by Liza Street
“I had to,” she said.
“The hell you did,” Will said. His hands were clenched in fists, his jaw rigid. His pale eyes flashed with electricity.
She’d never seen her brother so angry. Not even when Jackson had left them to come back to the territory and Will had muttered curses all the way up to the Canadian border.
“Shut up, Will,” Jackson said. “She saved our territory. It’s ours, and the Spokane Pride can’t touch it. So chill the hell out, okay?”
Marius wordlessly handed Hayley her clothes. She tugged on her jeans and t-shirt, which were damp from the rain. Her side burned with the movement, but she could tell it was already healing. She took Marius’s hand and turned to face her brothers.
“I did this. I needed to do this,” she said. “All my life, you two have been stepping in to fight my battles for me. And when it counted the most, four years ago, I still wasn’t allowed to fight. I knew I could beat Alec. Something in me, some instinct, said it was possible, and when I saw the opportunity, I took it. So you can be mad all you want, Will, but it doesn’t change a thing. And the Dark Pines is ours again, for good. We’ve shown them that we’re not going to give up at the first sign of threat, okay?”
Will looked at first like he was going to start shouting again, but instead he grabbed Hayley in his arms. She yelped as he squeezed her just a little too tight. He let her go immediately. “Sorry,” he said.
“Well, maybe I deserved that,” she said. “I should have been up front and told you all what I was doing. Next time I plan on being responsible, I’ll let you know.”
“You better,” he said.
Jackson slung an arm around Will’s shoulders. “Drinks tonight? I say we all go home, rest for a few hours, and then come out again to celebrate. The Jaynes siblings are here in Huntwood, back where we belong—if that doesn’t call for a drink, I don’t know what does.”
“Can’t,” Will said. “I gotta run.”
“What?” Hayley squawked.
She felt Marius’s comforting arm around her. A Goldilocks hug—not too loose, not too tight. It was a good thing he was holding her, or she might have hauled off and tried to strangle her older brother.
Will rubbed a hand over his leg. “I’ve already stayed too long.”
“You were going to stay until tomorrow morning at least, for the challenge,” Jackson pointed out.
Hayley watched her older brother carefully. What was it, really, that had him so reluctant to be in Huntwood?
“Look, I just gotta go,” he said.
Jackson made a sound of disgust and stomped toward his SUV. “Great, then, I guess I’ll see you whenever I see you. Hayles and Marius? The A-Hole tonight?”
“We’ll be there,” Hayley said.
Will stepped forward and gave her a more tentative hug. “Take care, okay?” he said.
“Yeah. You, too. And when you’re ready to come back, we’ll be here, you know?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “I know.”
He shook Marius’s hand. “Take care of each other,” he said.
“Will do,” Marius said, his voice a comforting rumble against Hayley’s side.
Then Will limped over to his Raptor and got in.
Marius bent his head to kiss Hayley’s cheek. “He’ll be back soon,” he said.
“You think so?”
“Yeah. Territory like this? It calls to a person. He doesn’t actually want to leave—he’s just afraid of liking it here too much.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said, leaning into him. “Now what do you say to us going back to my place and getting out of these wet clothes?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
That night at The A-Hole, Marius watched as Hayley laughed loudly at something Summer whispered. Hayley’s long hair was thrown over one shoulder, her lips bright pink, and if he had to guess, he’d say if he kissed her right now, she’d taste a little like margarita and her lips would be salty.
He couldn’t wait to get her back to her place. After the challenge, they’d decided to move into her place. The tiny studio would be perfect for their needs—a place to bed down at night, relaxing into each other. They’d gone to the home improvement store and were already looking at finishes for the house Hayley was going to build for them. Color swatches, hardwood flooring samples, tile samples all littered the apartment as they planned everything out. Marius couldn’t wait to see what Hayley created, because he knew it would be amazing in the end.
And he already had a promise from his father to come visit once the place was finished.
Hayley caught his eye across the table and winked. She gave Summer a big, smacking kiss on the cheek before getting up and coming around to sit next to Marius.
