Silent Cravings by Jess Haines, E. Blix

up to any demands for attack or retaliation by her alpha. That wouldn’t happen for quite a while yet. Not until he was certain she no longer saw him as the bogeyman or some uncaring jailor.
    His brows were knotted as Mouse walked him to the door. Analie might also withdraw into herself like a lone wolf, but Royce thought that the mix of lessons and his personal attention to her education would be adequate safeguard. As he opened the door, he paused, looking back at Mouse. She was watching him with narrowed eyes. No doubt she’d thought this through much the same as he had. He trusted her to forward his ends for she, too, was old enough to know the danger the Goliath werewolves posed if the girl was not handled properly.
    “Check in on her after a bit and make sure she’s all right, would you?”
    Mouse curled her lip, glancing in the direction of the girl’s room. She could smell the thick, rank musk of Were from where she stood, along with the barest hint of salt tears. She didn’t like the idea of offering comfort or aid to one of the Goliath pack. If anyone other than Alec had suggested she do as much, she’d have happily gutted them. While he made some rash decisions now and again, she would trust his judgment and follow him to the deepest pits of the nether hells if he asked.
    Nodding shortly, she watched the elder go, the satisfaction in his expression briefly giving her pause. He had some devious plans in mind, as usual.
    Rolling her eyes, she headed to her own room, picking up the book she’d been reading before John came by to tell her about the new “guest”. Settling into the plush, rumpled blankets on her bed, laying on her stomach with her booted feet dangling off the edge, she tried concentrating on the novel instead of the alien scents invading her living space. That the girl had been crying meant little to her. No one had answered her cries while Max Carlyle tore her apart every day for twenty years, nor in the years to follow when she had no voice left to plead with. The wolf’s separation from her family had a time limit attached, and she would not be ill treated while she was here. Mouse had no pity for her.
    At least, that’s what she told herself as her keen eyes refused to stay focused on the page in front of her. Her gaze drifted over the rest of the room, taking in the bookshelves, the scattered crystal and porcelain figurines on the dresser, the overabundance of stuffed animals and frilly pillows on the bed and covering the loveseat against the far wall. Her bedroom was as feminine and inviting as her living room was austere and threatening. The utilitarian purpose for having so many weapons readily at hand had to do with being the last line of defense before any invading force might take the upper floors. If necessary, she could hold the hall single-handed against an army of invaders long enough for backup to come from upstairs and take up arms as well. While the main room of her home was a “public” portion of the building, set up for the overall good of the inhabitants, her bedroom was sacrosanct and filled with enough hidden weaponry to put what was visible on the walls outside to shame.
    Her last roommate, Ari, was one of the first vampires Alec had turned. Alec had met Ari in Cairo when he was traveling on business, and subsequently bonded, then later turned him. Ari had stayed by Royce’s side faithfully for six centuries, helping him build and hold his own territories and wealth, but eventually wanted to return to Egypt. Alec had let him go, and Ari sporadically travelled back and forth from Europe to Africa and back as he built up his own interests and bloodline.
    He hadn’t settled in Luxor until the mid-1800s, and helped build up the tourist trade with money from his investments in his interests throughout Greece, Rome, Spain, England, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Sudan. He still paid tribute to his sire, supplementing Royce’s already considerable fortune as Royce, in turn,