Doctor Wolf (The Collegium Book 4) Read Free

reason for Natalie’s statement became painfully apparent. Three men were singing, each a different song, each off-key.
    Carson braced himself, and opened the door. An avalanche of wailing hit him.
    Liz sat on a loveseat, her expression a mix of amusement and horror. To her credit, she wasn’t wincing, not even when the youngest male attempt to sing bass, and squeaked. But when she saw Carson, she immediately bounced up. “Sorry. Sorry, guys. But this is urgent.” She grabbed Carson’s arm and hustled him out.
    “What’s urgent?” he asked in the corridor. The three men inside the music room weren’t weres and wouldn’t hear him through the door.
    “Upstairs.” Liz balanced with one hand on his arm, slipped off her shoes and ran upstairs. “Thea won’t mind if I borrow her room, not in the circumstances.” She added an emphatic, “sssshh”, when he’d have questioned her.
    The door of a bedroom closed behind them and Liz slumped onto a window seat. “I’m getting old. Once, I’d have thought that fun.”
    Carson couldn’t answer. He was struck dumb by the room’s décor.
    Liz laughed at his expression. “This is my cousin Thea’s room when the family visits London. She’s fourteen and going through a Rococo phase.”
    And evidently, in an earl’s household, it was possible to indulge a Rococo phase. The room was filled to bursting with extravagantly embellished furniture and gilt-trim. A lace canopy enclosed the bed.
    He walked carefully through the overwrought boudoir and stood in front of Liz. “What game are you playing?”
     
     
    “Ah.” Liz slipped her shoes back on, taking the few seconds in which her hair hid her face to compose her expression and think of an answer. There was the truth, and then, there was the whole truth. What she needed to do was satisfy Carson with a fraction of it. “The game is ‘Marry Liz’ and I’m actually trying not to play it.”
    He sat down on the window seat beside her. Their shoulders brushed, but neither moved away. “I don’t want to marry you, so why am I involved?”
    “ Because you don’t want to marry me.”
    “I think, maybe, I need to have grown up with sisters to understand that statement.”
    She laughed and bumped his shoulder. “Not you. You’re a smart guy.”
    “So, Brandon wants to marry you?”
    “Among other things.”
    “He wants to be the Beo Pack’s next alpha,” Carson said.
    She smiled wryly. “I said you were smart.”
    He didn’t fall down, overwhelmed by her praise. “And the three musical geniuses downstairs?”
    “They were serenading me.”
    “I thought they were torturing you into submission.”
    “That, too.” She laughed. “They’re mundanes, not weres, but I’m still a prize for them.” She leaned back, felt the cold glass through the silk of her dress, and jerked forward.
    Carson picked up a folded afghan, shook it out, and wrapped it around her.
    She lost all desire to laugh. The gesture of caring was too poignant, and he’d done it so naturally; not to impress, but to protect. She hugged the afghan to her, its mohair weave soft against her skin. “I’m wealthy, Carson. Insanely so. There’s family money and my inheritance from Great-Aunt Georgie. She left me the house in Eaton Square and all her investments. Playing the stock market was her hobby, and she excelled at it. She was also a feminist and approved of me becoming a doctor. We used to have some great chats about books and anatomy.”
    “I knew you were wealthy,” he said quietly, as if he’d picked up on her subdued mood. “It’s not a new thing.”
    “No,” she agreed. “But a few things have happened in the were community that have stirred things up. I’ve not heard Grandfather discuss stepping aside to make way for a new alpha, but he is getting old. To me he’s ageless. He’s just there, as reliable as a rock. You know.”
    Carson nodded. “He’s a good alpha. He provides certainty. He’s an honorable man and people