Chapter Five

Regan

 

I awoke with a thrill of excitement in my stomach. The sun seemed brighter, the air felt fresher, and it was easy to jump out of bed even though I still ached from the disastrous practice fight against Carter. That was because, for the first time in weeks, I had something to really get excited about.

Today, Charlie and I were going into town together. As sisters.

I’d resolved the night prior to leave all of this alpha and beta business at home today and just be with her. Get to know her. Aside from our roles and where we fit into the family or pack. Sister to sister. Girl to girl.

It might have had something to do with overhearing her phone conversation with her mother, but I’d never tell Charlie that. Or Dad. Or anyone else for that matter. In fact, I’d erased the recording right after I’d listened to it, relieved it had been me checking her call logs rather than one of them. Today, Charlie and I were sisters.

I dropped straight from my mattress to the floor and did a token twenty pushups, just to warm my muscles, and then touched my toes and rolled out my shoulders. It was much less than I normally did. Being a future alpha meant I had to stay in top shape and be ready for any challenge. I was already running late, though, and I wanted the day to be perfect. It was our last free day before classes started again—and after that, the competition. I wanted to spend it doing something memorable.

A quick shower later, I combed out my short hair, shifting just enough to shake it dry, and hurried down to breakfast. “Morning,” I chirped at Dad, bouncing on my toes to brush a kiss on his bearded cheek.

He looked at me like I had grown vampire fangs. “Good morning. You look … nice.”

I tried not to blush. My usual fashion was more function than form, but I had used a butterfly clip to hold back my bangs and wore a couple bangles to match it. I hadn’t even realized that I had jewelry until I dug it out of my hope chest. “Thanks. I’m using my day off to go into town today with Charlie.”

“I don’t need to tell you to be careful,” he said, returning his attention to the reports spread out in front of him at the table. He was always working now that Mom had died, even at breakfast. He had the papers fanned around his corned beef hash, and was using one of them as a coaster for his coffee.

Hesitating halfway out the door, I gave Dad a good long look. He had aged a lot in the last few weeks. His hair was grayer and not just the peppery sprinkles around his sideburns that I’d always admired before. A permanent shadow had taken up residence under his eyes, and there was a hard look around the edges of it all. A look of desperation. He seemed like a man barely keeping his head above water.

“Dad…”

He didn’t look up. “Yes?”

I hesitated. The last time I’d brought this up I’d gotten yelled at for my trouble. But it was driving me crazy sitting on the sidelines. “Mom’s investigation … Is it—is there any new information?”

He looked up but still somehow managed to peer down his nose. “No, Regan,” he said, his tone shifting to weary. “You will be the first to know.”

I pressed on, knowing I was on shaky ground. “I know you have a lead,” I said and his eyes narrowed fractionally in surprise. I rushed on before he could interrupt. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the vamps as innocent and promise one of your daughters to them. If you just tell me who you suspect, I could—”

“That’ll be enough, Regan.” His expression shuttered and any hint at friendliness was gone.

“I’m not incapable,” I said, my temper prickling. “I’m going to be alpha.”

“But you’re not alpha yet,” he boomed, pushing to his feet so hard the chair teetered behind him. His eyes flashed and he took a step forward that had me taking one back. “You’re so quick to take what you think is yours, you’ve forgotten to remember who gave you that right. Or the woman who held that place before you.” And then, inexplicably, his eyes watered and he blinked away pools of moisture.

My mouth hung open. I had never in my life seen my dad like this before. Not even at Mom’s funeral. What was I supposed to say to him?

“There is a lot going on that you can’t know right now,” he said finally. “I know it’s tough, but this is the way it has to be. Your mother … You have to trust me that this is what she wanted.”

“You miss her,” I said and even though it wasn’t a question, I realized I had wondered. He’d been so stoic and finally he was letting me see the cracks in his armor.

He nodded wordlessly.

I felt like I should have had some comment ready, something that would make it all better for him. An alpha should take care of her pack in every way—physically and emotionally. But this was my dad, and we were both hurting.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I said instead.

