Wild Engagement_A Dark Pines Pride Bonus Story

by Liza Street

  “What?” Nick called. “These are nice pants.”

  They smelled good, too, despite coming from the woman’s gym duffel.

  Once inside his room, he left the pants on and lay back on the too-soft mattress and stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow he’d resume his search for Hayley. She lived here, he just knew it. And when he found her, he’d be able to solve the much larger problem chasing him from Wisconsin.

  Chapter Three

  Becca rolled over in bed, satisfied after a long round of lovemaking...with herself. She’d gotten quite good at it over the past three years, since Grant had died. There’d been guys she met and dated, but nobody she was quite willing to let into her home or her heart. So now, she knew exactly how to get herself off, whether she wanted a long, leisurely session including more than one toy, or a quick, single vibrator tension-reliever before falling asleep after a long day spent as a prosecuting attorney.

  She looked at her bedside clock. It was only seven a.m. and she had a long day of nothing ahead of her.

  “Two weeks of this?” she muttered, looking around the empty room.

  Figuring she could skip the gym after the “workout” she’d given herself, she showered, got dressed in a pair of comfy jeans and a sweater, and walked downstairs.

  Coffee, a couple of eggs, and the newspaper she had delivered on principle, more than any desire to actually read it. Today, though, she read nearly every page. By the end, she knew why she hated the newspaper. The world was freaking depressing.

  It was Saturday, and she usually cleaned the house on Saturdays. She washed and put away her dishes, then went to tackle the table in her entryway, where she dumped mail after work each day. She shuffled through the stack, separating out bills from junk mail and catalogs.

  One piece of mail didn’t fit into any of those piles. Her name and address had been hand-written, and the return address was here in Huntwood. Intrigued, she opened the envelope.

  The card inside had been decorated with pink and blue balloons, and the text made her laugh.

  Come to Hayley and Marius’s Motherfuckin’ Baby Shower!

  Becca hadn’t spent a ton of time with Hayley, but one didn’t need more than three minutes to be exposed to Hayley’s creative potty mouth. Still snickering, Becca opened up the card to read the details.

  Next Saturday. It would mean spending more time with Summer and her new besties, but Becca would have to be a special kind of asshole to lie and say she couldn’t make it.

  Still, she’d be a third wheel, or rather, a seventh wheel, coming without a date. Those six never invited other friends; that was a special hell reserved only for Becca. If it had been Summer’s party, maybe Summer’s friend, Luke, would have been invited, or Summer’s coworkers. But this was Hayley, and her circle of friends pretty much ended with Summer and Eleanor and their significant others.

  She looked at the details again. The party was going to be at The A-Hole, of all places, and in the evening. She wished she could come up with a date to bring along, so that when everyone else got all wrapped up in each other, she’d have someone to at least exchange commiserating looks with. Her mind immediately went back to the man she’d picked up on the side of the road yesterday. He was certainly yummy.

  Yeah, she was definitely desperate if she was thinking about going out with naked strays.

  Before she could second-guess herself, she grabbed her phone from the charging station. It had been in her purse all along last night, but in her panic after hitting that guy, she hadn’t been able to find it. She sent Hayley a text informing her she would be at the party. Then she found a baby site online and ordered several picture books along with a blanket advertised as “the softest blanket in the world.” She opted for the two-day shipping and boom. There was no going back now.

  While she cleaned the downstairs bathroom, Becca thought about babies, and marriage. None of that was in her future. After Summer had gotten engaged, she’d asked Becca whether she ever thought she’d get married again.

  “Nope,” Becca had said with a burst of laughter. “Once was plenty for me. I loved Grant and I’m sure I could love again, but I don’t need all the trappings of marriage.”

  “What about kids, though?” Summer asked.

  Becca shook her head. “You know, I would’ve started a family with Grant, but now I’m just not interested. I know it sounds callous, but I just don’t like being around children that much.”

