by Abigail Owen
You’re allergic to dogs, she tried to remind herself.
But her hands were already itching to call her brother and get Cade’s number. Which he arrogantly hadn’t provided when he’d driven off yesterday.
“I’m sorry I can’t give you better news,” Mr. Mackle said.
Skyla shook her head and dredged up a smile from somewhere. “It’s not your fault. Let me think about what I want to do.”
“Suit yourself.”
She almost winced at the words that conjured up intense, amused blue eyes and lips that tasted like bourbon and coke.
What would it be like to take him upstairs and—?
“Shyla?” Mr. Mackle’s voice intruded. She yanked her focus back to where she was to find the plumber watching her with concern.
“Sorry, what?”
“I asked if I could turn the water off at the street.”
“Oh. Yes. Thank you.”
He gave her an odd look. One she was used to, though usually because she’d paused to count something in her head. “I’ll wait for your call about the tank system.”
Shyla nodded and waited for him to be farther away before she shut the door and went about her process of getting all the locks in place in counts of three.
Then, before she could overthink it, she grabbed her phone and dialed.
An hour later, a knock that was already way too familiar, given that she’d only heard it once before in recent years, sounded at her door.
After going through her locks with the counting, she swung the door wide to find Cade standing there. She’d expected a big, teasing grin. Sixteen-year-old Cade had been a smirker and a bit of a know-it-all. Instead, he stood there silently and allowed his serious gaze to skate over her in a way she swore she felt like a physical touch. One that raised the fine hairs on her arms.
Whoa, Nelly. I am in trouble.
She cleared her throat. “Thanks for coming so quickly.”
She stepped back and opened the door wider, but he didn’t move. “I would’ve been here sooner, but I had to stop and borrow some tools.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll go ahead and get started if that’s okay. I’ll go around the side instead of through the house.”
If she didn’t know better, she would’ve pegged Cade as being nervous about something. Not her certainly. At barely five foot, she wasn’t exactly intimidating.
“Of course. Just let me know if you need anything, or if I can help?”
He nodded.
Shyla shut the door and frowned at the dark-stained wood. That interaction had seemed…off. But why?
Her mind was caught up with it enough that she didn’t realize she hadn’t locked the door until a loud thunk form outside made her jump. Quickly, she went through her routine—a routine she’d started right after Cade left town—then tried to quietly hurry upstairs to her bedroom that looked out over her back and side yards.
Sure enough, Cade was out there, watery sunlight cascading through the trees over him. He’d taken his jacket off, leaving him in jeans, boots, and a tight t-shirt that left little to the imagination as he swung a scary-looking pick at the frozen ground. How was he not cold without more layers? Must be a wolf thing.
“Does he seriously think brute force will work?” she murmured to herself.
Cade paused mid-swing, then turned to glance over his shoulder right at her.
Shyla hopped back from the window and slapped a hand over her mouth to hold in a yelp. He’d heard that? Jeez. If his hearing was that acute, then he was definitely aware of the way her heart skipped anytime he was around. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to come inside.
Right. Time for a legitimate distraction.
Work would always be there for her. She tromped loudly down the stairs to her office, where she dropped into her chair. Since he could hear every whisper anyway, might as well not bother being sneaky or quiet.
To the rhythmic thunk, thunk, thunk from outside, Shyla managed to lose herself in the graphics she was working on. As a freelance artist, she had to hustle for work, but she loved what she did, and she could do it from the safety and comfort of her own home.
Three hours later—after pausing to offer him water, which lead to the realization that she shouldn’t go out to the dig because she might compulsively start organizing the dirt into a neat pile—she pushed back from her desk, rubbing at her eyes. Twilight was filtering through the mountains, turning the view outside her window navy tinted, and still she could hear him working away. Getting up, she moved into the kitchen and a primo view of muscles in action.
Oh, my.
She had to give herself a shake and wipe the metaphorical drool from her mouth. Determined to stay cool, she went to the back door, which had as many locks as the front. “It’s almost dark,” she called once she had it open. “Why don’t you call it a day?”
“Be there in ten,” he called back, not breaking his rhythm by so much as a blip.
Enough time for her to start the water boiling for dinner and do her nightly house check. She flipped on the light for him and managed to make herself leave the door unlocked, even though spiders might as well have been skittering over her skin for the effort. Checking and checking again every single nook and cranny of her small house, turning on various lights as she went, took time. She returned as Cade walked into the kitchen, boots in hand, and set his water on the countertop. He passed her by and went to the front door, which she heard him unlock, put the boots outside, then lock again after himself.
Shyla closed her eyes and breathed, wrestling with the urge to lock it properly. Triple check everything. When she was in town, she made herself let the little things go, and most people didn’t know about her…obsessiveness. But in her own home, this was her routine. Much harder to ignore.
“Shy?”
His voice came from so close, she snapped her eyes open and gasped. If she lifted a hand, she would brush against him, the heat from his body already seeping into her. How had he snuck up on her like that? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a wolf shifter’s hearing? Then no one could sneak up on her ever again, and maybe then....
“Sorry.” She forced a smile. “You caught me thinking. You hungry?” The least she could do was feed the man. “Spaghetti sound good?”
“I could eat.” To her surprise he opened the pantry. “Ingredients in here?”
Shyla cringed and waited for him to comment. He didn’t though, simply grabbed the ingredients and turned to her. Only this time she couldn’t help herself. She stepped around him and moved the canned goods down a level to keep them in order by use-by-date, tweaking one of the cans he’d touched so that the label faced properly.
