by Dannika Dark
“I’ll remember that,” he growled, desire rumbling in his chest.
Naya wagged her finger at him. “Don’t start with the sexy voice. I have an important meeting with a client in the morning.”
He put his hands on the banister and leaned forward. “I love it when you get feisty, Miss Diva.”
While Wheeler was doing his best to seduce Naya, Spartacus had quietly snuck up like a living shadow behind him. Sparty reached up—as if stretching—and placed his paws on the back of Wheeler’s underwear.
“What the—” Wheeler turned his head and that’s when he made the fatal error of stepping up the staircase.
Spartacus dragged behind him, claws in the material of Wheeler’s underwear. In less than two seconds, Spartacus peeled the tight red shorts down to Wheeler’s ankles.
“I said not tonight!” Naya huffed, tromping back up the stairs, her hips swinging.
I covered my laugh.
“No one needs to see that,” Denver complained, grabbing the snacks from the sofa and heading toward the kitchen.
Wheeler cut him a sharp glare. “Would you rather I bend over and yank them up, sweetheart?” He stepped out of his underwear and hiked up the stairs after his mate.
Spartacus kneaded his paws against the red material of Wheeler’s underwear and then curled up in a ball. He glanced up at Austin and his tongue poked out to the side.
Austin kicked off his unlaced boots. “This is one exception where I’m all for giving that cat a bath.”
Chapter 11
Deciding I didn’t want to get involved with body disposal, I didn’t bring up the events of the previous night with the rest of the pack. When you’ve lived in the Breed world this long, these are exactly the kinds of occurrences that you can expect. Wars, territorial disputes, rogues, secrets, lies, conspiracies, dead bodies on your doorstep—it really was like something you’d see on TV. But we also had moments of normalcy when the boys would swing into town and grab a sack of burgers, or complain how long the line at the grocery store was, or April would find an injured animal and nurse it back to health. I loved every weird and average thing about this pack, this life, and especially my family.
I spent the day with Lexi so she wouldn’t go through her loss alone. She was in better spirits and already trying to put it behind her. I’d always known Lexi’s courage had something to do with her being a Shifter, but this wasn’t the kind of pain a woman could easily put away.
When Saturday morning rolled around, I dragged Denver out of the house.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” I said with a jaunty smile.
Since Jericho had taken off with the blue truck, Denver offered to drive. But this trip was a surprise, so I snatched the keys from his hand and hopped in the driver’s seat. I’d forgotten how stuffy his truck was without a good air conditioner, so we rolled down the windows. A gust of unforgiving wind blew my hair all over the place.
“Do you have something I can tie my hair with?” I asked.
He widened his legs and poked at a hole in his jeans. “Do I look like the kind of guy who keeps scrunchies in his truck?”
“A bandana? A rubber band? Rope?”
He quietly laughed and shook his head. Denver’s truck was old—really old. If it was an antique when I was a little girl, now it was an artifact. It had a long seat and he kept the inside in good condition. The steering wheel was large, and the whole thing squeaked and creaked whenever it hit a bump. There was no backseat, nor room to store anything beneath the seats.
“Pull over real quick,” he said.
After he got out, I snagged a stick of gum from the package sitting on the dash while he rummaged around in the back. The moment I bit into the gum, it crumbled into pieces that sprinkled on my lap and hand.
Denver got back in and stared at me. “What’s that?”
“How long has that gum been on the dash?”
He laughed, and it was low and evil. “You ate that?”
I brushed off my lap. “Don’t even tell me; I don’t want to know.” After spitting the pieces in my mouth out the window, I turned back around to find Denver holding a hat in front of me.
“Found this to keep your hair still.”
I turned the straw hat in my hands—it was shaped like a cowboy hat that curled on the sides. “Is this the one I gave you?”
He shrugged and picked at something on his skintight white T-shirt—the fabric cheap enough that I could see through it. “Comes in handy.”
“Is that all?” I said glumly, putting it on my head and turning back onto the road.
“No. It’s sentimental. I’ve always hated the damn thing, but I wear it a lot.”
That made me smile. I’d always known Denver hated that hat, but the fact that he wore it just for me meant so much.
“Looks good on you,” he said, resting his right arm on top of the door.
“I’m not keeping it.”
He barked out a laugh. “Did I say you could steal my hat? Where are we going?”
“Close your eyes.”
“I don’t like the sound of this.”
I reached over and grasped his arm. “Do you trust me?”
Denver immediately shut his eyes and leaned his head back. Things were going to change, starting today. After a short drive, I put the car into park and instructed him to keep his eyes closed while I got out. He didn’t raise any complaints, but I could tell the suspense was killing him. Denver wasn’t a guy who liked surprises.
I opened his door and took his arm, helping him out of the truck. “Okay, you can look now.”
Denver squinted and glanced around the parking lot. “What am I looking at?”
I tipped my head toward the building.
His eyes followed up to the sign. “Denny’s?”
The purse strap fell off my shoulder and I pulled it back up. “Yeah! They named a whole restaurant after you.”
