by E A Price
Ariel hadn’t intended to invite Teena, but, well, Teena kind of high-jacked the lunch and so not only was she there, but the three of them were at Teena’s favorite restaurant – Monster Burger. Truthfully, Ariel was glad of the buffer.
Ariel was friendly with all the females in the herd, but truly friends with only a few. Some made fun of her. Some resented everything she did. Some were jealous of her – either because of everything she did, or the fact that she was part of the alpha family. But some of them, like Teena and her sisters, were happy and laid back enough just to accept Ariel as she was. She just wasn’t sure where Carrie landed, and that made her a little uneasy.
Burke returned with milkshakes – that Teena insisted they order – and a lascivious look for Teena.
“Umm,” started Ariel, “would you mind…”
“It’s a girl-talk lunch,” interrupted Teena, “go sit over there.”
She nodded to a table in the corner, and Burke nodded and smirked.
“Thank you, Burke,” murmured Ariel.
Mikey spit up a little, and Ariel smiled as Carrie wiped his chin. Carrie caught her look and relaxed a little. “Thank you for the sweater,” she said, “I love it.” Mikey was wearing it and rocking it.
“I’m so glad; I already started on a new one with lambs on it.”
“Not going with my suggestion of skull and crossbones then, huh?” quipped Teena. “You’re never too young to start being a rebel, ain’t that right, little man?” The question was directed directly to Mikey, who jutted his chin in answer.
Carrie sighed. “I don’t know how you find the time. I barely seem to do anything, and I’m always tired.”
“But you have a baby,” said Ariel.
“Yeah, ten minutes of fun and a lifetime of exhaustion. Not that he’s not worth it,” Carrie added quickly.
“Probably not a lifetime,” mused Teena. “You’ll probably stop feeling tired when he leaves for college, and two years after that you’ll probably stop looking so haggard.”
“Gee, thanks, Teena,” deadpanned Carrie.
“Well, it’s not like you have to do this alone,” said Ariel.
Carrie narrowed her eyes. “I knew it. Mal asked you to talk to me about the father, didn’t he?”
Ariel sagged. “Yes, but that’s not what I meant.” She hadn’t been sure how to bring up that can of baby daddy worms. “I meant you have Mal, and I’m happy to help with anything you need.”
“And me – I’m an amazing babysitter,” declared Teena.
Ariel nodded, but when Teena was distracted with the menu, she quickly shook her head at Carrie, who chuckled.
“So aren’t you going to ask me about the father?”
Teena put down her menu, eager to hear where this was going.
“It’s really none of my business,” said Ariel diplomatically. “I think Mal’s just concerned about you.”
“Yeah, I know,” grumbled Carrie, “but as for the father…” She looked pained. “I don’t want to talk about him. He is not part of my baby’s life.”
Teena let out a mock sound of disgust. “Okay, if you’re not going to talk about anything juicy I’m going to get us some food – just promise me you won’t say anything interesting until I get back.”
Ariel placed her hand on her heart. “Promise.”
Teena made her way to the counter to order. Burke stopped cleaning his ear, and quickly jumped up from his table to join her in ordering, or more likely flirting.
“Wait, I didn’t tell her what I wanted,” said Carrie.
“There’s no point, she never remembers and always gets something else anyway. It’s kind of nice to get a surprise. Once when she was bringing takeout to a girls’ night, I asked her to pick up pizza and she brought me currywurst – it was delicious.”
Carrie shrugged. “You want to hold him?” she offered, holding out Mikey.
“Always.”
Ariel took him and cradled him. She loved babies, and her mushy inner reindeer agreed whole-heartedly. Maybe she wasn’t ready for one of her own yet, but she knew she wanted at least one in the future.
“I wish Mal wouldn’t worry about me so much.”
“It’s what big brothers do.”
