by Amelia Jade
“Whoa!” he shouted, holding his hands up in the air. “Sandy, relax. I’m not here to start trouble.”
“That would be a first,” she retorted hotly.
“There has to be a first time for everything, doesn’t there?”
She frowned at the gentle tone of his voice. What the hell was going on here? This wasn’t the usual Rusty that she knew. “I suppose with you I’m hard-pressed to believe it.”
“I promise, I’m here in peace.”
Strangely enough, she believed him. Even Champ relaxed a little, though he certainly didn’t move from his perch on the top of the stairs, nor did he stop staring at Rusty.
“Why exactly are you here?”
“I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
She snorted. “That’s an understatement. You came at me like a battering ram from the first day I moved out here, trying to get me to sell the property to you. Oh, and let’s not forget those goons you sent over here to try and do who-knows-what to me.”
Rusty nodded. “That’s actually why I’m here. You see, I didn’t authorize that little expedition. They came all on their own, and I only recently found out about it. I’ve, ah, dealt with the problem, and they won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“Right.” She lifted her eyebrows in disbelief. It sounded to her like he’d had them killed. He probably just meant fired though, and was trying to make it seem like he’d done so with gusto in an attempt to worm his way into her good books.
“I owe you an apology.”
The lifted eyebrows took off into the stratosphere when he said that. “I’m sorry, one moment.” She pretended to clean her ear out with her pinky. “Say that again?”
“I said I’m sorry, Sandy. And in the spirit of mending fences and making apologies, I would like to invite you to come over.”
She stared at him, unable to make words work. He what? How the? In the? Huh? Did he just? Shaking her head, she brought her stunned brain back under control. “You want to what?”
“We’re having a get-together tonight at the ranch. I thought that maybe you would come by, say hello, and that we could try and get along.”
“What happened to the desperate need to buy my farm for some reason that I never really found out?”
To her surprise, Rusty laughed. “I’ve learned that you have a bit of a stubborn streak in you. A hell of one, actually. That’s something I’ve come to admire.”
Was he flirting with her? Now Sandy had seen everything. Still, she wasn’t picking up anything sneaky or malicious in his invite. He genuinely seemed to want her to come to his shindig. That was weird, but after three years of fighting with him, she would love to be able to mend the fences and not live in fear of encountering him everywhere she went. While she doubted that they would never be friends, maybe they could at least not be enemies.
Neutrality would be swell. She was tired of the fighting, of the constant bully-like offers to buy her property and his constant guilt trips and insults. If he really was keen on turning the other cheek, she knew she had to try.
Still, Sandy wasn’t an idiot.
“This is genuine?” she pressed. “Not some trick?”
“Genuine. We are having a party, and I would really like it if you came.”
He really did seem like he was on the up-and-up. How weird.
“You know what, fuck it. Okay, I’ll be there. What time?”
“Anytime after sundown. Look for the bonfire.”
She nodded, setting the shotgun down but making no approach. Simply putting the weapon away was the biggest concession she was willing to make. “All right. After sundown at the bonfire it is.”
Rusty smiled, bounced a hand off his truck and nodded. “Awesome. Again, I know it won’t be easy, but I don’t want us to be enemies.”
She smiled. “I never did in the first place.”
He took that in stride. “We all have to learn sometime.”
Then just like that, he got back in his truck and headed back up the drive. Sandy watched him go, trying to understand just what the hell had happened.
Footsteps sounded on the porch behind her. “Who was that?”
She turned to see Palin come up the rear set of steps that led toward the barn. “That was Rusty,” she said, still somewhat dazed.
“What the hell did he want?” Palin stepped forward angrily, but she put up a hand to his chest, stopping him from passing her.
“Believe it or not, he came to apologize and to invite me to a party tonight at his place, in an attempt to mend fences between us.”
Palin’s eyebrows lifted. “You don’t believe him, do you?”
“I…” she frowned. “I shouldn’t, but dammit if it wasn’t the strangest thing. He seemed genuine, Palin. There was no trace of anything untoward in his voice, his language, nothing.”
“What about his eyes?”
“His eyes?”
“The eyes never lie, even when the body does.”
“It’s sunny out, Palin. He was wearing sunglasses.”
The big man growled. “I don’t buy it.”
“I’m not completely sure I do either. But if he is serious, Palin, I have to take that chance. I can’t keep fighting with him. I need there to be peace between us.”
“Peace? Do you call what his workers did to your house peace? If I hadn’t been here, Sandy—”
“But you were here,” she interrupted. “And those workers weren’t here under his authorization. He said he found out about it, and that’s why he stopped by. To apologize. He said he dealt with the workers. We won’t be seeing them again.”
Palin snorted. “Still, if I weren’t here...”
“We could go around in circles. You were here, you saved the day, you hero. But that’s where we get to have some fun.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re going to be at the party too.”
Palin shook his head. “Nooooo way. We are not going to that party, Sandy.”
