by Holley Trent
“Why not?”
“Because she’s opinionated and quick to tell people when their logic is flawed. She’ll cut a guy off in a hurry if the only weapon he has in a debate is emotion. Meanwhile, my father tends to be more methodical about his interpersonal relationships. He’s very careful not to offend the people he considers peers.”
“I guess you didn’t learn that lesson from him.”
“I learned it well enough to wait until no one’s looking to give you the finger,” she murmured.
He saluted her with a taco and took a big bite. “I rest my case, shortcake. Shit, you’re meaner than a—”
“Whatever. Anyhow, Aunt Glenda liked her. In my opinion, that’s the greatest seal of approval a lady could get.”
“Did your mom know what your aunt had married into?”
Lily nibbled contemplatively on a dumpling. She’d never asked her mother what she knew of Maria’s paranormal underbelly. Maybe she’d always been a little scared to—afraid her mother would freak out about it the same way her father did. She was afraid her mother would tell her not to consort with “those people,” even though they were related to her, and they had never been anything but supportive.
“That a yes or a no?” Lance asked.
“I don’t think she knows,” Lily said.
“You ever going to tell her?”
“I came pretty close to having to. That scares me enough.”
He stopped chewing again.
She realized how what she said must have sounded the moment the words left her mouth, but she’d never been the sort of person who’d backpedal on the truth. It was out there. Now he knew.
“You would have kept me a secret,” he said pointedly.
“Not you, but perhaps what you are. At least until I didn’t have a choice.”
“Well, guess what?” he said, tossing his napkin onto the table. “I don’t get a choice. I wake up every day like this, and I don’t get to change my DNA for the people who don’t like it.”
“I would never suggest that you should change yourself. I—”
The waitress had returned with their meals, so Lily zipped her lips as the woman set them on the table and cleared away the appetizer dishes.
Lily sat back, clenching her teeth and drumming her fingertips on her thigh.
No matter what she said, he was probably going to find some way to twist her words. He was going to make her out to be some kind of shapeshifter bigot, and yet she’d been having to walk a balance beam between the groups her entire life.
Disown or be disowned?
Did she really want to be associated with people who had such hatred for people who were different? Did it matter if they didn’t love her anymore?
She didn’t know. She just knew that families were supposed to try. That was what she’d always been told. Maybe they’d all lied to her.
“So, you said this is your first visit to T or C?” The waitress squatted at the tableside and looked to Lance. “We’ve got some beautiful weather coming in this weekend. Oh! And you absolutely have to go to the hot springs. You can’t visit and not try those.” She giggled.
Lily pinched the bridge of her nose and prayed for patience.
To the waitress, they probably didn’t look like they were together. Lily was holding someone else’s brown baby and Lance had that blond lumberjack thing going on. The old saying went “mama’s baby, daddy’s maybe,” and it was possible Martha could be Lily’s and that Lance was just a friend, but that assumption still wouldn’t excuse the waitress for the brazen flirting.
Or Lance for condoning it.
Their marriage was on the skids, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him disrespect her.
“I can get you some discount vouchers if you want to visit the best spa in town.” The waitress winked. “I’m there every weekend. They don’t even care if you wear a bathing suit, so if you didn’t bring one—”
“Hi. Sorry. Hey,” Lily said, putting on her best stage smile. She hadn’t broken that thing out in years, but that lady had crossed the line and deserved to bear witness to the cheesiness of it. “We’re sort of in a rush to get this baby to bed. Could you bring us the dessert menus so we can put in to-go orders?” She hoped the “and then leave us the hell alone” was heavily enough implied.
“Of course!”
“Thanks ever so much.”
The lady bounded away.
Lily turned her glare toward Lance and was met with an icy stare of his own.
“I believe when we left off, you were putting words into my mouth,” she said.
“The ones coming out of it were elucidating enough.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t make any hasty judgments about what you think you heard.”
“I’m pretty sure I know what I heard.” He tapped his ear. “Remember? Freaky sense of hearing, just like your cousins.”
“Don’t even go there.”
The waitress dropped the menus onto the table and had squatted, probably to launch into another spiel, but Lily wasn’t going to let her. She tugged a menu over and preempted her with, “How about…” She scanned the menu rapidly and tapped on a couple of random things. “Those. Those are great.”
“Okay! Want anything else to drink?”
“No,” Lance said.
“Okie doke. I’ll put those in.” She backed away, molasses-slow and ignoring the patron on the other side of the dining room who’d been waving for her attention for the last minute.
Lily pointed toward him. “Guy over there looks hungry.”
The waitress looked. “Oh.” She gave her head a shake as if to clear it and hustled over.
“There’s no point getting pissy at her,” Lance said in an undertone. “She can’t help it.”
“Can’t help what?”
“You may be resistant to my energy because you grew up around shifters. She’s not.”
“Which means what?”
He shrugged and picked up his steak knife. “She thinks she likes me. Not a big deal.”
