Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

fox fur, and screamed at her, calling her a murderer.

Vicky did not bother to reply now. The reason Audry had not married her fiancé was no one’s business but Audry’s.

“He turned out to be a cad,” their grandmother said, sighing. “I thank heaven that Deacon boy was watching out for her. He’s got friends in good places, and I believe they took especial care of my granddaughter. Now that’s a match I’d like to see.”

Vicky looked to her grandmother, surprised.

“Her and H. Richard Deacon the Third?” Her cousin Keith stared, slack jawed as if such an idea were preposterous.

Henry made a face, envisioning it. It was not clear, though, whom he was judging more. Rick or Audry?

But Samantha Lydia peeked to Vicky, who smirked in agreement with her grandmother. It was a match she would have thought rather cute. She had barely seen Rick at that summer party, but even she could see that Rick most definitely cared about her cousin.

“Rick Deacon?” Their cousin Lillian strolled up. “I heard a rumor he had thing for Audry. Is that really true?”

“Ah! We’re all here! Good.” Their grandmother clapped her hands together, rubbing them. She urged for them to now move further indoors.

Angling her head, Vicky leaned back from Lillian, who was dressed perfectly for a fancy shindig like this one—including designer handbag and matching jewelry. “You call him Rick?”

“Well… I know him,” Lillian said matter-of-factly, her gaze wan on her less-favored cousin.

Their grandmother brightened. “Really? How well? Will he be here?”

Lillian rolled her eyes toward the elderly woman. “Heaven sakes, no. Rick hated coming to Junior League events. He only came because Selena Davenport blackmailed him.”

Doris and Samantha Lydia drew in scandalized breaths. Henry raised his eyebrows, listening. The other three did not care and headed toward the inner doors to avoid the gossip.

“Everybody knows it,” Lillian said, even more flippantly. “Selena’s grandparents were trying to set her up with Ewan Steed, and she didn’t want it. So she dragged in Rick when he was thirteen. He’s, like, three years younger than her, you know.”

“Hmm.” Vicky nodded, folding her arms.

That’s when Lillian really saw her. Her face crinkled up as she pulled back. “What are you doing here?”

Vicky rolled her eyes.

“And if you’re here, where is Vincent Van Dorf and his faithful sidekick, jungle girl?” Lillian searched around vainly.

Her grandmother sighed, shaking her head.

“Jungle girl is back in Africa,” Doris informed her.

Lillian laughed, and not kindly.

“Well, now that we are all here,” their grandmother said one more time. “Let’s go in.”

Everyone else followed the threesome further into the foyer and up to the party, each privately wishing the societal event would not be as painful as they individually envisioned. Their grandmother was all about ceremony. This particular event required that they be formally announced as they enter the main ballroom as if they were back in the eighteen hundreds. Embarrassing. Vain eyes would turn and rake over them like savages intent on hunting heads. Their grandmother made sure they did it in age order of families—so the three from her eldest son John went first. None from her second son. Then Vicky stepped forward to represent the Williamses, as the third child was her mother. Her name—Vicky Anne Williams—echoed over the room as she stood there, feeling so exposed. Even her name made her feel second class next to her cousins whose fancy appellations sounded more high class. Her cousin, Lillian Charlene Taylor, was announced next, allowing Vicky to walk out of the spotlight.

“Do you ever feel like you are sneaking in to events like these?” Samantha Lydia drolly asked her younger cousin, quite proud of herself. Her eyes mocked Vicky as they raked down the red dress in open disapproval.

Vicky opened her mouth to sharply answer back, but as if out of nowhere, Selena Davenport strode up from the near crowd with a wide grin on her face. Her arms reached out toward Vicky, saying, “Vicky! This is unexpected! How are you?”

It was impossible not to smile—especially with her cousins staring in shock. Vicky replied, ignoring them with a grin for Selena, “I’m good. I missed you that last day at the beach house. You went home early.”

Flushing at her cheeks, Selena ducked her head a smidge. “Oh. I am sorry about that. It was kind of a funny thing really. We all had planned to stay longer, but Rick kind of insisted that we all clear out so we would not disturb Audry.”

Vicky raised her eyebrows. “Disturb Audry?”

Selena took in a quick sort of breath, like someone who had accidentally spilled the beans on a secret. Yet Selena merely shrugged it off, opening her mouth to answer.

But then Henry stepped up and said, “Cousin, would you please introduce your friend to us?”

Opening her mouth with a reluctant shrug, Vicky nearly did—but Lillian walked straight through them as if none of them were having a conversation at all.

“Why, Selena… Isn’t that the same dress you wore at our senior graduation party?” Lillian gazed wanly over Selena’s blue ombre gown, which honestly brought out the aquamarine highlights in Selena’s fantastically oceanic eyes. It flowed as if it were ocean water and suited the New York debutante extremely well.

“Why yes, as a matter-of-fact.” Selena gazed wanly at Lillian, recognition and disdain mutual as both women were clearly old acquaintances. “I’m afraid Rick rubbed off on me. He’s not the sort of man who likes wasting a good thing out of pure vanity. And it still fits.”

Vicky smiled at that response, though her cousins rolled their eyes from utter disgust. To them, Selena was unmistakably lowering her standards. She could afford a new dress, surely.

“Which reminds me.” Selena turned back toward Vicky. “How is Audry? I know I’m not supposed to nag, but Rick said she might be in a little shock after the party.”

