Page 41 of Clawless

At the sniff test, Cal had said she smelled like nothing. He’d been the one to proclaim her a dud, and since he had the best nose in the clan, I hadn’t argued with him. It was also one of the reasons I believed the lab report that said she was a void. When she’d come out as an omega, my dad’s theory was she’d had to hide her wolf so deep because of her human upbringing, and was only now able to let her shifter side rise to the surface. Which meant her wolf had to be tough. And maybe a hell of a lot stronger than anyone suspected.

The only thing was, I’d been raised by an omega. My mom was the Luna of our pack, and the gentlest creature to ever walk the earth. But while she and Vail had got along fine during their brief meeting at the dinner dance, they were as different as the sun and the moon.

Maybe it was her Marrow blood.

Or maybe the lab report was wrong, and she wasn’t an omega at all.

But for the moment, I didn’t want to think about her bloodline or her pack status. Not when her scent was wrapped all around me – like fresh air and warm bread – and I could feel the silky skin of her back against my fingers.

It was late afternoon when she finally woke. It was gradual, and I had the pleasure of feeling her stretch muscle by muscle, her hip brushing back and forth over mine as she was coaxed from sleep. When she eventually opened her eyes, there was a moment when she looked at me in confusion and I knew she was thinking of Jay. But then a shutter came down and she unhooked her leg from mine. She scooted back a little, then grimaced. “I feel like crap.”

A chuckle rumbled out of me. “Glad I could be of service.”

She gave me a small smile, but as she sat up, she winced and wrapped her arms around her middle. “Ow. What the hell? Did I puke last night?”

“You had a reaction to the medicine they used. It made you sick. You remember that?”

The shudder that passed through her was answer enough. But she just pushed her hair off her face and looked at the window. “What time is it?”

“We missed Monday classes.”

“Really?” She pressed her stomach. “Maybe I’m hungry?”

“I was considering which limb you could do without.” When she just stared at me, I shrugged. “My stomach lining ate itself hours ago.”

She snorted. “Serves you right for cultivating all those muscles.”

I made a bicep, since she was already looking at it. “I was the runt of the pack until I was about thirteen. Remember what I said about shifting and body mass? For alphas, when they hit puberty, it can kind of snowball.”

“From snowflake to avalanche?” She lost her smile and began chewing on her lip. “You think I’ll change now I’m shifting? I could do without the extra padding, thanks very much.”

“It’s different with omegas. You probably won’t notice much of a change.”

She just raised her brows and rubbed her stomach some more, so I climbed out of bed and headed into the kitchen. After turning on the coffee machine, I took the tray out of the warmer, and grabbed the water jug from the refrigerator. She was still sitting in the middle of the bed as I lay the tray on the covers. “First time I’ve asked for room service,” I admitted. “Wasn’t sure what you’d feel like, so it’s somewhere between brunch and supper.”

“Works for me,” she said, taking an egg sandwich. She ate slowly, and I could tell she was still feeling lousy. “I can’t believe I slept that long.”

“You want to talk about it?”

She shrugged. “Principal Bregman said he had to talk to me in his office. I followed him, but he didn’t hang around. The two guards from Den Night were there, and a doctor I didn’t recognize. They held me down and she put the tracker in me.” She put the sandwich down and took the glass of water I handed her. When she’d taken a sip, she watched me over the rim. “Did you look at it? The tracker?”

I knew she hadn’t. Her fingers had brushed over it a couple times in her sleep, but she’d been careful not to touch it since she woke. “There’s a small square of gauze. No bigger than a postage stamp. I didn’t look under it.”

“Okay.” She set the glass on the tray and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I’m going to the bathroom.” She flushed, like she wasn’t sure why she’d told me. Or maybe she was thinking about that tracker behind her ear, and exactly how much it told Jay about her whereabouts. “Thanks for the food.”

I nodded, but she was concentrating on getting from my bed to the bathroom. I could see her legs shaking and when she caught sight of herself in my mirror, she grimaced. My wolf was suddenly pushing right up through my defenses and I had only a moment to warn her, before brown fur rippled across both my arms. “Damn, Vail. My wolf isn’t coping too well with seeing you like this.”

“It’s okay.” She gripped the doorway, but I think it was mostly to keep herself upright. “If you have to shift, I don’t mind.”

“No,” I shoved my wolf back with an inward curse. “He knows better than to try pulling that crap.”

She watched with interest as the fur faded, and I flexed my forearms. The fucker had raked me good in the process, and for a moment my skin glowed a painful red. But like all of the tussles with my wolf, his weapon of choice was psychological warfare and as soon as he’d made his point, the claw marks faded. The muscles underneath still throbbed like a bitch, though. “That’s kind of amazing,” she said. “But your wolf seems like a hard ass.”

I snorted. “The downside to going from runt to ranger is your wolf gets an inflated sense of his importance.”

“Ranger?”

“Old Pack word. You know how we have enforcers? They keep the peace within a pack. But a ranger is built for war. First out of the cave, last to leave the battlefield.”

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