The Alpha I Inherited

as in the back room with my back against the flour bin, l

sking twice, and he smelled of diesel from the trucks that ran the valley road at night. A woman of thirty-two could do worse than a stranger who did not talk about the coal company, and

low fog that turned the windows into grey squares, and the only sounds were t

g to leave a

me. Brown eyes, a jaw that needed a shave, and a mouth tha

es it and decides

s for you

diner. I am inclu

ing from me. His hands slid to my waist. I slid my fingers into his hair. The flour bin rocked, and a puff of white dust came up off the lid and se

el f

s open,"

the door and then stood holding it open. I eased Daniel back and pulled my coll

here,"

s a cu

and drink your coffee and do

nter and the pie case that had not held a pie s

a long grey ridge under the fog light, grey with a darker line down the spine, and its head was the size of a bus

ere I was, one hand on the counter, because the diner had a shotgun under the regi

not a dog

the air around it changed. The fog light bent around the shape of the thing, and the shape narrowed and rose, a

ders, the champagne blond hair neat even now, the high cheekbones a

loway," W

t of my

or

nd I know how to use it, and I did not use it

leather jacket and a miner's scarf and boots that had been in the mud of the valley road, which made no sense until I understood that it made every

e lost y

sten to me. The Blackridge Pack has no Alpha. Your grandmo

o fast, and I heard Daniel shift his weight i

e never shifted in my life and I do not intend to start, and the last time I che

husban

ew is

oiler with the valve screwed down. "He knew what you were. He knew what your grandmother was. He married

w Andrew had never once let me meet his grandmother. Not once, in six years of marriage. She sent a

thout turning around

cked and a look on his face I had seen on men before, the one th

e hell

," I sa

u should go," in a voice so pleasant it could have come off a radio, and Daniel went. The back door banged. A truck engin

ime leave out nothing, because I am going to have questions and I

nd silver. He laid it on the counter between us and slid it

. I had seen it once, as a child, in a photog

funeral. She told me to bring it to you and tell you that the spring is failing and the roa

endant. It was wa

what any of tha

w," Wade said. "Wheth

spring and his silver pendant, and then the back door banged aga

kitchen and a stranger's shirt on the flour bin, a

I looked at the p

, and neither of