Wolf at the Door Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Twenty-eight

  Twenty-nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-one

  Thirty-two

  Thirty-three

  Thirty-four

  Thirty-five

  Thirty-six

  Thirty-seven

  Thirty-eight

  Thirty-nine

  Forty

  Forty-one

  Forty-two

  Forty-three

  Forty-four

  Forty-five

  Forty-six

  Forty-seven

  Forty-eight

  Forty-nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-one

  Epilogue

  Titles by MaryJanice Davidson

  PRAISE FOR

  Derik’s Bane

  AND FOR MARYJANICE DAVIDSON’S WYNDHAM WEREWOLF TALES

  “Werewolves and romance, who could ask for more . . . The passion in this story is intense.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “A wonderful story that lovers of werewolves and romance will greatly enjoy and will find flat-out funny. Readers who prefer what they read to be witty should read Derik’s Bane and other works by MaryJanice Davidson.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “This is by far the sexiest and most romantic story in this collection, and alone is worth the cover price . . . Davidson also manages to do what I thought was impossible: weave an honest-to-goodness love story in a scant fifty pages. And the sex? Wow. My Grade: A.”

  —All About Romance

  “An arousing triumph.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “MaryJanice Davidson writes wonderful dialogue and banter.”

  —Crescent Blues

  “Get set for some high-powered sex and romance that will have you howling at the moon for Mr. Gorgeous too! Ms. Davidson created a memorable story in ‘Love’s Prisoner’ that I know I won’t forget. Very creative and it sure gets your juices flowing in the right direction!”

  —Suzanne Coleburn, The Belles and Beaux of Romance

  “Four stars!”

  —Romantic Times

  “Here is a sequel that many MaryJanice Davidson fans have anticipated . . . The Wyndham werewolves ignited a spark in many hearts, and the result is this phenomenal story.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  PRAISE FOR THE BETSY TAYLOR NOVELS

  “What can you say about a vampire whose loyalty can be bought by designer shoes? Can we say, outrageous?”

  —The Best Reviews

  Undead and Unfinished

  “An entertaining . . . sassy paranormal tale.”

  —Monsters and Critics

  “Acerbic . . . Fans of the series will enjoy the latest.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  Undead and Unwelcome

  “Packs a chic coffin.”

  —The Denver Post

  “A memorable visit with the Wyndham werewolves that fans should enjoy.”

  —Darque Reviews

  “Outrageously wacky.”

  —Romantic Times

  Undead and Unworthy

  “Undead and Unworthy is one that fans don’t dare miss.”

  —Darque Reviews

  “It is a treat . . . Davidson’s keen sense of humor and fast pace make this series a delight.”

  —Monsters and Critics

  Undead and Uneasy

  “Breezy dialogue, kick-ass action, and endearing characters.”

  —Booklist

  “Be prepared to fall in love with the Undead all over again! I can’t wait for the next book!”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  Undead and Unpopular

  “Think Sex and the City—only . . . filled with demons and vampires.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “This is simply fun, no two ways about it.”

  —The Eternal Night

  Undead and Unreturnable

  “Cheerily eerie ‘vamp lit’ . . . A bawdy, laugh-out-loud treat!”

  —BookPage

  “No one does humorous romantic fantasy better than the incomparable MaryJanice Davidson.”

  —The Best Reviews

  Undead and Unappreciated

  “The best vampire chick lit of the year . . . Davidson’s prose zings from wisecrack to wisecrack.”

  —Detroit Free Press

  Undead and Unemployed

  “One of the funniest, most satisfying series to come along lately. If you’re fans of Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake, don’t miss Betsy Taylor. She rocks.”

  —The Best Reviews

  Undead and Unwed

  “Delightful, wicked fun!”

  —Christine Feehan

  “Hilarious . . . Sexy, steamy, and laugh-out-loud funny.”