“Okay.” He sat down heavily, his frown so deep that it carved two furrows on either side of his mouth. For once, I wasn’t eager to relieve him and take my place as leader.

 

~~~

 

Outside on the lawn, the day had already come to life. Construction was pretty much finished on the arena now, so most people were back to the day-to-day business of waiting for the counsel to decide the time had come for Charlie and me to compete. Which meant a lot of standing around, whispering, and staring at me as I passed.

“Hey, Carter,” I said as he passed by on his way up to the house, a stack of rolled papers clutched in one hand. Probably on an errand for his dad to nag mine again.

Carter stopped at the sight of me. His jaw dropped open. “What happened to you, Vuk?”

“Nothing,” I said, feeling suddenly self-conscious about my wardrobe decisions. I forced my hands to my side to keep myself from folding them over my chest. I had nothing to hide, and I wasn’t going to show any submissive postures around my pack. There was no reason that the alpha couldn’t look pretty every once in a while—or whatever version of that I’d managed. “I’m going into town with Charlie today. I want you to keep an eye out on things while I’m gone.”

It seemed to take him a moment to realize I was talking.

“What kind of things?” he asked, expression immediately turning a mixture of covert and suspicious.

I shrugged. “Just … things. Anything off.”

“Gotcha,” Carter said, even though he obviously didn’t.

I could feel him watching me as I walked off, and I permitted myself a small smile. I felt good. I felt like … Charlie.

As if summoned by my thoughts, my sister walked out of the woods. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was tied back, and she was in sweats.

She looked startled to see me.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, glancing around as though she expected someone to be watching. There were actually a lot of someones watching. The pack always seemed to materialize when Charlie and I stopped to talk these days. I could see Leonard, master carpenter and expert tobacco chewer, leaning around a tree to spy on us.

“We were going into town today. Remember?” I asked.

“Oh! Oh, yeah, I remember. I guess I got caught up in my morning jog.” She gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry. You don't mind if I run and change first, do you? I’m sure I stink.”

She backed away and disappeared inside before I could argue. I frowned and rubbed my toe into the dirt, with no choice but to wait. A few minutes later, Charlie re-emerged with hair still dropping from the shower dressed in jeans and a soft yellow blouse.

“Much better,” she said with a smile shadowed by an apology. “Thanks for waiting.”

“Sure. Let’s go,” I said. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the shower wouldn’t have helped much if she’d picked up anything strange from her run. Even on two legs, our sense of smell was naturally heightened. I could have picked up all kinds of interesting information about her jog if I wanted to, like where she went and what kind of animals she ran into, but that would have been rude. I politely kept my nose to myself this time. Today, I wasn’t a werewolf. I was a sister.

“So where are we going? Did you find an antique shop?” she asked, falling into step beside me.

I smiled. “It's a surprise.”

The drive into Paradise was pretty scenic, if you considered miles of pine trees to be scenic. The back roads were narrow and dark. Douglas fir and Aspens hugged the dirt lane tightly, shadowing the road with a thick canopy of brittle branches and fanned-out pine needles. Charlie stared out the window at the trees as they flashed past, wrapping her ponytail around her finger again and again.

“Something bothering you?” I asked, forcing myself to keep my eyes on the road. It was too twisty to let myself lose concentration for even a few seconds, lest we end up in a ditch somewhere. It wouldn't have been the first time.

She almost jumped out of her skin at my voice. “What? Oh, no. It’s nothing.”

“You worried about the competition?” I asked, hating to bring it up today. I remembered the fierce determination when she’d vowed to her mother to compete—and to win—and my heart panged. Both from the hurt in her voice and the fact that I only knew about it because I’d eavesdropped on the call.

She smiled sheepishly. “I thought that was kind of a given.”

Charlie was right.  I hadn't thought about anything else since Dad had dropped that bomb on us—other than my impending responsibilities as alpha. But I suspected Charlie didn’t have a single clue about any of that.

