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Sterling’s first instinct was right: not only was Janice lying, this was a trap. Janice was a lousy lure.
Nonetheless, I plucked the envelope out of her hand. “I’ll consider it.”
She buried her face in her sleeves. “Thank you.”
Sterling muttered something under his breath. He stood and walked away.
I tucked the paperwork under my arm. “Don’t come back here, Janice, and tell everyone else not to come here either. I don’t know what you’re into and I don’t want any part of it.”
Janice pressed her hands together and murmured, “Thank you.”
Sterling waited for me at the glass doors and we headed out to the car together.
“Why did you agree to help her?” He didn’t hide his aggravation. “She’s dangerous, and a liar. I doubt there’s a pup at all.”
I sighed from my core. Did we really have to squabble about this? “Obviously.”
“I’m sorry, Winter. I don’t mean to snap.” He put his hand on the small of my back.
He was having a worse time of it than I was. His mother had failed to mention her history with my father, and she’d let us get led to the slaughter. Nothing like being the center of a legal precedent that had caused the Chronicler position to have its first major change in several hundred years.
“She told some truth, but most of it was lies.” Sterling tried again.
I cocked my head. “Yes, and you were about to run her off. It was an obvious trap, and I want to know who tried to lure us into it. GranitePaw supported my father’s work. He died less than a month ago, but she attempted to get the registration a year ago. Why would they refuse to help knowing my father was sympathetic?”
Sterling’s anger hit the pause button. “Excellent point. Assuming that part wasn’t a lie, I didn’t realize GranitePaw was aligned with your father.”
“Aligned? Hardly. My father had a lot of contempt for them. But Kyle and my father did see eye-to-eye on population politics. Everything else they snarled at each other. He called them city-bred squish toys, they called him a hidebound old fool.”
“Have you met Kyle of GranitePaw?”
“I’ve been around him but never been introduced.” Nobody would have introduced a bad-luck juvenile female to an Alpha. I’d been pointed out simply because I’d been around at the time. “I’ve also seen him argue in front of the Council a great deal. GranitePaw is in serious contention for elevation. My father didn’t want to admit it, but no Elder ever wants to. Elder packs rip their elevation from the maws of the other Elders.”
“So why haven’t you heard about wanderers?”
“Another grim question.” I tapped the corner of the envelope on my palm.
“And here I’d thought the past month had beaten you into a pulp and you’d become a soft mark,” he said, then he smiled.
I snorted. “I might be banged up, but I don’t need to be nursemaided. And I might be sympathetic once I figure out if there’s actually a pup or not.”
Exactly zero surprise Sterling’s heart hadn’t melted at the tale of woe. Anyone expecting werewolf males to be concerned for and sympathetic to pups outside their pack was deluded. It just wasn’t how they were wired. Females were only slightly more generous. Gaia had given humans a sprawling capacity for compassion. Werewolves had gotten puddles that were quite small, but extremely deep.
He smiled faintly. “Whatever you say, princess.”
“I am not a princess.” Werewolves didn’t have princesses. Plenty of Alphas had tried over the centuries to crown themselves King, but had never succeeded for more than a few years. “I’m well-bred. Pedigreed. Not a princess.”
“Yes, I should reconsider my statement you are a princess given your bra and panties don’t match. But I did notice the shoes are blue.”
“Oh!” I shoved him, warming all over. “Back on that again!”
He pulled out his phone and thumbed to the photo I had sent him. He admired it.
I blushed right down to my toes. “Delete that. I look silly.”
“Do this more often.”
I grabbed at his phone. Pervy wolf!