  —The Best Reviews

  Titles by MaryJanice Davidson

  UNDEAD AND UNWED

  UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED

  UNDEAD AND UNAPPRECIATED

  UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE

  UNDEAD AND UNPOPULAR

  UNDEAD AND UNEASY

  UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY

  UNDEAD AND UNWELCOME

  UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED

  UNDEAD AND UNDERMINED

  DERIK’S BANE

  WOLF AT THE DOOR

  SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES

  SWIMMING WITHOUT A NET

  FISH OUT OF WATER

  Titles by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

  JENNIFER SCALES AND THE ANCIENT FURNACE

  JENNIFER SCALES AND THE MESSENGER OF LIGHT

  THE SILVER MOON ELM: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  SERAPH OF SORROW: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  RISE OF THE POISON MOON: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  EVANGELINA: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  Anthologies

  CRAVINGS

  (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Rebecca York, Eileen Wilks)

  BITE

  (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Angela Knight, Vickie Taylor)

  KICK ASS

  (with Maggie Shayne, Angela Knight, Jacey Ford)

  MEN AT WORK

  (with Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs)

  DEAD AND LOVING IT

  SURF’S UP

  (with Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs)

  MYSTERIA

  (with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

  OVER THE MOON

  (with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, Sunny)

  DEMON’S DELIGHT

  (with Emma Holly, Vickie Taylor, Catherine Spangler)

  DEAD OVER HEELS

  MYSTERIA LANE

  (with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

  MYSTERIA NIGHTS

  (includes Mysteria and Mysteria Lane, with P. C. Cast,

  Susan Grant, Gena Showalter)

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

>   Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

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  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2011 by MaryJanice Davidson.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition / October 2011

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Davidson, MaryJanice.

  Wolf at the door / MaryJanice Davidson.—Berkley Sensation trade paperback ed. p. cm.

  ISBN : 978-1-101-55039-7

  1. Werewolves—Fiction. 2. Vampires—Fiction. 3. St. Paul (Minn.)—Fiction. I. Title. PS3604.A949W65 2011

  813’.6—dc23

  2011026406

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  For the readers who have been asking

  for this since Derik’s Bane.

  All right, enough already!

  Seriously: thank you. Without you I might not ever

  have gotten a chance to write this,

  and what a dreadful thing for the Wyndhams,

  trapped inside my head!

  No one should have to live in my head.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks as always to the hardest-working people I know: my agent, Ethan Ellenberg; my editor, Cindy Hwang; and my assistant, Tracy Fritze. I deserve none of them. And yet, they’re trapped with me, endlessly, endlessly trapped. They must have done something dreadful in past lives. Lucky for me!

  Also to my family, who never get bored with boring other people about the awesomeness that is me.

  My husband, for cheerfully tolerating the awesomeness that is me.

  My children, for resisting their genetic proclivities.

  My readers who, incomprehensibly, keep reading.

  Thanks, y’all!

  —MARY JANICE DAVIDSON

  I keep the wolf from the door

  But he calls me up

  Calls me on the phone

  Tells me all the ways that he’s going to mess me up.

  —A WOLF AT THE DOOR, RADIOHEAD

  I’ve got my dead stepmother working for the devil, I’ve got the devil, I’ve got my sister (the Antichrist), a half brother who’s teething like a moray eel, I turn completely evil in the future, my friend won’t stay dead, and my husband has been withholding sex since he found out I kill him once the magic’s gone. I don’t have time for werewolves. Besides, they’re fine. They’re hanging on the Cape, they’re doing werewolf stuff.

  —BETSY, QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES

  Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody.

  —THE SANDMAN, NEIL GAIMAN

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This book takes place after the events of Undead and Undermined. Probably. Betsy’s pretty sure. “Look, shit’s going down, all right? What am I, a walking, talking table of contents? I’ve gotta raise the dead and maybe shoot my sister between her baby blues. Stuff’s happening, okay?”

  For Michael Wyndham’s backstory, see Secrets, vol. 6, “Love’s Prisoner,” and Secrets, vol. 8, “Jared’s Wolf.”

  For Derik’s backstory, see Derik’s Bane.

