“Wulf!” Laurel was half laughing, half shocked. “He was just surprised. We should have warned him.”
“Or your second ought to have. They’re lovers, after all.” Which shouldn’t hurt, but it did.
“River and Cory? Nah.” Stephen watched him carefully. “They blow off steam a few times a year, but Cory doesn’t take lovers.”
“That’s a waste of wolf.” He kept his face carefully composed, which was one of his superpowers. Scars pulled, so schooling his expression was a habit now.
“I guess.” Stephen shrugged. “So, what’s the news with you?”
“Well, I’ve designed this amazing wedding gown for a very specific bride…” He let the bullshit go. He was there for a celebration—his brother was alpha, he loved Laurel, and it was all going to be beautiful.
Laurel clapped her hands, then spun in a circle. “I can’t wait!”
He laughed, applauding her. This was why he designed red carpet and bridal. It was all about the joy. “You know I want you to come to Santa Fe, soon. Come and see the house and all the sights.”
“I know! I keep trying to get Stephen to go for our honeymoon, but I don’t think he wants to leave the pack to River and Cory just yet.” She pulled a face.
“No? Well, I’ll be there when you’re ready.”
“That’s so cool. I keep reading about it.” Laurel’s eyes twinkled. “I’m afraid he’ll get as bad as George.”
Stephen growled softly, and Wulf just hooted, tickled as hell.
“Mira, look. I can’t speak to River’s sensibility, but Cory? That man is utterly law-abiding.” Totally. Imminently. Vastly, even.
“Yeah. I just know George still has friends.” Stephen sighed. “Everyone is still afraid of me. River can handle shit, but Cory? He has so much pent-up rage he might shoot someone.”
He would pay good money to see that. “I can imagine so. George wouldn’t be Cory’s best friend.”
“God no. Cory hates the man. A lot.” Stephen led the way deeper into the big adobe house. “Hungry?”
“Sure. I could eat.” He was curious what was on offer, to be honest. Who cooked? What was there? How was it different?
“Cool. Come on. Maria always has something.”
“She’s the housekeeper,” Laurel stage whispered. “I love her more than Stephen.”
“Ah, so now I understand. You chose the Alpha for his staff.” He winked at her, even as Stephen rumbled.
“I did!” Laurel laughed at him, joyful and impossible to resist.
“Evil woman.” Stephen grabbed Laurel and kissed her hard, and it made Wulf grin. Stephen really loved her. That made things easier.
“Show me my room. I’ve never been in an Alpha’s house before. Then, I can have that bite.” He waggled his eyebrows at Stephen. “Some things a brother shouldn’t see.”
“Oh. Right. Come on.” Laurel led him back through the house. “We let George keep his tacky McMansion and came back to the old Alpha house. I love it.”
“It’s got charm.” And it smelled good, aged, like there were a thousand old memories waiting to be explored.
“It’s a good place. The alpha before George left all these Spanish antiques, all these old photos.”
“That’s amazing. Are you going to display them?” He felt himself getting twitchy trying to process all the sensory information bashing at him. He wasn’t the wolfiest guy out there, but this was old pack.
“I am. After the wedding we have two more rooms to renovate. There’s one in your room. The wardrobe. There are no closets. You want lunch in the courtyard? It’s less overwhelming.”
She was a smart cookie.
“Please. This is amazing, but I haven’t lived close to the moon in a long time.” He didn’t deny his wolf; he simply didn’t have time.
“I get that. It was so weird to come into a pack like this.” Right. She and Stephen had met through him, in a roundabout way. Laurel had been his friend from the start, but it had taken time for him to be able to talk about his family, and Laurel talked to Stephen online for years before she came here.
“I can imagine. I’m so glad you’re here.”
They stopped at the end of the hall, and she led him to a suite with huge windows, a lovely four-poster bed, and the scents of little more than flowers and air.
“Oh. This is great.” He could breathe in there. Awesome.
“Good! You need to see the bathroom.” She patted his arm like he was the dearest, silly man.
