by Moxie North
Mav let go of her hand and walked towards the pile. He didn’t say anything, which Pru thought was strange until she heard a voice.
“Yeah.”
Her brain quickly worked out that Deacon knew who it was probably by smell. This whole smelling people thing was tough to get used to.
“I brought Pru,” Mav answered. He looked at her and gave her a head tilt, indicating she should come over.
She stepped around the stack and found Deacon standing with an axe over his bare shoulder. He was breathing heavily and piled around his feet were huge cut logs that had been pulverized into splinters.
Deacon was still as good-looking as she remembered and she had to keep from staring. It was like looking at a statue carved out of stone. He seemed taller too, but maybe that was the overall effect of him. She understood a little more why he was the Alpha.
“Sorry I didn’t check in last night,” Mav said.
Deacon shrugged. “If I needed you I would have known where to find you.”
“Pru? I’m guessing you’ve talked to Deacon without me. You two should be old pals now.”
“Nice to see you again, darlin’.”
“Hey,” she said with a lame little wave.
“You two figure your shit out?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
They both answered at the same time. Mav in the affirmative and Pru in the negative. Maverick raised his eyebrow at her as she stuttered a response.
“Uh, I mean, we are working on it? I think there are a few things I still need to hear from Mav. Details you know.”
“Good luck. Maverick isn’t exactly one to spill his guts about anything. But since he still isn’t running around trying to avoid you, I’m going to say welcome to the pack.”
Prudence liked that. It wasn’t just the club president telling her she could hang around. He was telling her she was part of their pack. That was pretty freaking cool.
“Thanks, Deacon.”
“So, how did Pru know where I kept my spare key?” Mav asked.
“Told her. You’re too dumb to see what a gift this young lady is. I wasn’t going to let her wonder why she’s being treated so poorly. I figured she had bigger balls than you and would take on the challenge. I see she managed just fine.” Deacon gave her a big smile.
Maverick made a noise in the back of his throat. “You say that now. See how funny it is when I let her loose on your cabin and you come home to frilly towels and house plants.”
Deacon appeared to be holding back a laugh. “She redecorated while you were gone?”
Maverick just growled.
“What?” Pru broke into the conversation. “His house, although beautiful, looks like a place to house people that are overstimulated. It was so plain. I just added a little color and texture.”
“See Mav, just a little color and texture. I’m so telling the others about this.”
“Great Alpha skills there. A little support might be nice,” Deacon said.
“This is support. We are going to ride your ass until you smile every time someone teases you about your mate. We are going to tell her all your secrets and all the embarrassing stories we can think up until she knows all of your fuck ups. Consider it her shifter education.”
“I’ll educate her,” he responded.
“Honey, you have any questions or problems, you come to me. Especially when Mav is out of town.”
Prudence nodded at him.
“Speaking of which, did you delay the run for me?” Mav asked.
“Nah, sent Stitch and Rocket out. Haven’t heard back yet. They are probably dead or in jail.”
Prudence didn’t think that sounded very safe at all. This was something Maverick was supposed to be doing?
“Stitch? They’re probably dead.” Maverick didn’t sound too upset by this idea.
“Let’s hope not. I thought it might be better if he was absent for a few days. I can hope that he figures his shit out in the next few days, but it’s unlikely. He’ll come back just as stupid as ever.”
Pru knew this was club business, so she just stayed quiet. Didn’t mean she wasn’t listening, though.
“I’m going to show Pru around. Anything you need from me today?”
Deacon turned around to prop the axe against a stump and Pru got a view of his back. His tattoo at the bottom of his back was just like Mav’s, Redemption in black ink standing alone. Over the top of his shoulders in the same style of writing it read Kane. The rest of his back was bare. She’d have to ask Mav about that.
“Not today. We do have to talk about next week, though. You might want to discuss it with your mate too.”
“Understood.” Maverick didn’t elaborate, just took Pru’s hand and started walking.
Pru gave an awkward wave behind her as she followed along. “Bye, Deacon!”
“Bye, darlin’,” he called out with a chuckle.
Maverick continued to show her around the camp. She was glad she wore her black Chucks and not sandals. She had no idea she’d be hiking today. He showed her some of the old picnic areas, and a few storage buildings that at one time must have housed canoes and sports equipment.
They walked down a dirt path that was just wide enough for two people. Maverick slowed his pace so that Prudence wasn’t at a jog to keep up. The trees overhead swayed in the wind as the sun shone through the branches, creating dancing patterns on the path. There were birds chirping and squirrels dodging up the trees.
“This is beautiful,” she said, her head tilted back to stare at the canopy above her.
“Yeah it is,” Mav said, looking at her, not the trees.
“Where are we going?”
“Some place I like to go.”
Pru was enjoying the walk, and being in the company of Maverick. She was feeling better about being at the camp. It wasn’t as scary as she thought. She knew there were more people to meet, but they seemed genuine in their response to her. There were definite possibilities for her future. Although that future wasn’t something she could even begin to plan out.