“Hey,” she said. “I missed you over there.”
“The view was pretty nice, though,” he said. “Harder to see all of you at once when you’re up close.”
“Oh?” She arched a golden-brown eyebrow and moved to stand up. “Should I go back?”
“Nope, no, no, no,” he said, tugging her back toward the seat next to him. On purpose, he tugged too hard so she landed half in his lap.
Across the table, Summer’s expression brightened. “Oh, here’s Jackson back with our drinks,” she said.
Hayley turned. “What?” she said. “I didn’t order a shot.”
Jackson set four shot glasses on the table. He nudged one toward Summer, and the other two toward Hayley and Marius. “I had Ross create something special for us,” he said.
Marius grinned at the look of consternation on Hayley’s face—her wrinkled nose, her suspicious blue eyes. “What the hell is in this?” she asked, sniffing the liquor.
It smelled sweet and tangy. Something Marius would usually avoid, but Jackson’s excitement was palpable.
“Well,” Jackson said, “it’s got vodka and grenadine and I don’t know what else. Lemon zest? Doesn’t matter. Drink up, folks, because this shot is called ‘Wedded Bliss’ and I’ll give you one guess as to why.”
Hayley had already taken a sip and she nearly spit it out. “What?! Are you…holy shit, really, you guys?”
Summer laughed, her dark eyes shining, as Hayley stood up and leaned across the table to hug them both. Marius threw back his shot before it could get knocked over in the melee.
“You’re really going to marry this ass-kersplat?” Hayley asked Summer.
Summer laughed again. “Yes. He proposed last night, and yes, I’m really going to marry him. Even if you do think he’s an ass-kersplat.”
“Well,” Hayley said, reaching over to give her brother another hug, “he is one of the best ass-kersplats.”
Now Marius understood why Jackson had been so upset about Will leaving right after the challenge—he’d wanted to share the announcement with his brother, too.
“So, when is the happy occasion?” Marius asked.
“We don’t want to wait,” Summer said. “Two weeks. Right at the start of December.”
“Oh, wow,” Hayley said. “I’ve gotta call Will. We need to get him back here before he drives too far away.”
“Fat chance,” Jackson said. “I couldn’t even get him to stay for drinks tonight. You think he’s going to come here for a wedding?”
“He better,” Hayley said. “You guys, don’t worry about it. I’ll get him to come even if I have to drag him here tooth and nail.” She settled back against Marius again. “So freakin’ exciting, right?” she said to him.
“Yeah.” Someday, it would be him and Hayley announcing their own engagement to the family. He couldn’t wait. In the meantime, they’d get to attend Summer and Jackson’s wedding, and Marius couldn’t wait for that, either.
“I love you,” he said, grinning at her. “It’s the truth.”
“I love you, too,” she said. “And it’s the truth.” Then she gave him the side-eye. “What’s up? You just got a really weird, excited look on your face.”
“Well,” he said, hauli
ng her close so he could whisper in her ear, “I just realized that you’ll probably wear a dress to their wedding. Do you think we’ll have to fish another pair of your panties out of Paris Lake?”
Preview of Wild Reunion, Book Three of the Dark Pines Pride
Eleanor knew she was screwed as soon as she walked into the grocery store.
But she still tried to fight it. She darted into the produce section and cowered behind the mountain of citrus—oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit. The golden-brown color of Hayley’s hair was still visible, just past the frozen cheese stand. It looked like she was heading into the frozen food section.
Maybe Eleanor could get through this shopping trip without seeing Hayley Jaynes, although she doubted it. She’d heard Hayley and Jackson were back in Huntwood, building new homes on their family’s property. She’d even spied Hayley across the crowded bar of The A-Hole on open mic night. That disaster had been averted; maybe this one could be, too.
Nah, she wasn’t that lucky. She turned on her heel and went to walk out of the grocery store. She could get take-out tonight and save grocery shopping for tomorrow.
