Chapter Thirteen

June

Showers were magical. Beautiful. Wonderful gifts from the heavens above to us mortals. I stood under the hot water as it ran down my face. I'll admit I moaned a couple of times. No shame in that. And after I was done standing under the hot water, I got my soap and shampoo and scrubbed myself from head to toe. Twice.

I turned off the water with a sigh. Stepping onto the light-blue rug, taking one of the matching towels, and wiping clean a space in the fogged-up mirror, I finally felt relaxed. I had time to comb out my hair. I took my sweet time with my toothbrush. And after I toweled off completely, I put on a pair of sweatpants I hadn't gotten to wear yet and a gray sweater.

It didn't take long to put my things away, and then I made my way downstairs to the smell of baking bread. My stomach growled as I stepped into the kitchen, and I wasn't the only one there.

Linda was standing over the stove, and a teenager I recognized from when I first arrived yesterday—who looked like a smaller version of Linda with blond hair and dimples—and another woman with a big smile who was maybe my age were at the table. They all laughed as I stepped into the kitchen.

"What's so funny?" I asked cautiously.

Linda cleared her throat, smiling. "We heard your stomach, dear. This is my daughter, Hannah, and Carmine."

"You heard my . . . oh." I covered my stomach with my hands, as if that could stop what had already happened. "Nice to meet you both."

"Don't worry about it." Linda waved a ladle in my direction, then went back to stirring. "The hunger is just setting in. It's perfectly normal."

"Honestly, I don't see how humans can eat so little and still have the energy to do anything," Hannah said.

"Have a seat. I'm dishing up my famous five-alarm chili. I hope you can handle a little spice," Linda said.

"I sure can, thanks." I took a seat at the table.

The other woman, probably in her mid to late twenties, looked fierce. This was the expression of a woman who had seen some things in her time and conquered them all. Her brown eyes were sharp as she studied me back. Her hair was a shiny auburn, and it fell behind her in a loose braid. She was more freckles than face.

"How are you adjusting?" She had a delightful French-Canadian accent. "I heard a thing or two that you were human."

"Adjusting to werewolves being real?" I asked. "Honestly, not well. Better right now, I guess. The shower helped."

That earned another laugh, just as Linda was setting bowls down on the table. She pulled a container of sour cream from the fridge as well, popped a spoon in it, then grabbed a steaming pan of fluffy brown rolls from the oven and got everything on the table.

"Thank you," I said.

"Thanks, Mom," Hannah echoed, reaching out and carefully grabbing a hot roll with a napkin.

"Yes, thank you," Carmine added, then took a big dollop of sour cream and topped her bowl with it. I followed her lead, then took a bite. Hot damn, it was good.

Linda took a seat in front of her own bowl, sighing with a big grin as she scooted her chair in. "Eat up, girls. I made plenty. Oh, Carmine, are you going for another run tonight?"

"Mm-hm," Carmine hummed around a mouthful of chili, then swallowed. "I can't shake the restlessness. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I've got a good feeling about this moon."

Linda reached over the table and patted Carmine on her arm. "You'll find them, you're still young."

Carmine snorted. "Tell that to my maman . She wants grandpups."

"Grand . . . pups?" I asked.

"Oh gosh." Hannah turned red and smiled as though she was in on a secret.

"Ah, we call our young pups ," Linda explained. "Let me fill you in a little bit about what function I serve here in the Moonpeak.

"First, mates. This one is usually the hardest for new bites to accept," Linda said. "You see, the moon has blessed each of her children with a mate. You'll be familiar with the term soul mate . You typically only get one."

"Are you serious?" I laughed nervously. "A soul mate? I'm not big on fate and destiny."

The three women at the table looked at me blankly.

"You're serious?"

"Most packs have a place for wolves who are traveling to find their mates to stay," Linda explained. "Of course, there are other reasons to visit a pack, and I'm happy to accommodate those wolves too. But traveling to find a mate is the most common."

"Carmine is looking for a mate? And she's staying here for a while to see if she finds them in this pack?" I asked.

"That's right," Linda said, stirring her sour cream into her chili. "At some point, you will too."

"Whoa, I don't know about that." I shook my head. "I'm not looking for a man right now. I can barely take care of myself."

"If you don't go looking, they will. And when they find you, you'll know it." Carmine shrugged.

"A pack is like one big working beehive," Linda said. "All the parts work together. Everyone participates. If you can help with something, you do. And if you are unable to do any kind of work, you are taken care of. We regularly take meals and spend time with our elderly or sick wolves in their homes."

