A Wolf After My Own Heart by MaryJanice Davidson (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

them sounded like they were one hundred percent on board with Team Mass Murder. “Should have guessed when they planned to start at nine p.m. Who starts something like this at nine o’clock at night? And doesn’t invite the press?”

“So it’s true,” he replied in a low voice. “They’re going to kill every Stable who crosses them ‘for the greater good.’”

“Anyone who says that, I just automatically assume they’re a sociopath. I can’t believe it, Sam was right!”

Jealousy flared, burned a line down his throat and into his chest. “I thought you guys were done.”

“And I thought he was full of shit and apathetic, two things I pretty much can’t stand.” Sue was counting heads while they whispered to each other and inched toward the doors. “We need to find him.”

“Why?”

“So we don’t die, Maggie.”

He grimaced. Sue Smalls was the only woman in the world who could use that nickname without incurring his wrath. She knew and took full advantage.

“We can just leave. Right now. You said it yourself, this was never our intent. So we’ll go. Together.”

Sue quirked an eyebrow at him and half-smiled. “You think it’ll be that easy?”

Chapter 49

Now.

“Pussies back then,” Mock sneered. “Pussies now.”

Berne ignored the critique of his narrative flow. As far as Magnus Berne was concerned, he had an audience of two, neither of whom were wearing turtlenecks. “I followed Sue,” he said simply. “Always. She really was a believer. She genuinely feared for billions if Stables kept up their headlong rush into making the planet uninhabitable. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had just come out, people were starting to grasp how real—and huge—the problem was.”

“I should have known they’d never let a werewolf become president.” Annette shook her head. “I know that sounds like an unhinged conspiracy theory, but Gore was clearly and repeatedly discredited. It’s no coincidence he was considered a national joke for years.”

“My point is, anything Sue was that passionate about, I wanted in. Y’see how it was?”

“In the lady’s defense,” Oz admitted, “she had a point.”

“Aye. But by and by, we learned more about their long-term goals. By then, I was with SAS of my own accord. Even if Sue had left, I’d have stayed, because the movement was about more than reassuring ourselves we were the superior species.”

“It was?” Annette asked, earning a trio of glares.

Why are they letting Magnus narrate?

“SAS favored exposure to the wider world. In my stupidity, I didn’t realize that their idea of ‘coming out’ wasn’t at all the same as mine.”

The exposure question. Again. Weres like David Auberon thought it was long overdue, but then Davey-boy grew up with Stable pals who knew—and kept—the secret of his other self. His default was to trust them, but he was in the minority of a minority. There were plenty of Shifters in the world who would eat glass before trusting a Stable. There were an equal number who told their cubs boogeyman stories about Stables. And when you’re that afraid of a group, how do you overcome it?

“Our long-range goals—mine and SAS’s—were the same, we just differed greatly on the short-term policies that would get us to that goal. And it was…nice, at first,” he admitted. “Better than nice. Exciting, even. It was great to talk to so many weres who favored coming out and showing the planet what we could do if given the reins. In Scotland, there aren’t nearly as many, and no bears at all save for my family. It’s not the issue it is over here. Here, I knew there were millions who thought the way I did. It’s easy to feel alone in Scotland. It’s impossible here. Or so I told myself.”

“So then what?”

“Then it got verra bloody verra fast.”

Chapter 50

Then.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Sam Smalls hissed. “I told you to stay away, Sue! This day of all days!”

“And it was adorable that you thought you could direct anything I do. You remember Magnus.”

“Obviously.” Sam shoved his glasses further up his nose and fixed Magnus with an unfriendly look. “Where you are, he follows.”

“They say the qualities you dislike most in others are qualities y’have yourself,” Magnus replied pleasantly. “Otherwise, why are you here?”

“Not to hang around a female. Is this why you moved here from Scotland, Maggie? To widen the dating pool?”

“Can you two out-asshole each other some other time?” Sue hissed. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re in big-time trouble.”

“Of course I noticed! You’re out here with me, right?”

They were. Sam had somehow scented Sue through the hundreds of other weres and all but dragged her outside. Berne had followed, because that’s what he did now, apparently.

He’d never know what Sue saw in the boy. Sam Smalls was short and wiry, with the eyesight of an aging vole; his other self barely topped 175 pounds. In a fight for dominance, the best Sam could hope for was immediate evisceration. And he was smart. To be fair, he was one of the smartest people Berne had ever met, probably the smartest on campus, but Sam Smalls needed everyone to know it, all the time. And he was majoring in English lit, for God’s sake. With a minor in media arts. Jesus wept.

Which was why it drove him crazy that Sue actually favored the worm over the Scot. Magnus hoped any kid Sam and Sue had (God fucking forbid) took after her side.

“Look, you have to leave,” Sam insisted. It was nearly dark and the temp was dropping. The three of them had left their coats inside, and Berne doubted they were going back for them. “Right now. You should, too, Maggie. Don’t look so shocked. I wouldn’t wish what’s coming on my worst enemy.”

“Didn’t know you cared,” Magnus drawled.

“It’s bad,” Sam said simply. “I don’t want to see anyone hurt, even you. None of us should be here.”

“So why are you?” Magnus asked, thinking, Oh, aye, it’s bad all right. If Sam Smalls, who wouldn’t spit on me if I was on fire, thinks I