Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

would be their death. Still, the other vampire had hit pretty high on my coyote’s “get me out of here” scale. There had been something in his face ...
    â€œMakes me glad I’m a werewolf,” said Darryl. “All I have to worry about is when Warren will lose his self-control and challenge me.”
    â€œWarren’s self-control is very good,” said Adam. “I wouldn’t wait dinner on his losing it.”
    â€œBetter Warren as second than a coyote in the pack,” said Aurielle tightly.
    The atmosphere in the car changed.
    Adam’s voice was soft, “Do you think so?”
    â€œâ€˜Rielle,” Darryl warned.
    â€œI think so.” Her voice brooked no argument. She was a high school teacher, Darryl’s mate, which made her ... not precisely third in the pack—that was Warren. But second and a half, just below Darryl. If she had been a man, I didn’t think she would have ranked much lower.
    â€œUnlike vampires, wolves tend to be straightforward critters,” I murmured, trying not to feel hurt. Rejection, for a coyote raised by wolves, was nothing new. I’d spent most of my adulthood running from it.
    I wouldn’t have thought that exhaustion and hurt was a recipe for epiphany, but there it was. I’d left my mother and Portland before she could tell me to go. I’d lived alone, stood on my own two feet, because I didn’t want to learn to lean on anyone else.
    I’d seen my resistance to Adam as a fight for survival, for the right to control my own actions instead of a life spent following orders ... because I wanted to obey. The duty that Stefan clung to with awful stubbornness was the life I’d rejected.
    What I hadn’t seen was that I had been unwilling to put myself in a place where I could be rejected again. My mother had given me to Bran when I was a baby. A gift he returned when I became ... inconvenient. At sixteen, I’d moved back in with my mother, who was married to a man I’d never met and had two daughters who hadn’t known of my existence until Bran had called my mother to tell her he was sending me home. They had been all that was loving and gracious—but I was a hard person to lie to.
    â€œMercy?”
    â€œJust a minute,” I told Adam, “I’m in the middle of a revelation.”
    No wonder I hadn’t just rolled over at Adam’s feet like any sensible person would when courted by a sexy, lovable, reliable man who loved me. If Adam ever rejected me ... I felt a low growl rise in my throat.
    â€œYou heard her,” said Darryl, amused. “We’ll have to wait for her revelation. We have a prophet for our Alpha’s mate.”
    I waved at him irritably. Then looked up at Adam, whose eyes were, quite properly, on the road.
    â€œDo you love me?” I asked him, pulse pounding in my ears.
    He gave me a curious look. He was wolf, he knew intensity when he heard it. “Yes. Absolutely.”
    â€œYou’d better,” I told him, “or you’ll regret it.”
    I looked over my shoulder at Aurielle, holding the full force of my will close to me. Adam was mine.
    Mine.
    And I would take up all the burdens he could give me, even as he did the same with mine. It would be an equal sharing. That meant he protected me from the vampires ... and I protected him from what problems I could.
    I stared at Aurielle, met the predator in her eyes with the one in mine. And after only a few minutes, she dropped her eyes. “Suck it up and deal with it,” I told her, and I put my head on Adam’s shoulder and fell asleep.
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    IT WAS, SADLY NOT VERY LONG BEFORE ADAM STOPPED the car. I stayed where I was, half-awake, while Darryl, Aurielle, and Paul got out of the car. We stayed where we were until I heard Darryl’s Subaru fire up, and Adam started for home.
    â€œMercy?”
    â€œMmm.”
    â€œI’d like to take you home with me.”
    I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and sighed. “Once I go horizontal, I’m going to be out like a light,” I told him. “It’s been days”—I tried to remember, but I was too tired—“several at least since I had a good night’s sleep.” The sun, I noticed, was brightening in the sky.
    â€œThat’s all right,” he said. “I’d just ...”
    â€œYeah, me too.” But I shivered a little. It was all very well and good to get hot and