One Deadly Bite

Chapter 4

“ROSSETTA ALESSIA ST. VINCENT CLAIRE!”

Four names, five words, one pissed-off werewolf. The math in this particular equation never came out in my favor.

“Callum,” I said, feigning surprise at his sudden appearance in my workshop. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

His eyes narrowed slightly. On a human, the same motion would have conveyed sharp irritation, but on Callum’s face, the expression was mild, until and unless you looked for the power behind the gaze and caught a glint of the wolf staring back.

Growing up the way I did, you learn a few things, so I knew the dangers involved in standing my ground and the ones that came with letting it go. My right hip twinged just above the band of my low-rise jeans, and my fingers played along the edges of the scar that lived there. The Mark tied me to Callum and the rest of the pack, and it served as an ever-present reminder that they were bound to protect me as one of their own. It also drove me into a hierarchy I’d never subscribed to. That and the whisper of the rest of the pack at the gates of my mind—closed for business, thank you very much—spurred me into choosing the lesser of two evils in my interaction with the aforementioned pissed-off werewolf.

Calmly, I brought my eyes to Callum’s. The power coming off him made it an effort, even for me. After a few precious seconds of meeting his gaze, I flicked my eyes to the side. Protocol would have had me looking down, but I was about as far from submissive as you could get. I also wasn’t a Were, and Callum wasn’t my alpha, so despite the constant pull of the pack at my psyche, there was nothing in Emily Post’s Guide to Werewolf Etiquette to say that I absolutely had to submit.

Callum responded to my subtle, pointed defiance with a roll of his amber-colored eyes, but he had the good grace to abstain from pressing me into the wall or down to my knees the way he might have if not for that pesky humanity of mine. Instead, he brought one suntanned hand up to his jaw and ran it roughly over the five o’clock shadow on his chin in a way that made me think he was mentally counting to ten. The action—and the frustration that drove it—reminded me that even if he wasn’t my alpha, Callum was my legal guardian, the executor of my estate, and the closest thing I had to a brother, uncle, or mentor, all rolled into one. Despite my best efforts as a small child to convince Callum that he was not (and I quote) the boss of me, he technically was. As alpha, he took pack business seriously, and had I not had four names of my own to choose from, I could have easily gone by “P.B.”—Pack Business of the first and highest order.

The Mark on my hip wasn’t just for show.

“Rose.” Callum’s voice, even-toned with not even a hint of a growl, brought me back to the present. I was somewhat relieved that the situation had been downgraded in his mind from meriting all four names to just one. Better still that he stuck with Rose, which I vastly preferred to Bronwyn.

“Rose.” Slightly sharper this time, but mostly exasperated, Callum’s voice forced me to focus.

“Sorry,” I said. “Mind bunnies.”

Callum nodded curtly and waited for me to address the reason for his presence in my workshop. This was supposed to be my sanctuary, a tiny slice of pack territory that belonged to only me, myself, and I. It wasn’t much more than a standalone garage turned second-rate art studio, but I didn’t much appreciate the invasion, or the way Callum kept his eyes on mine, confident that I’d eventually tell him exactly what he wanted to know. Experience told me that he was probably right. Callum could outwait anyone, and though he was only a few inches taller than me, and the muscles in his granite jaw were relaxed, the power behind his eyes was always palpable in his stare.

“I really don’t know why you’re here,” I told him, selecting my words carefully. Most Weres could smell a lie, and Callum, the alpha of alphas in our corner of the world, would have known immediately if I’d offered up an excuse that wasn’t technically true. Luckily for me, I didn’t know precisely what it was that I’d done to merit a visit from our pack’s leader. There were any number of possibilities, none of which I wanted to openly admit to on the off chance that there was something I’d done that he hadn’t found out about yet.

“You have no idea why I might want to talk to you?” Callum asked, his voice never losing its calm, cool tone.

That was a trickier question to answer without crossing the border from half-truths into lies, but I’d had years of practice. This I could handle. “I really don’t have an idea why you’d want to talk to me.”

“And you are sure about that part?”

Well it was not like I had no idea at all. I had several ideas and I did not know which was the reason that he was going ask me this time. I nodded at him in answer like a good girl I was and he sighed and rubbed his hand over his face and said,” You are going to fight a werewolf and you attacked him this morning and broke his finger and also threatened to snap his wrist. What do you have to say about that?”

I looked up at him and said,” I had no idea that he was going to cry like a girl and scream for his mommy. He did something which was not justified and I needed to stand up for it. I did it and I am not going to lie and say that I did not.”

“And what was the precise reason for harming one of mine? You do understand that harming one of the pack is a punishable offense!” he almost exhaled at me in a rush and I said,” I have not yet fought him if that is what you are scared of. And what are you afraid of? I am a human and he is a werewolf. Should you not be telling this to him?”

“You know very well why I am telling this to you and not to him. You were the one who issued the challenge and not the boy. They are angry, they are hormonal and they have too much of tension pent up in them before the full moon and now you are playing with fire. What is that you have to prove, Rose? I don’t understand. Have I not been proper in giving you enough protection and have I not trained you enough that you go and bump head on with a werewolf on the first day that the school reopens?”

“He caught hold of Shera’s ass and then said that he would tap it any time he got a chance. He was lucky that I did not do any more harm than break his finger which would heal in an hour. He does not know how to treat women and he needs to f*****g learn,” I snarled at Callum and he glared at me and said,” Language.”

“To hell with language. I am going to fight him and I am going break his bones just like I promised no matter what you say,” I said as I turned away from him.

“Don’t you dare turn your back at me when I am still not finished with this conversation.”

“I am. And if you want to say anything more then I am still here and my ears are wide open for listening. Go ahead.”

“I just want to say that I have placed my bet on you and most of the bets are against you winning so I am hoping that you would make me both rich and proud. Can I count on you for that?” he asked and I whirled back at him with a grin on my face.

“You really did? How much did you bet?” I asked.

“You are the fighter. You don’t get a percentage in the winnings if you do win and this is your one and only maiden fight so don’t go and make a habit out of this. I might be taking this as a sport because that boy needs to know his place this time but the next time you do this I am grounding you for a week,” Callum said with a growl and then came in Aly who said,” No one is grounding her for any period of time until and unless I tell that.”

“Ah…I guess the mother could not stay away. Could you now Aly?” asked Callum as Aly came in and took off the goves from my hand and said,” I am going to make your favourite dinner if you kick his ass a bit extra…I mean, break three bones and a few more and leave him in the healing room for a week. Can you do that?”

“Do I get two cups of chocolate mousse?”

“Absolutely and a slice of choco chip cake with vanilla filling and chocolate sauce,” said Aly and I whooped in the promise of chocolate. One of my worst weaknesses, well something that every girl needed…chocolate as a little perk up.

“Fine. Then go and win the fight. And not to mention you are forbidden to get hurt so don’t get scared to play dirty. You are human and they aren’t. Use that in your favour.”

“I have never seen a mother telling such wrong things to her child before,” said Callum with a shake of his head.

“Sure you have. Your beta taught her son to do that just fine and you just waited it out. Don’t cry wolf Callum. It is not a good look on you,” said Aly as we both walked out of the work space as Callum followed us with an audible sigh.