“Yes, we are. If he’s serious, I’m not going to spit on the olive branch that he’s extending to me. I’m tired, Palin. Tired of always having to deal with him, of him slandering me to others, of him making fun of me in public at the markets or other places. I need it to end. So that’s why I’m going.” She shrugged. “And if he’s planning something, well, I’ll have a big bad dragon with me to deal with any, shall we say, unruliness.”
“I don’t like it,” he pouted.
She rolled her eyes. “I know you don’t. But I’m not going in blind. You aren’t afraid of some pesky farmers, are you?”
Palin jerked back. “Of course not.”
“Good, I didn’t think so.” Sandy exhaled heavily. “It’s a chance I have to take though, Palin. You understand that at least, don’t you?”
“Not really. I could deal with him just as easily as he dealt with his employees. Nobody would ever know.”
“I will not condone murder,” she snapped.
“One can dream. It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it.”
“Enough already. I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation. I am not a criminal, and neither are you. Now let’s go get naked and shower together. Perhaps I can find a way to get rid of this grumpiness in you.” She stalked toward the house, crooking a finger behind her.
Palin sighed, but she heard his heavy footsteps following her.
Good boy.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Palin
He hadn’t liked it then, and he liked it even less now.
Something was off about the party at Rusty’s, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. The sun was long gone from the sky, and night was out in full force. That didn’t affect his vision at all; he could easily see into the deepest of shadows with only a pinprick of light, and even without that he could use thermal imaging to detect anyone out there.
It was the atmosphere of the party that bothered him. It wasn’t what he expected, though it had been a long time since he
’d gone to a bush party. When he’d been told it was a party, he’d expected music, partygoers, and general drunken revelry. The eerie silence was…unexpected. Just what the hell kind of party was this?
He’d yet to see any signs of the bonfire, but they parked near the other cars and headed toward the only source of noise they heard, which was located somewhere out behind the barn. His grip tightened on Sandy as they walked farther into Rusty’s little compound.
There were numerous buildings. A handful of grain silos and some sort of square work shed were off to the right when they entered. A massive sprawling ranch house occupied the entire middle, and to the left were no less than three barns, the largest of which could have swallowed three or four of Sandy’s without issue, and hers was bigger than either of the other two Rusty had. The thing was a monstrosity. He wondered what it housed.
“Can we leave now?”
“No,” she hissed. “We’re here to be nice neighbors.”
“I don’t want to be a nice neighbor,” he stated. “I want to punch his face in.”
Sandy rolled her eyes, probably thinking he wouldn’t notice.
“I can see in the dark you know.”
“I’m aware.”
Oh. Maybe she had wanted him to see, so that he could know how frustrated she was.
“I’m sorry, I just don’t feel comfortable bringing you onto his property.”
Sandy paused in her stride, looking at him carefully. “You’re serious. This isn’t just some more complaining, is it.”
He shook his head. “No. Something feels…off. I’m not sure I can explain it.”
“In a bad way?”
Palin frowned. “I’m not sure yet, though I’ll let you know. Right now it’s more of an unknown. There’s something weird here, but I don’t know what it is yet.”
“Are we safe?”
“With me you’re always safe,” he promised, giving her hand a squeeze. “But that doesn’t mean you’re always going to avoid trouble with ease. Most humans just think I’m big; they don’t know what I can do. They don’t always find that threatening enough.”
She patted his arm. “If things turn sour, we’re out of here as soon as you say, okay? But you have to promise to stick around until something definitely bad happens. You’re probably just hyper-alert for my safety and reading into every little thing.”
“Maybe,” he said, though the word lacked conviction of any kind.
Sandy tugged on his hand and they started walking again. When they finally rounded the corner of the massive barn, Palin immediately realized what was wrong about the setup.
The three barns were arrayed in a sort of triangle, and the bonfire was in the middle of them. Burning merrily away with excess skids and other planks of wood, it soared easily ten or twelve feet into the sky, casting wild light everywhere. Chairs were set up all around it, though only some of them were filled.
Many of the people, a mixture of men and women, were paired off. That’s where it started to go wrong. He watched one man bear a woman to the ground. She giggled and then gasped as he ripped her shirt open, but she didn’t protest. Palin noted the way her eyes looked glazed over, even in the firelight. Drugs.
Elsewhere several couples, completely devoid of clothing, were at a much later stage of the dance. Men moved through the group, and occasionally one would stop and find a woman who was available.
“What the fuck kind of party is this?” Sandy hissed, pressing against his side.
“It’s not a party. It’s a Rut.”
“A what?”
He snarled and started backing away slowly, hoping they hadn’t been noticed. “I’ll explain when we’re good and off the property. Suffice to say, we are not in a good spot right now, Sandy. It is time to capital-G Go. Move slowly. They’re all drunk and high on pheromones right now. If you remain unaroused and move slowly, they might not notice us.”
“Sandy, you made it. And you brought a guest I see.”
The voice came from behind them. Palin turned in time with his mate. “Hello Rusty,” he said, deadpan. “So good to see you.”
Rusty crossed his thick arms over his barrel chest, stretching the brown and tan flannel shirt to the limits. “The hired help came as your date. How cute.” The close-set blue eyes narrowed angrily. “Though I don’t recall saying you needed a date.”
