Free Scratch the Surface (Wolf Within) by Amy Lee Burgess

continued to gaze at him for a moment then picked up his wine glass.
    “And you’ll not be forcing her to play that damned harp if she doesn’t want to,” Murphy snapped at Kathy Manning, gesturing at her with his glass. It was really rather rude, but Kathy simply smiled at him the way one would smile soothingly at a snarling dog and kept her prudent distance.
    I gulped at my drink and wondered if getting drunk would be good or disastrous.
    The doorbell chimed and I nearly doused myself with champagne.
    Kathy Manning leaped gracefully to her feet and when she walked away, I saw her dress was just as severe in the back as it was in the front. That woman gave nothing away but smiles and baked goods.
    I heard familiar voices in the foyer. A gust of cold air blew into the room, making me shiver. Murphy moved closer to me.
    A moment later Kathy returned to the room. Behind her were Callie, Vaughn and Peter.
    Vaughn and Peter wore dark blue suits. Vaughn had a white shirt and blue tie, Peter, always more flamboyant, had on a pink shirt and blue tie. He had his blond hair slicked back in 1940s gangster style and a pink handkerchief peeped out of the breast pocket of his suit jacket.
    Vaughn had grown a goatee since I’d last seen him and let his hair grow out. It was nearly as long as Grey’s had been and the same dark brown. His eyes were brown too and he was clearly nervous, scanning the room as if looking for hidden assassins, his narrow mouth clamped tightly shut.
    Callie’s strawberry blond hair was piled high on her head and, even though she had on lots of makeup, she looked pale and unwell. Her dress was emerald green, skimming her knees in a silky froth. Its thin spaghetti straps sewn with rhinestones glittered under the soft glare of the Christmas tree lights.
    Allerton had mentioned she’d suffered a series of miscarriages since becoming Alpha last year. I suspected she’d recently had another one. Her blue eyes were puffy and all the makeup in the world couldn’t conceal how tired and dispirited she looked.
    Despite myself, my heart went out to her. We had ten years of history between us and it was hard to forget she wasn’t my friend anymore.
    Peter and Vaughn hovered close to her. They all stared at me and Murphy, stopping a few feet away from where we stood.
    There was an awkward silence, made even worse by Murphy’s unfriendly glower.
    I was damned if I would break it. Murphy would kill me, for one thing, and they were the ones who should be ashamed of themselves for another.
    Like a curious elf, Kathy looked between us all, waiting to see who gave in first.
    It was Peter. Vaughn still clearly held a grudge and Callie looked as if she might burst into tears if she tried to speak.
    Peter stepped forward, his face scarlet, and held out his hand to me.
    “Hello, Stanzie. It’s goddamn apparent we were wrong and we owe you a big apology. You don’t have to accept it, but I wish you would.”
    He was not a handsome man, but he had a definite appeal. He was built like a bull and he worked out all the time, which only enhanced what he already had naturally. I remembered the way he would lift me up and pin me against the wall with my legs wrapped around his muscular waist when we’d slept together. He’d made me feel as though I weighed nothing and he was two inches shorter than me.
    Vaughn wasn’t classically handsome either, but he had pretty boy looks, as if he could have been in a boy band when he was fourteen. He was tall and thin and had a natural agility that turned heads when he walked into rooms. All the teenage girls at gatherings tended to flock around him and follow him around, giggle over him in corners. He’d been asked more than once to initiate girls through their first shift so they could participate in the Great Hunt at the Regionals. He always treated the girl with sensitivity and style, and watched after her in wolf form, guiding her through her first time with finesse.
    I remembered him