Carrie chewed on her cheek. “But Mal’s done so much for me over the years. We had such a crappy life before we came here, and he always protected me. I just don’t want him to obsess over the whole father thing. I know me being single isn’t ideal, but I’m happy. I just don’t want him to spend so much time worrying about me that he makes himself miserable. It’s already hard enough for him that he can’t be a hunter. As much as I’d miss him, I sometimes wish they would lift the suspension so he could go back to doing what he loves.”
“Aha,” muttered Ariel as her reindeer huffed. A hugely selfish part of her never wanted the suspension to end.
Carrie lit up as an idea came to her. “Maybe you could talk to him!”
“Umm...”
“He’d listen to you.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Ariel doubtfully.
“No, no, he would, he’s always going on about how sensible you are.”
“Oh. Is he?” she muttered unenthusiastically. That was just what every female wanted to hear – that the male she adored considered her ‘sensible.’
“Yes, and that’s a huge compliment from him. He thinks the rest of the females in the herd are idiots.”
Ariel wasn’t sure whether she should be pleased about that or not. On the one hand, he didn’t seem to hold the other females in high regard, but on the other, he considered her ‘sensible.’ Which was a great trait if you were looking for someone to co-sign a boat loan, but not if you were looking for some wild passion.
She also wasn’t sure that she really wanted to be a go-between for this brother/sister discussion.
Carrie placed her hand on her arm. “Please, Ariel.”
Ariel caved. Of course, she did. She found it hard enough to say no to anyone – never mind someone who was giving her puppy-dog eyes while her baby gurgled in Ariel’s lap. “Well, I guess I could…”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Carrie clapped her hands together excitedly, and Mikey giggled. “Oh boy, that’s the most energetic thing I’ve done all week – I may need a triple hamburger to get my energy.”
“Then you’re in luck,” said Ariel as she saw the enormous tray of food Teena was carrying. “Sometimes she just orders everything off the menu too.”
“Sounds good to me.” Carrie cocked her head to one side. “We should do this every week.”
“Well, Teena’s always fun.”
“So are you,” said Carrie warmly, and in the face of the evidence. “Hey, maybe we could do a movie night?”
“Yes!” agreed Teena, jumping into the conversation as she slapped the overloaded tray onto the table. “I love movie nights – let’s do chick flicks.”
“Sure,” agreed Carrie.
“You should wait to hear what she thinks are chick flicks before you agree,” warned Ariel, who had been caught out before.
Ariel liked cute comedies, like George of the Jungle (her favorite) or The Princess Bride. Teena’s tastes were a little different. She considered Die Hard to be a romantic comedy – which could only be true in the broadest terms possible, and so broad that a bus could be driven through them.
“Let’s do it tonight,” suggested Teena, ignoring Ariel’s warning.
“Oh, I can’t tonight,” said Ariel, “but maybe tomorrow we could…”
Teena frowned. “What are you doing tonight? You haven’t agreed to dogsit Mr. Wuffles again, have you? You know you’re allergic to dogs. It was funny watching you trying to use charades to tell me your throat was closing up once, but I don’t want to see it again.”
“No, and what I was actually saying was take me to the hospital. But I’m seeing someone tonight.”
Teena’s jaw dropped. “A date? Is it a date? Are you dating someone? What’s hi
s butt like on a scale of one to ten? Burke’s at least a thirteen. Don’t you think so? Check out his butt!”
“No,” replied Ariel patiently, “it’s definitely not a date, I’m just meeting up with a friend from college, and I don’t want to look at Burke’s butt.”
Which was essentially true – about the friend part and not wanting to look at Burke’s behind. Hollis had been a friend whom she met in college. Her reindeer grunted in disapproval. She hadn’t wanted to agree to meet up, but he had called after he texted and insisted that they should get together, and well, Ariel wasn’t very good at saying no.
“Well, who is it then? And are you sure? Burke works really hard to keep it tight.”
“I’m very sure about Burke, and it’s… Hollis,” she said the name very quietly in the hope that Teena wouldn’t hear. But Teena generally only didn’t listen to things she wasn’t interested in – for things that did interest her, she had the hearing of a bat.
