Page 46 of Werewolves Don't Howl
“No? Then I suppose you’ll have to smell like werewolf until it wears off.”
The restaurant was Piscerie, the finest restaurant outside the city wall, not that a lot of other reputable places were directly on the river.
Cross took me to the outdoor patio where general seating could be had for much less money than a private room. I felt self-conscious being with Cross, because as soon as he stepped out of the car, he became the politician, warm, sweeping the crowd with a familiar smile like he knew and was friends with everyone here, before he gave his arm to me and let his smile become more intimate and interested.
I had to force myself to smile back at him, because seeing this side of him just made me want to stab him with my needles. Good thing I’d left them in the car.
“Here we are,” he said, pulling out a chair for me.
“Thank you, Senator,” I said demurely as I took my seat, making sure to beat my lashes at him for an extra second.
A waiter brought out a sushi boat the size of the table and smiled at me before leaving us to it.
“Senator, it’s so good to see you here,” a much older woman said, coming up to our table. I blinked before I realized it was Leticia Marin. “And you,” she said, turning to me with twinkling eyes. “Is this the second date you’ve had with the senator?” She’d spread the gossip like wildfire. The senator, who never dated any women more than once, had gone out with the gnome-elf reporter twice! Oh the shock and horror!
I stood up quickly. “It’s a pleasure. Are you here alone? Would you like to join us?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your time together. Anyway, I’m waiting for Zephin. You know, he’s thinking of delaying the ball. You should encourage him. He’s got a soft spot for you.”
“Everyone does,” Zephin said with a slight smile as he came up on Leticia’s right and raised her hand to kiss the back of it. He turned to look at me and Cross, calculation in his eyes. “Yes, you should come to my office tomorrow to convince me about the party. Say, two-thirty?”
I smiled sweetly. “That would be perfect. In other news, I’ve convinced the Senator to give me an exclusive.”
A sharp whistle broke my attention, and I looked over to see Loren standing there with a gleam in her eyes.
I gasped and grabbed Cross’s shoulder. I’d just seen her dead, wrapped in plastic. He was on his feet immediately, his hand around my waist to hold me up.
Cross laughed, low, smooth. “That’s right. Nothing political, but Delphi’s interests are always more personal.” He pulled me tight and pressed a kiss to my temple while I stared at Loren and my heart threatened to shatter on my ribcage. Was this a glamour? Was all of this a drug-induced hallucination? How in the world was Loren here in this restaurant instead of dead or being held in a cage somewhere? Had she never been missing? Then why did I have her cat?
ChapterThirteen
“Mr. Clay, can I get a minute?” Loren said, smiling at Leticia broadly before returning her attention to Zephin Clay, our boss’s boss. “It won’t be long. I just need to get clearance for a sensitive issue regarding a case I’ve been covering. I’d like to go to Golden and do some more digging there, but I’d like the cooperation from your west coast offices.”
“Loren? Are you back from your family emergency?” I asked, sounding faint. I cleared my throat and tried to rally. It didn’t help that Cross was still publicly embracing me far too familiarly. Or maybe that did help, but I didn’t want it to.
Zephin Clay was the only one who seemed to notice the shocking physical contact between me and Cross, likely because he was the most elfish in the group. Except for Cross, which means that he realized how intimate he was being, and in public. I couldn’t push him away without it turning into a thing. The last thing I wanted was a scene in front of my boss’s boss.
Loren waved a hand airily. “Yes. That’s all cleared up now. Thanks for covering for me while I was gone, but seriously, a pack war? That’s what you got from that mess?” She gave me a pointed look and then shook her head, tsking.
“Well,” Leticia said, frowning at Loren. “You can’t expect a society reporter to do your job for you.” She sniffed and turned. “You two enjoy your evening. Don’t let business disturb either one of you.” She gave Cross a stern look before smiling at us both with that twinkle and leaving us alone once Mr. Clay and Loren had gone in the opposite direction.
I collapsed onto my chair while my brain threatened to explode. “Loren’s not dead.”
“Or she’s a reanimated corpse, or a golem, or a…”
I shoved a sushi roll into his open mouth because I couldn’t process any of that.
“No, that’s Loren, back on the case. Good. It’s not my problem anymore.” I started eating sushi. I’d almost forgotten how delicious sushi was to my werewolf. She wasn’t particular, but this sushi was absolutely the best you could get. I had no trouble eating the entire boat while Cross ate something else that looked almost as good, only vegan. He was an elf, after all, although I’d heard that night elves fed on the hearts of their enemies.
He was so handsome. No, handsome was the wrong term. He was more dynamic than that. My wolf wanted to lick him, taste him, take him somewhere dark and close and snuggle. Of course she did. From the beginning, when she’d started coming out of my skin, when she’d bitten him, it hadn’t been vengeful, more possessive. And now he was feeding her sushi, taking care of her, like he’d given me those hugs this morning and brought me yarn, to take care of my gnome. My elf was harder to win after she’d been betrayed and tortured by him. That’s what the real root of my hatred was, the elf. Elves don’t forgive easily. They don’t trust easily in the first place, but if you lose that trust, it’s gone forever. Not that I’d trusted the masked stranger, but I had liked the pretty elf. My elf had found him extremely compelling, which my friends had teased me about, because I was too shy to approach him, until the end, when Mr. Clay told me where he was.
Clay’s name seemed to come up a lot when I considered all the times I’d run into Cross. Was that really just a coincidence? He was an old friend of my father’s. Not that my father was close with any elves, but the thought of Zephin Clay turning me into a werewolf was beyond ludicrous. He was calculating and shrewd, as all elves were, but he wasn’t a psychopath.
“Are you finished already?” Cross asked, smiling at me warmly.
I stared at him blankly. How could he put on that warmth so easily? He was probably a psychopath.
I stood up. “Yes, thank you.”
