Page 40 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

Rosemarytsked as she propped her hip against the counter. "I'm thinking Killian wouldn't approve of you checking out Alex like that."

"Alex?" What was she talking about? I'd expected her to throw her accusations at me. Not talk to me like nothing had happened.

"The vampire prince who got coffee and left. The one you watched walk out the door like he was the only thing you could focus on?" She tapped a finger against her lip and then wagged it at me. "That's right. You aren't from Shadow City or Shadow Ridge. Where exactly did you come from again?"

"A place not too far from here." The emotion wafting off her was confusion. Like she was trying to figure out something. I had to be very careful how I played this.

"How far?" She leaned closer to me. "Like an hour or several?"

Unfortunately, there was no lying now, so I was stuck in this conversation. "About twenty miles. Do you want something to drink?" Giving her an approximate mileage wasn't the best idea, but it would be hard for her to pinpoint. And if she was sniffing out silver wolves, no one would say anything. The only ones who knew, outside of me, Killian, and a bunch of murderers, were dead.

"Yeah." She looked around the register at Carter. "How about a mocha with four extra shots of espresso?"

"On it." He nodded like that request wasn't odd.

I almost wanted to say something about her heart not liking it, but I figured the joke would fall flat, and with her being oneof the strongest supernaturals around, there wasn’t much that would hurt her heart, to begin with. I rang up her order and prayed she wouldn't continue her investigation.

"Funny thing happened this morning," she whispered. "I flew over the woods and caught some shifter chasing a rabbit."

Yup, she thought it was me, but the confusion rolling off her calmed me. She was watching my reaction, trying to glean something from me.

"Depending on the shifter, that would make sense." I looked at her and smiled. She wanted me to slip up and say wolf to confirm it was me.

The edges of her mouth tipped downward for a second before she schooled her expression into a mask of indifference.

"That'll be $6.73," I said, forcing my voice to sound even. I needed her to drop this entire conversation, but I couldn't let her realize that she was affecting me.

She rocked on her heels as she pulled some cash from her back pocket. "You know, I love your hair. Do you dye it?" Her gaze remained on me.

Luckily, I had dyed my hair once. I was so tired of having the silver hair that continually reminded kids my age I was their future leader. I had wanted to blend in, but much to my horror, the color didn't stick. My hair stayed the exact same shade it was now. "Yeah, I've dyed it."

"Interesting." She handed the money to me.

I made sure to keep my hands steady as I made change. "Is your hair natural?" Everything inside me wanted me to change the subject, which meant I couldn’t.

Her eyes widened marginally. "Yes, this is my natural hair color. Angels don't normally alter their appearance. We don't even wear makeup." The superiority of her tone grated on my nerves.

"I figured fallen might think differently." I was pushing her buttons on purpose. If I made her mad, maybe she'd drop the third degree. In reality, I wasn't sure if she had fallen or been born to fallen parents.

"Well, you obviously don't know much about angels, do you?" She lifted her chin in defiance before something settled over her.

She seemed more confused now than when she came in.

"Here you go, Rosemary," Carter said as he handed her the mocha while giving me the side-eye.

I'd get a lecture about being more professional when she was gone, my second one, and I'd been on the job only two days. This Deissy girl must be horrid if he was thrilled to hire me in her stead.

"Thanks." Rosemary took the drink but didn't leave. "There's something about you,Dove. Maybe it's not what I thought, but that doesn't mean I won't figure it out."

A small amount of respect filled me for this beautiful girl. She was direct almost to a fault, but I appreciated knowing exactly where I stood with her. One of the unique powers silver wolves got from the moon was the ability for us to read someone's intention. Rosemary wanted to be honorable, but she hadn't quite figured that out yet.

She turned to leave, and my gaze landed where her wings had been earlier. I noticed two slits in the back of her sweater, wide enough for the wings to spring from. The material almost hid them.

Another interesting fact that I learned today—angels had special clothing.

"How many times are we going to have this conversation?" Carter groaned. "You can't antagonize the customers, especially ones tied to the council."

He continued to ramble, but my focus remained on Rosemary as she left the shop. For now, she hadn't put it together that I was the silver wolf. She suspected it, but I’d managed not to confirm it. I had to keep it that way, or Killian and I could be in a world of hurt.

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