  For Boo Miller and Eddie Batley’s backstories, see “The Incredible Misadventures of Boo and the Boy Blunder,” from Kick Ass.

  Also, the yuck-o jobs Eddie mulls over came from “Ten of the World’s Worst Jobs,” www.oddee.com/item_96873.aspx. Talk about small blessings.

  Prologue

  The werewolves were holding hands. They did not share kinship by blood or bond; their relationship was more like a protective secretary looking out for her clueless boss. Her extremely clueless boss.

  The female leaned over and spoke softly in his ear. She wasn’t trying to be secretive. The werewolves across the table could hear every word. “We’ve been through this before.”

  His nostrils flared. “You have.”

  “And I’m still here.”

  He seemed to take courage from that, from her neat designer suit, her unmarked face, her unchewed ears and dark eyes. “You’re still here. And so am I.” He glared across the table and she caught an unpleasant whiff . . . a cactus catching fire, maybe. Strong and sharp, enough to make the eyes water.

  “Remember the rules,” she reminded him. Her hand was beneath the table, so the other werewolves couldn’t see her nails digging into him.

  He swallowed a gasp and nodded. The rules. Right. Show no fear. Ideally, feel no fear. If you do, don’t show it. If you absolutely can’t help showing it, make the fear about something else. Anything else.

  “Ow, my suit!” he yelped, and showily yanked her hand away from his lap. “My wife’ll kill me.”

  “Nah,” one of the wolves across the table said. “She won’t.”

  “Be worth it, though,” his partner said, leering at her blunt, small hand and unpolished fingernails. Rachael resisted the urge to make an obscene gesture or put one of his eyes out with her thumb.

  “Won’t be anything left to kill, anyways,” his partner added, and they wee-hawed together like two of the three little pigs. Wee, wee, weeeee-haw!

  “Quit that. Anyways is wrong, just like towards is wrong.” Oh, boy, she hated towards. More than plague, she hated towards. “Don’t get me started. Now if you two are through chortling,” Rachael snapped, “maybe we could get some work done?”

  The werewolves, a little taken aback by the feisty tone, had a quick huddle at their end of the table (“She’s so little!” “Chortling? Who says chortling?”). Then they manned up (“Shouldn’t it be wolfmanned up?” “Why are you asking me these things? What’s wrong with you?”) and slammed down several thick folders bristling with Post-it flags. The least jarring color was a queasy pale green.

  The burning cactus smell intensified, and her client slapped his hand on the table, hard; the crack! got everyone’s attention. “You need to understand . . . this is vital. You understand me, boys? I’m talking life or death here. Critical shit.” Their ears pricked forward. “Our records are one hundred . . . percent . . . accurate.”

  “Balls.”

  “What he said. This audit’s been coming a long time,” the older werewolf said, jabbing his thumbs at (weirdly) himself. “You’ve had years to get your shit together, years of half-assing it, but now time’s up. Now you gotta fight or flight.” He smiled. “And everyone in the room knows you’re not so good at the fight part.”

  As one of the people in the room who knew that, Rachael said nothing. Her clien
t spoke instead. “I’m ready. We’re prepped; we can go anytime.”

  “Oh-umm?” The younger werewolf paused, and Rachael smiled at the sight of him sifting scents and trying to match them to the wrong sounds. “You are? I mean, you can?”

  “Sure.” It was amazing, she thought, how someone could smell so utterly different from one second to the next. The smallest boost to his confidence, and burnt cactus changed to orange bubblegum! “I just thought . . . I mean, I thought Michael . . .”

  At the name of the Pack’s leader, all four werewolves eyeballed each other while pretending they weren’t. Rachael Velvela was in the room because she was Michael Wyndham’s cousin.

  That was bad news for Tom Fritzi of Fritzi’s Fried Funnel Cakes (FunCakes™), who had been audited with a vengeance yet at first had no idea who she was. He’d hired her because he thought her last name was Velveeta and was so fond of fake cheese he kept her on after he realized the mistake.