Vaughn slouched in the chair farthest from Kathy’s. After we’d all consumed cookies and coffee, Kathy set down her cup and looked between us all.
“Stanzie, I’d like you and Liam to pay a visit to Maplefair. The situation I mentioned needs resolution and it’s time the Council stepped in.”
“The Regional Council can’t resolve it?” I was confused.
“As I said, the New England Regional Council is in a bit of a flux state at the moment. There are some gaps that need to be filled in the ranks.
“One Council member has recently resigned due to age. Another was tapped to serve on the Great Council. Their Advisors no longer serve obviously. Because of this situation in the Regional Council and because I’m currently between Advisors, Councilor Allerton has offered me your assistance. You’ll report to me and if necessary the Great Council will be brought in. I’m hoping it won’t be. I’m hoping Bethany will come back or least be found, but that remains to be seen I suppose.”
“Who’s Bethany?” I sat up straight in my chair.
“Bethany Dillon. She’s seventeen, and she’s been missing since Thursday.”
“She ran away?” Murphy leaned forward. He’d been blissed out on a sugar high, but now the conversation had drawn him in. “Is she fighting with her parents?”
Kathy sighed and picked up her coffee cup but didn’t drink from it. “They say not. They say she’s been withdrawn and moody lately but they put that down to the fact she hasn’t been allowed to see her boyfriend. He’s in the pack too. He’s nineteen. In view of what happened at the Regional Gathering, they’ve been kept apart as much as possible.”
I bit my lip. “What happened at the Regional?”
“Oh, what normally happens. A group of teenagers got together and shifted during the Great Hunt the way they sometimes do no matter how you guard against it. It happened that way to you didn’t it, Stanzie? You shifted at a Great Gathering when you were a teenager, right?”
I flushed with remembered embarrassment.
“Bethany and Cody say they are in love and want to bond, but they’ll have to wait until they reach majority,” Kathy said.
“So why keep them apart until then? What difference does it make? Now that they’ve shifted, why not let them be together?” I knew I was advocating pack heresy. Pack generally shifted the first time between seventeen and twenty, but we were supposed to be initiated by an experienced member of the pack in order to develop our wolves. Shifting for fun with lovers came later.
Kathy gave me a measured look from beneath half lowered lashes. Once again she resembled an elf—enigmatic, all knowing and nearly impossible to relate to.
“It makes a big difference to their wolves, dear. No one is telling them they can’t see each other—they aren’t supposed to shift together. The boy, Cody, is willing to work with an experienced partner, but Bethany is being stubborn.”
This conversion veered way too close to my own experience and I fervently wished we could talk about something else, but of course we couldn’t.
“Well, he didn’t disappear too, did he? They didn’t run away together?” Murphy asked.
“No,” answered Kathy with an elegant lift of her shoulders.
I took a deep breath. “Are you sure Bethany wasn’t pregnant?”
Kathy gave another graceful shrug. “Her mother said she got her period after the Regional.”
“I don’t see why she would run away without him,” I insisted.
Kathy nodded. “I know. This is a troubling situation. That’s why the Council wants to look into it.”
Then, with a devastating directness that took my breath away, she said, “You know it’s no shame to admit you got pregnant at that Great Gathering, Stanzie.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” My mouth hung open and I closed it with a snap. “We’re talking about Bethany. You said she wasn’t pregnant. Why are we talking about me? What does that have to do with anything?”
“I was just trying to piece together why you are so afraid to have a baby,” Kathy mused. “I just wondered if having to have a discreet abortion after sneaking out and shifting with another teenager has created this silly fear of yours.”
Murphy’s face darkened at the word silly but he didn’t say anything. Probably because I was so betrayed and pissed off I didn’t give him a chance.
“Kathy, you’re wrong. I did not get pregnant after I shifted. Besides, the grandmothers gave us all something horrible-tasting to drink after we shifted back. All the girls. My father was right there to force me to drink it. They said it would most likely prevent conception and I had to drink that shit for a whole week. Paul made me drink it for two just in case.” My mouth twisted at the remembered vile taste. “Didn’t they make Bethany do the same damn thing? I thought it was de rigueur in cases like that.”
“Yes, I believe they did. Also, as I said, her mother has reported she did get her period after that. No one is saying she got pregnant at the Regional. She’s either run away or maybe she’s hiding in plain sight somewhere within her pack. She may have had an accident or killed herself in a lonely field. She may have taken a bus to New York or even here to Boston. There’s a lot of things that may have happened and for her sake I hope we find the truth.”
She and Murphy both continued to stare at me. I felt flushed and guilty even though I had no reason to be ashamed. Vaughn stared at me and I was sure he wondered whether I’d told the truth.
“Honestly, I didn’t get pregnant. I’ve never been pregnant.”
“Your fear of having a baby, Stanzie, has to come from somewhere.” Kathy’s voice was warm and soothing as butterscotch but I wasn’t lulled by the false sweetness.
It was truly amazing how this woman took every opportunity to wave my fears in front of my face as if we stood in a bullring and I had hooves and a fucking tail while she sported a toreador’s outfit and a red cape.
We were supposed to be concentrating on the missing girl, not some phantom pregnancy in my past. Vaughn opened his mouth as if to argue, but closed it again. I knew damn well what he thought because we’d been pack mates for a decade and he knew how I felt about babies. Yet I could tell by his expression he still wondered if I’d gotten pregnant the first time I shifted. So did Murphy. Goddamn Kathy Manning. Goddamn her.
“You’re a Regional Councilor. You should know all the nasty secrets of the New England area packs. I don’t have a nasty secret about being pregnant, Kathy.”
“Your birth pack is extremely reticent and close-minded. There’s hasn’t been a member on either Council or even an Advisor from Mayflower for years.” That fact seemed to puzzle, even exasperate her. “These cases are supposed to be brought before the Regional Council. At the very least we’re supposed to be notified.”
“Well, Maplefair notified you,” I tried to bring the focus back to Bethany.
“Yes, Jocelyn and Nate brought it to our attention right away.” Kathy nodded. “You and Liam will be staying at their house in Easton. They’re restoring the most adorable rambling old farmhouse and are expecting you tomorrow afternoon.”
Murphy shifted in his seat, a look of protest spread across his face.
“We haven’t said we’d do this yet,” he objected softly.
“Councilor Allerton offered me your services, remember?” Kathy swept on as if Murphy hadn’t spoken and he rolled his eyes. “Jason’s attending to some personal business at the moment, but you can call him and confirm that if you doubt my word.”
Murphy