LITMIR.BIZ

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all of him in “—well, everything.”

      Brice stood straighter. Plenty of women had stared, ogled and gawked at him. None had blushed so prettily or affected him the way she did.

      He wanted to tease her. Test her boundaries. And conquer them.

      No, no, no!

      No conquering allowed.

      “All right, Cassie, you have two options.”

      “Oh, really?” She cocked her hip and folded her arms across her waist. Such a cute little protest.

      “Put on your shoes and come with me like a good little girl.” He stepped close enough that she had to tilt her head to keep eye contact.

      She didn’t balk. “Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. What’s the second?”

      “Barefoot and braless, hog-tied in the backseat.” He made a point to stare at her chest until her nipples pebbled against her thin T-shirt.

      “What kind of choice is that?” Her skin colored to the exact shade he wanted to see.

      “The kind where you get to choose the manner in which you’ll accompany me, Sunshine.” He jingled the keys. “Don’t take too long, or I’ll think you’re into kinky.”

       Chapter 6

      “Why are we crawling through the bushes?” Aggravation weighted Cassie’s whisper.

      Brice grinned because she continued to follow him, creeping along the outside of the hospital in search of the window to his grandmother’s room. “I’m banished,” he answered in a hushed tone.

      When he’d tried to explain his situation on the trip into Maico, Cassie had held up her hand and refused to look at him while she drove. Her silent irritation had pounded him until they reached the hospital parking lot. In an attempt to smooth things over, he’d thanked her for coming and added how much it meant to him to see his grandmother again.

      Cassie’s defenses faltered, and the hardness she projected dissolved. Compassion filled her eyes, and the more amicable side to her personality emerged.

      The transformation made him forget that he didn’t deserve her sympathy, because when the tension dropped between them, the thoughts that filled Brice’s mind were not his past failures but a new hope. He didn’t understand it. Didn’t expect it to last. However, he sure as hell would make the most of it while he had it.

      “What do you mean, banished?” Her gentle probe held no judgment.

      “My pack turned me out because I’m the reason Mason is dead.” Resentment leached into his words, followed by shame. “He would’ve been our next leader.”

      Behind him, Cassie stopped, so Brice didn’t continue forward. She missed a breath, and the back of his head burned, possibly from the heat of her gaze.

      “Anyone who blames you is an idiot,” she announced. “Sometimes bad things happen and it’s nobody’s fault. What happened to you and Mason was one of those times. You know that, right?” The warmth of Cassie’s small hand against his arm urged Brice to believe.

      His heart wouldn’t allow it.

      At the next window, Brice peeked inside. His grandmother’s old flowered housecoat hung across a chair.

      “This one.” Brice’s excitement turned to dread. He dropped into a squat. What if seeing him became too much for Granny?

      An icy chill caused him to shudder although a light sheen of sweat coated his skin. His head pounded the same rhythm as his heart. Both felt ready to explode.

      He tipped his nose toward Cassie less than a foot away. The balm of her sweet scent infiltrated his senses.

      Her head swept side to side. “All clear.”

      Brice appreciated her watchfulness, though his wolfan senses gave him a more accurate account of their surroundings.

      They faced the visitor parking lot, deserted this time of night except for Cassie’s old car parked in the shadows. A mildly curious grackle watched them from its perch on the nearby telephone lines. A car on the highway a block away sounded a faint hum in the stillness of the night.

      A roach inched toward Cassie, twitching its divining rod antennae. Brice chucked a piece of mulch at the insect and sent it scurrying away before she noticed.

      “You should hurry.” She motioned for him to get moving.

      Brice peeked in the window again. The monitors and IV pole partially blocked the view, so he couldn’t see if someone sat in the other chair near the bed. He dropped down again.

      “Please tell me you aren’t going to Tom-peep the window all night.” Cassie’s no-nonsense tone matched the exasperation on her face.

      “I can’t tell if someone is in the room.”

      “Knock on the window. Maybe they’ll let us inside before someone calls the cops.” Cassie moved from a crouch to a sitting position and leaned against the brick wall. “I don’t want to spend the night in jail.”

      “Neither do I.” Brice released a nervous breath.

      “I doubt you would get arrested. Me, on the other hand...” Cassie’s voice trailed off. She picked at a blade of grass that had wormed its way through the mulch.

      “They’d haul me in the same as you. Then they’d call the pack liaison, and he’d call my dad.”

      “The sheriff’s office knows about your wolfy people?”

      Brice shook his head. “To them, and everyone else, we’re the Walker’s Run Cooperative. Tristan Durrance is our law enforcement liaison. He’s a pack sentinel and a sworn deputy. Trust me, I’ll get the worst of this if we’re caught. My dad doesn’t want me in the territory.”

      Cassie tugged the grass blade free and peeled it into symmetric strips. “He’s expecting you. He told the resort staff that when you arrive, we are to give you any room you want and anything else you request. Without question. Why would he want us to accommodate you if he doesn’t want you here?”

      “I don’t know.” The tightness in Brice’s gut reached into his chest. His father was planning something, and whatever it was, Brice would certainly suffer the consequences.

      He stared at the black sky, devoid of stars due to the glow of civilization. The woods around his grandmother’s cabin protected the small homestead from the incandescence of modernization. Stretched on the grass on the slope of the backyard, he could watch the twinkling skyline for hours. He’d missed that peace and comfort in Atlanta, where he’d found only a few places a wolf could run and even fewer to stargaze.

      Brice rubbed his palm along the denim covering his sore calf. The aspirin hadn’t worked as well as he’d expected. He needed to do something or go home before the pain flared to unbearable again.

      He eased to the window and tried to push up the pane. “The lock is jammed. I can’t pop it.”

      “Nice to know breaking and entering isn’t your thing.” Cassie brushed past with a follow-me wave. The innocent contact triggered a rush of moony feelings that Brice vigorously shook off.

      Sneaking through the hedges, she led him within a few yards of an emergency exit. The door stood ajar, and a hospital employee lingered on the stoop. The orange glow from a cigarette sharpened his blocky facial features. He took a long drag and exhaled a plume of white smoke.

      Brice didn’t understand the human fascination with smoking. Wahyas avoided it like the mange because it skunked their sense of smell.

      Cassie’s shoulder rustled the bushes. She froze. Brice did the same. The orderly leaned against the rail and squinted in their direction without any apparent concern.

      Since

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