Awakened By The Wolf. Kristal Hollis

was their last move, it never was. Until Imogene got sick and died, and left Cassie all alone.

      She rubbed her neck to dispel the sorrow that fastened around her throat. Brice had an entire pack who cared for him. The idea they’d banished him couldn’t be more absurd. As far as Cassie could tell, his parents loved him, and so did everyone else. Didn’t he realize how precious it was to have the support of so many people?

      She backed the car into the far corner of the resort parking lot. In case the clunker needed a jump start, it helped not to have her car blocked in on all sides.

      Walking up to the giant lodge doors, Cassie gobbled a granola bar. More to settle her nerves than her hunger. After all, she lived and worked among wolves clothed in human skins. Her heart gave a little flutter, and she suffered a brief moment of hilarity. Her hysterical laugh echoed through the empty lobby.

      From his post behind the registration counter, Shane McQuarrie looked up from his textbook. “Something funny?”

      “No.” The existence of werewolves wasn’t a laughing matter.

      Wahya, she corrected herself. Maybe if she stopped thinking of them as werewolves and saw them as people, she’d feel less nervous.

      He closed his book and slid off his stool. He stretched, the same way he did every morning when she arrived to relieve him. He bent over to stuff the book into his backpack. His khaki pants molded around his thighs.

      He wasn’t quite as tall or as broad as Brice, but they shared a certain similarity in their movements. Quiet. Self-assured. Quick. One second she was assessing Shane from the back. The next he loomed in front of her, tall and pumped.

      He stepped close. Too close. “Were you staring at my ass?”

      “No.” She snatched open the cabinet beneath the counter and stashed her purse. “Why?”

      Passing behind her, Shane gave Cassie a sociable bump. “Just hoping. Maybe then I could convince you to go out with me.”

      “You’re too young.” Cassie logged into her computer time card.

      “I’m nineteen.” He circled around the registration desk and leaned on the counter.

      “I repeat, too young.”

      A flirtatious gleam lit his smoky-gray eyes. “Come on. Give me a chance. We’ll have fun. I promise.”

      “I don’t want fun. I want stability.” Cassie pulled up a list of the morning’s expected checkouts.

      “The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” Shane’s grin betrayed far too much interest in her.

      Cassie didn’t feel any attraction toward Shane. Oh, she enjoyed his company whenever they worked together, and he was a sweet guy. A different time, a different place and maybe he could’ve been the little brother she never had.

      Curious, she asked, “Are you a member of the Walker’s Run Co-op?”

      “Naw.” His amicable expression didn’t change. Still, something in the way his pupils flickered seemed off. “Maybe someday.”

      Abigail Walker emerged from the corridor leading to the Walkers’ private residence. Her dark green Chanel suit complemented her golden complexion and deepened the mossy color of her eyes. She smoothed her tight chignon of coal-black hair, looking every bit the regal lady of the manor.

      Until the image of a wolf poised on its hindquarters, wearing the same dress, pearl earrings and ruby-red lipstick, jarred Cassie’s mind.

      The insane calm of last night’s shock broke. Her palms started to sweat. Acid bubbled in her stomach and threatened to expel her paltry breakfast.

      No matter the proper term, the people she worked for were freaking werewolves. What was she thinking, coming to work as if nothing in the universe had changed?

      “Shane, Cassie,” the wolf queen greeted them.

      “Good morning, Mrs. Walker,” Cassie said without meeting her boss’s gaze.

      “Mornin’, Abby.” A subtle tension crept over Shane’s body. His fingers squeezed the backpack straps slung across his shoulder, and the friendly curve of his smile tightened.

      Strange. Shane adored Abby and often went above and beyond his job duties to please her. Not a brownnoser, he simply seemed to crave her approval.

      “Any word from Brice?” Despite the softness of Shane’s voice, his words sounded clipped.

      “We haven’t been able to reach him.” Abigail’s professional demeanor faltered as sadness leached color from her eyes and face. “He’ll come home, though. I know he will.”

      The genuine emotion in her voice convinced Cassie that Brice’s mother loved her son, banishment or not.

      Shane relaxed. “If you need anything, call me.”

      “Thank you, Shane.”

      He nodded his goodbye to Abby and winked at Cassie as he left.

      “Cassie.” Abby’s dark brows pinched her forehead. “If Brice calls or comes in, let me know immediately.”

      Guilt squeezed Cassie’s throat. Brice hadn’t mentioned if Wahyas were mind readers, but she begged her thoughts to focus on anything except him. Less than two miles up the road, inside the cabin, lying in bed, naked. Absolutely, deliciously naked.

      Cassie nodded, not trusting her voice. She hated lies, but technically, agreeing to Abby’s request wasn’t a lie. Brice hadn’t called or come inside the resort.

      Unless he did, Cassie would keep his secret. He’d asked for her silence and trusted she’d be true to her word.

      Still, the deception pricked her conscience. Ideally, Brice would come forward before the splinter of half-truth festered into a poison that would taint the rest of her life.

       Chapter 10

      Brice sauntered out of the bathroom, towel-drying his hair. All day he’d missed Cassie’s warmth. Her company. And he was jonesing for the smell of her skin.

      Several hours ago, he awoke to crippling nausea. Cassie’s scent had faded from the sheets. Out of desperation, he’d riffled through her laundry until he’d found something to settle his queasy stomach. Nothing, however, smelled as good as the real woman.

      He moved quietly through the living room to the kitchen. His heart kicked up a notch at the sight of Cassie at the pantry. The slow, steady rise and fall of her chest drew his attention to the shapeless taupe blazer that practically flattened the gentle swell of her breasts. Breasts he knew were soft and pert, and just full enough to fill the cup of his hand.

      His palm warmed. Damn if his hand didn’t remember copping a feel in his sleep, and itched not only to do it again but also to strip away the drab, boxy skirt grievously camouflaging the slender curves that had tormented him all night. Twice he’d been forced out of bed to release his desire.

      Still, he preferred those less-than-fulfilling interruptions to the cold sweats and panic that usually disturbed his sleep.

      “How was work, Sunshine?”

      Cassie jumped back from the pantry, wide-eyed, clutching a package of ramen noodles. Her startled look heated, charging the air. The current electrified his skin as her gaze devoured every inch of him.

      “Do you ever keep that thing covered?” The huskiness in Cassie’s voice caused his thing to twitch.

      “You like seeing me naked. I can see it in your eyes.” Securing the towel around his hips, Brice padded barefoot across the cold tile.

      “What you see is my brain being fried from too much exposure to all your glory.”

      “You think I’m glorious?” Brice unfastened her silver hair clip. Red