"Back in Quebec," Carmine said, pointing her spoon at me, "we take our elder wolves into the pack house where Alpha and Luna make sure they are well cared for. It also opens up their old houses for newly mated wolves to start their lives together."

"Many packs do that, yes," Linda said. "It's a great way to care for the wolves who came before you. Wolves put a lot of emphasis on the community."

"What Mom is trying to ask is if you have any skills to bring to the pack," Hannah added, taking a big bite of her roll.

"I'm working on a physical therapy degree, and right now I work at an orthopedic clinic as a PT assistant. Aside from my job, though, some skills I have are . . . I guess cleaning, but I'm not the world's best cook. I've been a substitute teacher before, too, if there's a school around here."

"Very nice skills, June," Linda said. "Let me just find out if Doc could use a hand." She looked down at her bowl, not moving for a moment. It looked like she was spacing out.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"She's on the link," Hannah said, taking another spoonful of chili.

My mouth popped open as I stared at Linda. "You're not serious."

Linda looked back up at me and said, "Doc's busy today, but that's fine since you're getting settled in. If you come by in a few days he'll be happy to show you around his workspace, though he won't need help often, so you might want to find more than just helping Doc out to spend your time on."

"Okay, I can do that," I said. "Can we back up and cover the fact that you can read minds?"

Carmine laughed. " Mon dieu! The humans really don't know anything about us, do they?"

"Mom, how many fingers am I holding up under the table?" Hannah reached an arm below the table, and I bent to see.

"Two," Linda answered without looking.

Gawking, I earned laughter from around the room. "It's a lot to take in, dear," Linda offered. "You'll get used to it over time."

"What we know about werewolves is from movies and books. It's all made up," I said.

Carmine shook her head. "You have to stop saying that."

"‘We,'" Hannah said seeing my confused expression. "You said ‘we' as in ‘we humans,' which isn't true for you anymore."

"The mind link is like making a phone call, but more efficient," Linda explained. "I can speak to other members of Moonpeak through my inner wolf."

I stood up straight. "Like reading minds?"

"No, no. It's all voluntary," Linda said. "No one can read your mind. It's like a phone call."

I nodded, but I absolutely couldn't accept telepathy as a werewolf thing. I was struggling enough with the turning into a wolf part, no need to add less believable things on top of it. And this mate thing, it was a stretch too. But the mind link . . .

"Wait, Dom and the others didn't do this link thing," I said. "I just spent several days with them, and they never once did that."

Linda made a sad face. "They aren't a pack, dear. They can't link."

"You came here with rogues?" Carmine asked, surprised. "Are they sick? Did they attack you?"

"What? No," I said defensively. "The bite was an accident, and I shouldn't have stuck my nose in their business."

"They aren't typical rogues," Linda said to Carmine. "They have pack history here, and one of them has alpha blood. Amelia's presence is probably what kept their minds in one piece."

Carmine looked between me and Linda. "Okay, so were they chased off? Did they disgrace the pack?"

"It's old business that Alpha doesn't like being discussed," Linda said, strained. "You girls keep eating, I'm done. I'll be out back in the garden if you need me."

Linda got up and cleaned up her bowl. She didn't rush or anything, but it still felt like she was avoiding something. It would seem Dom and the others were a touchy subject around here.

"That was odd," Carmine said, then took another bite of chili.

"Alpha Evander doesn't like us talking about the old alpha and beta," Hannah said.

"Dom and the others have something to do with the old alpha and beta?" I asked. "Wait, I haven't met the current beta yet."

"Oh, we don't have one," Hannah said, frowning. "Listen, I'm going to go help Mom. Don't worry about cleaning up. Set your bowls in the sink and I'll get them later."

"I've been to fifteen different packs in the last two years," Carmine whispered across the table once Hannah was outside, "and this one is definitely not like the others."

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"Two days," she said. "But I promise you it's been long enough to see the strangeness here. Watch yourself. Lay low until you get through your shift, and if you want to leave this place, I'd be happy to bring you home with me. My pack knows how to raise a wolf, they will take good care of you."

"Thanks," I murmured. "I'll think about it."

" Oui , yes. Think on it." Carmine got up, scraped the last of her bowl into her mouth, and set her things in the sink before she retreated upstairs.

My mind oscillated between liking and hating this place. I needed more answers. Real answers, from Dom.