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  Children were children—Tatiana had taken her turn watching her younger siblings when she was a teen—but she found it interesting that they would dare to be so ill-behaved in front of a stranger. Someone needed to instill a little healthy fear in them. Who knew who that stranger might be?

  Following her own orders, the young woman looked down at her book, frowned in confusion, and turned back a few pages. Felicia threw her arms around the young woman’s shoulders from behind. “Tracy! Senioritis?”

  Tracy turned into the hug. “And how. But how are you doing? I didn’t know you were coming back!”

  After that inexplicable exchange, Felicia tipped her head to Tatiana. “I’m here because of the envoy. I’ll let Dad do the official introductions to pack members. I’m just showing her the house.”

  After a last squeeze, Felicia pulled away from the hug. Before she could lead the way to the next room, a shaggy-headed five- or six-year-old burst out of a door onto the hallway. His trajectory suggested he’d run up the stairs from a basement. He was making staticky noises that Tatiana finally realized were weapons fire because of the bright red fighter jet or spaceship toy in his hand. He zoomed it through the air and pounded into the dining room, buzzing several of the kids’ heads.

  “Where’s the squadron? We need backup! Pew, pew!” He dropped a handful of much smaller airplanes and toy cars on the table.

  Tracy pushed her chair back with an exasperation that suggested this wasn’t the first time. “Edmond, it’s homework time. No one can play until it’s done.” She tried to give him all his toys back, but he snagged only two and ran away again.

  “But I wanna say hi to Felicia!” He tackled her in a hug, then pressed an ambulance into her unresisting hand. He pulled away and handed Tatiana a metal jumbo jet branded on the side with the name of an American airline.

  Felicia winced. Tatiana tried to resist, but he was so young, she found herself charmed by his disobedience. And why not interact with him a little? She wasn’t likely to learn much, but you never knew, and it might further lower Felicia’s guard. She looked the jet over. “What do I do with this?” Edmond stared at her in frank confusion, and she tried to repeat the words with less accent.

  “The squadron has to follow the captain’s orders.” Edmond tapped her plane’s wing emphatically. “It shoots fire. And bombs. Come on!” With both hands on his large spaceship he twisted it in an acrobatic flight path back to the door he’d emerged from.

  Felicia glanced from her ambulance to Tracy once Edmond was on the stairs. Tracy sighed. “Ever since he saw on TV that planes fight in packs, everyone has to play with him in his squadron.” Tracy pointed to the door. “You’re supposed to follow him everywhere until he gets bored of bossing you around.”

  “We’d better hurry, then.” Tatiana zoomed her plane a little on the way down into the basement, but omitted the sound effects. Felicia followed, suspicion visibly fading into confusion.

  Tatiana suspected the basement wouldn’t have been on the regular tour. It was set up like it had been intended to be a home theater with a projector on the ceiling in front of a blank wall and floor cushions everywhere, but the children had taken over. A large bench that opened into a toy box sat in one corner so things could be tidied away, but the lid was up and it had hemorrhaged its contents over the floor.

  Edmond smashed his ship into a LEGO tower with a resounding crash. “We got ’em!”

  Felicia squeaked as the small bricks skittered over the floor in a wide radius. “Edmond!” She used a half-grown version of the tone Andrew had used earlier, and Edmond instantly put his ship down and hung his head. “Clean those up right now.”

  Felicia waited, glaring, until Edmond found a plastic bucket and started dumping handfuls of loose bricks inside. That lasted about a minute until he started making weapons noises again as he threw in the LEGO bricks. Felicia left him to it and went to shut the toy box lid so she could sit and supervise from there. She eyed Tatiana. “Uh. Sorry.”

  Tatiana sat down next to her and they both watched Edmond work. “I like kids.” She only wished she could have her own, truly her own, but that wasn’t something to think about at the moment. Tatiana set her mind carefully back on strategic paths.

