Greer
Love was such a painful thing.
It was a thought I didn’t want to have as I glanced at the crowd around me and lamented on how lonely I was feeling. Couples were everywhere, laughing, holding hands, kissing… Jaxon’s jabbing had managed to trigger all my despondencies. Even amongst my pack, I felt completely alone.
“Why didn’t we organize more comfortable seating?” asked a cranky old voice from my right. I turned to see fellow pack elder, Maurice, lowering himself onto a chair with the help of his walking cane. It was a beautiful cane that he’d carved himself, the head a proud symbol of a wolf, its eyes inset with glowing rubies.
I helped him sit down, ignoring the way he half-heartedly tried to slap me away.
“Thank you, thank you. It’s good to see you out here, soaking up the romance,” he said as I sat down beside him.
“Is that what I’m doing? It feels more like I’m soaking up a healthy dose of sourpuss. I’m afraid a terrible mood has come over me.”
“So let it come, and then let it go.” He waved a hand in front of him to emphasize the ephemeral nature of it all.
“I’m not sure this one will go so easily,” I grumbled.
“Loneliness, is it?” He nudged me with an elbow.
“Yep.” I crossed my arms and nodded. Maurice’s intuition was some of the best in Timberwood Cove. Some of the best I’d ever encountered anywhere, to be honest. I could always rely on him to point out exactly what was wrong. Even when I didn’t want to hear it. Like right now.
“With a side of poor me?” he asked.
I let out a growl and he gave a hoarse laugh.
“We’re old enough to know that nothing in this life is fair, aren’t we?”
“Yes, we are. So what do I do with this feeling?”
Maurice looked me over with his cloudy blue eyes, seeing past my physical form. I felt my wolf lift its head as if startled. Maurice frowned slightly, his wrinkles so heavy on his brow they almost covered up his eyes. Then he sat up and grunted. He’d seen what he needed to.
“To ease the suffering, you must take any opportunity for companionship,” he said.
“An opportunity like this one?” I grinned and put a hand on his knee in camaraderie.
He laughed and nodded, putting his hand on my own. “You are a good friend. Let’s enjoy this time together, whatever we have left of it.”
I glanced up and saw Jason waiting for Trevor, and beside him was his good friend and best man, Keifer. I couldn’t help but let my gaze wander over the young man’s handsome face and trim figure, fitted with a pale blue shirt. He’d been a close childhood friend of Jaxon’s, and he’d practically grown up on the homestead with us.
“Oh, here we go.” Maurice nudged me and my gaze moved from Keifer.
Suddenly, the music swelled. All eyes turned and we watched as Brock, one of the pack youngsters, came down the aisle carrying the rings. Following Brock came more cubs from the pack, Liam and Cole, who led Trevor’s two huskies down the aisle.
Just then, I thought I caught a hint of that cinnamon and clove. The scent was so delicious I wanted to taste it. It actually made me slightly lightheaded, and…excited.
At fifty-five-years old, I had a pretty good handle on self-control so I pushed aside the instinct to get up and follow it, but once the official ceremony was over, the grooms had kissed and the crowd was cheering, I immediately spun around to try and catch the scent again. But it was already gone…
“You look a little frazzled, young man,” Maurice said.
“Did you happen to catch a strange scent?” I asked him.
“Can’t say I did. But the old sniffer isn’t what it used to be,” he admitted, patting my arm.
“Hm. Maybe mine is going haywire too.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said with a sly grin. “Perhaps something is coming in on the wind for you.”
After congratulating the happy couple, I made my way to the Lodge with the rest of the group. As I walked inside, the scent hit me again. I mingled politely and found it was easy enough to keep track of my target, even while in conversation with others. The scent was omega-sweet but distinctly masculine. If it belonged to a woman, I’d be pretty surprised. Even more obviously, it was absent of shifter pheromones, so it had to be a human. That narrowed things down because there weren’t so many of those here—male human omegas.
I wandered through the crowd, searching, and ended up at the buffet table at the edge of the hall. Though the food smelled delicious, it wasn’t the scent I was looking for. I sighed.
