The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Revelations by Jessica Ryan Page A

was thinking. No, babe, he thought, like he was communicating to her telepathically. I’m nothing like them.
    “It kind of shatters my image of wolves,” Eva said. “Rowan always assured me they were more loyal than any man would ever be.”
    “Most of them are,” Seth said, growing exasperated with the conversation. He hadn’t shown up here to answer for every alpha before him needing to get their dicks wet. “But Rowan’s not and I sure as hell am not.”
    “And you’re an alpha?” Eva asked.
    “Who do you think took over Bucklin after you guys abandoned it?” Seth asked.
    “Good to know,” Eva said. She was quite the bold human. He had never met one who wanted to stand up and challenge him like this. He was sure Eva wouldn’t have been afraid to try, but she would’ve eventually cowed, like all other humans. “Just give him some time. Why don’t you put some pants on and come inside with me?”
    Seth turned to see Rowan. If he was going inside, maybe he would overhear Seth explaining things to Eva. Instead he had changed directions and headed for the half-constructed house.
    “No,” Seth said. “You girls go on ahead. I’m going to go talk to my brother.”
     

Chapter 7
    “Sorry about the shotgun,” Eva said as Maribel settled down at the kitchen table. “You can never be too careful out here so far removed from civilization. Normal girls like you and me don’t have big fangs or claws to protect us out here.”
    “It’s okay,” Maribel said. “I probably would have done the same. Although gun accidents go up eighty-three percent when you cock the gun. I’m just glad we didn’t become another statistic.”
    “That’s an interesting number,” Eva said, setting a cup of hot tea down in front of Maribel. “How do you know that?”
    “I know a lot of numbers,” Maribel said. “It’s my job.”
    “Yeah, you tried to go into that before we decided to stop the boys from killing each other,” Eva said, sitting down next to Maribel. “Tell me what’s going on.”
    “Well, I can only tell as much as I know,” she said. “I work loss assessment for Sokolov Enterprises. It’s a multi-national conglomerate run by one of the world’s most powerful vampires. He sent me here along with a co-worker and a private security force to broker a deal with Seth and the Bucklin wolves. We did that, and soon we’ll be building a casino and hotel in Bucklin.”
    Eva made a face like she had just smelled something terrible. “Things aren’t going so hot in Bucklin?”
    “The town is broke,” Maribel said. “The wolves there are going to be out on their asses if they don’t do something about it. There’s so many abandoned houses and buildings. The economy is down seventy-eight percent in Bucklin. You took fifty-two percent of the town’s population with you. Another sixteen percent have abandoned the town over the last two years and the number grows every day.”
    “Bucklin was a beautiful place,” Eva said, taking a sip of her tea and looking out the window with a faraway look in her eyes. “It was like I had been transported to post-war America. Everyone was so full of hope, so perfect.” She leaned back and shook her head with a heavy sigh. “Of course there was a dark underbelly to that place, one the tourists never saw. But overall it was a great place. I can’t believe it’s in such bad shape.”
    “It’s the perfect acquisition for Sokolov Enterprises,” Maribel said. “It’s out of the way, but beautiful. It makes a perfect tourist destination and with the population so low there will be plenty of space available to build other businesses and allow more people to move in.”
    “Where are you going to find that many wolves to move into Bucklin?” Eva asked.
    “Well, that’s just it,” Maribel said, pausing for a second. If Rowan really was the attacker, then Eva could very well be in on it. She might fly off the handle when Maribel admitted what they were doing in