“Guess so. You know...” I picked at the steering wheel cover with my fingernails, giving myself a moment to think. “You can talk to me. About anything.” Even the competition that’s pitting us against each other, I added silently. Or our lying moms. We apparently had that in common too.

“I do have a question, actually,” she said. “Why do the vampires and werewolves hate each other so much?”

This time, I did glance over, searching her expression in a quick glance. But all I saw was curiosity. “Well. That’s a long story,” I said.

“We have all day,” she said.

My shoulders slumped. I’d wanted today to be free of anything supernatural—but if this was what Charlie wanted to know, she had a right. “The legend has always been that werewolves were created to keep the balance. Vampires were made in the darkness and given an evil nature. Werewolves were made from the light. To protect,” I explained, trying to give her the shortened version. She’d learn the full story in school, whether she wanted to or not, as Dad was fond of this story.

“Is that why we have this built-in … dislike for them?” she asked, her nose wrinkling.

I snorted. “Dislike. That’s a polite way to put it,” I said. “But yes. We’re the balance between them and humans. We keep them confined to the darkness.”

“But what about our specific pack and the Rossi coven? Did something happen or is it just because we were born to hate them or whatever?”

My stomach tightened as a thousand memories ran through me. Of course something had happened, lots of things, but I forced myself to keep to the original story. “Our pack wasn’t always here in Paradise,” I said. “In fact, most packs stick to the colder, more rural areas. Pacific Northwest, Canada, northern Europe. It helps us remain undetected and vampires tend to gravitate to those areas, probably for the same reason. Our pack migrated here from Montana because Thill—”

“One of the elders?” she asked.

“Right.” I shot her a wry smile. “He was a little younger then. Anyway, the story is that he and his parents were passing through here on business and ran into a settlement about thirty miles west of here. It was more than just a mansion. It was an estate. A small community or colony—of vampires.”

“The Rossis?” she asked.

I nodded, my jaw tight as I recalled the story. I’d heard it so many times, it almost felt like I’d been there. “They stumbled on Mr. Rossi while the vampire was having his dinner. It didn’t go well.”

“What happened?” Charlie’s voice was tight and I wondered if it was the suspense of the story or something else.

“They fought. Thill’s parents were killed putting Blaine Rossi down. Thill was the only one who walked away.”

“But … I met Mr. Rossi. He was at the party,” Charlie said, shaking her head.

“Right. But as far as Thill knew, Mr. Rossi was dead. When he saw that Blaine killed his parents … Thill ripped the vamp’s throat out before bolting from the scene, but apparently that wasn’t enough.” My hands gripped the wheel until my knuckles went white. I forced myself to relax and focus on the winding drive as I talked. “A few weeks later, a friend passed through and told a story about a vampire coven down here run by a man named Rossi. Thill flipped out. As interim alpha, he packed everyone up and moved them here. Said as long as this place was settled by vamps, it was also settled by us.”

“To keep the balance,” Charlie said.

I nodded.

“But how did Thill have the authority to move everyone to Paradise? I thought Vuk women were the alphas.”

“We are. Thill’s mom was our great-grandmother.”

Charlie’s brow wrinkled as she tried to work it out. “So your mom became the Rossi’s focus after that,” Charlie murmured.

I nodded. “They hated Thill for the years he was alpha, and then, because she didn’t take the pack north again once the authority became hers, they hated her. Said we were encroaching on their territory. They took it as an act of war and we’ve been fighting against them ever since.”

“I’m so sorry about what happened to her,” Charlie said quietly.

Tears burned at the edges of my eyes, but I steeled my jaw and swallowed them back. Today would not become a pity party, dammit. “It’s fine,” I said, wiping a tear before it could leak out.

“We’ll find who did it,” she said, conviction in her tone.

Maybe it was the story or maybe I was losing my edge, but when I glanced over and found friendship rather than pity in her expression, I softened. This was what it was supposed to be like to have a sister, I realized. Something inside me gave way and before I knew it, Charlie wedged herself in the recesses of my heart. For better or worse, I couldn’t lose her now.

“Thanks,” I said.

We didn't say anything else until we got into town.

