Tarnished (25 page)

“So what
are
Were men into?”

Andrew snorted. “What are human men into?”

“Depends on the man,” Susan said, because she knew that was the answer he expected. “But. You can make some generalizations. Tits. Blow jobs.”

Andrew tipped his cup to her, acknowledging her point. “Chasing, maybe. Not quite like humans usually think of it, though. I don’t know about other guys, but I’ve always hated the ‘playing hard to get’ thing. That’s less about the excitement of the chase, and more about the woman’s whims and her playing head games. The real thing is knowing she’ll be waiting for you at the end of the chase, she’s just making you work for it a little. Gets the blood up, makes you appreciate it. No one appreciates what they don’t work hard to gain. But it goes both ways. Men and women.”

“I can do that…” Susan murmured under her breath, then mentally cursed when Andrew smiled. Damn them and their hearing. “But what can’t I do? What’s he missing, not settling down with some nice Were girl?”

Another laugh. “Not
that,
if that’s what you’re trying to ask. Not really that exciting once you’ve tried it together in wolf once or twice. And birth control doesn’t work.”

“I meant like, scents and stuff—” Susan pressed a hand to her cheek. Jesus Christ, she was burning up. She hadn’t even thought of that, but now she couldn’t get it out of her head.

“They help, I suppose. Reading your lover’s reactions. It makes someone who can’t smell a little clumsier, but it’s not a huge difference.”

Something about how he said that— “You’ve slept with human women?”

Andrew snorted. “I was practically a lone for nearly a decade. What do you think? Even pack Were have a pretty limited pool when they’re not traveling. You were perfectly usual until John couldn’t keep his mouth shut.”

“So what’s the usual for when there’s a baby?” Susan tightened her grip on her son automatically, then made herself relax. No one was trying to take him away at the moment. “Or does that just not happen?”

“Not that often. Scent helps one avoid certain parts of the cycle, even if it’s not perfect.” Andrew’s expression grew bland. Susan recognized it as the way he usually looked just before he imparted some detail he figured would freak her out. She braced herself accordingly. “Babies die. Less in this day and age, but it used to be easy to switch one in, and take the Were child to be raised properly.”

Susan gritted her teeth. After all she’d gone through to get this information, she couldn’t freak out when she didn’t like a piece of it. “And whose dead child would you guys steal to put in its place? Or did you kill one specially?”

“Better that than having a Were be forced into their first shift in ignorance and fear. And the rest of us hunted thereafter.” Andrew’s words had the cadence of something repeated, as if from a myth or childhood cautionary tale.

Susan hugged Edmond as tightly as she could. “That’s terrible.”

“We’re predators.” Andrew sighed. “And survivors. You think wolves were the only shapeshifters that ever existed, or the only ones that managed to survive?” He rubbed a temple and then smoothed out the white lock there, tone softening. “Humans did things just as terrible in the bad old days of history. With birth control, it’s not so much an issue now.”

Edmond twisted like he might wake up, so Susan relaxed her clutch. “I’m sure you know why I was asking, anyway. He hasn’t been interested lately, and if there’s something I can do…”

“John,” Andrew said, and took a generous swig of coffee, “has his muzzle planted as deep in his own ass as it will go. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste any effort on trying to figure out what will pull him out of it.”

“That’s
not
helpful,” Susan snapped, unconsciously channeling the way Silver had sounded earlier. To her surprise Andrew bowed his head in something like apology.

“But the effort’s yours to waste. All right.” Andrew stared meditatively into middle distance. “It might come with time. Silver and I have lived in such atypical Were social situations, it’s a little easier to accept one more strangeness. John’s too traditional for his own good, but he did tell you in the first place. He’s getting there.” He sipped his coffee again. “Or you could follow Benjamin’s basic advice. Rile him up, avoid him, and see if he comes searching.” He shrugged. “I really have no idea. It will come as no surprise when I say we’re not exactly close.”

Susan nodded. “Thank you anyway.” He’d given her something to think about, at least, and maybe she’d done some good distracting him too. He no longer balanced on the chair as if he would explode back up into pacing at any moment. She exhaled in a low laugh. “So what about Were naming traditions?”

