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

together.” He poured more coffee into his cup and into mine.
    Partially responsible? I thought with an inward snort. Try completely. Totally. Under normal circumstances Murphy’s and my orbits would never have crossed at the Great Gathering.
    “Councilor, I would have thought it was obvious I liked Murphy from the way I fell apart when he nearly died.” I sounded waspish and my fingers reached for the snowman without my permission. My stomach and my brain did not always listen to each other.
    “That could have been guilt.” He stirred in cream and sugar. The silver band of his wrist watch gleamed in the firelight.
    The sun outside had gone behind a cloud and the dim lighting of the chandelier cast an almost melancholy glow over the table.
    The snowman crumbled into three pieces between my agitated fingers. “I didn’t do it,” I denied through numb lips.
    “I know that,” he agreed with a patient smile. “But you did bite him and that was the reason he took that pill in the first place.”
    I swallowed against a sudden obstruction in my throat. The scent of vanilla and sugar clogged my sinuses and I wanted to be anywhere else but where I was at this moment.
    “We’ve been working on my wolf,” I confessed in a low, distressed tone. My words came in a rushed, defensive tumble even though I knew he wasn’t judging me. “We shift every chance we get and my wolf knows words for things now that she never knew before. She doesn’t run and play, she listens and learns. She would never bite him now. Never bite anybody.”
    Allerton put a fatherly hand over mine. The rest of the cookie disintegrated into crumbs.
    “Constance, I know you’ve been working hard. Liam has nothing but praise for your efforts. If anything, he thinks you’re trying too hard. And I know most of your motivation stems from that bite. But aside from working together on your wolf, how are you finding each other? In this form? Easy to live with? Annoying? I’m curious, indulge me.”
    The fact that Murphy had been reporting to Allerton about my wolf’s progress should not have been a surprise to me, but it was. A deep, visceral jolt of betrayal surged beneath my skin, but it cleared. Of course he would talk to Allerton. Why wouldn’t he?
    It was humiliating as hell that Allerton would be in contact with Murphy to talk about my wolf. He didn’t talk to me about Murphy’s wolf. It made bitter sense. Murphy didn’t need to do the work I needed to do. His wolf was adult and responsible. Mine was still childlike.
    “We had fun on our road trip,” I said in a small voice. “We saw so many places. My favorites were New Orleans, Atlanta, and Knoxville.”
    “How long are you planning to stay in Boston? I wonder that you don’t want to go to Dublin and meet the rest of your pack.” Allerton pushed the cookie plate toward me and I caved and took one of the mittens. Eating it gave me an opportunity to not answer him for a moment and I’d take all the time I could get.
    The cookie melted in my mouth. The tastes of vanilla and sugar combined with the chocolate of the candy into sheer brilliance. Kathy Manning was a baking genius.
    I remembered there had always been baked goods on the conference room table two and a half years ago when I’d been questioned. I hadn’t eaten any of them, but when I thought of the conference room I associated it with the smell of sugar and flour and chocolate—a weird dichotomy.
    “Well, we just got to Boston two days ago. I want to show the city to him. We’re packing up the stuff I want and getting rid of the rest of it. We’re going to rent the condo out to tourists, in weekly blocks. We’ve got to talk to a rental agency to manage it for us. It’ll be a good source of income for the pack.”
    “Your pack is being handsomely compensated for the time I take you away from them,” Allerton remarked. “Plus there’s some for you both personally. I’ve paid you for two months, have you not noticed your