Priceless

pristine blue ones, and wondered if perhaps I was wrong, perhaps this was real and the rest of my life was just a bad dream. A nightmare.
    She reached out her small hand, rubbed it against my cheek, brushed off a tear.
    “Why are you crying, Rylee? Why are you sad? This is a happy day.”
    I brushed away another tear. “Berget, come here, let me hold you for a minute.” She skipped away laughing.
    “Silly, Rylee, you can’t catch me!” Her face suddenly contorted. “Run! RUN!”
    Her voice shattered what was left of the dream and I woke up, my breath coming in shallow gulps. The dream was nothing new and it would fade, leaving my adrenaline to also fade out in a matter of minutes. Or it would have, except for a shuffle of feet on the other side of my door and the faint jiggle of the handle, which caused my adrenaline to spike; I leapt out of bed.
    Alex rumbled softly, his eyes half-closed. “Man with gun.” I knew who that meant. It was O’Shea on the other side of the door.
    If O’Shea thought he’d find me shaking in my boots, he was about to get another thing coming. I was about to use Milly’s tactics to the hilt.

~10~
    I stripped out of my clothes and ran to the door, trying not to think too hard about my desire to show off my body to O’Shea. With one last thought to precaution, I grabbed a blade with my left hand. Just in case.
    Taking a deep breath I snatched the door open, holding the blade behind the door where it wouldn’t be visible, and said, “Hello?” in my best sultry voice. Much to my embarrassment, there was no one at the door. I peeked around the corner. Nothing. Not a single movement.
    Alex came to stand beside me, sniffing the air. I could have sworn I’d heard someone. A glance at Alex told me I hadn’t been hearing things. His lips were curled back over his teeth and a steady growl slipped past his lips.
    Pulling him back inside and putting some clothes on was my first prerogative. The second was to find out what Alex had smelled.
    I crouched down to his level, dressed and with my blade attached, just in case. “What did you smell Alex? Was it a human? I thought it was ‘man with a gun?’”
    He shook his head and snorted once. “No! Yes!” He barked out. “Wolf, big leader wolf at door. But man with gun too.”
    Not entirely sure he was smelling right, thinking perhaps he was still spooked from his run in with the pack that morning, I did something I had never done before. I Tracked O’Shea. A moment of searching and I found him. Sure enough, he was close, but not close enough to be the perp at the door. I started to close the connection, but got a feeling of utter hopelessness that stopped me. It hurt me as if it were my own emotions, and not his that I was experiencing. My hands clenched into fists and I drew away from O’Shea, afraid I might feel sorry for him. It was one of the many reasons I didn’t like Tracking anything but kids. Adults were far too complex; kids, for the most part, were simple.
    Believing Alex, I got dressed, then bundled him into the Jeep and headed to the front desk to check out. Sure, it was four in the morning, but I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, wondering who exactly was trying to break into my room. I might not be able to be turned into a werewolf, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t still rip me to shreds.
    “Alex, stay.” I raised my hand to him and then went to the back of the Jeep. Digging around in the back seat I found his collar. It was a simple, wide leather collar with two diamonds in the top. Yes, I said diamonds, and yes the collar had cost me a bundle, but it was worth it. The diamonds were part of the spell woven into the collar to keep people from seeing him for what he truly was.
    Another pang centered around my heart. Milly was such a huge part of my life, how was I going to do all I needed to without her help? Again, I shook off those thoughts and fingered the collar. Once on Alex, all the average person saw was a very large black dog of indiscriminate breeding. Others, those who could see through the veil, saw him for what he was, but most of them wouldn’t point fingers for fear of being pointed at themselves.
    Slipping the collar over his big head I said, “Now, while you’re with me, you don’t leave my side, not for an instant. Got it?”
    Alex nodded and crossed his heart with a big claw. I laughed. Some days he seemed so human. It broke my heart a little to see him trapped like this, knowing