Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

understand.” Humor, she thought, it has to be just right. Dry humor. “You’ve had a very long time to acquire former lovers I can blame you for.”
    A warm hand closed over her knee, and a warm, wordless voice curled around her even as Charles said, “I liked it today, when you claimed me in front of her.” He hesitated. “I think it hurt my feelings that you were able to talk about her without being jealous.”
    She took her right hand off the wheel and ran her hand down his arm. “You need to check your nose, Kemo Sabe.” If he could be honest, so could she. “I don’t like you talking about her. I wanted to rip her face off when she kissed you. And when Brother Wolf pushed me out—”
    â€œHe didn’t mean it that way.” Charles’s free hand tapped on the door frame. “He’s not . . . not capable of subterfuge, not even to make things easier. He’s very straightforward.”
    The boys in the Ferrari were still on her tail, and she tapped her brakes once in warning.
    â€œWell,” she said. Straightforward. “I suppose that explains it all.” But it didn’t bother her anymore. It wasn’t Charles’s explanation that soothed her, it was the way she’d felt Brother Wolf’s straightforward agreement with Charles’s pleasure in the way she’d faced up to Dana and claimed him at the fae’s boat. She couldn’t read everything. Not much from Charles at all now—but Brother Wolf, it seemed, was willing to be more forthcoming.
    â€œYou two have a great deal more in common than sharing the same body,” she said.
    Charles started to laugh and slid down in his seat. “I suppose we do, for good or for ill, eh? He doesn’t like the fae, not even Dana. And he . . . we are still adjusting to having you. We protect our pack, that’s what our job has always been. Especially the submissives who are our heart.”
    â€œAnd he . . . you feel me as an über-submissive,” she said. What she was, was Omega, not submissive at all. But she served somewhat the same purpose in the pack. The dominant wolves could . . . relax around her because they knew that she would never challenge them—not because she couldn’t, but because she wouldn’t . Omegas didn’t care about pack position, they just cared about the pack.
    â€œYou are ours,” he said unequivocally, humor gone. “Brother Wolf’s and mine. Ours to be kept safe. Dana is many things, but safe isn’t one of them. You were distracting us—and if we’d talked to you too long, she’d have sensed it and been offended. It is not difficult to offend most fae, and Dana is not an exception.”
    â€œHer reaction to the painting Bran sent her was odd,” Anna said.
    â€œPowerful,” agreed Charles. “But it would not have done to give her a gift that was less than the gifts others will bring her during this conference. Staying on the right side of the fae is an interesting dance, and I’ll leave it to my father to know exactly how to step.”
    â€œThe Vermeer . . . Why did she copy it instead of painting something of her own?”
    â€œHer own paintings . . . are worse. Do you remember the sad clown paintings? Or are you too young? They were everywhere for a while. Bright-colored and flat-feeling. Empty.”
    Anna shivered. “My dentist had them all over his office.”
    â€œLike that,” Charles said.
    â€œMaybe she should paint scenery,” Anna suggested.
    â€œThe background of the Vermeer was very well done.”
    â€œI suggested that once, but she wasn’t interested. She wants to paint the kinds of subjects she likes to view—lovers and dreamers.”
    â€œDo you think the pack has good auto insurance?” Anna asked, looking in the rearview mirror again.
    Charles glanced behind them and narrowed his eyes.
    The Ferrari suddenly dropped back.
    â€œJeez,” Anna said. “You are handy to have around.”
    â€œThank you.”
    Anna thought of Dana as she weaved her way through the traffic, her opinion more charitable than she’d been able to manage earlier.
    What would it feel like to love music as she did and not be able to sing or play? Or worse, to be proficient but never cross the line between a collection of notes and pitch and rhythm to real music ? To know that you were missing it by just a hair but have no