When I pulled up to the little strip mall and stopped the truck, Charlie leaned forward to read the sign above the weathered doors and her eyes lit up.

"Antique mall?" she said.

"Yeah. The ad says they have ten thousand square feet of antiques." I forced myself to grin. "Surprise?"

Charlie climbed out, and I lagged behind her, letting her make the first approach to the windows. She cupped her hands around her eyes and peered in. A warm glow bloomed in my stomach as she gave a little bounce of excitement.

"Wow, this is so cool. I had no idea there was anything like this here!"

Before I could respond, she ducked into the first shop. The bell jingled overhead. The shop owner looked up at us from behind the dusty register, flashing a short smile before returning to her book. It looked like she was reading an old romance novel that belonged in the bargain book bin.

Personally, I had no interest in antiques whatsoever. I had never been shopping for fun in my entire life. My idea of fun was more along the lines of duking it out with Carter, or running through the forest with the pack. But watching the way my sister moved through the aisles of forgotten treasures with glee did make it a lot more fun.

“This is great, Regan,” Charlie said, coming up beside me after several aisles and pit stops to peer into glass casings. “My mom and I used to treasure hunt through places like this on weekends in no-name towns wherever we lived at the time. This is one of the best I’ve seen.”

“I’m glad you like it,” I told her.

She tilted her head, a soft understanding passing over her features. “What did you and your mom used to do for fun?”

I paused, thinking about that. “We discussed pack leadership skills. Democratic methods to handle disagreements. And she taught me everything I know about hunting.”

“Oh. Well that sounds ….”

I sighed. “Dry,” I finished.

Charlie ducked her head. “I was going to say practical.” Her shoulders slumped. “The truth is, I don’t know if my mom taught me anything useful to prepare me for all this.” She gestured to the store around us, but I knew what she meant.

“Of course she did. You can shift as fast as the best of us—and keep your clothes on in the end,” I added, earning a wry smile. “And you lived among humans for almost two decades undetected. Some of the pack here … they’ve never been out of Paradise. I hate to think what would happen if they struck out on their own,” I said, thinking of Lane or even Sheridan. What would she do with no one to boss around? What would I do?

I couldn’t imagine.

“I guess so,” Charlie said, staring down at her toes as we walked. “You’re a lot more prepared for what’s coming, though. I’m … not sure I’m cut out,” she admitted.

I pulled her to a stop and looked her square in the eye among the dusty, forgotten trinkets of Paradise residents past. “The fact that you’re here, sticking through it, willing to try—that makes you braver than half the people I know,” I said.

“And bravery … that counts?” she asked.

I squeezed her arm. “That’s what matters most.”

Charlie and I shared a smile and something passed between us. Understanding? Loyalty? Some form of bond I’d never felt before, that was for certain. It transcended friendship and something told me it didn’t herald the end of our tension for good, but it was enough. For now. And it made me glad I’d brought her here today.

We went back to exploring, splitting off inside the next shop with Charlie on one side of the aisle and me on another. I wandered with half a mind to find some small gift for Charlie to commemorate today’s outing. I picked up a china serving dish with enough dust to write my name in and admired the tiny swirling pattern that looked from far away like small Vs painted in blue. I frowned and put it back, uncertain whether Charlie would want something that represented the Vuk name.

Very soon, we wouldn’t share that anymore. One of us would be a Rossi.

Instead of dwelling on the impending wedding that would change my entire life as I knew it, I concentrated on finding the perfect gift for my new sister. Something that would make today’s memory pleasant no matter what happened tomorrow.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the history of all the old furniture. The antique store smelled old, like moth balls and dust and cleaning fluid. The silver cups in the cabinet smelled like they used to live with a smoker. The typewriter next to the glass-eyed doll in the window had lived with cats. And underneath it all, there was a faint, musty smell of something ancient and powerful. Vampires.

My eyes flew wide. Vampires?

“Hey, Charlie,” I called. She looked up from pawing through a box of little wind-up toys. “Do you smell anything funny?” I called out in a careful voice.

