Page 20 of The Vampire in the Potting Shed

“What are you doing?” Sloane scanned the room. “Get away from there.”

“Anytime someone throws a rock through a window in the movies, there’s a note attached to it.”

“This isn’t a movie, and your dad will skin us alive if we’re caught in here.”

“This won’t take but a second.” I bent and lifted the hunk of landscaping, turning it over carefully. Myrtle wiggled against me, unimpressed with my investigation. “Crap.” I put it back right where I found it. “It was worth a shot.” With my Myrtle-free hand, I grabbed Sloane and hauled butt returning to the break room. “Well, that was disappointing.” I sank into a chair. “I was so sure there would be a clue.”

“The only thing I picked up on was Zoe’s blood, but I’m guessing she inspected the rock on her way out.”

Less than five minutes later, Mercer barreled through the door, aiming straight for me.

“Your dad wants to speak with you.” He nodded to Sloane. “You’re coming too.”

“He’s not here?” I stepped around him, but no one else was there. “He sent you tofetchme?”

“We can’t have this conversation here.” Mercer swept the room. “This is an unsecured location.”

“I’m not going home.” I cuddled Myrtle against my chest. “To Dad’s home, I mean.”

“You don’t get a choice.” He offered me a lollipop I wanted to crush under my heel. “Come on, kiddo.”

“We’ll go,” Sloane said frostily. “But after Ana talks to her dad, I’m taking her home. Toherhome.”

A low growl rose up Mercer’s throat, his wolf unhappy with the challenge, but he swallowed it down.

No one stood up to Mercer. No one. Yet there was Sloane, ready to throw down with him.

Earning that kind of loyalty in such a short period of time convinced me Sloane had been as lonely as me and just as desperate to forge a connection with someone. Too bad she chose me. I was grateful, don’t get me wrong, but it would cause her no end of trouble if she stood up to the wrong wolf. And Mercer was far from the right one to let raise her hackles.

“I can’t make that promise.” His brow pinched as he glanced between us. “Neither can you.”

Hooking my arm through hers in a show of solidarity, one that left Myrtle grumbling about my dog-holding technique, I marched out to Mercer’s waiting SUV.

For a heartbeat, I thought he would demand I leave Myrtle, but he swallowed those words too.

With two sentinels left to guard my animals and board up my window, I got in with Sloane.

And the whole way there, I held the gold chain in my hand, the charm cutting into my palm like a promise.

A shiver rippled down my spine as I entered the house where I grew up on miles of forested land. I had fallen asleep to howling wolves most nights, my own personal lullaby. I hadn’t minded their songs, even when they woke me, or the flashes of fur as they raced each other through the trees.

Truthfully, I had loved their wildness, had felt it echoing in my soul. Right up until I understood it would never be me out there. I would never sing with my packmates. I would never tussle with friends or hunt. I would never stop feeling like a disappointment. A failure. Aliability.

Then Dad locked me downfor my own good, so it was hard to say how much of my bitterness stemmed from the forced isolation—as if I had turned from flesh and blood to a wraith in a window overnight—and how much of the blame could be laid at the paws of those who made sure I never forgot I wasn’t one of them and never would be. That not even having an alpha father could make me a wolf.

“Peanut.” Dad greeted me in the foyer, and I set Myrtle down, holding tight to her leash. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come in person, but I’m here now.”

Sloane was a warm reassurance one step behind me as Dad embraced me.

“Sloane.” His eyes tightened at their corners. “You came too?”

“I was nervous,” I blurted, wiping the unreadable expression from his face. “She came as a favor to me.”

“I didn’t realize you two were so close.” He glanced toward Mercer. “Well, Sloane, I’m sure you know the way to the kitchen. Help yourself to some of the oatmeal cookies Nina bakedearlier.” He draped his arm across my shoulders. “I need a moment alone with my Peanut.”

“That sounds great.” She ducked her head, avoiding eye contact. “Thank you, sir.”

As much as obedience was part of the routine, tonight I found it grated on me to watch Sloane bow.

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