  Perhaps Felicia would be interested in playing chase. She was young for Tatiana’s actual taste, but adult enough to be responsible for her choices. Tatiana had planned to lay enticing trails for whichever of the alpha pair seemed most susceptible, sowing pack-disintegrating chaos into their relationship, but she could already tell that wouldn’t work.

  A chase with someone else could still provide information, though. She could go after one of the pack’s men, but while men often bounded into playing chase more easily, women tended to talk more. Easy enough to let slip one of the alpha’s weaknesses, or sore points, without even realizing it.

  Tatiana turned her head, tracing the curve of Felicia’s neck with her eyes. She wondered, too. The way Andrew had singled out this one of his daughters made Tatiana think that perhaps he considered her alpha elect. Strange, to think of a female alpha, without even the support of being Lady-touched as Silver was, but across Europe everyone talked about how the North Americans liked that sort of thing.

  Tatiana crossed her legs, using the excuse to move a little closer to Felicia. “You have a certain air of authority,” she said, tone teasing. She dropped her eyes lower, to the generous swell of Felicia’s breasts, the tantalizing hint of cleavage shadowed at the dip of her neckline, until attraction welled up enough to leak into her scent.

  Felicia snorted. “With a five-year-old, sure.” She frowned at Edmond, who’d gotten three-quarters of the LEGO into the bucket before stopping to build something with the remainder. Tatiana’s scent must have reached her, because she threw Tatiana a quick glance, as if doubting she’d smelled right.

  “Give it time.” Tatiana set her hand over Felicia’s.

  Felicia shoved to her feet, awkwardness seeping into the air around her. “This isn’t giving you a tour, though. C’mon. I can introduce you to my boyfriend. I think he’s probably upstairs.”

  She took the basement stairs a little fast, and Tatiana trailed to allow plenty of space between them. That was a no, then. A more uncomfortable one than she’d expected—but then Felicia paused at the top of the stairs and checked her expression anxiously, and Tatiana understood. Felicia must be worried that refusing in the wrong way would offend the influential visitor. Tatiana suppressed a smile. She was far from hurt, but perhaps she should pretend to be. A frown in the right place, and she bet Felicia would be back to panicked babbling.

  When they emerged from the basement into the main hallway, a very professional-looking woman almost bumped into them. A human woman. She caught Felicia by the shoulders with a disrespectful abruptness that seemed intended to be affectionate. “Have you seen John around?”

  Tatiana stepped back a little bit, trying to keep the shock off her face. She’d smelled that a human had been around the house, but she’d never have imagined that the North Americans would let the woman blunder around where Tatiana could see her.

  The human looked normal enough, short brown hair and great ass—if you were into humans. Felicia summoned a friendly smile that made it nowhere near her scent, though of course the human didn’t notice. “Hi, Susan. I think he’s probably getting ready for the big dinner party tonight.”

  Susan looked over and brazenly caught Tatiana’s eyes in the annoying human style of greeting. Tatiana avoided the gaze rather than teach the human a lesson in dominance.

  “Oh, that’s right. I didn’t realize his guests would be getting here already.” Susan nodded to Tatiana and smiled apologetically. “I’m afraid I never stick around for the boring shop talk. I never understand half of what he says about software.” She patted Felicia’s shoulder. “Well, I’m off home. Tell him to call me tomorrow, would you?”

  As Susan passed Tatiana on the way to the door, she gave her another glance—she probab
ly thought it was covert—with a mixture of curiosity and wariness like she was worried the curiosity would be taken wrong. Whatever she’d said about being happy to leave, it was clear she wasn’t quite so sanguine.

  Tatiana remembered that look, on another human woman’s face. Another human woman who was wondering why Tatiana was taking an interest in her. She gritted mental teeth against the memory and reminded herself that Susan didn’t look much like the woman she’d had to deal with back then, anyway. That one had been skinny as a stick, blue eyes too large and vulnerable.

  Tatiana used the sound of the door shutting behind Susan to shove the memory away so it stuck this time. She turned to Felicia and let her expression ask her question. What in the Lady’s name was the woman doing here?

