Enrique, he just gets this resigned look on his face I expect that Clark has done this to him before.” ‘Enrique cheated off my paper,’ he told me when I asked him why they both had all the same mistakes. And every word out of his mouth is a lie. “All the girls and most of the guys, too. “All the teachers love Clark,” Auriele continued. Jesse had to dodge around her to get to the phone. It was that she was short and had to stand on tiptoe to do it.

It wasn’t the weight of the dishes that was the problem-Auriele was a werewolf she could have lifted a four-hundred-pound anvil onto the shelf. “There’s this kid in my second-period class.” Auriele ignored the ringing phone as she hefted a stack of plates up to the cupboard with a grunt of effort. It would be good for them to expand their skill set. That thought hardened my resolve that next week, some of the men would do cleanup. Three women bonding over household chores-my mother would be pleased if she could see us. Auriele dried the dishes, and Jesse had volunteered to tidy up the kitchen in general. So, to please Auriele, I washed dishes that the dishwasher could have taken care of, ignoring the burn of hot soapy water in the wounds of my trade-barked knuckles are a mechanic’s constant companion. I was used to the company of men, but it was nice to have a woman besides Jesse, my teenage stepdaughter, who would talk to me. She also thought, correctly, that I brought trouble for the pack with me. She didn’t think it was a good thing for pack morale. Auriele and I were getting along, which made her the only one of the three female werewolves in the pack who was friendly with me at the moment.Īuriele hadn’t been happy having me as the Alpha’s mate, either-I was a coyote shapeshifter among wolves. The second reason for my compliance was more self-serving. Unless it is against my enemies, whispered a soundless voice in my head that might have been mine but felt like Coyote’s.

That felt like cheating, and I never cheat.

I didn’t argue with her because I was one of the three people in the pack who outranked her, so she’d have to back down. I would have let the rest of the dishes wait until it was done, but Auriele, Darryl’s mate, wouldn’t hear of it. The dishwasher was running, stuffed full and then some. Darryl, Adam’s second, who usually prepared the meals, was a hellaciously good cook, and his food attracted anyone who could manage to come. The breakfasts weren’t mandatory because that would have ruined the intent. Sunday breakfasts weren’t attended by the whole pack-some of them had families just like regular people or jobs they worked on the Sabbath. “I’ll get it,” said my stepdaughter, Jesse, hastily dumping two glasses and a fork in my sink.Ī werewolf pack that eats together stays together, I thought, scrubbing stubborn egg off a plate. The phone rang while I was elbow-deep in sudsy dishwater.

Night broken by patricia briggs