Two Scents' Worth: A Wolf Rampant spinoff serial (Bloodling Serial Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

that my friend must have looked up the nickname we used for Chase's mother—Tia—and drawn his own conclusions about our relationship. As his rant continued, I learned that apparently we were Mexican immigrants struggling to find a place in this new nation of opportunity. I'd been kicked out of my nuclear family due to my sexual orientation, and as a result felt I owed it to my new clan to make their lives easier as they struggled to make ends meet. Unfortunately, my past made it difficult for me to find a job despite more than deserving this very opportunity.
    In other words, I was the golden boy Victor had previously pretended to be. I looked up, expecting a glowing halo to materialize above my head.
    Nope, not there. And, from the uncertain expression on his face, Mr. Pendleton didn't fully buy Victor's fairy tale either.
     
     

Chapter 7
    "You talk a good talk," the bank manager said when my friend's words of praise finally wound down. "But I judge a man's worth by the whites of his eyes"—whatever that meant—"and by a firm handshake. So, let's have it, Mr. Young. It's time to see what you've got."
    A handshake was going to decide my pack's future? Seriously? But as I took in the set of the bank manager's shoulders, I finally got it. Bob was the human equivalent of a bloodling. He had the capacity to understand the depth of a human's character at a glance, and what he'd been seeing in me was a confusing mish-mash of wolf and man. No wonder the older man had blown me off yesterday and hoped to never cross paths with my ilk again.
    A smarter werewolf would have chained down his lupine nature and allowed the bank manager to peer into eyes that rang of nothing but humanity. But Mr. Pendleton had requested honesty, and the unvarnished truth was that I was more wolf than man.
    Which didn't mean I was going to shed clothes and go four-legged here in the hotel lobby, of course. But my own gut told me this wasn't the time to try to hide my lupine nature behind feigned humanity.
    So I relaxed the blinders I'd been carefully holding around my wolf ever since setting foot in this hotel. I let my ears pick up the sound of a vacuum roaring to life two floors above and an annoyed dishwashing assistant griping about his girlfriend a hundred feet west. I let the chemical aroma of new carpet wrinkle my nose and felt the eddies of air currents brushing my cheeks as a revolving door changed the interior pressure with a near-audible pop.
    Then I gazed at the bank manager with my full self on alert. The human possessed no inner wolf, of course, but my lupine gaze made his spine seem straighter than it had previously, his gray hair more like a white crown of wisdom than a weakness of old age. By shifter standards, Mr. Pendleton was mere meat, but I understood now that he was a man to look up to, a man to learn from. Not a man to vanquish via trickery.
    The manager nodded once, and I reached forward to accept his proffered hand. My nostrils flared, taking in the scent of leather seats and bleached office paper. In his purest essence, I now realized, Mr. Pendleton was the bank. Which is why my late-night hack had backfired. Rather than simply proving my prowess as originally intended, the act had violated the man I'd intended to impress.
    In other words, I owed him an apology.
    "Sorry about the neon letters, Mr. Pendleton," I offered quietly. "Give me five minutes and I can put everything back the way it was."
    We stood poised for an eternity...or perhaps for five long seconds. In wolf brain, it was hard to tell the difference.
    Then, the bank manager squeezed my fingers with a strength that would have made a human wince. I considered pretending pain, but instead squeezed back with just one iota less pressure—a peace offering.
    "The removal can be your first billable hour," Mr. Pendleton agreed. Then, as he withdrew his hand and turned to go, he called back over his shoulder, "And you can call me Bob."
     
    ***
     
    "So we're