Page 46 of Heartless

“He do this a lot?” I muttered, perching uneasily on the stool. “Is this like his… mate pad, or something?”

The girl made a humming sound. “This is the home of the Burrow Cats of the Western Ridge.”

It took me a moment to join the dots. “As in the Barakats?”

She nodded, leaning against the counter. “You know our history?” I assumed she didn’t mean Trey’s rap-sheet, so I shook my head. “Originally, we lived in burrows, hence the name. We mostly kept to ourselves, except for a little trade, the occasional skirmish, and, of course, for mating rights. But when the Vulpes Wars went down, a lot of things changed.”

“The Vulpes Wars?”

“Fox Wars. Basically, it means the wolves were treacherous assholes who staged a sneak attack against the other families in Europe. We didn’t do too well out of it, and needed to recover and lick our wounds. Some of our kind came here and took this region as their territory. We’re not big on the whole pack thing, but the claw is special. It’s a community, in its own way. We look out for each other and that’s how we usually find our mates.”

Her eyes sparkled as I squirmed, and I reminded myself I needed to have a really pointed conversation with my dad. Signing over the mating rights of your kids wasn’t special. It was a goddamn betrayal.

My thoughts must have been pretty transparent because she said, “Trey should have probably chosen his moment a little better, but last night was important to us. We don’t really care about the moon, like the wolves do. It’s pretty and everything, but we work our magic off the winds. Last night was the height of the Frost Wind. It’s a time of big decisions for us. Matings that happen when she blows are said to be as strong and wild as her spirit.”

It sounded kind of nice when she put it like that, but there was no way around the reality. Wild was a polite word for what I’d done last night. And I could admit I’d been caught up in it. I’d hunted, I’d fought, I’d killed, and I’d topped it off with a mating bite. But like a strong wind, it had all the substance of dust when it blew itself out.

Which is why I needed to put it behind me and get back to the Clan Caves. That’s where my real mate was.

Sliding off the stool, I rinsed the cup in the sink and said, “Thanks for that. And I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask your name.”

“It’s Ada Barakat. I’m Trey’s twin sister.”

His twin? “I didn’t know.” I scrambled to remember any mention of a sister, but there was only the mysterious Adam, who I’d never met. It wasn’t impossible, I supposed, that Adam was Ada, and for some reason she’d never been introduced to the good people of the Horn. As I dried the cup and returned it to its nook, I said, “I honestly thought there were only the Barakat boys.”

“I stayed here with our mom. Went to a boarding school up north and then college. Living on the Horn was Trey’s thing, not mine.” I was nodding, because I could totally understand why this classy, sensible girl had kept her distance from her brother’s criminal enterprise. But she was looking at me strangely, tapping her long nails on the side of her cup. “You do realize he only moved there because of you, right? He walked into this kitchen when he was about eight years old and told our dad he was going to live there, so he better build him a house. When the twins were old enough to have opinions – think about five seconds out of the womb - they decided they wanted to move there, too.”

“I don’t remember that. I thought they’d all lived there forever. Everyone talks about them like they own the mountain.”

She shrugged. “Trey has a way of making things his.”

Which was enough of a reminder to have my gaze darting back to the door. “I really need to get going.” I looked down at my borrowed outfit. “I’ll mail the clothes back to you, if that’s okay.”

She shrugged, like giving a stranger a cashmere sweater was nothing. When she started towards the front door, I was right on her heels. As much as I’d enjoyed the coffee and had found the conversation enlightening, I hoped this was a one-time thing, and I’d never see her again. But that didn’t mean I wanted to get her into trouble, either. “Is Trey going to make your life hard for helping me out?”

“He could try,” she said with a little sizzle in her amber eyes, but when she opened the door, she looked carefully outside. I had a moment of vertigo, as I remembered we were up in a treehouse and the ground was a long way down, before she said, “I’d still take that over pissing off your escort home.”

I peered around her shoulder, expecting to see Liam and a couple of his big dudes pointing guns in our direction. But instead, it was Cyril Long, my grandfather’s enforcer, standing at the open door of an SUV.

Chapter Twenty-Four – Vail

“That’s not my ride,” I said, backing up a step.

But Ada put a hand on my shoulder and gently shoved me back out the door. “It is unless you want to get back into my brother’s bed and play happy mates for the rest of your life.”

I couldn’t really suppress my shudder, and she gave me a sympathetic smile as I started down the stairs. I remembered bounding up them with such eagerness, like this was just part of some great adventure, and Trey was exactly who I wanted to share it with. Thanks a lot, wildcat. As my panther felt the sour edge of my disillusionment, she flicked her tail at me, but I was way beyond trying to play nice. Which meant I was wearing my grumpiest expression when I stalked up to the Marrow enforcer. “Where are you planning on taking me?”

Cyril Long wasn’t the kind of wolf you barked your questions at. I knew this, but I really was at an all-time low for giving a shit. Still, I tensed as he stared me down. His gaze didn’t just pierce you, it stripped back your layers and burned along your bones. But like all cornered animals I wasn’t about to back down. “I just want to go home.”

“Well, I’m here to take you wherever you want to go.” He gestured to the open door. “Hop in. The heat’s on.”

How could I argue with that? That meddlesome wind had died off, but it was still freezing out. Plus, I had no shoes, and no idea of where I was, except outside the Burrow Cats’ tree-house hideaway. Which made me look at Cyril with even more suspicion. “How did you know I was here?”

“I have an arrangement with Ada. Any wolves who find themselves in her territory, she lets me know.” I must have looked surprised, because he said, “This is her land. In the panther world, all property is held in the female’s name. The males tend to be the roamers, so it makes sense for the females to have a secure base.” I was pretty sure my mouth was hanging open, but Cyril just said, “How about we continue this conversation on the ride home?”

I climbed in, and while he walked around to the driver’s door, tipped down the visor to check the damage. I knew the bruising from Callum’s elbow had faded, since the throbbing was gone, but I was surprised I couldn’t find some evidence of my reckless night. I’d been bewitched by the Frost Wind before biting into the neck of the Devil of the Horn. Shouldn’t there have been something?

Like a scarlet letter tattooed on my forehead?

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