Except she needed cat food, too, dammit. Fido couldn’t eat take-out and he was completely out of food.
Cats could eat french fries, right?
No. And Eleanor was too cold to sit in her car waiting for Hayley to leave the store, and she was too environmentally conscious to drive around needlessly and waste gas. She made herself turn around. She’d do her freaking grocery shopping like a freaking adult.
She marched through the produce section, tossing random items in her basket. She’d never had romanesco before, but the spirally fractals looked appealing. She didn’t even like bananas, but she threw a bunch into her basket as well. She grabbed a pre-made container of sushi, from the little counter between the deli and the fish counter.
If she was careful, she might get all the way to the pet food aisle without seeing a Jaynes. It was a small store, but the aisles were above head-height. She inched around the corner of the frozen food section and saw Hayley, who was bent over with her head in the freezer, cursing to herself.
The curses were mostly muffled by the sound of the whirring freezers, but Eleanor caught enough to make sense of it. “Those dickwhistles better not discontinue Phish Food or I swear I’ll kidnap their cows and make my own damn ice cream…”
Eleanor laughed to herself, remembering how Will used to be both baffled and amused by Hayley’s colorful language. She could picture him even now, the side of his mouth quirked in a half-smile, his dark blue eyes dancing. As soon as she thought of it, though, the pain came—a stab of longing and bitterness—and she hurried across the path to the next aisle. Two to go, and she’d be safe in pet food.
Hayley’s head snapped up as soon as Eleanor scooted past, but Eleanor didn’t think Hayley could have seen her.
Eleanor’s heart skipped a beat. Two beats. It felt funny in her chest, like a squiggly fish flopping around. What did that mean? As soon as she got to the pet food aisle, she pulled out her phone. The Ask Dr. Bridges symptom checker was already saved to her browser, so she pulled it up and typed in her symptom. Heart skipping beats.
A series of follow-up questions popped up on the screen. Dizziness? She closed her eyes. Was she swaying on her feet? She didn’t think so. She checked no. Shortness of breath? No. Palpitations coming in groups of three or more? No. Did she have high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure? She didn’t think so, unless something had changed since her check-up a few months ago. No. She clicked submit answers, and then waited for the page to load. It took forever because the grocery store’s wifi was terrible. At least they offered it, thanks to their little cafe by the bakery.
Finally, the big blue and white box popped up.
Dr. Bridges’s thoughts: too much caffeine, too much adrenaline due to stress, premature ventricular contractions, atrial fibrillation. Contact your doctor if you think you have premature ventricular contractions or atrial fibrillation.
Eleanor sighed. Stress. The palpitations were probably due to the stress of nearly running into her ex’s sister. But she’d be monitoring her heart over the next few days, just in case. She grabbed a bag of cat food from the shelf and carried it under her arm, then made her way to the check-out counters. Hayley Jaynes was nowhere in sight. Bullet dodged.
The grocery store wasn’t usually busy this early in the afternoon, so they only had one checker. Two people were in line ahead of Eleanor, one of them with a cart full of goods. Eleanor looked sadly down at her bananas, romanesco, and sushi. She set the basket at her feet, and set the bag of cat food next to it. Then she got out her phone again. Her little toe had been hurting lately, after she’d stubbed it on her piano bench. Was it broken? She pulled up the Dr. Bridges site again and typed toe hurts into the symptom checker.
A long list of toe ailments popped up, and Eleanor’s jaw dropped. Some of the problems sounded more like shark names than toe problems—hammertoe, mallet toe, claw toe. She just wanted to know if her toe was broken or not.
“Hey, Eleanor!”
The low, smoky-sounding voice was familiar. And it belonged to the one person in this town that Eleanor had been trying to avoid. She turned, slowly, wondering if she could instead jump over to the magazine stand and climb into the pages of O Magazine and be embraced by Oprah herself.
She pasted a smile on her face. “Hi…Hayley, right?”
