Page 63 of Stripped

“Nah, that's Fitz,” Zane said. He waved to the bear and dragged me down the mountain.

Together we hurried to his place. “You should go,” I said. “The sooner you get out there, the sooner you can find Alice.”

He nodded, his gaze already distant. He was already thinking about the hunt. “Get in a hot shower and warm clothes. I'll be back as soon as I know something.”

“I'll be fine,” I said. “Just go.”

He pressed a fast, hard kiss to my lips and left.

I took my time in his shower, turning up the heat until I'd stopped shivering and my teeth had stopped chattering. I dried off and realized I'd left my bag of clothes at the barn. I pulled on a pair of Zane's sweatpants and a sweatshirt, rolling the waistband of the pants about six times before I felt safe enough not to trip over them. I pressed my nose into the soft fabric of the sweatshirt and drew in a deep lungful of his scent. I had it so bad.

In the living room, Julie was sitting on one end of the couch and the other end was piled high with blankets arranged in a cozy nest. “Wow,” I said. “That's a lot of blankets.”

“I brought some from my house in case Zane didn't have enough,” she said. “Wolves run hot, so we don't usually have a lot of blankets around.”

On the coffee table, she'd laid out a spread fit for a queen, chips and popcorn, three different dips, a cheese and cracker plate, and a bowl of grapes and strawberries. “Did you leave any food in Zane's pantry or fridge?”

“I'm eating for two,” Julie said. “And you must be starving after spending the night on top of the mountain.”

I crawled into the nest of blankets and got comfy. “Are there no secrets around here?”

“None.” She gave me a sad smile. “It's one of the things you probably won't miss when you go to Denver.”

“I have a feeling I'll miss more than I think I will.”

“Chips?” she asked. “Or cheese and crackers?”

“Chips first. I'll try the cheese after.”

Julie passed over a full-sized bag of French onion potato chips. Apparently, Julie liked junk food. “Where'd these come from? Zane said he doesn't keep processed crap at his house.”

“He doesn't.” She wrinkled her nose. “Totally missing the biggest perk of being a werewolf, insanely fast metabolism.”

“I definitely wouldn't mind some of that,” I said, digging in.

“I love your idea for Zane's yoga videos,” she said, munching on popcorn. “I'm sorry he didn't take it well, but give him time and he might come around.”

“What did Axel think?”

She shrugged. “He hated it. He wants to lay low, avoid notoriety and fame, but the pack needs an income the vamps and the council can't touch. He hates your idea, but he admits it's a good one and he's going to go forward with it and all your other ideas as soon as we get Leopold to back off.”

“Council?” I'd seen the video, along with the rest of the country, of Julie and a camera crew confronting the council planning to execute Axel for revealing the existence of werewolves to the world. I knew the council existed, knew they executed misbehaving wolves, but I wanted to know more.

Julie nodded, rubbing her belly. “A group of wolves, vamps, witches, and other supernatural creatures who are supposed to protect the secrets of the supernatural world and look out for us, protect us.”

“But you don't want the council's help?”

“They've unofficially sided with the vamps in our case. The vamps bring in more money for the council and the council wants more money.” She chewed thoughtfully. “I think there might be something more to it, though. There are other werewolf packs in the country that would probably be fine with teaming up with the vamps, trading blood for money or something. The vamps and the council are fixated on this pack and this territory.” She shook her head and sighed. “It's like they think we're sitting on an oil well.”

“Or a gold mine? Have you all checked there's nothing valuable here?”

She shrugged. “As well as we can, but we don't have any geologists in the pack and we don't really want to tip off anyone else if there is something valuable here.”

“If it's about the land, about something here, why doesn't the council just tell you about it?” I asked. “Who cares who discovers the gold or the oil as long as the council gets a cut?”

“Which is why Clarissa and Axel don't think it's anything like that. They think there's something only the vamps can tap into, something that will make the council wealthy or powerful, maybe both.”

“But they want the pack, too, right?” I asked. “It doesn't make sense.”

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