“Nice ceremony, wasn’t it?” Gavin asked as he came up beside me.
I nodded while trying to hide my frustration about losing the scent once more. “Yes, it certainly was.”
“Some nice human touches.”
“Do you think they liked it?”
“Who? Jason and Trevor? They’re ecstatic.”
“No, the humans.”
“I think so.” Gavin glanced around the crowd. “There aren’t too many here, but they seem happy enough.”
I nodded again, and Gavin looked at me, a frown creasing his brows. He grabbed three plates and put one in my hands.
“Why don’t you get something to eat and come and sit with Kyle and me.” He pointed to a table where Kyle sat. “Most of the other tables are full unless you have someone reserving a spot for you.”
I shook my head, a pang twisting my heart as I realized I was effectively here alone. I really missed having a partner at parties like these, even after all these years. “No, I don’t have anyone else to sit with,” I said, trying not to sound miserable.
I filled up my plate, and when Gavin had his plates full, we headed to the end of the table where his family sat.
“Hi, Greer, wonderful to see you,” his mate Kyle said as I took a seat.
“And you, Kyle. You’re looking well.”
Their one-year-old, Raina, was sitting on Kyle’s lap. She let out a happy gurgle when she saw me, and I stuck my tongue out at her, sending her into a fit of giggles.
“Where’s young Brock?”
“He’s off playing with Cole and Liam.” Gavin motioned toward the door. I caught a glimpse of three young wolves pouncing on each other in the early evening light.
“Did you get that strange scent at the ceremony?” I asked Gavin and Kyle as we ate. “A human scent?”
Gavin laughed. “They all smell weird to me.”
“Hey!” Kyle protested. He’d been a human when the two them had met, just a couple of years earlier.
“You smelled amazing as a human,” Gavin quickly said to clarify. “Don’t you remember how obsessed I was with you?”
Kyle smiled. “Yes, you chased Brock and me down in the parking lot of the games convention. Not something I’m ever likely to forget. So what was weird about the scent you found, Greer?”
I shrugged. “I couldn’t place it, but it smelled…familiar.”
“Maybe the scent of a human you’d met before,” Kyle suggested.
“Hm. Perhaps,” I said, but who did it belong to?
“Sounds like a, dare I say it, fated mate kind of scent.” Gavin started chuckling as he looked at me.
I scoffed and brushed him off, and then concentrated on my potato salad.
A little while later, done with the meal, I made my excuses and left Gavin and Kyle playing with Raina. Eager for a lungful of fresh air and a view of the beautiful mountains that sat north of the homestead, I stepped out to the balcony. However, far from clearing my head, it became full of those sweet omega pheromones once more. Lust and excitement flashed through me like I was an adolescent cub all over again, and my gaze fixated on the only other figure out here.
Bathed in the pink light of the setting sun, there he stood. Human… Blue shirt… Blue eyes… Beautiful face.
Surely not him?
“Hey, Greer.” Keifer gave me a lopsided smile as I stepped up to the railing beside him.
I’d known this guy since h
e was listening to moody teenage music in my house with Jaxon when they were at school together. He had to be more than twenty years my junior—and I’d certainly never caught his scent before. How could I possibly be so drawn to it now?
My wolf whined and began clawing at my chest. I ignored it, but I couldn’t help leaning a little closer to Keifer. Something in my stomach clenched as he met my eyes, and I grinned, despite wondering what the hell was going on.
“Y’know, I’m never sure whether you’re going to start calling me Mr. Parsons or sir again.”
I figured making an explicit reference to our age gap would put a dampener on the way my body was reacting to him. Unfortunately, it failed on two counts. Firstly, the reference to sir sent a lick of deep-seated pleasure all the way down my spine. Wrong or right, I liked it, and that was where the second failing came into it. His face flushed an adorable pink, which told me Keifer’s mind had gone in the same direction mine had.
Fuck.