She sniffed. “Not unless dust is hilarious. Why?”

“Never mind.” I didn't want to worry her. Maybe the vampires liked to sell their old stuff at the antique mall. I could only imagine—their houses were probably filled with useless old crap.

I tried to occupy myself by looking for something interesting, but I couldn’t shake the scent of vamps on everything. An old rocking chair drew me but I stopped short when I saw what had been placed on the wooden seat. Three old dolls stared back at me with half-lidded eyes. Their red-painted smiles creeped me out. Fortunately, Charlie seemed to sense my discomfort, and she sped up her pace. She picked out a couple little paintings of cats, which looked totally bizarre and quirky.

“Cats?” I asked.

“I'm getting them for the frames. I think they match my room up at the house.”

The thought of Charlie getting settled into her room meant that she was going to be around for a while—even after the competition. It meant a lot more trips to antique stores together. I smiled to myself.

We moved onto the third shop, which had more housewares and a department for antique clothing in the back. There were even actual poodle skirts. I sniffed over and over but the rotten scent from the earlier shop was gone. Maybe vamps really did believe in donating their unused.

“Want to look at the skirts?” I asked.

“Secondhand clothes,” Charlie said, wrinkling her nose. “I would have to bleach them before I could wear anything. Can you imagine walking around in someone else's smell all day?”

“No,” I admitted. “I’d probably keep startling myself, thinking there was an intruder nearby.”

Charlie laughed and I felt my mood lighten a little more.

I kept wandering as Charlie moved farther back in the racks. I turned a corner, losing sight of her, and stopped mid-stride. There it was again: the distinct smell of vampire.

I dug around in the clothing bin nearest me, seeking out the source.

I found a lot of weird things, including bell bottoms and a knit sweater that looked like they belonged in the seventies, but no vampires. Or anything that smelled like vampires, for that matter. In fact, the farther I went this way, the fainter the scent became.

“What are you doing?”

I glanced up to see Charlie staring at me over a rack of clothes. She was holding a vintage skirt and looking at me like I might have gone crazy.

“I think I smell a vampire,” I finally admitted. “It's bugging me. Can't you smell it?”

Her eyes went wide, and her cheeks reddened. She edged away from me. “No. I don’t smell anything. Why would there be vampire smell at an antique shop?”

Poor thing must have been scared.

“Don't worry. It's a weak smell, so it's not like they're here. I thought maybe they could have donated something, and I'm picking up—” Motion outside the window caught my attention, and I trailed off as I turned. I looked over in time to see someone's retreating back as they headed across the street. Someone with dark hair, a dark shirt, broad shoulders. Nobody normal—or alive—dressed in dark colors like that in the summer. Or moved quite so fluidly.

“Wait here, Charlie.”

I threw the bellbottoms back on the rack and took off at a run for the front of the store. I burst out the door and blinked viciously into the sunlight.

By the time my eyes adjusted, the street was empty of any vampires. I whirled, scanning the rooftops for him, but he was gone.

Charlie came up behind me, out of breath. “I don't see any vampires,” she said.

“One of them was here. I saw it.” I hurried to the corner. There were plenty of humans out enjoying the beautiful day in Paradise, and they milled around completely unaware of the predators in their midst.

A pair of familiar faces appeared at the end of the street. Bevin and Lane were doing the same thing I was—staring at rooftops, peering down alleys, and glaring at every human who passed. I made my way toward them, glancing in every direction. Charlie trailed behind without a word. Our path intersected theirs in front of an ice cream shop.

“You smell it, too?” Bevin asked. I nodded. “We tracked it all the way from the forest by our neighborhood. The trail was strong up until here. Now it's gone cold.”

“Following us,” I muttered.

“Why would a vampire follow us?” Charlie asked. She was even redder than before.

Lane huffed out her lips and rolled her eyes. “Maybe it’s another of your admirers,” she said.

“Hey,” I said sharply.

Bevin nudged Lane. I wasn't sure what that warning glance meant, but I didn't think it was a friendly look on Bevin's part. It wasn't like she was defending Charlie. It was more like she was saying, “Don't bother around Regan.”