“You’re funny.” He shut the door and stretched out his back.
“Plus, they let you eat free on your birthday.”
That snagged his attention. I gave a tight-lipped smile and held his hand, pulling him toward the door. Years ago, I’d made Denver get a new human identity that displayed his date of birth as being the same as mine. It was a silly thing to do, but he never wanted to tell me his real birthday, so I decided we were going to share a date. To amuse a little girl, he changed his fake ID.
We both ordered a grand slam—two of everything. Hot pancakes, sausages, crispy bacon, and eggs. I laughed when some of the women couldn’t stop admiring Denver. Shifters had a different aura about them you couldn’t put your finger on; they could sit in a restaurant and eat with humans and no one had a clue they were dining with wolves. But you could always sense something special about them, something magnetic that made it difficult to tear your eyes away.
Denver told a tall tale about a bar fight that had me laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. He always did tell the best stories, and there was never a dull moment around Howlers.
He reached across the table and poked his finger into my cheek. “Always loved those dimples. Got any candy?”
I scowled. When I was too small to know better, Denver had convinced me I could hide small pieces of candy in my dimples if I just kept smiling.
“Why didn’t you ever write back to me?” I’d waited until we finished our meal before starting the long overdue conversation.
Denver nibbled on his last sausage and his gaze darted toward the window. “Just didn’t have anything to talk about. Same old same old.”
“You should have come to visit me. Everyone had so much fun, and it wasn’t the same without you.”
He shrugged. “Never liked flying. Plus if the plane went down, there’d be none of us left.”
I dipped my finger into my orange juice glass and flicked some at him. He grinned and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“Remember when you used to write me letters? I m
issed them when you stopped. Everyone else used to just send me an e-mail or call, but I liked getting a handwritten letter in the mail. People don’t do that anymore, and it was special. I thought you should know that. Maybe nothing exciting was going on around here, but I loved reading the funny things you mentioned—like when Reno’s feet got stuck in the mud, or when the two boys had tied the pack together and made a dogsled.”
He chuckled. “That was funny as hell. Especially when Austin went outside and found out what was going on. The guys were just wagging their tails when they should have known better. It’s a submissive thing to do to a wolf, but they knew the boys were just funnin’ around. Then Austin made them shift.”
I pushed my plate to the left, laughing quietly. “I can imagine what that must have looked like.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to scrub that one from my mind for as long as I live.”
“Sometimes I think I missed out on all the good memories.” I didn’t mention how I’d cried when Lexi had sent pictures of the family tubing on the Guadalupe River; the pack was making memories without me.
He leaned back and fished a peppermint out of his pocket, twisting the wrapper off and popping the candy into his mouth. Denver had a nice sparkle in his eyes, one that had dulled upon my return but was slowly coming back. It wasn’t just the way the light hit them, but the way he looked at me.
Denver leaned forward with his arms on the table. “So how was it living with humans?”
“Different. It’s hard to explain. They always have get-togethers, but not for the same reasons we do. Their bonds don’t seem as strong as a pack’s, but then again, I just hung around with friends. I don’t know what they’re like at home with their families.”
“No one shifting in the house and walking around naked. I could see how that’s different.”
“Maybe the shifting part.”
Denver’s brow arched into a scary angle. “Say again?”
The air tensed.
I unabashedly leaned forward and centered my eyes on his. “I’ve known human men.”
His cheeks were mottled with red—an angry shade I’d seen a few times in my life. It made the scar on his forehead stand out. Denver crunched on his candy and remained quiet.
I played with a couple of colorful woven bracelets on my arm. “I’ve been in two relationships, although neither was serious. Don’t look at me like that; I deserve to be loved.”
“Sex isn’t the only way a man can love you.”
“Says the man who’s always looking for a good time.”
He leaned forward, his shoulders stiffening. “Yeah, well, I’m not looking for love.”
I pulled my tousled hair back. “What the heck? You think that makes it better—having emotionless sex with women? Isn’t it more admirable that at least I tried to be in love with the men I slept with?”
He cleared his throat. “Tried?” Denver lifted a glass of water and swallowed a few gulps. I watched his Adam’s apple move up and down for a second before I answered.
“I cared about them, but I didn’t love them. Not the way you’re supposed to love someone you give yourself to. I thought I did in the beginning, but afterward I realized it wasn’t the kind of love…”
“What?”
I shifted in my seat and looked for the waitress.
Denver grew impatient and snapped his fingers to gain my attention. “Finish what you were going to say.”
This was awkward when I gave it too much thought. I swiped a small drop of syrup off the table with my finger and then wiped it on a napkin. I’d known Denver most of my life, but I’d never felt as though he was family. What if he made a joke about this, something that wasn’t funny to me? Denver had a tendency to deflect awkward situations with humor.
“It wasn’t the kind of love I’d always imagined.”
“Oh, that.”
I jerked my head back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He put his silverware on his plate and began arranging the table. “You’ve been reading fairy tales your whole life, watching all those human movies with unrealistic expectations.”
“I knew the movies weren’t real,” I protested.