In a few short days she went from having someone she hoped to date to having someone that said they were meant to be together forever. By his rules, they weren’t really together yet, because he needed to bite her. Or maybe he was waiting for her to give the green light. She needed a book or a web page that she could research. She also wished there was someone she could talk to about these things. A female shifter that would know what she was thinking and feeling.
“So Myra? Is she a shifter?”
“No, none of the lost girls are. They don’t know about us and we don’t tell them anything. It’s easy enough to keep them in the dark. They are focused on a few things and if it doesn’t have to do with themselves, they ignore it.”
That didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of these girls. Maybe she could be a support person for these women. Pru could feel a project brewing.
Turning down the path, Pru could see the lake in the distance and in front of it, a large white gazebo. It was simple but looked sturdy. The edge of it was seemingly floating in the water.
“Oh my!”
Pru couldn’t help but step cautiously onto the wood planks. It was solid under her feet. The edges of the gazebo were lined in benches, angled to the walls to provide seating all the way around. She crossed over to the side nearest the water and put her knee on the bench. Leaning over, she stared down into the lake and could see tiny fish flitting around under the surface. Looking across the water, she saw ducks swimming in a small group, and on the other side of the bank from them she saw a lone crane standing near the water’s edge.
“Wow, this is amazing.”
Maverick took a seat, putting his back to the lake. He stretched out his leg to ease the cramp that had started from his fast march through the camp. He was anxious and in a hurry to keep Pru moving. He wasn’t as casual about her meeting everyone as he was trying to put on.
“I’ll sleep down here somet
imes when I’m shifted. It’s quiet. Not many people come down here.”
Prudence wanted to ask him about that, but wasn’t sure if she should.
“You were right when you said we hadn’t talked about everything. I guess after last night I need to fill you in a little more.”
“So, why didn’t you bite me last night?”
“Cutting to the chase, huh? I want you to be sure. There is no changing your mind and I’m not going to rush you on this.”
“What if I said I was ready right now?”
“Are you?”
Chapter 27
Pru really wanted to say yes. Hell yes, in fact. But the words didn’t come out. There was a tiny part of her that was telling her she needed to think. Needed to really sit and rationalize the last few days. There was a lot to consider and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to commit to the change in her lifestyle. If it was just Maverick that she was bringing into her life, that would be easy. She was growing more addicted to his presence minute by minute. His club—that was a huge unknown. His pack an even bigger mystery. Not to mention he had another pack out there, one full of his family that didn’t even know where he lived.
Who would have thought she would end up with a guy with so much baggage?
“I don’t know,” she said truthfully.
“I’m fine with that. You have to be sure.”
“It’s not you, though. I’m not unsure of you or us, it’s... well, the rest of it.”
“I saw you had questions. Hit me.”
“Why don’t you like that guy Ink?”
“I like Ink just fine. He’s a good guy, does great work considering most of our tats come from him.”
“You seemed angry at him when we met.”
“Not angry, just making it clear where I stand when it comes to you. He needs to know there are boundaries. I established them. He won’t cross them.”
“That easy?”
“Not easy. They know, because of who I am, that I will defend what’s mine. Even if that means blood and broken bones.”
Pru had gotten a taste of that with Stitch and she really didn’t want anyone else crossing Maverick’s imaginary line in the sand.
“So, I can still talk to people?”
“As long as they are respectful, sure.”
Pru gave that pause for a moment. “Was that guy really eighty?”
“Yeah, shifters age slower than humans. Longer lives mean a better chance to find our true mates I guess.”
“He looked good for eighty,” she said.
“Fuck me if I look like that when I’m that old,” Maverick said dryly.
“How old are you?” Prudence had made an assumption because of how he looked. She guessed early thirties maybe.
“Forty-six.”
Shit, he was forty-six, almost fifty! “So I’m going to get old and craggy and you get to look younger than me? That’s bullshit!”
“Remember the bite?”
“Of course I do. Deacon told me shifters have short pregnancies. That you have to change to handle that.”
“Yeah, but the bite also makes you age slower. It’s the universe’s way of making human and shifter mates work. It wouldn’t be fair if a shifter lost their mate because they outlived them by decades. This way we sync up. At least that’s what it seems like. There are no hard facts about it. But even pairs that are twenty or more years apart start looking around the same age eventually.”
“So what happens when a mate dies?”
“Usually? The other person goes not long after. The elders always said they would die of a broken heart so they could be reunited with their mates. I think it’s loneliness. Being with the same person for so long, you forget how to make your heart beat without them.”
Fuck her, that was profound. Her biker man was a fucking poet.
“Why doesn’t Deacon have any other tattoos on his back? Just the club name and the one at the top. You’d think as the Alpha his would be full.”
Maverick tilted his head back until it rested on the railing. He looked over at her and said, “Deacon has a lot farther than any of us to go. He started this club twenty-five years ago. He was twenty-eight and found himself alone. He knows his club has helped him become who he is. Kane is his family name. He knows where he started and where he’s at, but not where he’s going. Maybe someday he’ll tell you his story, but I think Deacon surrounds himself with lost wolves so he doesn’t have to find himself.”