“Oh. I see.” She nodded slowly and set Martha into the high chair. “No, I’m sure it isn’t for you.” She gave the baby a prepared bottle and picked up her knife, too. “I’m also sure that explains the mountain of latex you keep in the travel trailer. Piles and piles of it. Did you learn your lesson before or after our little incident?”
Because if after, she was going to tie him up and roll him into an open septic tank at the ranch. Her cousins would help and she was pretty sure Blue wouldn’t be all that mad once Lily explained things to him.
Married guys weren’t supposed to sleep around, even if no one but Fake Elvis and a couple of witnessing strangers from the Vegas Strip knew about the wedding.
Lance cut into his steak, saying nothing.
“Before or after, Lance?”
“Why does it matter?”
“Because it just does. You didn’t have a condom that night.”
“That’s your assumption, Lily.” He shoved steak into his mouth and gave her a blasé look.
“So you’re saying you did?”
“We were both drunk off our asses. One thing led to another.”
The waitress came by again and looked at Lily’s plate. “Not cooked the way you like? If you want, I can—”
“It’s fine,” Lily snapped.
The lady blinked a few times and then walked to the kitchen.
Lily sighed. She was always nice, or could at least pretend to be, but that’d been harder to do since her release from the hospital. It was hard for her to pretend she had her shit together when on the inside, she was coming apart.
She rubbed her eyes and somehow managed to suppress the scoff hanging in her chest.
I’ll just leave her a bigger tip.
“What is with you?” Lance asked in an undertone.
Her appetite was trashed. She didn’t see the point in trying to eat. Lily tossed her napkin onto the table and waved down the waitress for a to-go box. �
�Nothing’s wrong.”
Or everything was. Lately, she had a hard time telling the difference.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lance had barely backed his pickup onto the parking pad when the smack of a fist against his quarter panel made a growl come out of him.
Estela loomed in the reflection of his side view mirror looking like some kind of malevolent wraith in her black clothes and with her eyes ominously slanted.
“What the hell?” he asked low.
“Here are Josefina and Blanca.” Lily opened the door on her side and immediately had Martha lifted from her arms.
Without a word, the women started walking away.
That wasn’t right. Lance hopped down and slammed his door. “Hey,” he shouted after them. When they didn’t respond, he shouted it again, louder. “Hey!”
Estela stopped but didn’t turn.
He stormed across the pad to her, wanting her to look him in the eyes. Five feet from her heels, though, he found himself clutching at his chest, trying to draw in a breath. It was as though scalding hot water had been poured into his lungs and he couldn’t expel it.
As he coughed, trying to dislodge the phantom irritant, she slowly turned.
She didn’t say anything.
By the time he could straighten up and look at her, he was glad she didn’t.
In all the years he’d spent flying Blue around and running errands for him, Lance had never seen such a malicious creature. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Estela hated him—straight up hated him—for being what he was. Her eyes were pure black, skin unusually gray and damp-looking like glass coated with condensation.
She turned again, slowly marching toward the tents.
Josefina and Blanca had long since disappeared into them.
Briefly, he pondered walking in and forcing some answers from them. They’d left Martha there with nothing but a bag and a dog, and then had the nerve to return and snatch her back without so much as a thanks or even a “kiss my ass.”
As much as he wanted to stomp over there swinging, his alpha’s warning hung in his mind. Blue had said not to engage them unnecessarily. Further, Lola’s cryptic feedback about them was making him somewhat more risk-averse than usual.
He took a deep breath through his nose, let it out, and turned back to the trailer.
Lily was standing despondently by the door, chafing her arms. She was always so cold. Maybe she needed iron or something. She should have eaten the steak.
The thought of dinner reminded him—they’d left the restaurant leftovers in the truck. Grunting, he went to fetch them. Upon return, he reported, “They didn’t have anything to say.” He unlocked the trailer and gestured for her to go on up. She needed to get warm, and he needed to debrief Blue.
She took a seat at the table, so he set her takeout container in front of her along with a knife and fork.
“Never seen anything like that in my life.” He’d dialed Blue’s cell phone and it was already ringing on the other end.
“You’ve got news?” Blue asked. “If so, so do I. I’ll talk first.”
Lance dragged his hand down his face and plopped onto the sofa. He brushed some of the numbing gel packaging aside on the coffee table so he could put up his feet. “Okay. Go for it.”
“Regina had to double back.”
“What? Double back to where? I thought she was on the way here.”
“She was, but she had to go back to the group home.”
“What happened?”
“I guess the kid finally opened up enough to her to say something. He felt bad about leaving his friend there. She did a little probing. Seems like the kid’s an orphaned Coyote.”
“We didn’t know anything about there being other Coyotes there. Where’d he come from?”
“Not a hundred percent sure yet. I’ve got Kenny doing some digging. He knows a lady in another pack whose job is to move shifter kids around. She doesn’t find out about every single one, but she dug up a bit on this little guy. Her network says the kid’s story checks out. He’s got nobody. The moral thing for us to do now that we know is to help Regina claim him.”
