AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah. I know.” Oh, how I knew. Me and everyone else. “I wish I’d been able to tell people I knew what they said and I knew how it all looked, but not like I got a choice in it. I wasn’t as stupid as everyone thought.”
“Sorry,” Spring said with a shrug.
The buzz of snowmobiles got louder, so that probably meant company, and I’d have to be extremely discrete about what I said next to Spring. “It’s over and done with. Now I’m a proper respectable female.”
“So who’s the lucky male?” She raised both brows with a smile. “Return address on that envelope was New York City. Don’t think I didn’t notice.” She wagged a finger at me. “SteelPelt? AmberHowl?”
“No. SteelPelt left New York anyway. All that’s left is GranitePaw,” I said. Time to go.
“Not GranitePaw,” she said in dismay.
Two more snowmobiles pulled up to the little building. The passengers stomped into the building, dusted in snow, snow crusting their beards and brows. Wolves. FrostFur. I tensed, waiting, doughnut piece forgotten.
“Jared.” Spring twisted around as one pulled off his cap. My Uncle Jared, Spring’s mate, and while I didn’t recognize two of the others, I did know Faris, the First Beta who had taken the job from my grandfather.
Well, this was not a good thing.
Zero-Sum Game
“Spring,” Jared growled, “What are you doing?”
“Talking with our niece. You remember Winter. I told you she was coming in today. We were just getting to the news of her new mate.”
“Oh yeah, I’ll bet,” Jared snarled.
Uh-ho.
Spring rolled her eyes. “Stop it. She’s family. Sit down and have a doughnut. She brought them fresh from Fairbanks.”
Faris shoved his bulk forward towards the table. “Did she tell you who she is?”
“I know who she is. She’s my niece,” Spring repeated, one eye on me now.
“I do not share food with Mortcombes,” Faris growled.
Spring yanked around and stared at me, jaw going slack, and her horrified scent of betrayal sickened me. “What the hell is he talking about?”
The wolf behind the counter slammed the mug he’d been holding down on the wood.
Faris pulled off his gloves and threw them down onto the table. “You think we don’t have eyes and ears in Fairbanks? We like to know who’s coming in and who’s leaving. Winter Mortcombe. Any relation to Sterling Mortcombe? Garrett Mortcombe?”
Funny, he didn’t mention Cerys Mortcombe. My eyes narrowed.
“Winter, what the hell is he talking about?” Spring’s voice rose half an octave.
Terry must have been worried about my last name, not going to FrostFur itself. Attempt at discretion: thwarted.
“Answer me!” Spring shouted.
I jerked like she’d swatted my backside. No way to deflect it, and I wasn’t ashamed of who Gaia had paired me with. “Sterling is my mate and husband.”
Her expression shattered. “You put your maiden name on the envelope! You tricked me!”
Staying quiet would have been best, but in wolves, silence in the face of an accusation meant guilt. “No, I didn’t. I wrote née Haiden. Meaning it had been my maiden name.”
Faris bent down over me, hands braced on the table and the chair back. A snarl twisted in his throat, his face bent and transformed into something dark and not entirely human. “The hybrid is your mate.”
This big guy needed to get out of my face and stop saying stupid things. “He’s not a hybrid! He was adopted by a human! That doesn’t suddenly make him a hybrid.”
