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can’t change your mind? This situation promises to get extraordinarily unpleasant. Disputing for leadership of a pack when there’s a popular candidate from within is always a thankless affair.”
    She spoke coldly, and with a confidence she couldn’t remember feeling for a very long time. “I understand completely.”
    “Then we’ll send investigators and get this underway.”
    Juli hung up the phone and sighed. Frankly, she could use a nap right here. Any respite she might hope for, however, shattered with the sound of a key turning the lock in the front door. Juli lay as quiet and still as she could, praying that Neil would not bother to notice her presence. No such luck.
    “Juli! Just the girl I wanted to see!” His hypnotic scent entered the room before he did, with just enough of a lead to get every single one of her nerve endings stimulated in anticipation of his arrival. Neil swung into her bedroom a moment later, smiling as if he didn’t have a care in the world. She stared, confused at the change in his attitude toward her.
    “How are you, Neil?” Juli adjusted her posture stiffly. She felt wooden, numb, and awkward, unable to remember any method of sitting that felt at all natural.
    “I’m good.” He plopped at the foot of the bed. “I want you to come out with me tonight.” His voice held a subtle smolder. Juli’s body flooded with hormones, a situation that was all the more humiliating since she knew he could probably smell it.
    Had he been hit on the head? “Go out with you? Like on a date?” Jeez. Only a glutton for punishment would put out so many invitations for rejection.
    A shadow flickered over his face. “Not a date.”
    Of course not. Juli rubbed the heel of her hand over her eyes. “Then what?”
    He shrugged. “Just to talk. Please, Juli. Things got out of hand the other night. I don’t want us at each other’s throats.”
    What an apt choice of metaphor. She studied him. The squint lines around his eyes from long hours out on the baseball diamond made him look older than he was, but in fact he only had two years on her. He probably had as little idea of what to do at any given moment as she did. If he wanted to make up, maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, if she had even the barest chance of talking him into retracting his formal complaint, it would be worth it, for the sake of herself, him, and every other werewolf in Missoula.
    Juli knew all too well what it would mean if Council investigators came swooping in. She forced a smile. “Sure. Let’s go out.”

Chapter Four
    Neil thanked God for small mercies—so far, Juli hadn’t commented on the sorry state of his truck. The ancient hunk of metal literally creaked as he parked it just south of the Wilma. The theater’s old-time marquee lit the night, but not as much as the carousel just beyond in Caras Park.
    He barely suppressed a grin as he surveyed the hokey old downtown attraction, but Juli’s reaction couldn’t have been more different. “You brought me here?” The shriek in her voice hurt the upper ranges of his hearing, and he gave a little dog whine to let her know.
    “What’s the problem?” He kept his face innocent, though he knew damn well why she objected. He’d chosen this place specifically because of the history they had here.
    She growled in reply. He wondered if she knew how frequently the wolf in her slipped out since she’d come back to Missoula, or how hot it was.
    Now that he’d made his complaint to the Werewolf Council, Neil felt comfortable pursuing the more personal unresolved issues between them. For days, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her willingness to stay in Missoula to fulfill her father’s last request. Maybe they could negotiate an outcome that satisfied everyone. If she agreed to stay in town as a regular pack member, she could involve herself in pack governance in the spirit of her father’s wishes. She could stay by Neil’s side. If