Something Secret This Way Comes: Secret McQueen, Book 1 by Sierra Dean Page B

werewolf my name he got really uneasy about it, but never explained why. I’m starting to think there’s more to it than just a name, unless werewolves in general hate Bullitt. But I’m betting that’s not it.”
    “While there are better Steve McQueen movies, I’m partial to Papillon myself, it’s not the reason your name makes wolves uncomfortable. I mentioned that mine is not the only family with a royal legacy.”
    “Yes.”
    “In the East the wolves are ruled by my family, the Rains. In the West they are ruled by the Cavanaughs. The O’Shaughnessy family rules the North, and do you know who the kings and queens of the South are?”
    “Obviously not.” His little spiel was leaving me with a pretty good idea, though, and I didn’t like it.
    “The royal family of the American South is the McQueens.”

Chapter Nine
    “What the hell are you saying?”
    “You are royalty. Your grandfather… His name was Elmore McQueen, wasn’t it?”
    Grandmere most often referred to her now-deceased husband as that awful man ,or more colorful Creole phrases as I grew old enough to appreciate them, but his Christian name had been Elmore. I nodded to confirm his assumption.
    “Then your mother must have been either Savannah or Mercy McQueen.”
    “Mercy.” I cast my eyes downward. Her name brought bile to the back of my throat and the sting of tears to my eyes. In spite of the large fire, I now felt cold.
    “Your mother must have met with a lot of difficulty for settling with a human man.”
    “My grandmere approved of it, and I don’t think Elmore really said much about it since he’d married a human girl himself. At least before he left her with three children to raise so he could bed down with a new bitch.” I let my tears turn to a fog of rage. I needed to push the sadness away if I was going to be able to look at him. The insult had a different sting to wolves. If there was a werewolf equivalent to the c-word, bitch was it. Lucas flinched to hear me say it.
    A long pause filled the room, broken only by the sound of a log settling in the fire. We stared at each other across the desk, and I ached to touch him so badly my fingers tingled, but I couldn’t understand why.
    “Regardless of your grandfather’s second family and your mother’s abandonment, you are by blood and birthright a princess to the Southern line. It all became clear to me when I learned your name.”
    “What became clear? At the moment nothing is clear at all here.” I waved a hand around my head to illustrate my continued confusion.
    “Let me try to phrase this in a way that won’t frighten you.”
    “That’s probably not the best way to start.”
    At least he wasn’t speaking to me like I was a child anymore.
    “The thing is, while we have genetic explanations to make things easier for us to understand, there is still something primal and magical about being a werewolf. I was Awakened when I was thirteen, and it was like having a light turned on. I was roused from a sensory-debilitating sleep that day, and I haven’t looked back since. I see and hear better, I taste things more purely, and my sense of smell…well, you know how our noses work.”
    In truth, since I was born this way I really had no frame of reference for what human senses were. I also had difficulty telling my werewolf and vampire abilities apart as some of them were so similar. I just nodded.
    “As wolves, we feel things on a deeper level than humans. Connections between members of the pack are richer and more intense than anything human couples could understand. Within the old families in particular these bonds are almost unbreakable. We have come to understand it as a unique matchmaking system, one that has been built into our bodies.”
    Now I was not only confused, I was getting nervous about the look in his eyes and the heat in his voice. As he spoke, something inside of me began to uncoil and rise in response to his words. I was drawn to the edge of my seat