Page 24 of After the Fall

“That’s why you’re my best friend,” she gushed. “Thank you.” She reached across the table to squeeze my hand, and I gave it a light squeeze back.

“Is it a good time for some nibbles?” Gloria’s chipper voice appeared at the screen door.

Connor started to get up, but Gloria stopped him. “Don’t you dare lift a finger, young man. I’ve done this a thousand times.” The three of us watched in awe as Gloria balanced the large charcuterie board in one hand, and the small silver tray with a jug and three glasses in the other. She carefully set both trays on the table in front of us. “Don’t fill up too much, dears. Dinner will be ready within the hour.” She turned to me. “Shall I set two extra places in the dining room for your friends?”

“They’re not staying.” I’d been so distracted by the arrival of Gloria, that I hadn’t noticed Wyatt. He leaned against the brick of the house with crossed arms.

At the tone of Wyatt’s voice, Connor straightened in his seat. His hands gripped the armrests so tightly that the fabric of his sweater clung to his biceps.

Gloria scurried inside, while the rest of us shifted uncomfortably in our seats, the veranda palpable with tension. Beads of sweat pooled at the nape of my neck, even with the cool autumn breeze.

Wyatt was the first to break the silence. “You get that tooth fixed yet, Jack o’ lantern?”

At hearing Wyatt’s nickname for him, Connor seemed to relax. His hands moved from the armrests back to his lap. He grinned, showing off his full set of teeth. “You know it, buddy.”

“Harper.” Wyatt’s tone had softened, but his next words made me squirm in my seat. “We need to talk.”

TWELVE

WYATT

I’d waiteda few minutes before going out to the veranda, watching.

Harper and her friend Savannah had the kind of friendship that I’d only seen in movies. They seemed to genuinely like each other, and I knew that Harper would do whatever she could to help her friends. It was one of the many traits that had made me fall in love with her. My experience with women before Harper hadn’t left me with a good taste in my mouth. Not literally, of course. But the women I’d dated were competitive, and would stab a friend in the back if it meant money or a man – worse, if it was a man with money.

It was like watching a rom-com outside, while there was a full-on horror movie playing out in the basement.

When Gloria had delivered the tray of food, I’d stepped out onto the veranda and interrupted the party, telling Harper that I needed to talk to her.

I held my hand out to help her up from her seat, but she crossed her arms and stared at me, defiance oozing from her posture. “Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of my friends.”

“I’d rather not.” We were going to have to have a conversation about secrets. Even though Connor was a werewolf, and his girlfriend was obviously okay with it, that didn’t mean I wanted to divulge all of our secrets to two outsiders, especially a human.

Women scorned were not to be messed with. What would happen if Connor and Savannah had a messy break-up? I trusted Harper, but I didn’t know her best friend. The last thing we needed was a scorned woman deciding to ruin her ex’s life, and in turn, take us all down with him.

My hand was suspended, palm up, but Harper didn’t take it. I cleared my throat and brushed my hands on my pants.

“I’ve already told them about my father.” Harper’s voice was flat. As shitty as I was at understanding human emotion, I knew ‘pissed-off girlfriend’ when I heard it.

I sighed and dropped into the chair next to Harper, resting my hand on her knee. “Look. We tried our best today, but we couldn’t find him. But we will. You have to trust me on this. I promise we’ll find him.”

“Based on Harper’s description, it sounds like we could be dealing with a hybrid.” Connor leaned his elbows on his knees and his eerie-as-fuck eyes tracked between me and Harper.

“We haven’t decided on that kind of terminology yet,” I said.

Savannah sniffed her wrist. It was the third time she’d done it since I sat down. “Connor said that there have been rumors about scientists, you know, messing around with genes,” she said, sniffing her wrist once more. Her perfume had a floral scent, with subtle notes of jasmine. Her behavior puzzled me.

“What rumors have you heard?”

Connor held up his hands. The wolves were secretive, like us, and from what I knew, not overly prone to speculation. “Just the same old stories that have been swirling around for years. Only they used to be about us. And now, it seems they’re about you.”

A chill ran up my spine. There had been rumors of experimentation on the werewolf community back in the 1950s stemming from Europe, but I’d never heard any fables about scientists working on our kind. “Is that all you know?”

“Basically.” Connor tilted his head. “I overheard Bannon talking with Stan, the VP of our motorcycle club, a few months ago. They were talking about possible experiments happening somewhere on the West Coast.”

The wolves had broken a decades-long treaty between us. A week ago, they’d come to take over Stirling County because of the missing hikers. They’d thought Atticus was a weak leader, but we’d come to an agreement, which is why I was back as leader and CEO. Against my better judgement, I trusted Connor, and hoped that Bannon was a man of his word.

“What would you guys do if that was happening?” I asked.