26

Dare was lucky to avoid sitting through this, Silver decided after the second item of Convocation business. Couldn’t Western alphas deal with questions of territory on their own? Silver knew that while they could and did, the Convocation provided a more permanent settlement, rather than forever skirmishing and guarding the line. But she’d have thought the alphas would bring a proposed line to the Convocation and ask them to ratify it, not demand they decide the line’s location.

Two alphas wrangled now, reciting long lists of dates when this part of the territory had been won or lost, or the line passed through a location the other claimed it had never touched before. Even Death seemed bored, lying on his side at full stretch, eyes half lidded. Most wild selves looked that way, whatever their tame selves’ apparent attention.

The leader of the foreigners showed patience in both his selves, though Dare’s brother-in-law was the worst of all at hiding his boredom. Silver supposed she couldn’t blame him. Territory wrangling could be of no interest to them; they had only been invited because it allowed everyone to keep an eye on them.

Dare’s daughter’s wild self paced. She kept staring at Silver, probably looking for her father. Silver ignored her pointedly. That was what they wanted, her interest piqued.

Then it came time to stand for the territory issue. Silver didn’t know who had the right in the argument, but she did know who would. She looked at her cousin as each alpha in turn called out, “Under the Lady’s light, who stands with me?” He shook his head on the first, nodded on the second, and Silver stood with three-quarters of the others.

Roanoke remained sitting, which Dare had explained was to be expected. When he stood, all his sub-alphas stood with him, which was too much power to be exercised lightly. With him sitting, the sub-alphas could stand or sit as they liked. Roanoke flashed a smirk as everyone returned to their seats, which was not expected.

“Roanoke has business,” he said, and stood. Ears of wild selves across the room snapped to him. When they were readying for the Convocation, Dare had told her that Roanoke didn’t bother bringing up trivial territory questions at the Convocation. They settled such things internally. “On behalf of another who can no longer speak for himself.”

Silver concentrated on drawing in her next breath to keep her heart from racing out of control. He could only be talking about the former Sacramento, but by tradition, that shouldn’t be happening today. Dare had said that originally, and her cousin and Boston had agreed this morning. Dare was supposed to be here for this part. She had confidence in her ability to get people to listen to her simple orders, but she knew this needed more than that. Dare would need to make his arguments with a singer’s voice: the right pitch, the right sequence, to the right people, in the right order. Lady, she wasn’t supposed to be defending Susan alone.

Tom hadn’t gotten it, Silver could see that as she reached to dig her fingers into his wrist. “Get Dare and Susan,” she said, low, as Roanoke drew himself up to declaim the rest of his little ploy.

“The former Sacramento was murdered. And not just murdered, but murdered by a human who not only lives, but is here among us, gathering more secrets with each passing moment. We must deal with her immediately, before she puts us in additional danger.”

Tom had been moving slowly, perhaps from confusion at his orders, but he ran then. That left only Silver and her cousin. He put a steadying hand on the back of her shoulder. Silver considered knocking it away to avoid any appearance of weakness. But the touch helped, and besides, wouldn’t reacting draw more attention than ignoring it?

“The accused deserves a chance to hear and respond to what is said before anyone stands in judgment. We will wait for her, Roanoke.” Silver held her voice steady. Confident.

Roanoke opened his mouth, perhaps to dismiss her, but on seeing the nods of the other alphas, he frowned and sat himself. “For a few minutes,” he allowed. He gestured his beta to collect food for him. The others seemed to take this as a general signal, and everyone pushed up to swarm around the food. Silver stayed where she was, the better to maintain the illusion of confidence. Dare would be here very soon. Wouldn’t he? She looked at Death, trying to see an answer in his expression.

Death watched all of them, tongue lolling out in a silent laugh. “
Now
things get interesting.”

*   *   *

Tom was in a terrible hurry, but Susan still made him wait while she loaded up Edmond’s things. It wasn’t like she could dump him at the nursery without any supplies.

Tom slammed into Andrew and Silver’s bedroom and back out again. “Where’s Dare?” he demanded, like she was hiding him for some nefarious purpose of her own.

