Free Silver by Rhiannon Held Page A

all along. The expression drained away as he encountered the resistance of his alpha’s hand on his wrist, however.
    “Enough,” Michelle said to Craig, though her eyes went to Andrew’s immediately after. He could read the message clearly enough. She’d let the blow go as Craig’s punishment for disobeying his alpha, but nothing further.
    Andrew throttled the anger he’d just released back down. He needed space to breathe if he was going to manage this. He pushed past Craig and Michelle toward the door. “Why don’t you stay here for a bit, Silver. The rest of you will want to be careful, she runs sometimes when she gets a fit.”
    Tom skidded on the entryway’s hardwood floor in his stocking feet as he hurried to get in front of Andrew. “Did you want to go hunting, maybe? I mean, after a long flight, and it’s close to the full, so … We have a really sweet spot I can show you—”
    “Permission to hunt?” Andrew kept his voice flat and his eyes just over Michelle’s shoulder. He especially didn’t want a dominance contest with her.
    “Permission granted. We can discuss Silver when you get back.” Her tone remained even.
    When Andrew looked back to check on her, Silver was dozing, not even the tension in the room able to keep her eyes from slipping half shut. Tom pulled on his boots, ignoring the laces for the moment.
    Tom let out a sigh of relief as they got outside. He gestured to a crappy pickup parked along the curb. The body was blue, but one door panel was black. “Lady. Sorry about Craig. I think he wants to justify his place in the pack by protecting Michelle, but when there’s nothing to protect her against, he makes shit up.”
    Tom opened the door with his key and hit the electronic lock button inside the driver’s door a couple times before giving up and climbing across the seat to unlock Andrew’s door. Andrew knew he was supposed to answer, but if he did, he’d probably say something cutting to the boy since he couldn’t say anything to Craig. Tom didn’t deserve that.
    They drove in silence, Tom taking them to a place closer than Andrew had expected. The small highway took them from suburbia straight into farmland, and then it wasn’t long before Andrew spotted a sign for a recreation area. It didn’t look big enough to be completely safe, but being closer to the city gave security in another form. People wouldn’t be surprised to see a stray dog or two, especially when darkness disguised details.
    Andrew stopped to draw in the scents when they left the car. A stream off in the distance smelled somewhat dirty, but the spice of evergreens permeated everything. Maybe it was only the grass is greener effect, but Andrew liked the West. Back before he’d become Roanoke’s enforcer, back before Spain, he’d loved visiting, but of course all that had come to an end. Probably not even Alaska would give him permission to cross territory just for a vacation at this point.
    “This is a great place, you can’t see very far at all from the parking lot or the beginning of the trail.” Tom pointed, and pulled a pack from under the accumulated fast-food bags and soda cans behind the seats. A good idea, since it smelled like the ground would be damp, and a stashed pack attracted less notice than a random pile of clothes. If this trip had been planned, Andrew would have brought his bag. At this point, he didn’t really care. He pulled off his phone and his wallet, dumped them under the passenger seat and called it good.
    Tom led the way down the switchbacked trail from the parking lot for a little ways, and then diverged from it. He hopped over the tree-branch barrier placed to stop the erosion created by people taking the straightest path down. “I don’t get why everyone is afraid of you. I mean, you are a dick, and a hard-ass, but it’s not like you randomly kill people.” He cut off as if he was only just then considering that Andrew might not want to talk about it. “I