“I mean, I could,” he said, gazing over the edge of the balcony to avoid meeting my eyes. “But do you know how hard it was for an obedient kid like me to break that habit? A lifetime of being respectful, and then after Stacia was born, Jaxon told me to call you Greer? He may well have told me to call you an asshole or something.”
Did he know how his scent was affecting me?
I chuckled. “Well, I’d answer to that too.”
He laughed, and it felt like I’d just taken a shot of hard liquor. I recognized the prickle of pride that ran through me, and the prodding desire to make him laugh again. I hadn’t felt that about somebody for years. Not in the same way. Sure, I liked to make jokes and entertain people, but this was…different.
He turned around and leaned back against the balcony, facing me instead of the mountains. The breeze wasn’t quite strong enough to displace his neat hair, which must have been fixed in place with some kind of product, though it still looked as soft and smooth as his skin.
“Great day, wasn’t it?” He smiled at me and my wolf whined again. I tried to focus on what he was saying instead of the way his lips looked as he said it.
“It certainly was. They seem really happy together.”
He nodded, eyes wide and eager. “Oh, for sure. Stacia loves Trevor, you know? Took to him right away, and I think a good amount of the reason for that is how happy he makes Jason.”
I nodded then placed a hand on the balcony and leaned into it, trying to look nonchalant. “She’s an adorable kid.”
His face lit up, as pleased to hear it as if I’d complimented him personally. Despite the massive age gap between us, I realized we had this one really important thing in common: the joy of being a dad. Maybe he wasn’t so young after all.
“She’s fantastic,” he agreed, eyes warm and meeting mine with confidence now he was talking about this specialist subject. “She’s just full of energy, all the time. I barely know what to do with myself when she’s with Jason and Trevor. Like getting on with work without being interrupted every ten minutes… I’m not sure how half the time.”
I let out a laugh. “Sounds like being a dad, alright. Remind me. What do you do for work these days?”
Keifer gave a sheepish smile. “You’ve probably had enough lovey-dovey stuff for one day, but… Well, I write romance novels.”
I fought back a smile. “Is that right? Are we talking more, uh… Romeo and Juliet or Fifty Shades of Grey?”
“I don’t know if I’d compare it to either,” he said with a laugh. He may not want to admit it, but judging by the way his blush deepened, I could make a guess which end of the spectrum his writing was closer to.
“I just finished a book today about a teacher and the dad of one of his students? So I guess it’s, um…just modern-day. Sweet and slushy.”
“Sweet, huh?”
He paused to clear his throat. “I don’t know. It’s probably not your cup of tea.”
“I’m more of a coffee guy. But I like a good romance as much as the next fella.”
He gave me a dubious look.
“Hey, I’m not saying my place is stocked full of romance novels. To be honest with you, I don’t read much anyway. But if you told me the story, I’m sure I’d be interested.”
“I’m not sure I buy that,” he said, his smile dimpling at the corners. “I remember how much you like Die Hard.”
I let out another loud laugh, this one from deep in my belly. I remembered when I’d first shown him and Jaxon my favorite film, the two of them letting out loud gasps and cries at the extreme action.
“Doesn’t everyone like Die Hard?” I laughed as he chewed the inside of his lip. Apparently, there was still some of that shy kid in him, afraid to disagree with me. I rescued him, changing the subject to something else I needed to know. “Anyway, how are you getting by these days? Is there a Mr. Thompson on the horizon?”
“No, sadly not. No one yet.”
“Hey, plenty of time,” I said as I tried to ignore the triumphant fireworks in my stomach and the urge to immediately suggest finding a private place upstairs. I cleared my throat. “You’re only, what, around thirty-two, thirty-three, same as Jaxon?”
“Greer! You can’t just ask an omega his age!”
I grinned, encouraged by the playful tone in his voice. Still, most of me was sure he was just messing around. It was one thing to flirt with your friend’s dad, and a whole different thing to be interested in taking it any further than that.
“But if either one of us was going to be age-conscious, I’d say it wouldn’t be you.”
“Huh?” he asked, looking genuinely confused.