“But you can’t just spring a kid from a group home without having some kind of close family relationship that can be proven.”
“We’re working on that,” Kenny said in the background. “Just because our pack hasn’t had to do this before doesn’t mean it isn’t done.”
“How long is what you’re doing going to take?” Lily asked. She still hadn’t touched her food.
Lance wondered if she needed some help. She was rubbing her arms again, so maybe she needed someone to cut up her steak for her and help it find her mouth. The reward for his hard work would be if that if she were chewing, she couldn’t be as mean to him. Shortcake’s words had bite.
“Trying to get it done by end of the business day tomorrow,” Kenny said, “but of course, there are no guarantees. Anything wrong?”
“No, I just need to get back to work. Don’t worry about it. I’ll call Belle.”
And tell her what?
That would have been a conversation Lance would pay money to hear.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Blue said with a laugh. “Unfortunately, that’s what happens, sometimes, when you edge into a shapeshifter’s orbit. You get ensnared in all sorts of delicious drama.”
Lily didn’t look amused. In fact, she was resting her head atop the table. Actually, lightly pounding her forehead against the surface.
Maybe she wouldn’t have been so hangry if she’d eaten the steak. A little cholesterol boost always made him a kinder, gentler Coyote.
“What’s your news?” Blue asked.
Lance pulled his gaze away from Lily and crossed his ankles in the other direction. “Jaguars returned. Martha has been snatched back into their custody.”
“What do you mean by snatched? Did they say anything?”
“We got back from dinner, and before I could my truck door open, they had us flanked. Three of them. I don’t know if they thought we were going to put up a fight about the baby or what, but anyway. None of them seemed all that cheerful, but Estela, in particular, had a nasty stink of magic coming off her.”
“Oh?” Lance could imagine Blue perking up at that bit of trivia. “Explain.”
“Hot. Hostile. Scalding, drowning feeling.” Lance gave his nostrils a squeeze. His sinuses still burned a little just from the memory of the magic bombardment. He’d never encountered anything like that before. Lola owed them an explanation and pronto.
“How close were you?” Blue asked.
“When I felt that? Two meters, maybe. I could have probably scratched my way closer, but it was a struggle, man. Walking on bubbling lava barefooted might have been easier.”
“Interesting. I wonder if only Estela has that ability. It maybe wouldn’t be so uncommon for someone’s who’s the de facto alpha of the group, but if all of them are like that, that’s downright…”
“Terrifying?”
Blue grunted. “Are they moving?”
“Nah. They were zipping themselves into their tents for the night. I can only assume that Martha is being taken care of.”
“I’m taking her if she’s not,” came Lily’s murmur.
“What’d she say?” Blue asked.
“Nothing,” Lance said. The woman was obviously out of her head. She knew better than to pick fights with people who were half animal, especially about their offspring.
Lily rolled her eyes and stood. She walked past the table without looking at him, climbed onto the loft, and promptly pulled the covers over her head.
What is with her?
“Be vigilant as always,” Blue said. “I’ll hit you up as soon as we know more about Regina’s ETA.”
“Great. Made any progress on the territory expansion issue?”
“Maybe. One thing at a time, though. I need to have a chat with our Cougar friends so they know we’re not just grabbing land for the purposes of being pro
vocative. If we can work something out where they’re helping us manage the additional territory—”
“Then no one can accuse us of starting takeover shit.”
“Exactly. The claim would be strictly for purposes of making easier transit through nearby zones. Catch you soon.” Blue disconnected.
For a few minutes, Lance lounged on the sofa, tossing his phone from hand to hand and staring at the small lump Lily made under the covers.
He was going to tell her that she hadn’t eaten, but she wasn’t a child. She knew that.
He was going to ask her what was wrong but feared he wouldn’t like the answer.
If she told him “You’re what’s wrong,” he wouldn’t be surprised, but it would sting anyway, knowing why she’d come along at all. She was there for them to detach themselves from each other with surgical precision so that no one ever found out what they’d done.
It was necessary, of course, but suddenly seemed to be such a waste.
She was going to make some man really happy one day. Lance could recognize who’d likely be getting the better end of the deal. Any man who got her would be lucky.
There was just no way it could be him.
*
“Where’s Ma?”
Lily stirred from sleep in a panic yet again, brain reeling at a question she didn’t know the answer to.
“Where’s Ma?” Lance repeated.
As the fog lifted from Lily’s brain, she realized the question hadn’t been meant for her. The answer wasn’t hers to know.
Sitting up the best she could in the cramped space, she threw off the sweltering covers that Lance must have piled on top of her.
“Why is it so hot in here?” she whispered as she rubbed her eyes.
Falling asleep in her clothing may have had something to do with it.
She heeled off her boots and yanked her sweater over her head.
That was better, though the trailer still seemed unusually warm. Lance usually tended to keep the thermostat set at around sixty-six. That wasn’t surprising or unusual. Shifters ran hot. Having spent so much time around her cousins, Lily was used to wearing layers as necessary. It didn’t feel like sixty-six in there.
