Read Homecoming for Free Online

studied her arm. “Burns you.”
    “I don't feel it,” she lied.
    He leaned against the wall, chewing his lip, unhappy and obviously uncertain of what he was supposed to do, staring at the red marks on her arm. “You were supposed to accept my apology, and agree to play nice.”
    “Lisbeth tell you that?”
    “Nope.” He gave her a small, understanding grin that flitted away as soon as he remembered he was talking to a werebear. She could almost see his discomfort in being left alone with her, and some small part of her felt sorry for him. She shook Bracelet again, the energy of it sparking against her arm and making new welts that she ignored.
    “Good thing, because she knows better. I accept the apology, but I ain't playing. Nice or otherwise, okay? You all go off and fuck like bunnies or wolves, whatever. Leave me be.” She rinsed out her cup and walked out of the kitchen, brushing her shoulder over his chest as she pushed out of the door way. He smelled scared but was holding his ground, and that was a cost most were not willing to pay. She looked up at him as she moved past. He looked down and she growled a bit at the electricity that flew between them. She was not having this— him, or any of the others, or the mess it would entail. She growled louder as she headed for the stairway with him on her tail.
    “Why?”
    She stopped on the first stair, which put her at eye level with him. “I'm dangerous. Lisbeth understands, if you don't, so listen to her. Anyway, if she decides to mate up, she'll be leaving with you all, or I'll be packing up and gone before the ink dries in the register.”
    He bit his lower lip and reached out as if to grab her, but pulled his hand back. “Lemme make you lunch.”
    “Orders?”
    “Tony said you weren't to go hungry on our account.” He shrugged. Sula admired his honesty at least.
    “Sure then. Sandwiches or something would be good. I'll go clean up.”
    He almost reached out again but stopped. Apparently he was the touchy–feely type and it was hard for him to turn that off. “No, hey, come on. You smell good.”
    “I smell like sweat and woods and coffee.”
    He nodded happily, as if that made any sense. “Yeah.”
    She shrugged and went back into the kitchen. She sat on one of the bar stools while he figured things out. He did not ask for help and she did not offer any, so it took longer than it should have but since she was not doing the work she did not care. It was, if nothing else, a good opportunity to find out about this strange pack who was threatening her whole world.
    “You all from back East?”
    He shook his head. “Tony's east–coast Canadian, but Daniel's Alaskan. Me, I'm from Pennsylvania.”
    “So where is your territory, then?” She was sure of the answer but wanted confirmation.
    He glanced at her uneasily. “Don't really have one. Yet. We stay on the move.”
    Rogues. Just what she had suspected and what they did not need. Her expression must have given her opinion away, because Cal shook the knife full of mustard at her. “Not like that. We aren't killers, or trouble makers. Just our own kind don't have much use for us, and Tony's an Alpha anyway and who's gonna follow a queer Alpha, right? It's not as if there isn't a whole puppy–pile of them in San Francisco already.”
    She nodded, but it still sat uneasily with her. If there was one thing Lisbeth had stressed over the years, it was the dangers of a rogue pack. It only meant that Lisbeth really had some kind of fast bond with Tony, though, because otherwise they were exactly the kind of pack she would have avoided. Before. Sula tuned back in to find Cal stabbing at the sandwiches with mayonnaise.
    “I can smell you, you know. I can smell how much you don't like us.” He slammed the fridge door shut as he put up the mayo. “Just like always. Find a good bit of land, free and clear, and we get named trouble before we can set down roots. But damn it, Tony wants his own place, and some