Honor bit into doughnut number two and felt her eyes narrow. She barely forced herself to chew before she replied. “What do you mean, ‘What’s up’? He’s here because his alpha sent him here. You were at dinner last night. You heard what I said.”
“Well, duh, but despite all rumors to the contrary, I am not, in fact, either a clueless pup or a babbling idiot. You told everyone that he came to pay his respects at the passing of the alpha, but if that was all this was about, why would he be poking his nose into everyone’s business and asking questions about how the pack operates? What’s he trying to find out? And don’t tell me he’s on vacation, or something. That would hold about as much water as calling it a courtesy visit. Dude is damned sure asking way too many questions for courtesy.”
The younger werewolf met Honor’s gaze with raised eyebrows, his foot bouncing up and down where it dangled off the edge of his knee. At twenty, Max had energy to burn and yet was in that awkward stage between adult, when he would take his final place in the pack hierarchy, and child, when he could run around the territory free of responsibilities. She would need to find a constructive way to use all that energy, especially since her instincts told her that she was looking at a very high-ranking future wolf, potentially even her next beta. But right now, other priorities occupied her mind.
“Asking questions?” Her stomach clenched. She had known that was what Logan must be planning, but it still galled her to hear about him doing it. “Asking who? And what does he want to know?”
“It’s not polite to answer a question with a question.”
“It isn’t when you do it but I’m the alpha. I don’t have to be polite.”
“That is so not fair.”
“Deal.” She snagged a third doughnut and used it to punctuate her point. “Now tell me. Where is the Silverback poking his nose, and what has he been asking about?”
“Everywhere and lots of things.” The sneakered foot bounced, and Honor chewed in an attempt to keep her mouth too occupied to betray the true extent of her interest. “He’s talked to a good sampling of the present pack. Elders, males, females. He even visited Molly Stevens’s day care and talked to some of the little ones. Whatever he wants to know, he wants a pretty diverse perspective on it.”
“Have you asked any of the people he talked to what he wanted?”
“Well. No.”
“So, in other words, you have no idea what I’m asking you.”
“You could say that.”
“I just did.”
“True. But you could also say that you just didn’t ask the right question.”
Honor growled. “Max…”
“Hey, all I’m saying is, I don’t know exactly what he’s been asking people about, but I do know that there are some rumors flying around that something big is going to be happening at the Howl this weekend.” He leaned forward in his chair, blue eyes glowing. “Something bigger than an alpha declaration and a challenge or two.”
That made Honor pause. “What does that mean? What’s bigger? And just what challenges are you talking about?”
“Don’t try to distract me, Honor. We both know exactly what males in this pack are still dumb enough to want to challenge you to be alpha. You won’t change the subject with that. And if I knew what was bigger than the asskickings you’ll be handing out on Saturday, I’d know what the Silverback was asking people about. Which I clearly don’t.”
“Don’t be smart with me, Maxwell Clarke.”
He held up his hands. “I’m not being smart, Honor. I promise. I mean, I’m just as curious as you are. If something big is going down, it would sure be nice to be prepared for it.”
She scowled and leaned back in her chair, mumbling, “You’re telling me.”
“Then I guess it would be pretty useless for me to ask if you had any theories about what that all means?”
She just looked at him.
“Right. That’s what I thought.”
Max opened his mouth to speak, but before he got the chance to utter a single additional syllable, the door to Honor’s office slammed open and a clearly belligerent man shoved his way inside. He flew to Honor’s desk, slapped his meaty hands down on the surface, and inhaled deeply.
“I want to know if it’s true, you little slut.” His growl was deep and menacing and Honor didn’t even blink. “Half the pack is talking about it, but I want to hear it from you. Did you really let that stranger paw you like a bitch in heat? He hasn’t even been here for forty-eight hours, and you let him touch what’s mine?”
One eyebrow arched up, and when she spoke, Honor knew she could have added several inches to the polar ice caps with her tone of voice. She’d practiced often enough. “Yours? I must be having trouble with my hearing, because I am certain that there is nothing in this room that belongs to you, Darin Major. And the next time you call me a bitch, by the way, I will lunch on your liver. Now would you care to rephrase?”
“You heard me fine the first time, and I meant what I said. I heard three different people today say you let that Silverback cur bend you over like a cheap whore. They’re laughing about it. And now I’m going to picture that in my head every time I look at you. When the call to mate the alpha comes, you’re going to be mine, and I’m going to wipe that image from my head by replacing it with the sight of you on your knees in front of
Honor raised her left hand, curled into a fist with the back of her hand facing Max and Darin. Coolly and very quietly she ticked off her points on her fingers as she replied. “One, let me repeat, nothing in this room can be called yours, least of all me. Two, what I do and with whom I do it is not, and never shall be, any of your goddamned business. Three, there will be no alpha mating at the next Howl, because I do not choose to mate right now, and I’ll be damned to hell and back before I let some antiquated, misogynistic,
Understand?”
Nine
Silence fell between them, brief, tense, and marked by the meeting of two gazes, one brown and chill, one green and maddened. But it ended abruptly when the door to the office opened again and another male voice rang out in the now crowded room.
“If I were you, I would do what the lady says, Major. Somehow I doubt she’s joking.”
Honor never broke her stare with Darin, but her jaw shifted and clenched. “The next one to walk into my office without knocking will find himself decorating the floor in front of my fireplace.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Logan’s lip twitching. “That sounds kind of nasty, Darin. I think I’d back off if I were you.”
“That promise wasn’t made exclusively to Darin.”
“Maybe not, but he’s the one who’s going to have to defend himself from both sides in about thirty seconds, if he doesn’t back off.”
What started in a reasonable and slightly amused voice had become decidedly serious by the end of that statement. Honor clenched her teeth to keep herself from screaming. If she’d been human, she probably would have screamed a split second later when Darin obeyed orders by removing his hands from her desk, but then ruined the moment of sanity by swinging around and launching himself straight for Logan’s throat.
The force of Darin’s attack pushed Logan back through the door of the office and down the front steps of the small cabin that housed it. The two figures landed on the ground in the snow-covered front yard, teeth snapping and hands clawing. The flakes barely had time to settle before Darin made the stupidest decision of his life and howled a challenge at a man who was not only stronger and faster than him, but also a hell of a lot smarter. As evidenced by the fact that Darin had attacked him to begin with.
Instead of screaming, Honor roared and leaped out of her chair and over her desk to launch herself after