  “It doesn’t sound callous,” Summer said. “It just sounds like you. Practical.”

  And the conversation had ended, much to Becca’s relief. Because it had stung, a little. Becca wasn’t ready to admit it to herself, but she wouldn’t have minded another chance, someday. Maybe babies weren’t in her future, but another chance at love, to recreate something like what she’d had with Grant. Not the same thing, because it could never be the same. No one could replace Grant.

  But the chance to share her days and nights with someone she loved?

  She was kidding herself if she thought she didn’t want the chance for that.

  Chapter Four

  When Nick woke up the next morning, his shoulder was good as new. That didn’t stop him from thinking about the woman who’d hit him with her car. Her straight blond hair and those mesmerizing eyes, not quite blue, not quite green. The swell of her breasts, barely visible beneath the silk shirt and blazer she’d been wearing. He shook the mental image away. Mystery vehicular assault woman was not the reason he was in Huntwood. He was here for one woman, and one woman only. Hayley Jaynes.

  Nick knew she had to be here, somewhere, in Huntwood. She’d mentioned it that night three years ago. “Where’s home?” he’d asked, stroking her thigh after they’d made love.

  “Huntwood,” she’d said. “It’s a tiny town in Washington. But I can’t ever go back.”

  He’d turned her over and stared into her eyes. “I believe that you will, someday.”

  Of course, he hadn’t anticipated her disappearing the next morning without giving him her phone number. Remembering his disappointment made him scowl, so he got up fast to shower and get back to searching the town for his long-lost mate.

  STANDING INSIDE A FUNNY, old-school looking diner, Nick heard her laugh before he smelled her. Hayley. Her laugh was like her voice, low and throaty. Sexy without any effort at all.

  He rushed forward, feeling like something wasn’t quite right. He tried to remember the lines he’d written about her, but instead of her pale blue eyes, all he could picture were the sea-green eyes of that strange woman who’d made him ride in her trunk.

  Hilarious, he thought, making him squeeze into the trunk. But he hadn’t blamed her. He’d been a naked stranger on a dark road. She’d wanted to help him, but not at any risk, and really, the trunk had been a pretty ingenious solution.

  He stopped midstride. What was he doing in this diner? Oh, right. Hayley.

  She laughed again. He couldn’t see her companion, but he wasn’t worried. Obviously, Nick and Hayley were fated mates, so even if she was on a casual date with some other guy, she’d be ending it as soon as she saw that Nick was here.

  He wondered if her heart had been aching as much as his since their night together back in Wisconsin. Obviously, he wouldn’t have wanted her to feel the same painful yearning he had suffered, but he hoped it had at least affected her, and that she’d yearned for him in her own way.

  As he approached her table, he saw that she was, indeed, with another guy. Her back was to Nick, so Nick had a better view of the guy than he had of Hayley. The guy had dark hair, dark eyes. Nick flared his nostrils. It wasn’t one of her brothers—this guy was a bear, not a mountain lion.

  Okay, he thought to himself. This could get awkward, but not a big deal. A woman as attractive as Hayley was bound to have unwanted guys sniffing around her. As Nick sniffed to get a sense of the guy, his nostrils also filled with Hayley’s scent.

  She smelled just as great as before. It was a sweeter scent than the
woman in the car—the woman in the car had smelled more like sandalwood.

  Bear Man stiffened and his face went blank as Nick approached.

  Hayley’s laughter abruptly stopped. “What’s wrong?”

  Bear Man stood up...and up...and up. Nick gulped. What the hell? Why was she dating Goliath?

  “What do you want, wolf?” the man asked in a low voice.

  Hayley spun in her seat. Nick drank in the beauty of her face, which was a little fuller than it had been the last time he’d seen her. He watched as her expression transformed from the initial wariness, to confusion, and then, too slow for Nick’s liking, to recognition.

  “Hi, Hayley,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  “Oh...I know you,” she said slowly. “Hang on, Marius, don’t get your claws out yet. I know this guy.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said, nodding.

