Scratch the Surface (Wolf Within) by Amy Lee Burgess Read Free Book Online

this. Please sit down.” Allerton’s tone was gentle and kind, and I responded to it obediently.
    The conference room door opened and I spun around in my chair, ridiculously hoping it was Murphy. Instead, it was Kathy Manning with coffee and cookies.
    “Is something the matter?” She hesitated at the door, her expression uncertain, but moved forward when Allerton gestured her inside.
    “It’s all right, Kathy. How’s dinner coming along?”
    “Under control.” She flashed him an attractive grin. “I’m making a seafood casserole. You might want to look at the wine we’ve got on hand and choose some. Oh, and for dessert, your favorite. Creme brulee.”
    “That sounds delicious.” Allerton reached for the carafe of coffee so he could fill the china cups. He filled all three and invited Kathy to sit with us.
    She unhesitatingly pulled out the chair opposite mine and regarded me with bright curiosity. “You’ve come up in the world, haven’t you?” She sounded as if she were personally responsible for it. I suppose she’d had an indirect hand in it, helping pave the way for me to be expelled from Riverglow. “Isn’t it exciting to be an Advisor? I was an Advisor for seven years back in my twenties. Gave it up when Matt and I were named Alpha. Then I had my son, served as Alpha for a few years, and the next thing I knew, I was invited to join the New England Regional Council. I imagine you’re in line for some of the same.” She took an appreciative sip of the coffee. She drank it black with no sugar. “Quite a difference from being the bottom of Riverglow, I would think. And now you belong to Mac Tire. Well done, Stanzie.”
    I felt as if   I were a character in an absurdist play and all communication was slowly being rendered meaningless while everything I thought I knew crumbled and became distorted and weird.
    I remembered how this woman had judged me. She’d sat in silent disapproval as she listened to my pack condemn me. The entire Regional Council of New England had voted against me and it was only Jason Allerton, with the power of his personality and the weight of the Great Council behind him, who had been able to turn the tide and change their votes.
    Now she sat across from me, her head tilted like a bird’s, and grinned at me as she congratulated me for becoming an Advisor and a member of Mac Tire. It was as if she’d always been on my side of things and believed in me, when she absolutely had not.
    “It’s all because of Councilor Allerton,” I managed to choke out. I wanted some sugar but was afraid to reach for it. In this strange world of contradictions and about-faces, I thought my arm might fall off or something equally bizarre.
    She tilted her head to the side and smiled at me as if I were a well-behaved dog. “I believe you must have done something to attract his attention. You don’t get to be an Advisor simply because of happenstance.”
    I wanted to argue, because that’s exactly how I’d done it, but instead I watched Allerton pour cream into his cup and when he offered the pitcher to me, I took it, fully expecting to drop it or have it turn into a rubber chicken or something else totally unexpected.
    It remained a pitcher of cream firmly in my grasp and I managed to pour some into my cup.
    “I believed you were drunk the night of the accident, Stanzie. I was wrong. Please accept my apologies. This whole new chapter has thrown me for a loop, I’m afraid. I’ve had to reconstruct many of my previous beliefs and I hope that if I’m ever involved in a case like yours again, I will have more compassion as well as discernment.” Kathy Manning’s tone was sweet and sincere. She couldn’t reach across the wide expanse of the table to touch me, but she settled for giving me a very warm smile. “Your pack was so vehement and I thought they were the best judges of your character. I tended to believe you at first, but the more they talked, the less I trusted my initial