“Bring it on, woman.” Even if it had been hellish, which it so wasn’t, he would have acted excited.
She showed him to a huge en suite with a big copper tub, a shower, double sinks, and plants everywhere. Like his own jungle waterfall.
“Oh, look at this.” He shook his head, taking it in. “I know what I’m going to do all afternoon.”
“Right? I told Stephen all the bathrooms had to be amazing. I love to have a long soak.”
“Me too.” Hell, he and Cory had snuck off to nearby hot spring pools all the time.
He could head out there, see if he remembered the way…No. No, there was nothing about being out here with the pack that was going to work for him.
He would do his thing for the wedding, soak in the provided tub, and mind his own fucking business.
“I’ll have a meal set up out in the courtyard in…an hour? A little longer?” Sweet, sensitive girl.
“Maybe an hour and a half? It’s been a—” Hard day. “—long drive.”
“You got it.” She came to him, going up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Rest.”
“Thank you, lady. You’re too good to me.”
“I try. You’re doing my dress.” Another laugh and she was gone, leaving him blessedly alone.
He managed to get to the door, lock it, before he stumbled to the bed. Goddess. He shouldn’t have come. Seeing Cory— he’d expected it, had thought he would be cool. Calm. And he was, until now.
Now he felt like he was a kid again, running from everything, full of shit and bravado. Wulf took a deep breath. He wasn’t. He was Wulf. Designer and wild child in Santa Fe, successful and always tasteful.
He grabbed his phone and called the first person on his speed dial, his personal assistant, general manager, and best friend on earth, Miguel.
“Are you okay, boss? Do I need to come?”
“No. I mean, no to both. I’m not okay, but I don’t want you to come up.” Yet. He might change his mind. He might need Miguel to help depending on the shapes of the various wedding party members, too.
“Oh man, that bad, huh? Is he there?”
“Honey, he’s the fucking sheriff. The fucking sheriff.” He was going to start laughing and never stop.
“Wow. That’s very not you.”
God, it was good to be understood. He kicked off one boot. “Tell me about it. The slacks, gurl, I cannot express the nastiness.”
“So, you were looking at his junk.”
“I was. I looked at his ass, too. I’m older, not dead.”
“I never said you were, hon.”
He pulled off his other boot and flopped back on the bed. “Goddess, this place is something else.”
“Is that bad? You said your brother had a different place than the guy who banished you.”
“It’s gorgeous. They’re going a fabulous job. She’s from the Boulder pack. City folks.”
“Ah. Well, no wonder you’re doing her dress, huh?”
“She was excited. It felt amazing to be wanted.”
“Sure.” Miguel sighed. “Well, how often do you have to see him, right? You can have fun still.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It’s beautiful here. I’d forgotten that.”
“You had trauma.” Miguel got that. He’d been banished from his pack, too.
They all had.
“Yes. Yes, but I survived it and so did you. And we have our own pack now.” And he loved them all—there were more than a half-dozen of them, all misfits in one w
ay or another, and they were happy.
“You know it. Mr. Cop can stick it up his ass.”
“Yep.” Except he couldn’t get Cory’s expression when he’d seen Wulf out of his mind. Those brown eyes had been shocked. Cory had believed he was dead. Fuck, like he was that weak.
He’d healed, traveled, and found his tribe. He’d been successful. He was successful. Dammit.
Cory really could kiss his ass.
“You okay, babe?”
“No. No, he’s…he’s still…him.” And Wulf still wanted him. What the fuck was wrong with him?
“He was this huge part of your life, amigo. If I ran into—” Miguel bit off the words. Yeah. Miguel knew how he felt. “Anyway, just put your chin up.”
“Right. I will. You can come if I run into trouble?”
“Of course. I can come be your assistant and we can say we planned it all along.”
“You’re good to me.” He smiled and rested harder into the mattress, the scents comfortable, good. “There’s a huge bathtub in here. Vast.”
“I like the sound of that. You need a massage and a joint.” Miguel thought a joint could fix all things.