  “I thought so.” She smiled briefly. “Marius, this is...shitknockers, I’m sorry.”

  She didn’t remember his name? All the air went out of Nick’s lungs.

  “Nick,” he said. “Nick Gaines.”

  “Right, Nick,” Hayley agreed.

  As if he needed fucking confirmation on his own name.

  Bear Man, Marius, stared him down.

  “Nick and I...” Hayley stopped, looking from Nick and back to Marius. “Nick and I had sex in...where was it? Idaho?”

  “Wisconsin,” Nick said in a strangled voice. “My apartment in Joynston, Wisconsin.”

  Bear Man, Marius, whatever, held out a giant paw. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you,” he said, “but this is fucking weird.”

  Nick didn’t need to ask why it was weird, because just then, Hayley slid out of the booth. As she turned, her belly preceded her.

  Hayley, Nick’s mate, was pregnant.

  And he might have been mistaken, but the small scar peeking from the side of her collar looked a lot like a mate mark.

  “Holy shit,” he said.

  “Have lunch with us,” Hayley said. “We can catch up.”

  Marius gave her an incredulous look, and Nick had to hold back a laugh.

  “Nah, uh, that’s okay,” Nick said. As hilarious as Marius’s face was, Nick felt like his heart was being ripped out and stomped on and the blood and sinew were spattering all over the black and white fifties style floor of the diner. How had he been so completely wrong about Hayley being his mate? This was so fucked up. So, so fucked up. “I should get going, actually...”

  Hayley grabbed his arm. “Stay for lunch,” she said. “Please.”

  He looked at where she touched him. The zing of attraction he’d felt with her before wasn’t there anymore.

  He’d come all this way and searched for so long, only to learn that the spell had been broken.

  His first instinct was to turn around and walk right back out of that cafe and right back out of town. But then he remembered what was waiting for him in Wisconsin. So when Hayley sat back down, he let her pull him down into the booth next to her.

  And if the giant bear’s sour look was anything, it sure as hell was amusing. That right there was reason enough to hang around.

  He thought again about the problem he’d run from. “I’d like to stay a couple weeks,” he said to Hayley. “With your pride’s permission, of course.”

  He hoped Marius wasn’t the guy in charge.

  “We’ll ask Will,” she said. “My oldest brother, the alpha. I’m sure he’ll let you stay.”

  BY THE END OF THE WEEK, Nick had found a place to stay and he had work painting the new houses built for the Dark Pines Pride. Three houses, all situated on expansive property bordering a pretty mountain lake. He could understand why Hayley had been so homesick when she’d hooked up with Nick back in Wisconsin. Already he was getting attached to this territory, and he didn’t even belong here.

  And yet the Jaynes siblings and their mates (other than Marius) seemed more than fine with him lingering on their territory. “We know what it’s like to wander for too long,” Will had said, shaking Nick’s hand. “As long as you don’t make any trouble”—at that, his gaze flicked to Hayley and Marius before returning to Nick—“you’re welcome to stick around for a while.”

  Nick had promised not to make trouble. The spell had truly been broken between him and Hayley, if there had even been a spell to begin with. Sure, she was pretty and funny, but he didn’t feel that magical pull to her anymore. And obviously the only magical pull she felt was to that giant goon, Marius.

  As the week went by, he found himself included in family dinners and pride runs. And he had to admit, it was pretty fucking cool.

  Even though his time here had to be short, he was going to make the most of it.

  Chapter Five

  On Saturday, Becca could think of at least seven things that she’d rather do than go to Hayley’s baby shower. While she got dressed in the skinny jeans and long gray sweater she’d wear, she listed them in her head.

  One: clean the downstairs bathroom again, even though nobody had been over to use it.

  Two: curse her way through trying to bake macarons.

  Three: beg Amanda to let her go back to work a week early.

  Four: get a bikini wax even though she’d just had one last week.

