About Face. Amy Lee Burgess

shifted uneasily on his squeaky chair. “I told you before, you’ve got to prove yourself to this pack. You don’t just waltz in and take your place near the top of the ranks without a struggle.”

      “Who says I want to be near the top?” I whispered.

      He scowled at me. “For fuck’s sake, Stanzie, you’re an Advisor to a member of the Great Council. And, yes, you are Liam Murphy’s bond mate, at least for a little while longer—hopefully more if you get your head out of your ass and kick his. Fee and I have been Alphas for three years. We’ve got another two to go, and then this pack will choose a new Alpha pair. And there’s every chance in the world it will be you and Liam if you play your cards right.

      “So people like Alannah Doyle and Declan Byrne, your main competition, are not going to quietly let you sneak ahead of them in the ranks. No matter what I want or what Fee wants, our votes only count so far. The pack has a say, too.”

      “The main contender for the next Alpha female is a barmaid?” I spoke without thinking and Paddy groaned and threw up his hands dramatically.

      “A barmaid who’s my sister, remember, you horrible bitch? What the hell do you want her to be? A nuclear physicist? Stanzie, for Christ’s sake, since when do we judge who should be Alpha by their damn day jobs?”

      “I figure this is a huge pack and it doesn’t just revolve around the fertile duos and triads, so there has to be more criteria than that. Why not day jobs? Sorcha was a scientist, wasn’t she?” I wanted to throw my Guinness at his face, but it was too good to waste.

      “A lab technician with delusions of grandeur.” Paddy’s voice was flat.

      I wanted to argue. She’d been murdered by the conspiracy, so obviously she’d been more than a simple lab tech. She had to have been.

      “She was working late to impress her bosses. She was taking classes and wanted to move up, and maybe she would have, but all that would have been put on hold so she could have her baby. She shouldn’t have even been working still, the stubborn bitch, but nobody could ever tell her what to do. Liam begged her to stop working and act like a real Alpha female, but she laughed in his face. He’s the one who carried that duo when they were Alpha, and everyone in Mac Tire knows it. So they’re going to be doubly hard on you. For all they know, you’re the next Sorcha. Maybe you won’t even stop being an Advisor when you’re pregnant.”

      Paddy talked like it was a done deal.

      “And when they find out about my wolf, game over, wouldn’t you say?” I looked him in the eye, determined to brazen it out. Did he know my wolf was normal now? Or supposedly so. I inwardly winced when I remembered I’d just taken off for Dublin and hadn’t told Scott I wasn’t going to hunt with him after all. That was rude. I made a mental note to call to apologize, but meanwhile I stared Paddy down.

      “Do you not think your Alpha has kept track of you?” Paddy’s eyes burned with triumph, and I knew my bluff had failed. Damn that Jason Allerton.

      “Well, since my Alpha never called me once in four months, how the hell was I supposed to know? Who told you? Allerton?”

      “I have my sources.” His smile was enigmatic, and I really wanted to slap him hard.

      “So Murphy. He told you.” I felt my face turn sullen, and Paddy rolled his eyes.

      “He and Allerton do communicate, being that Liam’s his Advisor and all.”

      “What’s that got to do with me?” I bunched my hands into fists and looked around for something to pummel. Murphy knew about my wolf. Why did he get to know everything about me even when he’d walked out on me?

      Until that moment I hadn’t realized how much I’d wanted to be the one to tell him about my wolf. He’d helped me so much with her. If anyone in the world had ever initiated my wolf, it was him with the help of his wolf.

      What had he thought when he’d found out? Had he been pleased? Indifferent? Maybe he’d changed the subject because it didn’t matter to him anymore.

      “So you know about the pack bond, too, then,” I said, my voice hard.

      “Only the bare bones of it. Just that that bastard father of yours was exiled, mostly because of you figuring it all out. But not the specifics of how you did it or what you felt like going through it.” Paddy’s voice was soft and encouraging. As if I’d tell him anything.

      “Well, it’s no wonder you seem to want me back with him. Now that I’m normal and a real contender for Alpha. You’re such a treacherous bastard, Paddy, you know that?”

      “Goddamn it,” he swore helplessly. “I never thought your wolf would hold you back even before the bloody pack bond thing. Liam was working with you, and that was good enough for me. I saw what your wolf did for the bloody Council wolves. It wasn’t an issue with me.”

      “Maybe not you,” I said through gritted teeth. “She’s normal now, and I’m still apologizing for her. Still making excuses for her.”

      “Yeah, and I don’t understand that at all. Nobody in Mac Tire knew about your wolf anyway.”

      “Why not?” I thrust my chin out angrily. “You kept it a dirty secret, didn’t you? Afraid it would ruin my precious chances at Alpha? What if I don’t want to be Alpha? Normal wolf or not?”

      “You don’t want a baby?” Paddy asked. “Because I don’t believe you. I saw the way you looked at your friend’s baby daughter, and I heard what you said about the subject. I was there, remember?”

      “I’m tired, and I want to go to bed.” I knew I was being a coward, but fuck it. I couldn’t even think straight, and maybe I was getting belligerent for no reason. But I was not going to fall for his Irish charm and his bullshit lies. I wasn’t.