4: Jack - In The Pack by Carys Weldon Page B

pressure. “Nice scenery, eh?”
     
     
    This knowledge, how special his sister was to him, dawned on me, and I knew he handed me power--although I couldn’t quite grasp what that meant at the time.
     
     
    He smiled. “No smog.”
     
     
    Now, I knew there were plenty of places where there was no smog. I also knew that there was a ‘no holds barred’ thing going on at Pack City, too. Just like Lobos.
     
     
    Taking a sip of his drink, he said, “Miles to run. You’d like it there.”
     
     
    “Probably would.”
     
     
    “Look. When she goes crinos for the first time, she’s gonna go nuts. I don’t want any shit for brains taking advantage of her.”
     
     
    “No brother would.”
     
     
    “You don’t understand. She’s not...not just any bitch.”
     
     
    “Of course not, she’s your sister.” I tried to understand what he was trying to convey to me.
     
     
    He shook his head. “No. She really is the top.”
     
     
    I tried to work through what I knew about pack behavior. I asked, “So, if she’s the top female in her pack...or capable of getting there once she gets older--if she lives that long--” Hood stretched his neck at the honesty I was laying out, but he didn’t interrupt me. “Then why isn’t the alpha male at Pack City sniffing her up?”
     
     
    God knew I’d sniffed everything I could get near. I knew an alpha male running a pack would. Yeah, I was already thinking toward that whole deal. Breaking up the packs I’d heard of--in my mind. There were plenty of cities like this Pack City, dotted all over the global map. Which brings me back to Giselle...and her sudden disappearance. Nobody talked about it, but I knew Hood was as tense as ever.
     
     
    But this discussion about Pack City, that came easy to him. He smiled a little when he said, “Leer and I go way back.”
     
     
    “Leer?”
     
     
    He nodded, downed better than half of his drink, swished some around his mouth before letting it ride down his throat. “Yeah. He just took a mate not too long ago. She’s a breeder. Anybody explained that to you?”
     
     
    “Kin? Related genetically, but not a manifesting werewolf until...after late puberty. Right?”
     
     
    “Something like that.”
     
     
    “I heard that was something to catch.”
     
     
    We shared wolfish grins and nodded into our cups, both thinking about chasing that kind of tail. You know, the almost impossible.
     
     
    He said, “It’s hard to come by. The bitches usually track them down before we get a whiff. Very few ever reach puberty. We’re looking at chipping them at birth, and maybe putting them in safe places.”
     
     
    That didn’t surprise me. Was there anything they weren’t thinking of doing? I pretended that his comment hadn’t sunk in. I could mull it over later. I said, “I don’t quite get the difference between them and the ones that are born human in the pack.”
     
     
    “Most kin don’t shift. They just put out damn fine offspring.”
     
     
    “Some do? Morph, that is?”
     
     
    He shrugged. “Very few. Kayty does. Genetic throwback.”
     
     
    “Kayty?”
     
     
    “Leer’s wife.”
     
     
    “Oh.”
     
     
    “You’d like her. Took to the pack without a look back. You may find some common ground there.”
     
     
    I chuckled. “You trying to get me killed--before I ever meet your sister?” I knew damn well that sniffing up an alpha’s mate would bring on a fight. I wasn’t quite ready for something like that. I liked to pick my battles, remember? And now that the shake was out of my system and the collar off my neck, I was thinking a little straighter.
     
     
    “She and Kayty are friends.”
     
     
    “Your sister smoothed her way?”
     
     
    “Not on purpose, I don’t think, but yeah. Kayty realizes it. But--my sister doesn’t.”
     
     
    I noticed again that he wasn’t telling me her name. I wondered why that was? Protecting her from me, in case I got loose, if I didn’t answer his