  Five: read Moby Dick from start to finish.

  Six: hide underneath her bed and eat botched macarons.

  Seven: drive to the mall in Tacoma and try on bathing suits.

  She looked at herself in the mirror and shook her head. She was being childish. If they really didn’t want her at the baby shower, they wouldn’t have invited her. And by keeping herself away from them, for instance, by missing the Licorice Fiddles Christmas show last December, she was only hurting her own chances of keeping her friendship with Summer.

  The thing was, she loathed dishonesty. And something wasn’t quite right with Summer, ever since she’d started dating Jackson. Becca didn’t think Jackson was abusive or anything like that. It was more that Summer had become more secretive. She wasn’t telling Becca everything like she used to. And that hurt.

  Tonight wasn’t about Becca and Summer, though. It was about the little baby who’d soon be coming into this world. Becca resolved to focus on the baby. The books and blanket she had ordered were all set to go—she’d wrapped them in beautiful paper decorated with ducklings and added a card that said, “Welcome, little one—I can’t wait to meet you. With all my love, Becca.”

  She found a parking spot close to The A-Hole and went inside, the packages under her arm. It wasn’t hard to find her friends—they’d parked at their usual table in the far corner and they were laughing and talking, like usual. One big happy family.

  Sighing, she made her way toward them. Summer turned and saw Becca. She stood up. “Hey, girl!”

  “Hey yourself.” Becca’s smile was real. She’d genuinely been missing Summer. She turned to greet everyone else, her gaze lingering on Hayley. “You look great, mama.”

  “Thanks,” Hayley said.

  Becca waved at Eleanor and the guys, then set the gifts down in the middle of the table with the others. “Looks like this baby’s getting quite the haul,” she said with a laugh. The presents were stacked on the table to the point where it would be hard to see across, and there were more gifts waiting in the corner behind the table.

  “Good thing we brought my truck,” Marius said, sounding amused. “Although I might have to leave Hayley here so I can get all the gifts home.”

  Hayley swatted him.

  “Hang on, one more coming in,” a deep voice said from behind Becca.

  She turned around and nearly bumped into him.

  Hot Naked Crazy Guy, the one she’d picked up on the highway, was standing very close to her—so close she could see the dark chocolate brown of his eyes and smell the faint trace of spicy cologne he wore. She wondered what that cologne was called, but had a feeling it might have “panty-melting” in the name somewhere. He’d looked good all roughed up on
the highway without any clothes on. But he looked even better up close where she could touch and smell him.

  “You,” Becca said. “You know these people?”

  “Oh, do you know Nick?” Hayley asked, her voice intrigued.

  “Not really,” Becca said, suddenly breathless. She tried to take a step back, but she was pinned between him and the edge of the table.

  Smirking, he reached around her to drop a gift on the pile. Then he faced her directly. Holding out a hand, he said, “Hi, I’m Nick Gaines.”

  “Becca Van Housen.”

  When her hand touched his, the contact zinged through her body. What the hell was this? She was an adult and she was perfectly capable of shaking hands with a handsome man without getting all flustered. But her face felt too hot and her mouth dry and her stomach loopy and her nipples, well, they apparently had minds of their own because she could feel them stiffening against the lace of her bra.

  “I’m gonna grab something to drink,” she said loudly and abruptly. “Go ahead with the gifts, Hayley; I’ll be right back.”

  She sidestepped Nick and rushed to the bar. Ross, the bartender, came over to her right away, despite the busyness of The A-Hole. Becca always tipped him really well.

  “What can I get you?” he asked.

  “Something strong,” she said, before she remembered she was driving and she didn’t want to stay long. “Wait, no. I have to drive. A mojito, please, and don’t make it too strong.”

  “You got it.”

  As Ross stepped away, Becca felt Nick at her side. She didn’t know how she knew it was him, because she was very carefully not looking in his direction. It was more like her body was aware of him more than any part of her brain.