He pulled out some bills for a tip. “Maybe so, but that kind of shit seeps in real deep. There’s no prince, there’s no fairy tale, there’s no perfect man who will sweep you off your feet and give you a happily ever after. There’s just the guy who’s good enough.”
I started laughing in disbelief. “You should start your own line of children’s books.”
“True that. Would Beauty have loved the Beast if he wasn’t loaded? Even if he’d never changed back, she was set for life.”
“She fell in love with his heart. The one he kept hidden and pretended he didn’t have. The one no one had ever touched. Sound familiar?” I got up and glanced around the restaurant until I saw a set of doors behind me. “I need to use the restroom before we head out.”
“Home?”
I smiled and circled my finger around the white spot on my leg. “Part two. The adventure has only just begun.”
“It better not involve bungee cords.”
***
When Maizy got up to leave, Denver actually leaned into the aisle to stare at her ass. He felt ashamed, especially when the elderly lady across the aisle cleared her throat and clucked her tongue at him.
He was a virile man and couldn’t ignore that Maizy had a sensational body. Long, slender legs, a swing in her step, a slight flare in her hips, flawless skin—except for the tanning mishap on her leg, and even that was kind of sexy because it drew his gaze to her thighs. It hadn’t escaped his attention that despite her petite frame, she’d inherited beautiful breasts. Maizy didn’t have the small cups that most women her size did, but a nice handful. Not too big either. Just right.
Hard not to notice in her V-necked brown summer blouse that tied in the back. All through breakfast he had a grand-slam view of her cleavage. Especially when the air conditioner kicked on and raised little goose bumps across her body. Texas restaurants loved to freeze out customers, and Denver was blissfully thankful.
Looking her in the eyes was no easy feat. She had a habit of drawing in her bottom lip and wetting it. And unlike his dark blue eyes, hers were radiant like a summer sky. Most of all, it was her infectious laugh that made her irresistible. Every time she flashed those dimples at him, it made his chest swell. He couldn’t get over how beautiful she’d become, and yet how down-to-earth she was. There was a comfort level between them that made it easy to fall into banter with her.
The second Maizy went into the bathroom, someone slid into her seat.
Prince gave him a critical gaze and lowered his voice. “I’ll make this brief. It’s come to my attention that you seem to have an affection for the human.”
Denver leaned on his forearms. “And what business is it of yours?”
“Let’s just say that you’re encroaching upon my territory.”
The hairs on the back of Denver’s neck rose. This alpha was staking his claim on Maizy? “You forget she’s my packmate, not free game.”
Prince tipped his head to the side. “Perhaps, but technically she’s human, so she belongs to no one’s pack.”
Denver lifted his chin. “Have you been following us? This doesn’t look like your kind of joint.”
Prince’s eyes lifted and he observed their surroundings. “Precisely. I would never bring a woman like Maizy to a classless, cheap establishment such as this.”
Denver waved his finger between them. “She’s the one who brought me, buddy.” Maybe that didn’t impress the alpha, because a smug look crossed Prince’s expression.
“It must be hard times indeed to have an unemployed woman pay for your breakfast.”
Asshole. “She didn’t buy my food. It was free.”
“Keep flapping your gums and it will only reaffirm what an unworthy man you are.”
Prince had an arrogance about him that came with age, b
ut he’d never gone out of his way to be rude to one of them. It was as if he was trying to provoke Denver and get him to do something foolish. Denver wanted to flip the table over, but he wasn’t sure if it was bolted to the floor. Aside from that, Prince was a Packmaster, and there were rules about that kind of thing that could land Denver in hot water for attacking him.
Prince knew it too, and that’s why he kept a supreme look of satisfaction on his face. The same face Denver wanted to shove into a plate of half-eaten eggs and cover in maple syrup.
“What do you want?”
Prince peered over his shoulder at the bathroom door and stood up. “Walk with me to the exit.”
Denver set an empty glass on a few bills and followed Prince. They paused at the glass door with Prince leaning his right shoulder against the wall.
“I don’t know what relationship exists between you two, but we both know it’s not uncommon for watchdogs to mate with the ones they’re protecting. I’ve seen it. The relationship is unbreakable, and once the woman comes of age and begins dating, that old instinct kicks in. The one that tells you to fight for her, only I don’t see you fighting so hard, and I’m guessing it’s because she’s a human. I want you to keep your distance.”
“And what’s your sudden interest in a human? Looking for a pet? Well, it ain’t gonna happen.”
“She has always been a special child, and now she’s an exquisite woman. I can offer her more than your tip jar at Howlers. Why would you deny her that measure of security? Think about what kind of life she could have before you decide how greedy you want to be. I have an abundance of wealth and power, and who I choose to set my sights on is none of your affair.”
Denver leaned in. “What makes you think we’re not together?”
Prince’s features hardened, and Denver’s attention was drawn to his blue eye more than the brown. “Because I know the look of a man who covets. It’s not the same look as a man who already has the object of his desire in his possession. You’re never going to get her. She will never be yours.”