“That’s sad,” Prudence said, sitting down on the bench to face him.
“It really is. There has to be someone out there for him. I never thought I’d have a mate and yet here you sit. The fates wouldn’t leave him alone if they were gracious enough to give me one.”
“Glad you think I’m such a prize.”
Maverick looked at her. “An undeserved prize. All the shit I’ve done in my life and the fates give me you? I can’t see how they tally up the wins and losses columns in the big book of who deserves what.”
“I can’t imagine you did anything too terrible. You’re nice to me,” she said.
Mav sighed, turning his head back to the ceiling. His eyes looked far away when he said, “I did three tours in Afghanistan. I joined when I was twenty-nine because I thought I had all the time in the world to find a mate and wanted to kick some ass. Wolves tend to be more aggressive than other shifters. We need outlets. You’ll find wolves in law enforcement, bouncers in bars, and most end up in the military. The constant exercise and adrenaline keeps our animals happy.”
Pru gave him a nod to continue, but she wasn’t sure if he saw it.
“My first tour, I swear I spent the whole time trying not to shit myself. The constant ups and downs of being on patrol, firefights, then hanging with friends and laughing. Playing video games and watching movies when you had just shot someone hours before. It starts to mess with your head. The longer you survived the more invincible you thought you were. Even when you saw friends and squad members getting shot or killed. You pushed it away, didn’t let it get to you because you still had a job to do. Sometimes, when you were alone, you could cry, punch something, scream. But those times were hard to find. So you focused on your job and kept moving.
I kept going back, because I’d come home and couldn’t find my place. Everyone welcomed me back like a hero. I didn’t feel like a hero. I felt like an asshole that shot at a teenager that was trying to trick our convoy into stopping. Or I killed a young girl that was shooting at us as we passed through town. They were children; it didn’t matter their motives. They were taught by adults that we were the bad guys and they were defending their homes. That’s all they knew. But I still had to make a choice, them or me? I always chose me.”
Pru’s heart was breaking at his words. War was a horror that she’d never understand. She wanted to save the world by recycling and maintaining limited resources. Those were things she could make a difference with. War? There was no way to change the people that started those wars or continued them. It was a horror that broke her heart. At the same time it made her proud and amazed at men and women that volunteered for those duties. They made a choice that she wasn’t sure she ever could.
Carefully venturing in, she said, “I don’t think anyone should have to make that choice. I can’t imagine you’re the only one who has to struggle with this.”
Mav gave a short laugh. “Oh no, I think every person that comes back from that hell has to live with it. Even if you weren’t the one pulling the trigger you were still involved. Something about your job made it possible for someone else to go out and shoot someone or toss a grenade, not knowing who it was going to take out. I get it, it’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into. I thought I was strong enough to make it out in one piece. Turns out I wasn’t.”
She glanced down at his leg. “You made it three tours without getting hurt?”
“Guys said I was Teflon, nothing stuck. I couldn’t tell them so many times it was because my animal warned
me of something. I could hear incoming RPGs and know where they were gonna land. I could hear insurgents sneaking up in bare feet on the sand. My wolf was on watch the entire time. He saved me more times than I can count. When my convoy ran over a roadside bomb, he couldn’t have done anything to stop that. I was unconscious and when I woke up I couldn’t tell them that if they could just get me out, I would heal. Shifters can heal from almost anything. They knocked me out and cut off my leg. I don’t blame them. They were still under fire and needed to evacuate. I think about how it could have been different. How I could have made them understand.”
He finished with a shrug.
“Why didn’t you go home afterward?”
“At first, I was ashamed. I didn’t want my family to feel sorry for me. A wolf that couldn’t protect his pack, that needed help—there was no way they wouldn’t pity me. I couldn’t become a burden, so I stayed away. I was lost for a few years, getting drunk—which isn’t easy for a shifter to do—and getting in fights. That’s how Deacon found me. He offered me a place, with no pity and no free rides. He never assumed I couldn’t do something. I went to work and started showing him I could be counted on. I could take a punch and hand them out, so I ended up the Sergeant at Arms. Usually that means keeping the peace and the rules of the club. It also allowed me to express some of my pent-up rage by busting heads when needed.”
“You like fighting?”
“Yeah, I do. I like fighting when I’m my wolf. He loves going up against other wolves. Sometimes it’s how we settle pack disputes. Shift and see who comes out on top. It often changes people’s places in the pack, but it’s a part of the process.”
“So your family hasn’t seen you in years?”
“No. I haven’t wanted to talk to them. Not until I met you. I wanted to talk to my dad. Tell him about you, ask him what I should do,” he said with a wry smile.
“What you should do? Wouldn’t he just tell you that obviously someone as beautiful and charming as me was a catch and you should worship the ground I walk on?” Pru said this very dramatically for extra effect.
