Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

now burning up her brain. After she’d been enspelled by Harlowe, held prisoner
     by a gang, and nearly killed, she’d just wanted her life back, wanted to choose her
     own course, not get sent careening off on some crazy trajectory like a badly struck
     cue ball.
    No. Lily was the cue ball. Beth was just one of the random balls sent crashing around
     the pool table, hoping to find a safe pocket to hide in. That’s what San Francisco
     was supposed to be—her safe pocket.
    Beth snorted in disgust. She’d played ostrich, and that was on her. Lily still should
     have told her way more than she had. Now Beth was pissed. And scared. Scared for Sean
     and scared for herself, and there didn’t seem to be anything she could
do.
Beth shoved away from her desk and grabbed her sneakers. “Murray!”
    He appeared in her doorway. “Yo.”
    She glanced up at him, annoyed. That probably had more to do with his presence than
     his word choice, but still, he was here and she didn’t like it. “No one actually says
     ‘yo.’ ”
    “I do.”
    Murray had such pretty eyes. They reminded her of the half-starved puppy she’d snuck
     into her room when she was eight. She’d named him Samson. Lily hadn’t told on her.
     Even Susan had kept mum, but there was no way to keep a puppy a secret, and their
     mother thought dogs were dirty and full of germs. Beth had cried and cried when Samson’s
     new owners came to take him away. “Are you an army wannabe or something?”
    “I was with the Rangers for six years. Are we going somewhere? It’s not time for your
     Bojuka class.”
    Which he would know because he’d been following her to the damn class all along. “I’m
     not going to Bojuka.” Not with Sean missing. It would hurt too much. She tugged on
     one shoe. “I didn’t think lupi could be in the military.”
    His mouth crooked up. “Legally, you mean? The jury’s still out on that. But there’s
     always been some of us who joined anyway, especially during World War II. Not so many
     these days, but a few.”
    “How did you pull it off? I mean, I know you don’t absolutely have to Change at full
     moon, but still. That had to be hard.”
    “It can be. You have to be okay living away from clan, and you have to have really
     good control. It’s not just keeping your wolf from showing up at a bad time. You have
     to be able to fake human-level responses and strength pretty much all the time, and
     not everyone can do that.”
    “This was back before it was okay to go public about being lupi?”
    “Some would say it isn’t okay now,” he said dryly. “I ask again. Are we going somewhere?”
    “Out.” She tied the second shoe and stood. “Maybe we’ll pick up something for supper.
     You like pad Thai? There’s a place six blocks over that makes incredible pad Thai.”
    “We could order in.”
    “You can do what you like. I need to get out. I need to move.” And she needed to figure
     some things out before her roommates showed up. Susan wouldn’t be home for at least
     an hour, but Deirdre might turn up any minute. Deirdre knew that Sean was missing—Beth
     had called her about that this morning—but not about any of the rest of it…such as
     the homely man with the gorgeous build watching her warily now with those pretty brown
     eyes.
    What was Beth supposed to tell her roommates?
    The truth, she supposed glumly. She couldn’t yell at Lily for hiding stuff then hide
     stuff herself. Beth pulled herfavorite hoodie, the one with the fake fur trim, from her overstuffed closet. “Come
     on, if you’re coming.”
    He was, of course. Not only that, but he insisted on going first when they reached
     the stairs. She frowned at the top of his shoulders as they started down. Great shoulders.
     “Haven’t you ever heard of ladies first?”
    “Ladies first is for idiots. Or for people who don’t care if the lady takes a bullet.”
    “Don’t talk about bullets.”
    “Okay.”
    “It’s not like I can’t take care of myself, you know.”
    That amused him, damn him. “The Bojuka.”
    “I’m just starting, but I do pretty well.”
    “Rule has guards, and he’s probably a tiny bit better at taking care of himself than
     you are.”
    “Oooh, sarcasm. Those puppy-dog eyes are such a lie. How did you stand it, not being
     able to issue orders to me while you were sneaking around following me?”
    “It was rough.”
    He was still amused. She wanted to hit him. “Not that you were all that good at