“Oh c’mon, I’m an old fart. Once you’re older than fifty, you start to feel ancient.”
He rolled his eyes. “You think so? I don’t.”
“Uh-huh. Because you’re still in your thirties.”
He threw me a look, eyes alight with a smile. “Do you really think about it?”
“Course I do. My joints remind me every morning.”
He nudged me with his elbow, grinning now. “I mean, do you think about it, like with regards to other people?”
“Other people?”
“You know…” He looked down at the buttons of his shirt. “People you might be interested in. You really feel like an age gap makes a difference?”
Whatever subtlety there had been in our flirting before, it was slipping away now. Chemistry crackled in the space between us, and neither of us said a word as our eyes met, intense without being awkward.
I wet my lips. His gaze darted down to watch then snapped back up to my eyes. I swallowed and took a small step forward.
His lips parted and he inhaled sharply, but before he could say anything, the door opened and out poured four very boisterous kids. Liberated from the stiff formality of the ceremony itself, Liam looked a lot livelier than earlier and he was running about the place with Brock and Cole. Apparently viewing herself as one of the eleven-year-old boys—and why not, if she shared the same interests—Stacia barreled after them too, looking quite a sight in a now grass-stained dress.
“Here comes trouble,” said Keifer.
He was obviously trying to act normal, pushing himself away from the railing, and therefore me, but he hadn’t counted on kids being as perceptive as they were. Whether it was the blush still staining his cheeks that clued them in or some signal of mine, I couldn’t say, but it wasn’t long before Brock was leading the other boys in a chant.
“Greer and Keifer, sitting in a tree…”
“It’s not a tree,” Stacia corrected, fastening herself to her papa’s leg. It gave Keifer an excuse to ignore his awkwardness, lifting her up to his hip as his blush spread.
Myself, I wasn’t really fazed; I just ruffled up Liam’s hair, finishing the song with an impromptu line of my own. “You are too L-O-U-D. Can’t you kids go wild on the open buffet like I used to at parties?”
“They’re out of burgers,” Cole announced, wrinkling his nose. “And they’re going
to start the music soon.”
“What, you don’t want to dance?”
His face wrinkled further into a sour pout. Clearly, the idea was to get as far away from the dancefloor as possible before anyone could corral them onto it.
I shrugged. “Well, your loss. Far as I’m concerned, dancing outside on a summer evening is one of life’s great pleasures.”
When it became clear none of the three boys were going to agree, I nodded back at the interior of the Lodge. “Anyway, apparently there’s a gaming console set up in Jaxon’s office.”
I didn’t have to say another word. Before I could blink, the three boys were dashing off in the other direction, and Stacia pushed off Keifer’s hip.
“Careful of your dress when you’re running, honey,” he called after her. Once the balcony door had shut behind her, his eyes flicked back to me, playful and questioning. “Is there a gaming console in Jaxon’s office?”
“Sure. Why? You thinking of heading there yourself?”
He shrugged one shoulder and lounged back against the banister again, a smile teasing the corners of his lips. “I distinctly remember a time when you told Jaxon and me there was pizza in the study, and it instead turned out to be typed up notes for our biology exam.”
I snorted. I’d forgotten about that. “Desperate times called for desperate measures.”
“You could at least have put a real pizza in there.” He nudged my arm again. Was he doing that on purpose? It sure felt like it. “You could’ve given us trust issues.”
“Is that right? Then I guess we’re lucky I didn’t ruin you.”
The air felt charged, and he didn’t answer, except within the warmth of his eyes. Even so, I still wasn’t sure whether we were blurring lines that shouldn’t be blurred. I’d simply lost the ability to stop myself with him looking at me like that.
I heard the bass of the music kick in somewhere downstairs, and I nodded toward it.
“Well, if you’re not running off to go play RuneMaze, do you feel like cutting a rug?”
“Nobody young enough to know what RuneMaze is should ever say ‘cutting a rug.’”
I laughed. “Maybe I’m saying it ironically.”
Silver Daddy Page 3