“And why is that?” Vicky puzzled. She did not remember Audry being shocked, though she was somewhat subdued. Vicky had mentally written it off as end-of-summer doldrums.

“Sorry.” Again, Selena sighed with the sense of an unspoken secret. “I guess I was wrong.”

“Wait. What party?” Lillian stared from her cousin to Selena, openly affronted—probably for not being invited.

Doris, Henry, and Samantha Lydia were also listening intently. The other three boys came down together after their announcement, but walked right past—though not without checking out Selena’s shapely form. Selena always drew eyes. There was just that something about her.

With a longsuffering look for Lillian, Selena replied, “It was a summer party at the beach, the end of it with all our friends.”

“How did they get invited?” slipped out of Henry’s mouth before he could stop himself, thumbing at Vicky—though he meant more than her. He meant those cousins.

Selena shot him such a wan glare—one which devastated men on a regular basis—as she replied, “Well… they’re friends.”

Vicky smiled more, her chest swelling with warmth for Selena. Yet she said to her cousins, “Our beach house was just down from theirs. They invited all of us, but only Vincent, Audry, and I went.”

She could see their utter jealousy wash over all of them, taking in Selena again who was indeed of a higher class. It seemed unprecedented to her cousins that the outcasts of the Bruchenhaus clan were the ones who attended what in their minds had probably been a huge summer bash for the elite. Vicky decided not to burst their bubbles.

Yet Lillian declared, “You don’t mean those freaks from Gulinger Private Academy, do you?”

Selena shot her a scathing glare.

Vicky blinked between them, remembering once more that her cousin truly knew Selena and Rick. Lillian verified it more when she said, “Are you still dating that freak, Tom Brown? I could have sworn he got arrested for theft or something.”

Her other cousins’ faces lit up more with prideful self-satisfaction. She could see the gears of their egotistical minds telling them they were on top of the social strata again, Selena now below them.

Yet Vicky shook her head, thinking on it. “I don’t think so.  I could have sworn Audry said he was a CIA agent now. Audry said he was now dating some girl named Piranha—”

Selena’s eyes widened.

 “—But,” Vicky mused on that, having thought Tom was pretty cool when she had met him. “—isn’t he also an auto mechanic. Which one is it?” She looked to Selena.

Hearing her, especially how non-judgmental and matter-of-fact Vicky was, Selena burst out laughing. Her voice was beautifully musical, somehow making Vicky feel like a million bucks. Selena slung an arm over Vicky’s shoulders, dragging her away from her cousins a step, almost in a hug. “Both! And I heard about his new girlfriend. I think she is also training to be an agent.” She laughed once more as they stood least a yard away from those other Bruchenhauses, yet in earshot. “How does Audry know all that?”

“He fixed her car?” Vicky suggested with a shrug, sure that was the same car the police also sold at an auction, without Audry’s permission. Her cousin had been upset about that.

Selena immediately steered Vicky further from those cousins, leading them both away before any other Bruchenhaus grandchild could interject something snide into the conversation. The cousins stood there with expressions ranging from horror, disgust, and pure loathing at Vicky in particular—hardly even noticing their grandmother stroll up to them in an effort to urge them also to mingle with crowd. They dispersed, just so she would not hover around to play matchmaker.

Once Selena and Vicky got far enough away, Vicky hissed, “Thank you. You have saved my life.”

A softer, comprehending smile rested on Selena’s lips. She nodded. But then she glanced to the rest of the ballroom. “So… you’ve been dragged here to meet up with upper-crust men, huh?”

Vicky shrugged. “I’m here to humor grandparents.”

“That’s my life in a nutshell.” Selena nodded meaningfully, sighing. There was so much more to that, which Vicky was not sure she knew the details to. She did know that Selena had been raised by her grandparents and not her mother. Undoubtedly what they said ruled her life.

After a pause, listening to the music playing from the string quartet at the end of the ballroom—something which made things feel even more nineteenth century—Vicky asked, “Back to what you said about Audry being in shock after the party. Why would she be?”

This time Selena openly cringed. “Sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have said that. I wasn’t sure who was included in the whole conversation between her and Rick. I had heard Vincent was there. How is he, by the way?”

Thinking with a shrug, Vicky was about to say that he was fine, but a notion occurred to her. “He’s been looking up some weird stuff on the internet. When I was at his place yesterday, he showed me this weird website about monster hunters—”

“Monster hunters?” Selena’s eyes went wide, pupils narrowing. “He wasn’t actually thinking of hiring—”

Vicky laughed, shaking her head. “No. No. He figured they were LARPers. Crazy people. But he did show me that these people think Rick is a werewolf and they have been shooting at him. Is that really true?”

Blinking, thinking, Selena slowly nodded. “Yes. It… it is true.”

Vicky’s jaw dropped. How insane was that?

“Did Vincent say anything else about this?” Selena watched her with concern.

But Vicky merely shrugged. “Nope. Only that he got this information from Audry.”

Selena sighed. She gazed across the room, not so much at anything, but just thinking.

“You know,” Vicky added, as another thought occurred to her, “my cousin—Doug’s daughter, Maris—wants to swim like you. I overheard her saying something about it at the beach house. She said you can hold your breath super long. She thinks you’re a real mermaid.”

Selena turned her eyes toward Vicky again, those sea-colored irises wide on her, her face nearly ash colored. She nodded to herself. “The funny things kids say…. She must have been watching us for a long time from that sand dune, wasn’t she?”

With another shrug, Vicky then looked to the front entrance. She had heard the name