One Step Ahead by Amy Lee Burgess

Author:Amy Lee Burgess [Burgess, Amy Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2014-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Murphy stretched out on the pull-out sofa with a tired groan. We’d each taken a quick shower, and while he’d bathed, I combed out my wet hair while sitting at the bar nursing one last brandy.

The cellar was the warmest place in the house, and I was perfectly comfortable in my yoga pants and T-shirt. After gauging the temperature, Murphy had shucked his pajamas in favor of sleeping in the nude—his preferred state.

“Honey, are you coming to bed?” He seemed to realize I was doing more than comb my hair and sip brandy. I was brooding. Exhaustion gripped me in tight jaws, and I thought I might collapse or cry, but I just kept combing my damn hair. Damp now, instead of wet, it was perfectly straight and without tangles.

“In a minute,” I said, although I wasn’t sure that was true.

The covers rustled as Murphy turned in my direction. “What are you thinking about?”

“Kurt’s wolf,” I said softly. “He doesn’t know Layla’s wolf is dead. He hasn’t shifted since the day she killed herself.”

Murphy’s eyes darkened as a stricken expression washed across his features.

“Do you remember what your wolf did when he realized Sorcha’s wolf was gone forever?”

Murphy inhaled sharply. “At her funeral. We all shifted. Because she was Alpha, the whole pack was there, half of the British branch of Mac Tíre, Scotland, Wales, Councilors from the Regional and Great Councils. A fucking zoo. And I was Alpha, center of everything. I couldn’t get out of it. I remember everyone wanting to get close, wanting to lick my wolf, to cry with him, and all my wolf wanted to do was curl up and die. But he couldn’t, not with so many wolves looking up to him.” Murphy shook himself as if to get rid of the bad energy the memory evoked.

I swallowed the last of the brandy and held the glass between both palms, studying the empty bottom of it. “They wouldn’t let me shift at Grey and Elena’s funeral. They thought I killed them, so they wouldn’t let me. The morning of the accident, Grey and Elena had woken me for birthday sex, so I was able to shift before their funeral.

“I got up really early the morning of the funeral. I couldn’t sleep anyway. The house was so empty without them.

“I stuffed my funeral clothes into a bag and took a cab to the Devil’s Hopyard. It cost seventy-five dollars and eighty-seven cents plus a five-dollar tip. I got there before the sun even was up, and the cab driver didn’t want to leave me, but I said my friends were meeting me for a morning hike. He didn’t believe me because who the hell took a seventy-five dollar cab ride to get to a forest if they had friends to hike with? But he left anyway.

“I made myself walk for half an hour before I shifted. My wolf runs so fast I was afraid she’d find the road and get hit by a car. Funny, I didn’t care what happened to me, but I didn’t want her to get hurt.

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