“Hollis!” howled Teena. “That total douche-nozzle!”
“He’s not that bad…” argued Ariel unenthusiastically.
“He’s a total douche, who does douchey things, has completely douchey friends and comes from a totally douchey herd.”
It was probably no surprise to anyone that Teena was captain of her high school debate team.
“Sounds like a douche,” murmured Carrie in amusement.
“He is!” cried Teena. “He would not take no for an answer – kept asking Ariel out over and over until he wheeled out a dying great-grandmother to blackmail Ariel into dating him. I mean, look at Ariel.” Carrie did, and Ariel frowned. “Does she look like the kind of girl who can say no to sick, old great-grandmothers? Of course, she isn’t – she’s a sucker for a grandparent or a baby.”
“Really?” Carrie gave Ariel and Mikey a calculating look. “Think you can lend me the money to buy a jet ski – it’s totally for Mikey. Imagine how cool he’d be as the only baby with a jet ski at my mommy and me group,” teased Carrie.
“That would be pretty cool,” agreed Teena thoughtfully.
“Haha, it’s just a friendly dinner, nothing more,” said Ariel mildly.
Though uneasily, she remembered what had tipped her over the edge into agreeing to go – he brought up the fact that his great-grandmother had died while he was in France, and that he was distraught. Oh boy, she really was a sucker.
“Maybe I should come too,” offered Teena.
Ariel shuddered. She did not want to be involved in another food fight between Hollis and Teena – pudding was a lot harder to get rid of than it looked.
“No, I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ll have an enforcer with me, just in case he does something crazy like bring a chronically ill great aunt with him.”
It was just dinner – how could it go wrong?
Chapter Seven
Mal rolled his eyes as Burke made some fake coughing noises down the phone line. The dick was trying to get out of watching Ariel that evening, with some highly unrealistic noises. Clearly, Teena didn’t have plans.
His inner reindeer grumbled, but, not being able to stand the wheezing noises anymore, Mal relented. “Fine,” he gritted, “but you better be okay by tomorrow.”
“Yeah, no problem,” replied Burke cheerfully, and then quickly broke out into choking sounds.
Mal hung up and rolled his eyes, considering whom he could get to replace Burke last minute. He was loath to call one of the mated enforcers away from their families, but even more loath to throw an unmated male who didn’t have evening plans in her direction. Maybe Dozer or Dex – they were both Tank’s cousins and were probably the most responsible out of the single males. Dozer could be a little shy around females, while Dex could be a little revolting. Either of them would probably do.
He rubbed his forehead. Dealing with the antics of a bunch of horny reindeer shifters drove him a little crazy. Thank frak that rutting season was finally over – the time of year when reindeer bulls could barely think of anything other than mating. Dealing with his own libido had been hard enough without trying to keep half his enforcers in line. Particularly during the fourth of July weekend when he saw Ariel in that bikini… Boy, his beast had not been easy to deal with at the time. Hoot!
But none of this needed to be his problem anymore, did it? Riker told him he could go back to hunting. The crow’s family was still pissed, making all kinds of threats and complaints to the council, but that wasn’t anything new.
After talking it over and over and over for a year, the council decided that Mal wasn’t to blame. Evans was at the end of his training; he should have known better than to let his temper get the better of him. The council decided that they needed to improve their training policy, and they planned to open a real training center. Unless the recruits could pass the drills in the center, there was no way they were getting out into the field, or near any real criminals.
Yep, so Mal could go back tomorrow… It was the news he had been hoping for, but instead of being pumped to get back to hunting he was actually a little hesitant. He could pretend that the incident with the crow gave him some doubts about himself, but honestly, that wasn’t it. He’d put down plenty of guys like him – he wasn’t worth the worry. Maybe he had just become a little complacent in his life in the herd, and the idea of taking off again just didn’t hold the same appeal. The image of Ariel in the bikini floated in front of him. Yeah, it was probably the complacency thing.
