Impulse

“Julio Mendoza from the Southeast council,” Sydney supplied, steering Sera around the car.

“Meet Patty, the woman who has the unenviable task of keeping me honest.”

“Most of the time, I do a poor job.” The woman smiled as she shook Julio’s hand, then Sera’s. “We’re having barbecue. Nothing fancy, but there’s plenty to go around.”

“Barbecue sounds perfect.” Sera used her best friendly smile—and her best manners. “I’m Sera. And thank you so much for inviting us to stay with you. It will be nice to have a chance to run tonight.”

“We run almost every night.” Patty turned and beckoned them to follow. “Everyone’s out back. Come on.”

Sydney fell into step next to Patty and led them through the house. “Not everyone’s here, of course. Plenty work night shifts in town. We own the bar, a strip motel and a couple of restaurants. Keeps money coming in.”

“Like a co-op,” Julio observed.

“Pretty much. Money comes in, whether they work for us or someplace else.” They passed through a comfortable-looking living room that showed signs of being hastily tidied, and Sydney pulled open a sliding glass door. “Well, for a long time, money was going out as fast as it came in. Cesar raised tithes twice in three years.”

“Yeah, I bet he did.” Julio walked out into the back yard and accepted the can of beer someone handed him. “Hear anything else from him lately?”

Sera watched as Sydney studied Julio, and recognized the tension of a man taking a careful step toward trust. “His brother called a month ago and said he’d be around to collect this quarter’s tithes.”

Julio froze and turned to him. “Alec said everyone should funnel this quarter’s money directly back into the pack.”

“Which is what I told Diego. He didn’t press the matter.”

Too late, Sera made the connection. Cesar’s brother…Julio’s father. Her heart ached for him, but there was nothing she could say. Not in front of strangers. “If you need to talk to Sydney, maybe Patty could show me around.”

“No, stay.” His hand closed around hers. “The next time either one of them shows up, Sydney, I think Alec and I would take it as a personal favor if you’d let us know.”

“I’ll do that.” Sydney waved a hand toward a scattering of picnic tables that had been shoved together in two long lines. “This is no way to start a party, though. You two take a seat. Sera, honey, pick your poison. Beer, sweet tea, something stronger?”

“Beer’s fine.”

Sydney gestured, and a shy teenager who’d been staring at her snatched a bottle out of a cooler full of ice and trotted over. The boy gave Julio a nervous look before offering Sera her drink. “You’re really a coyote.”

Sometimes the spite was easier. Loathing and hatred were simple. The fawning awe made her feel freakish too, but it felt bitchy to snarl when the kid was trying to be friendly. And he was a kid, so she managed a smile. “So I’ve heard.”

“Where are you from?”

“I grew up in Louisiana. Not far outside New Orleans.” She tried to judge the boy’s age.

Fifteen, maybe, a gawkish age for any shapeshifter, with instincts and hormones doing serious battle. “How about you? Do you live around here?”

He pointed toward a line of trees, through which she caught a glimpse of silver. “In the RV camp. Most of the pack lives there.”

Sydney clapped the young wolf on the shoulder and turned him around. “Go on and make yourself useful, pup.” The kid bolted, and Sydney’s face took on a strained expression as he turned back to Julio. “Your uncle and Coleman before him squeezed out a lot more than most of them could afford, especially in this shit economy. We all make do.”

Julio lowered his voice. “I wish you’d said something when Alec and Carmen came around last summer.”

“It’s easy to say you’re different,” Sydney replied just as quietly. “In my experience, nothing drives good intentions into the mud as fast as money on the table. Maybe I was still having trouble believing.”

“I’ll talk to Alec before we leave, see what can be done short-term.”

Sydney looked from Julio to Sera, and it was hard, keeping an impassive expression in the face of so much desperate pride as it bled into hope. “We’re not looking for handouts. But a little of our own back would be nice.”

“I understand.” Julio lifted his beer, then shook his head as he set it back down. “No, you know what? I’m going to go call him now. He needs to see this.”

Sera squeezed his hand before releasing it. “I’m going to stay here with Sydney and Patty.”

“Yeah, okay.” He flashed her a quick smile and walked away, digging his cell phone out of his pocket.

“He’s sweet as pie,” Patty murmured. “Where’d you find him?”

In a tiny exam room during the worst moments of her life. Not exactly a romantic start to the story, so she picked a different start. “He pulled my father from a burning building.”

“Well, now he’s just making me look bad,” Sydney grumbled. He leaned over to kiss Patty’s cheek. “I’ll check on the grill. Shout if you need me.”

“We won’t.” She winked at Sera. “We’ll be talking about you, that’s all.”

“Girl talk. Totally.” When Sydney was gone, Sera smiled. “He seems great too. Holding together a pack can’t be easy.”

“He’s had a rough time,” Patty conceded. “But like he said, you make do.”

Sera followed Patty to the closest picnic table and ignored the curious and assessing stares from the wolves. Most seemed unwilling to come closer—a wariness that no doubt came from uncertainty and a healthy dose of fear of what Julio might do.

Fear wouldn’t stop the powerful wolves, but maybe she wouldn’t always be a liability. “Julio and Alec will help all of you. Alec’s not perfect by a long shot, but he cares. And Julio’s sister does too.”

“I believe you, actually. And trust me when I say it’s been a long time since I could say that and mean it.”

“I’m not surprised.” Sera sipped her beer and watched as Julio held a low, animated conversation with Alec. “Will you tell me something?”

“Name it, sweetie.”

“Seeing him with me. Does it make it harder to trust him?”

Patty snorted. “After the mess with Coleman and the other Mendozas, it’s already damn hard to trust him. I’m not sure what you’re asking, exactly.”

Something inside her relaxed. “So you don’t care that he’s slumming with a coyote?”

For a moment, the wolf looked almost guilty. Then she sighed. “It’s a bit of a relief, actually.

That he might not be thinking he’s better than a bunch of panhandle rednecks.”

Sera reached across the table to cover Patty’s hand. “No. Not remotely.”

“Not,” the woman continued firmly, “that I think of you that way. But I’m used to other wolves looking at me like… Well, like I might not be fitting company for anyone, much less important people like them.”

“I am a redneck,” Sera said lightly. “The only shapeshifters I had around me growing up were wolves. The boys thought I was fitting company when they got lonely, and a stray who needed to be kicked to the curb when they weren’t. So I get it.”

Patty smiled, the expression edged with hard reality as well as commiseration. “Then you are one of us.”

In a lot of the ways that mattered, maybe she wasn’t so different. If she wanted to be with Julio, she could use that. She could help him regain the trust of the wolves who’d lost trust in anyone with power.

Of course, it wouldn’t change the other challenge. Julio’s family had been willing to risk Carmen’s life to try to turn her into a wolf. Diego Mendoza had looked at his daughter and had decided that she’d be better off dying as a newly made wolf than living as a human psychic.

If they’d destroy their own family to protect their precious bloodlines, she didn’t want to imagine what they’d do to her—or what price Julio might have to pay to stop them.