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his arm and pulled the shyest grin, but his energy opened back up. It wasn’t the flood of power it had been before, but a casual sort of draping over the two of them that made her inner wolf feel quite at home. “Over at the Norseton mansion.”
    “And that’s what this community is called? I was asleep when we arrived, so I missed the drive through.”
    “Mm-hmm. You should go explore tomorrow. Can get most everything you need in town.”
    “And you work for them at the mansion?”
    He grunted. “We provide security services to the Afótama. That’s what they’re called.”
    She’d never heard of them and had no idea what they were, and her taciturn mate didn’t seem willing to elaborate. She was going to squeeze the words out of him anyway, though. She refused to be kept in the dark. If she was going to be a Pack member, she wasn’t going to be some wolf on the fringes who was ignored until some man saw fit to yell at her about what she was or wasn’t.
    She knew all that already, and she didn’t choose to be only half wolf. Why did they act like I did?
    Darius’s warm hand molded against her forehead and slipped down to her cheek. Her lungs tightened then, and her breath caught.
    She tilted her chin up for the stroke of his callused fingers. His touch was tender, but what made it all the more surprising was that it was voluntary. She hadn’t asked for it.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    “Why do you ask?”
    “You smell… stressed , I guess. Like prey.”
    “I’m not stressed, just—” Just what? Pitiful? She shook her head and let out a long breath. Time for a subject change. “So, it’s just you five? You, Alpha, and?” What were the names?
    “Yeah. Me, Alpha, Anton, Vic, and Colt. That’s all for the moment. Working on hiring more for the security crew, but that’s hard. People have to have the right qualifications.”
    “Such as?”
    “Helps if they know about our world, and can be quiet about it.”
    “Oh.” Duh. Stephanie was used to holding her tongue in that regard. She’d known about shifters all her life, even if she hadn’t grown up with them. They were something she understood intrinsically not to discuss with outsiders, even when she so badly wanted to. There weren’t many people she could confide in besides her mother, and she tried to keep her mother’s head clear of Pack business. She didn’t want to traumatize the woman, telling her all about the world she was partitioned from. “How long have you been working for them?”
    “Not long. Since winter.”
    Six months or so, then. She waited on him to elaborate, but as usual, he didn’t.
    Maybe I should let him sleep .
    But she couldn’t, not until the glut of anxiety in her belly unfurled. It was of her own making, of course. She’d gotten herself indignant and self-righteous over a misconception, and now he probably thought she was a dingbat, though she wasn’t. She didn’t want him to think that, so she had to fix it. She had to keep talking and make her wolf talk, too. “So, what’s your job in the pack?”
    “They mostly let me work solo. Surveillance, and stuff like that. I’m good at it.”
    “Not used to working in teams?”
    “Never really had a chance to in my birthpack. Left so early.”
    She cringed. She’d heard it was common for packs to expel male wolves when the populations were too heavily dominant. It was less of a problem in her pack, because they were city dwellers, and their men exerted their compulsions to lead and rule at work, and not just at home. They probably felt less threatened by the young men in the pack and more secure in their stature. If they had people bowing down to them at work, they were less needy for submission from the pack. “How old were you?”
    “Nine.”
    She bolted upright. “ Nine ?”
    He opened his eyes and bobbed his shoulders. “Yeah.”
    “Your parents let you go at nine?”
    “Wasn’t really up to them. It was Alpha’s decision.”
    “That’s