“Whoever it was, they’re gone now,” Charlie said, standing up a little straighter. She had caught on to that little silent exchange and now she seemed offended.

“We'll head into the woods. See if we pick up anything else.” Bevin addressed me directly. “You can go back to ... whatever you were doing.” Her gaze sliced over to Charlie and I made a point to turn as if cutting them out of the conversation.

“Hey, Charlie, didn't you want to get ice cream or something?” I asked in an overly friendly voice. Bevin was not going to ruin this day for me.

She looked startled at the change in subject. “Yeah, but shouldn't we—?”

“Why don't you meet me inside the ice cream shop? I'll be there in a few minutes.” I tried, and failed, to give her a smile. She squinted at me for a moment, getting that same line between her eyebrows that Dad did when he was thinking too hard.

“Okay,” she said slowly. “I'll be inside.”

I waited until she stepped into the ice cream shop before rounding on Bevin and Lane again, snapping my fingers. “Lane. You too."

“What?” She looked at Charlie’s retreating figure in confusion. “Are you asking me to get ice cream too?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “No. I'm telling you to get out of here. I need to talk to Bevin alone.”

With a scowl, she broke into a jog, loped across the street, and disappeared around a corner.

“What's your problem?” Bevin demanded when we were alone. A woman passing us on the sidewalk gave us a sideways glance. I waited until she kept walking and even then I yanked Bevin against the building and lowered my voice.

“You can't treat Charlie like that,” I said.

“Like what?”

“Like she's a stain you can't get out of your shirt.” I folded my arms, stretching to my full height to stare down at her. I was maybe a half an inch taller, but I could be imposing when I wanted to. And I definitely wanted to. “She's going to be beta. You don't have to like her, but she's going to be ranked above almost everyone. Including you. You have to get used to her.”

“I don't know why I have to listen to anyone but you,” Bevin muttered, sullenly staring out at the street full of very human pedestrians.

I decided not to point out the alternative would have been taking orders from her brother—something she would have hated just as much. “You don't have to get it. You just have to do it. Do you understand?” I stared at her until she nodded. “Good. Now tell me about the vampire. What did it look like?”

She shrugged. “I only glanced from far away. I’m guessing around six foot. Black hair, white skin. So, like about eighty percent of those guys.”

I ignored her last comment, biting on my lip as I considered it. The description fit the same guy I saw, which was a relief—at least there weren't two chasing us around. “Are you sure it was alone? No bodyguard?”

“Not that I saw.” Her eyes widened. “What, you think a member of the royal family would be stalking you?”

“I guess not,” I admitted, feeling silly. “But I'm sure it was a spy. Keep an eye out. We need to run patrols extra tight and make sure we're keeping the forests around our neighborhood clear.”

Bevin nodded. “Should I stick around? Keep an eye out for you?”

“No. It's okay. I'm watching Charlie; she'll be safe.”

She glanced over my shoulder, already headed toward the alley where Lane had gone. “Yeah. Okay. Have fun.”

I could tell by that dry tone in her voice that we weren't going to be alone no matter what I said.

Bevin disappeared and I turned to see Charlie standing in the now open door of the ice cream shop. She had a cone in each hand, and one of them was pecan flavored. My favorite, although I had no idea how she’d known.

I reached for it, but she held it away. Anger flashed in her eyes. “Is that true? Do you really think it's a given that I'm going to be beta?” she demanded.

I winced. “I didn't know you were listening.”

“And I’m safe because I’m with you?” she went on, her voice rising. In her hands, the ice cream cones were beginning to drip, but she ignored them. “Do you think I need to be ... babysat? I can take care of myself!”

I held up my hands to try to calm her down. “Look, why don't we head back to the antique mall? We can—”

“No, thanks. I've had all the trash thrown at me I can handle for one day.” She shoved the pecan cone at me. “Enjoy your ice cream.”

Charlie tossed hers in the trash outside the shop and stormed down the street. She radiated such fury that even the humans turned to watch her pass. I didn’t move to stop her. I knew better. She had taken on the look of the Vuk temper—the red cheeks, the pinched lips, and the sense of being ten feet tall. There would be no reasoning with her now.

All I could do was watch helplessly as she ran away.

At least the pecan ice cream was good.