  “She’s his girlfriend.” Felicia shrugged, uncomfortable. “She’s around sometimes, but by now everyone’s used to making sure she doesn’t find out anything.” She eyed Tatiana defensively, but Tatiana raised her hands in a calming gesture. Susan was in no danger from her. She wasn’t going to walk that trail again. If she got pregnant or stumbled onto something she shouldn’t, that was the North Americans’ problem.

  Felicia strode a little too fast down the hall toward the stairs. “Let me show you upstairs. We have a deck with a pretty nice view down the hill.”

  Tatiana followed. After everything else, she wondered what would be hiding upstairs. A true wolf curled up in one of the bedrooms, perhaps?

  Chapter 5

  While Felicia and the envoy were upstairs, Andrew supervised the table being set for dinner. The children had been shooed off to play in the basement. They’d have sandwiches down there while the adults sweated through the finer points of dining etiquette. Andrew envied them in many ways.

  Silver snagged his wrist as he crossed back to the kitchen to check the chicken pot pies’ progress in the oven. “They know what they’re doing. Susan briefed them all before she had to leave. Having their alpha hovering won’t help.”

  Andrew let himself be led around the other side of the kitchen island. With the oven light on, he could see the pot pies from here anyway. “I’m starting to think we should have served steaks after all. She’s acting strange enough as it is, so maybe serving something with the meat small and well-cooked says weak and human to Russians.”

  Silver laced her fingers with his. “But it’s not just the North Americans, is it? Don’t Europeans also use that kind of food to remind everyone they’re around to talk, not fight?”

  “Mm. In Spain, the steaks were for before the raiding party went out.” Andrew could still picture those meals. He’d disapproved of the raids, but the camaraderie among the pack’s fighters had been heady stuff: everyone crowded around the table and roughhousing over the choice morsels, the encompassing scent of half-raw meat and everyone’s anticipation driving his own.

  Things had been simple then, following orders from the middle of the pack. Maybe if things had been different, he’d still be there now, not alpha here. Andrew suspected that those Spanish fighters would be furious with him if they were here, for working so hard to avoid the need for such skirmishes. Lady knew if this would work. Perhaps nothing could prevent a clash with Russia at this point.

  “What trail are your thoughts haring off on now?” Silver said with quiet humor, and brought up their joined hands to knock them against his side.

  “A very old one.” Andrew shook himself out of it. He didn’t believe in the Lady, so it didn’t matter what She knew. He’d continue doing everything he could to make sure the Russian went away satisfied and didn’t return. “It smells like the food’s almost done. We can probably get everyone seated.”

  Silver nodded and slipped into the dining room to help direct everyone. He and Silver usually allowed precedence seating to be loose, but it needed to be carefully executed tonight. Even with only the adults of the Roanoke home pack attending, it was a lot of people to juggle.

  Andrew went the other way, out into the hall. He suspected that Felicia would be monitoring the smells. Sure enough, she was leading the way down the staircase as he approached. She’d collected Tom at some point, and they walked abreast down the stairs, Tom’s arm slung over Felicia’s shoulders.

  Anger flashed through Andrew. He’d thought his daughter had better diplomatic instincts than to allow herself to be distracted from their guest by finding her boyfriend at the first opportunity.

  But then he examined them more closely. Tom looked baffled and protective, leading Andrew to surmise that their posture was Felicia’s idea, not his, and the reason for it was the root of his protectiveness. Felicia, on the other hand, looked clingy. Tom’s arm had tousled her hair under it, but she hadn’t done anything to smooth it. If she’d been cuddling for the sake of showing off her relationship, she’d have arranged her hair to fall just so.

  Felicia pulled away from Tom at the bottom of the stairs and switched their connection to just interlaced fingers. “I showed her the deck and stuff,” she said, head down and position apologetic.

  Andrew nodded absently. “Dinner’s ready if you’d like to join us,” he told the envoy. She didn’t look particularly bothered about Tom, at least. If anything, she seemed slightly amused. Andrew held out his arm toward the dining room.