“Tell me about it. We should go to Durango for a week, enjoy ourselves.” Raft, smoke, play tourist—all the good things.
“We should. Once the wedding is done, we’re Colorado bound.”
“Perfect.” Stephen was paying him well for the bridesmaids’ dresses, even though the bride’s gown was his gift to the couple.
“Cool. Well, you call me if you need me.”
“I may call just to say hi.” He hadn’t realized how much he was going to miss them all.
“Anything you need.” Miguel made a sad noise. “You want me to come up now?”
“No, honey. You stay there. I’ll call.” He had to do this.
“Okay. I love you. You call me anytime you need to.”
“I love you. You take care of things for me, hmm? I’ll be home in a week.”
“You got it. Bye.” Miguel hung up, which made him smile, because usually his friend was so damn wishy-washy about ‘now you hang up’.
He needed to unload his car. He needed his yoga mat. He needed music. He needed…
His eyes fell closed and he sighed softly, relaxing into the pillows.
Maybe he needed a nap.
3
Cory was avoiding his boss.
Okay, he was avoiding his ex. Just looking at Trey had made a hole open up in his chest. He’d thought it was closed after all these years, but instead he’d found out it was more like one of those treacherous places in the river where silt and rock overlaid a giant undertow. Once you broke though, it sucked you down.
His cell was ringing now, though, and he had a feeling it was time to pay the piper.
Yep. Stephen. “Hey. Alpha. What’s up?”
“There are a bunch of teenagers at the store causing trouble. Can you run over there, please?”
“And they called you instead of me? Why? I mean, it’s almost your wedding.” Cory headed out to his truck from the sheriff’s office.
“Because obviously I don’t have enough to do, between setting things up for Laurel to work from here, doing my own job, dealing with the wedding…”
“Right.” Some people remembered the days when the only law was the Alpha, too. Stephen had instituted a much more human system of justice, but not everyone got it. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you. You have my permission to turn a hose on them.”
“Fun!” Yeah, no. Mr. Menay wouldn’t like that.
“I think it sounds like a ball. I’d come myself, but I’m setting up a new router and…”
“I have to earn my keep.” He could go days between calls and Cory spent a lot of his time visiting elders on welfare checks. “Everything else going okay at the house?”
How’s your brother? Is he still here?
“Fine. Busy. I haven’t even seen anyone else today. I may starve.” Stephen snorted audibly.
“Should I send my mom with burritos?”
“Aw. Nah, I have peanut butter and jelly. I was craving.”
“Reverting to your childhood.” Sometimes it was a little odd that he’d known Stephen since birth.
“You know it. You want to come over for supper tonight?”
With Trey? Goddess, no. He’d barf.
“Thanks, but I gave a bunch of reading to do for that online class I’m taking.” He kept all his certifications up to date when he could get them online.
“Laurel will be so tickled. She’s the world’s biggest online education fan.”
“It is her job, man.” He pulled up to the general store-slash-gas station-slash-post office-slash-liquor store-slash-beauty salon right on the outskirts of the packlands. “I’m here. I’ll send them home.”
“Thanks, man. Call me if you need me.”
“Will do.” Cory hung up, taking a minute to see what he could see before he got out of the truck. A bunch of kids were loitering and catcalling.
The teens—four boys and a girl were laughing, lounging at the front of the store. Another young lady, red-faced and sniffling, stood at the corner of the building. About the time that he was getting out of the truck, Laurel and his ex came out of the store.
“What did you guys do?”
The boys just smirked, but the girl there—Lydia, he thought—went wide-eyed. “Nothing, miss. Nothing.”
“Don’t you lie to me. I saw you bunch pushing and pinching.” Damn, Laurel could Alpha Bitch on them. “There’s no need to be evil.”
“No, miss. No.”
Laurel rolled her eyes and she and Trey headed toward the crying girl when he heard, clear as a bell, “Fucking cunt. I bet she’s fucking the banished one.”
Before he could even move, Trey had spun and knocked the shit out of one of the boys, slamming him against the wall so hard he bounced.