He told Riker he couldn’t just drop everything – told him he needed to give his alpha at least a few weeks notice. Riker understood; said the council would be okay with that and he should just give them a date when they could expect him back. So Mal would be leaving in a few weeks… right? His reindeer clomped his hooves uncertainly.
“I’m home,” called Carrie as she walked into the house from the garage.
Mal raised an eyebrow as she walked into the kitchen. “Forget something?”
Carrie patted her pockets and then affected a look of mock horror before giggling. “He fell asleep in the car. I’m giving him ten more minutes then I’m going to wake him.”
“Did you…”
“Yes, I locked the garage door, and the car door is open – he’ll be fine for ten minutes.”
She sounded so sure, but she couldn’t help the small glance into the garage just to reassure herself. Carrie had taken to motherhood like an elephant with giant ears to flying, but she was always cautious where her baby was concerned.
“Nice lunch?”
“Sure.” Carrie chuckled as she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “Did you know Teena can shoot milkshake through her nose?”
“Sadly, yes,” he sighed. She had shown him on more than one occasion. Teena could shoot any liquid through her nose – and regularly did. “Burke must have been thrilled.”
Carrie smirked. “Oh, he was. I’m pretty sure there is nothing so gross that he wouldn’t find it a turn on if Teena did it.”
“Ariel was with you, right?” he asked innocently, knowing full well she was. But he had this itch to always keep tabs on her.
“Yeah. Did you know she does cross-stitch for fun?”
“I did not.” Though, it wasn’t a surprise.
Carrie snorted. “She promised to make me a cushion.”
Mal’s reindeer bristled. “You don’t like Ariel?”
“Of course I like her. Not liking her would be like not liking a puppy – she’s almost unbearably sweet. She just makes me feel inadequate.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t do it on purpose,” he grumbled, a tad defensively.
“No, I’m…” Carrie stopped and frowned at him before her face took on the teasing, evil grin of a thousand little sisters everywhere. “Do you like Ariel?”
His reindeer chuffed. “I don’t know why you’d think that.”
Carrie beamed at him. The fact that he hadn’t denied it obviously hadn’t escaped her notice, and she immediately took this as affirmation. “How have I not see
n this before? I should have guessed something was afoot when you called her sensible! Did you know her mom invited us over for Thanksgiving? Shall we go? Do you want to sit next to Ariel and give thanks for her sexy sensibleness?”
Mal bore her teasing with the grimace of a thousand older brothers everywhere, and he decided it was time for a change of subject.
“You know I actually have work to do…”
“Oh, did Burke already cancel?” Mal looked at her in surprise. “Yeah, Ariel said he was supposed to be watching her tonight, but Teena asked him if he wouldn’t mind letting her practice dying his hair for beauty school and he jumped at the chance. Did he already call in sick?”
“Yes,” he grunted - not the first time for Burke. Mal kept telling himself it wasn’t Burke’s fault that he was young and stupid.
“If it’s any consolation he’ll probably have pink hair after Teena’s through with him.”
Mal considered it might help his mood a little. He grabbed his phone and searched his contacts for Dozer.
They both looked up at the fussing sounds from the garage.
“Oh, sounds like Mikey’s already awake,” said Carrie as moved towards the door. “Maybe when you’re looking for Burke’s replacement you should choose someone intimidating.”
“Why?” murmured Mal, absently.
“Ariel’s going to dinner with this guy from college, and according to Teena, he’s a total douche who pressured Ariel into dating him. Sounds like she could use all the help she can get.”
His reindeer hooted, and Mal’s whole body tightened. Yes, it certainly sounded like she could use some help.
Chapter Eight
“What are you doing here?” squeaked Ariel as she found Mal on her doorstep.
His arms were folded over his massive chest, and he looked downright fierce as he glared at the world in general. It immediately sent warm darts of arousal coursing through her body. Her reindeer let out a coo of delight. How could one scowl make her so hot? It was so unfair.
“Burke can’t make it.”
“Oh, ah, really?” she said as if it was a complete surprise to her.