  “Thank you.” Tatiana inclined her head and strode confidently that way. She presumably remembered the location from her tour with Felicia. Andrew had to suppress a punchy smile. She really did sound like a Bond girl.

  “I chased Susan out, too.” Felicia had her hand up against her shoulder, smoothing her hair. She briefly curled her fingers into a thumbs-up, then returned smoothly to the original movement.

  Andrew allowed himself a sigh of relief, though not for the reason Tatiana would probably guess. The fact that Susan not only knew about the existence of Were but had carved out her own place in a pack put both her and the pack in a dangerous position. Dangerous to them because the Russians might see that as evidence of terrible judgment, a pack that needed to be taken out. Dangerous to her because if the Russians saw her as a danger to all Were, they might decide to take care of her themselves.

  They couldn’t erase her scent from the house, not without using enough cleaning products to scream that they had something to hide. So John and Susan had removed their wedding rings and everyone had agreed to the official story about the clueless girlfriend. Susan had been worried that after so long learning Were body language, she wouldn’t be able to fake obliviousness anymore. Felicia seemed to be saying it had worked, though. Good.

  Andrew strode for the dining room. One obstacle down, one dangerously awkward dinner to go.

  ***

  Dinner began with introductions of everyone at the table to the envoy, then Silver and Dare received their portions of the meal. The others made conversation about nothing much as a young Were spooned out everyone else’s portions in order of rank. Dare prompted her with light nods when necessary. Instead of beginning to eat, Silver watched the envoy’s wild self. It had relaxed enough from its intense focus on her and Dare to sniff at Sacramento’s wild self. Strict ranking placed the two women next to each other, much as Silver would have liked to avoid the reminder of the misbehaving pack member.

  The snow-dusted color of the envoy’s wild self stood out more clearly next to Sacramento’s more uniform gray. The women also each called out different aspects of the other by comparison. Both were fair haired, but the envoy had stronger features and softer curves. And even that fair hair was different: Sacramento’s was sharper, a lightened brown rather than a true gold.

  “Everything straightened out with the pack now?” The envoy smiled without real warmth and took her first bite.

  “Of course,” Dare said, his smile just as empty. The exchange struck Silver as being like wild selves snapping at the air before a fight. Posturing, with no real effort to wound.

  She didn’t see him approach, but she felt Death as a brush of fur against her shin. He settled himself right on top of her fe
et. “The real fun comes later,” he said, amused.

  Sacramento flushed, radiating embarrassment. Interestingly, the envoy actually looked apologetic, and put out a hand to the other woman’s arm.

  “Craig—he was the one I was arguing with—he and I have history,” Sacramento murmured, low.

  “I got to meet your son while you were gone,” the envoy told Dare with the air of someone changing the subject. For Sacramento’s sake? “He’s a delightful child.”

  Silver couldn’t help herself, she glanced at Dare, even though she knew perfectly well Felicia was his only child. His matching confusion was clear. “My son?” He directed the question also at Felicia, who only shrugged.

  “Edmond?” The envoy said the name once, then again more carefully as if she thought the confusion was caused by her accent.

  “Oh!” Dare tipped his head to their beta. “Edmond is John’s son.” He said it so easily, if she hadn’t known, Silver wouldn’t have guessed he was carefully avoiding any mention of Edmond’s mother. That was Susan, the human who really should not have been around. “I only have Felicia.”

  “Edmond is your . . . beta’s son. All other children, they are not yours?” The envoy spoke very slowly. If she had not had such a command of the language before, Silver would have thought she understood only a few words of it now, by her reaction. She seemed utterly lost, stumbling through a snowstorm in the new.

  Dare remained silent, trying to figure out the situation before he committed himself to words, and Silver followed his lead. Clearly, the envoy needed time to organize her thoughts before she asked any more questions. Felicia stepped up to fill the void. “Yep, I get the fun of being alpha’s child all to myself.” She smiled awkwardly.