Shit. He strode up to the storefront.” That’s enough. All of you get back home and I’ll be calling your parents.”
“After he apologizes to the Alpha.” Trey held the boy against the stucco, teeth bared. “Tell the nice lady you’re sorry, you worthless piece of shit.”
“S-sorry, ma’am.”
Cory bit back his annoyance, at least until the kids were gone. When Trey let the kid go, he squinted hard. “You’re one of Eric’s friends, aren’t you?” Eric was the old alpha’s grandson, and like George, he had some mean friends.
“Yeah. Look, I’m going, okay?”
Trey growled, deep in his chest, the sound a clear warning.
“You’re not going to get me called again, either, right? The Alpha will know what happened.” He wasn’t above using old fears to make people behave.
“No, sir. We’re going home. We swear.”
Trey watched the boys leave, while Laurel talked to the two girls, both sobbing already.
He glanced tightly at Trey. “Did you have to smack him? Goddess knows, Stephen will hear about it.”
“I hope he does. He can hear about how I defended his mate.” The words were ice cold.
“Right. Because teenagers who do stupid stuff deserve that shit.” He snarled it, because he didn’t need this fucking crap. He was going to handle it.
“Tell me again, Sheriff, about what teenagers who do stuff deserve. I’d love to hear your lecture about that.”
“No shit? I bet you really wouldn’t.” Cory wasn’t about to debate that. He’d taken his fucking lumps every goddamn day in some way while George was still in power.
Trey rolled his eyes, but Laurel came up, put a hand on his arms. “Easy. Easy, now. Both of you need to breathe, hmm? Everyone’s watching, and you’re both pouring off tension.”
“Right. I’ll wait in the car.”
“Thank you, Wulf.”
He blinked at Laurel. “You’re fine?”
“I’m fine. Thank you for coming, honey. You diffused that perfectly.” She took a deep breath and tried to smile. “One
day they’ll respect me, right?”
“A lot of the pack already do. Kids are awful. The girls both okay?”
“They were having a fight, and the boys pushed it into something bigger.” She shrugged. “Teenagers.”
“Yes. Exactly. Go on home, I’ll stick around a bit to make sure they go back to their parents.”
“Thank you.” She bit her lip looking like she was going to say something else, but he didn’t want to know what she would say about Trey, so he patted her arm, then headed inside to talk to the store owners and remind them to call him and not Stephen.
He didn’t need this. He didn’t need any of this.
Of course, he wasn’t going to get who he needed, was he?
Dammit.
4
Wulf finished taking a long walk, sliding in through the kitchen door to avoid anyone but Maria, hoping to snag a glass of milk and a sandwich.
He felt like he was starving—not because the food was bad. It wasn’t. It was great, but because the tension that was in the fucking air was unbearable.
If he dozed off, he dreamed about Cory. If he walked around, someone was talking about…
“Hello, Trey.”
Goddamn it. “Sheriff.”
He was going to starve.
“Trey. Wulf. Whatever.” Cory’s little smile was all irony. “Just waiting for Stephen.”
“No problem.” He headed right back out the door, not willing to hear more shit about how terribly he’d abused the poor teenager that was easily eight inches taller and had seventy-five pounds on him.
“Hey. You don’t have to run off. I can go wait in the front room. He said Maria had made sandwiches.”
“No big. I was just popping in. You know how it is.” His stomach growled audibly, and he reminded himself he had goodies in his SUV. Hell, he had pastries in his room.
“Yeah, you’re hungry.” Cory rose. “If you see Stephen send him to the living room?”
“Just sit. For fuck’s sake, I won’t bite. Sit down.” He sighed softly and grabbed a glass of milk.
“What? You were the one running off.” Cory did sink back down on the chair.
“I’m trying to stay out of your space, Sheriff. I don’t belong here. I know it.” He didn’t even want to belong there, for fuck’s sake. He didn’t want to ache so bad. He didn’t want to hurt like this. He wanted to go home.
In Wulf’s Clothing Page 2