Hayley’s light blue eyes crinkled up. “You remember me! I thought I saw you at The A-Hole a couple of weeks ago, but it was super crowded. How have you been?”
Eleanor thought of Dr. Bridges and hammertoe problems. She thought of Oprah. She thought longingly of the graphic novel series waiting for her at home, Interstellar Love Connection, and how she would curl up in a pile of blankets with her unagi roll and the entire collection, and read through them again. She thought of what Hayley must think of her, standing here with her cat food and sushi-for-one.
“I’m great,” she finally said.
“So, I guess you’re seeing someone?” Hayley asked. “There was that guy, at The A-Hole?”
“Oh.” Eleanor fought to keep her expression even. “Nathan. Yeah, we’re seeing each other.”
The lie sat uneasily on her tongue, but maybe it would get back to Will. Nathan and Will had loathed each other throughout high school and beyond.
She wanted him to hear about it, but she wished she didn’t care.
“And what else are you up to?” Hayley asked.
This was more comfortable ground. “I’m a piano teacher,” Eleanor said.
“Really? You always were really good. I remember we went to one of your recitals once. Or, no…was it the talent show at the high school? And you played an arrangement of ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ that made my mother cry.”
Eleanor took a deep breath. She’d been so preoccupied with herself, she hadn’t thought about what Hayley had been through. “I’m really sorry. About your parents, the fire, all of it.”
“Thanks,” Hayley said, her low voice growing darker. She shrugged. “It was a long time ago, now. I’m just glad we’re back.”
“Um…we?” The heart palpitations returned. Eleanor took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
“Me and Jackson.” Hayley frowned. “Will’s staying away, but I’ll get him here for a longer visit eventually. Jackson’s getting married, so Will might come back soon. Or, he better, before I have to drag his sorry jizzpickle here myself….”
“Wow, Jackson’s getting married?” Eleanor asked. He’d always seemed so carefree and wild. Not as wild as Hayley, but still—him settling down was one of the last things Eleanor could imagine.
“Yep. You should come—you were always such a good friend, to all three of us. Jackson would love to see you there.”
A good friend. That was all Eleanor had been to them. “Yeah, um, we’ll see,” she said.
The line had moved forward while she and Hayley talked. It was Eleanor’s t
urn at the register.
“All right, gotta run,” Hayley said. “I was on my way out when I saw you.”
“It was good to chat with you,” Eleanor said. She meant it, even though the “good” was accompanied by a lot of heartache she really didn’t need.
“You, too.” Hayley waved and made her way to the door, moving on long, powerful legs that reminded Eleanor of Will’s leonine grace.
And that was the problem—everything in the universe seemed to remind Eleanor of Will, especially now that Hayley and Jackson were back in town.
The graphic novel romance saga, Interstellar Love Connection, was waiting for Eleanor at home. Along with a fuzzy cat and a pile of blankets. Eleanor focused on those things. She’d get lost in the ILC story and characters, pet Fido, and cozy up for the night, and everything else—heart palpitations, bruised toe, and thoughts of Will—would fade into the background.
*
Wild Reunion will be available in December!
Also by Liza Street
The Sierra Pride Series
The Sierra Pride: The Complete Series (includes Books 1-8 and “Ava and Jude”)
Fierce Wanderer
Fierce Heartbreaker (free to newsletter subscribers)
Fierce Protector
Fierce Player
Fierce Dancer
Fierce Informer
Fierce Survivor
Fierce Lover
The Corona Pride Series
The Corona Pride: The Complete Series
Savage Yearning
Savage Loss
Savage Heartache
Savage Thirst
Savage Bliss
The Dark Pines Pride Series
Wild Homecoming
Wild Atonement
Wild Reunion
The Rock Creek Clan
The Rose King
About Liza
Liza got her start in romance by sneak-reading her grandma’s paperbacks. Years later, she tried her own hand as a ghostwriter of romance and it wasn’t long before she started writing her own series. Now she divides her time between freelance editing, ghostwriting, and mountain lion shifters with fierce and savage hearts.