“Out for a walk.” Susan held up a forestalling hand and whatever Tom had been about to say was actually forestalled. This acting dominant thing really worked. Who’d have thought? “And I know Silver said to keep him here, but he seemed pretty damn serious, and he swore on both the Lady and Death he wasn’t going to find his daughter or go anywhere near the meeting.”

“On Death?” Tom looked confused, but he shook it off like a shaggy dog shaking off water. “It doesn’t matter. You go to the Convocation, I’ll track him.” He took her wrist and almost yanked her off her feet, werewolf strength badly leashed. Outside, he took off into the trees. “Tell Silver I’ll bring him back as fast as I can!” he called over his shoulder.

On the way to the nursery, Susan jogged as much as she could while carrying a baby and a full diaper bag. She dragged fingers through her disarranged hair as she left and ran for the hall, panting with the exercise at this altitude. They’d said her case wouldn’t come up until tomorrow. Had it been moved forward? She hadn’t put on makeup this morning, and the suit she’d brought was still in her suitcase. If Tom had told her what this was about, maybe she could have done something to make herself more presentable, dammit. She already had a red sunburned mask like a dumb tourist from yesterday. It stung in the current sunlight and wind.

This time, she went to the front of the hall. The door stood open, letting in a breeze, so she pushed right through rather than let anyone see her hesitating on the threshold.

She immediately regretted not taking the time to gather herself. It was one thing to look down at the room full of powerful people, but it was quite another to face it, knowing these people would be deciding her fate. Utilitarian banquet tables, scarred without their camouflaging tablecloths, were placed to form four sides of a very large square. There was no head or foot, just people along every side, with a small gap left to enter the center. Was that where she would have to stand?

People stared at her, talking inside their little groupings in murmurs. Susan crossed her arms and tried to apply what Tom had told her when looking down at them. Alpha, beta, and mate. Which was which? Scattered plates rested by elbows, many empty, though some held pastries that matched the selection on two sideboards along both long walls of the hall.

She found Silver near the center of one of the square’s sides and hurried over to her and John. She didn’t care if it embarrassed John, she seized his hand and held it as tightly as she could. He didn’t try to stop her.

“Where’s Dare?” Silver hissed. Outwardly, she looked calm, but her voice sounded like Susan felt.

“He went for a walk, I had no idea—” Susan swallowed to cut off her panicked babble. “Tom’s tracking him right now.”

John added his other hand on top of hers. “It will take some time for them to present their version of the story. Dare should be back in plenty of time for our turn to tell ours.”

Susan nodded jerkily and sifted through her memories with shaking metaphorical fingers. She had lines memorized. She could hang on to that. They’d gone over what questions would probably be asked several times. She could do this. She took a deep breath. She could do this.

John moved a hand to her back, gave a nudge toward the empty center of the tables’ square. Susan felt like every muscle in her body was shaking with nervousness, but she made it around to the gap and through without tripping.

“I stand to listen to what—” Susan turned to shoot John a panicked look. Who? Who was the one who’d actually made the accusation? When planning, they hadn’t known for sure.
Roanoke,
John mouthed, or at least that’s what it looked like. “Roanoke’s business with me may be.” No one gasped or whispered rude remarks, so that must have been the right answer. One obstacle down, who knew how many left to go.

“You murdered Sacramento,” Roanoke said with a small sneer. She assumed it was Roanoke, since he was the one speaking and he had the muscle-bound football player look Dare had described to her. She turned to face him at his seat, but he entered the center of the square with her and lounged with his ass against the edge of a table.

“In defense of my pack.” That did bring gasps. Susan closed her eyes for a moment to keep from flinching. She could feel the press of everyone’s stares from every direction. How could anyone bear being in the center like this? Lines. She needed to keep to her lines.

“You can’t have a pack, human. In fact, you shouldn’t even be alive now, knowing about us.” Roanoke prowled around the inside of the square, ending in front of Silver and John. Blocking them, Susan realized after a moment. Dammit, the man was playing with them! A cheap trick, but she could feel panic rising even so, now that she couldn’t catch John’s or Silver’s eyes.