Before he could reply Sandy stepped up. “You’re an asshole, Rusty. You know that? I can’t believe you managed to come over and act like you were genuinely sorry and then ask me here.”
Rusty pushed his fingers through his greasy salt-and-pepper hair, pulling it back off his forehead before setting the ratty straw-weaved farmer’s hat back on his head. “I was sorry. I wanted to set things right between us. I just didn’t realize you were going to invite him.” He stabbed a finger at Palin.
“Me?” Palin looked around. “What the fuck did I do? You’re the one who’s treated me like shit since the get-go.”
The farmer’s eyes darted at Sandy.
“Oh, I get it.” A few things fell into place now. “You figured that you couldn’t intimidate her into selling. So instead you’d invite her to your little Rut party, get her high on pheromones and whatever other shit you fucks do, and then seduce her to get her to sell to you that way.”
Rusty’s eyes flew open as Palin revealed that he did indeed know what was going on around the bonfire. It had taken him until then to piece it together, but he recalled now that both previous times he’d encountered them, it had been raining. He’d put the smell of wet dog off to Champ. But it hadn’t just been the pooch. It had been coming from Rusty and his farmhands as well.
“Who are you?” Rusty asked, his voice gone calm.
That wasn’t a good sign. “It doesn’t matter. Come on, Sandy, time to go.”
He turned to go but stopped.
In the dark before them he could pick out at least four different sets of orange eyes.
“No, I think you’ll be staying,” Rusty said in that same calm, commanding tone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Palin
“Palin?” Sandy clung to him nervously.
“It’ll be okay. I promise.” He gave her a look, hoping she would pick up on what he was trying to say.
I haven’t lied to you yet. I’m not lying to you now.
It would be okay for her. He just couldn’t say the same thing about Rusty and his pack of werewolves. It bothered Palin that he’d been so caught up in his mate that he’d missed that sign completely, but he should have noticed. If he’d known he could have taken care of the problem before it got to this point. Anger spread through him. His mate was in danger because he’d let himself become complacent. He should have questioned more about why Rusty wanted the land.
Now that he knew, it was too late. He was already in trouble, and Rusty wouldn’t hesitate to kill them if it meant he could better protect their secret. Having her farm so close to his was trouble. It would be too easy for her to end up seeing his pack, or hearing them.
“I don’t understand.” Sandy’s voice was quaking.
“They’re werewolves,” he said softly. “Rusty is the Alpha, though that doesn’t say a whole hell of a lot about the pack itself if they bow to him. Probably a bunch of misfits and failures and the like who weren’t good enough for another pack. So he took them in. Unfortunately,” he added as more wolves made their presence known, “there are a lot of those types out there. Which means he’s going to have numbers.”
Palin now counted ten different pairs of eyes, not including Rusty.
“Just let us go,” he implored. “This doesn’t have to get ugly.”
Rusty laughed, and the wolves hidden in the darkness yipped along with him, echoing his amusement. The sound was eerie, and if he weren’t a dragon shifter, would have been terrifying. Sandy clung even tighter to him, though he wished she wouldn’t. Things could change in a hurry, and if they did, he was going to need to be free to move.
“I need you to stay strong,” he said, speaking so softly into her ear that he hoped the others wouldn’t pick up on it. “If something happens, I’m going to need space.”
Sandy looked up at him. He gave her what he hoped was a confidence-boosting nod, letting her know that he had it under control despite the apparent numbers against them.
After all, they were just wolves.
No. You can’t think like that. You aren’t fighting for yourself; you’re protecting Sandy. She’s vulnerable to them. You need to keep her protected at all costs, which means not underestimating the wolves. You’ve fucked up once. Don’t do it a second time.
What a pep talk. He knew how to build himself up, that was for sure.
“We’re leaving now,” he stated when nothing further happened, and started walking directly at the wolves on the shortest-line distance back to the truck.
His arrogance startled them and they backed away at first, but a snarled command from Rusty firmed their lines, and Palin came to a halt with Sandy next to him. One of the wolves stepped forward more than the others, baring its teeth as it snarled at him, saliva dripping from its jaws.
Palin lifted his palm to his face and blew it a kiss. Unbeknownst to the wolf, he sent a tiny swirling ball of gas with his tender affection, using the motion of blowing the kiss to send it at the beast’s snout. The wolf coughed and started hacking violently a few moments later. Dumb beast.
“Rusty, last chance. Let us go,” he said, swinging around to face the pack leader once more. “She’s not yours, and trust me, she isn’t selling. Even you have to know that by know. She would rather fail before she caves in to a mangy mutt like yourself.”
The pack growled almost as one at his insults.
“What are you doing?” Sandy hissed from his side.
He wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t. There was no way they were getting out. Rusty didn’t know that he was seriously outclassed by Palin, and he was so intent on getting what he wanted he would remain oblivious to that fact until the end. So Palin was egging him and his followers on. Making them mad. The more riled up, the more likely they would make a mistake.
