to stay.
I thought I’d just come to the funeral and speak to Uncle Carter’s lawyer to see if there was anything in the will at all for me.
If not, I would have gone straight home.
But after that challenge from Murdoch and the fact that it was clear I ought to be the Pack Leader, I wanted to stay.
Even if all I did was win the Alpha Challenge and then appoint a different successor so I could go back to my business, it would still be worth it.
The people of this pack deserved better than that blowhard bully as their next Pack Leader.
“Well, come inside,” Vivienne said, nodding at me. I handed her the car keys, which she put in her purse, and then we walked up the curving path to the front doors, which were at least two stories tall and perfectly enormous.
But though the doors looked like something you might find in a fancy French chateau, they had been modernized. Fingers flying rapidly, Vivienne punched a series of numbers into an electronic keypad. After a moment I heard a beep sound from the right-hand door and the lock popped open.
I hurried to pull the door open, and she stepped inside as I followed.
Once inside, I took some time to admire the house.
The front doors opened onto a marbled foyer bigger than my entire living room.
There was a grand staircase curving upwards and several smaller rooms leading off the main area.
Everywhere I looked, the house seemed to scream, “Old Money!” There were paintings by the Old Masters on the walls as well as tapestries that had to be hundreds of years old.
I was so busy looking around, I didn’t notice that my new benefactress was taking off her hat and the veil attached to it.
“I hope you like Wolverton Manor,” she was saying.
“Yes, it’s really—” I started to say but broke off abruptly as I turned to her and saw her bare face for the first time.
My thoughts and words stopped together and I’m afraid I simply stared at her.
She was utterly fucking gorgeous.