Not looking at him, she took the items from his hands and moved to the stove. Why didn’t he say something? Tease her about it?
“So…”
Here it came.
“All your cans and boxes are damaged.”
That’s what he chose to comment on? Keeping her back to him, she shrugged. “I take all the ones that aren’t perfect, because I know no one else will want them.”
“I see.” He was smiling. She could hear it in his voice. “It’s like the island of misfit toys.”
Shyla paused and turned to find him grinning, but in a nice way. An unexpected chuckle bounced out of her before she knew it was coming. The Christmas reference had caught her funny bone sideways. “I guess it is.”
They shared a moment of unexpected understanding.
Then Cade rubbed his hands together. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Too many inappropriate answers came to mind. Why did she react like this to Cade, even after all this time apart? “There’s stuff for a salad in the fridge.”
4
CADE
Cade opened the fridge and stared. He’d never seen a refrigerator so compulsively neat, everything in labeled containers, stacked just so. The same as her pantry. The same as her office, which he’d seen on his way by in the hallway.
He didn’t remember Shyla being so organized as a kid. Quiet, yes. A good student in school. But he’d been in her room a time or two, and there’d been nothing like this. He remembered clothes on the floor, and books stacked on her bedside table, and the bathroom always a shambles of baffling girly products on the counter. However, this wasn’t just the obsessive neatness either. Still no holiday decorations in sight, and her family Christmases were a big freaking deal. Not a single Santa or light or tree. Nothing. This close to the holiday, it had to be on purpose.
So, the question was, when had all this started?
Taking lettuce and other veggies to the sink, he turned on the water, only to remember that it was turned off.
“There’s a few gallons of already boiled water in the garage,” she said.
Labeled and neatly stacked by the door, he discovered. Bringing a gallon in with him, he paused at the sink. “Do you like these washed a particular way?”
Her back to him as she browned ground beef on the stove, he still caught the way her shoulders stiffened at the question. “No…rinsed off is fine. There are paper towels under the cabinet.”
So, the obsessively neat thing wasn’t about germs, despite the scent of bleach all over the house. Unless she was hiding her real reaction from him. She was still closed off, and his wolf whined that he wanted to go rub against her to try to fix that. Still, Cade doubted she would’ve given him the task if she needed it done a certain way.
Suddenly, a sneezing fit caught her, and she stepped away from the stove. She sounded like a kitten sneezing, which only made him want to ruffle her fur a bit…or cuddle her close. Except either action would probably only make her sneeze harder.
Finally get close to my mate, and she can’t stand to be near me. Figures. Life was hilarious sometimes.
“Bless you,” he said, like he had yesterday.
“Thanks.” She sounded stuffy now, like a kid home from school with a head cold.
“Maybe I should go.” He’d kept himself outside for hours, hacking at the rock-hard ground, telling himself that right now helping Shyla was the best he could do. Mating needed to wait on her and on the situation with the pack.
His wolf had prowled around inside him the entire time, making it clear he thought Cade was a dumbass.
“No,” she shook her head and finally looked his way, grinning. “I’m used to it. Sean mated a female wolf from two packs over. It’ll stop after about an hour.”
Sean mated a wolf, too? What were the odds. He and his once-best-friend hadn’t had much of a chance to catch up yet. Cade made a mental note to rectify that soon. That and go running in the woods together. Sean had always been jealous of that.
Shyla sneezed again, then reached for a tissue before going to the bathroom, where he could hear her wash her hands. She returned to the stove, her back mostly to him, and Cade watched her brown the meat.
Maybe the sneezing would keep him from kissing her.
Probably not. His wolf was pushing so hard to touch her, the scrambling of claws against the inside of his head was giving Cade a headache.
“Salads are done. Should I set the table?”
That got a flicker of her lashes against her cheek. From this angle, he couldn’t tell if that was just a blink, or if she was wavering. “Sure. Dishes are in that cupboard, silverware, that drawer.” She pointed.
“Got it.”
“So…where have you been all this time? I mean aside from the construction?” she asked as she upended a jar of sauce over the beef, then covered it and turned down the heat to simmer.
How much to tell her? He cleared his throat as he pulled dishes from the cupboard. “I stayed with another pack in Denver until I finished high school. Went to college, got combined bachelors and MBA in five years. The alpha of the Denver pack let me return and I guess you could say I apprenticed under him the last few years.”
Shyla turned and leaned a hip against the counter with a smile he didn’t trust. “You were terrible at math. What made you get an MBA?”
Ah. She was remembering all those study sessions. Heat crawled up into his face. “Confession time. I pretended to be bad at math so we could spend time together.”
Whatever Shyla was thinking didn’t show on her face. Those walls were going to take some major skills to scale. But her heart stumbled a bit. In a good way or a bad way? “You wanted to spend time with me?” she asked.
A good way then, but she was still skittish. The way she held her body told him that. So he held back, limiting himself to a grin he knew was sheepish. “Yeah. I sort of loved spending time with you.”
She shook her head. “I would never have guessed.”
Cade shrugged. “Teenagers suck at being open with their feelings.” Adults weren’t much better.
She turned back to the stove before he could see her reaction. “So what does an apprentice to the alpha do?”
Had this been one of his own pack mates, he’d have been listening for any sign of derision or doubt, but Shyla’s question only sounded of curiosity.
“A pack is run like a business or a small town. I learned the ins and outs and the politics of it from one of the best.” One of the scariest sons of bitches out there, but one Cade respected above every other wolf. She didn’t need to know that yet.
“So you can take over from him one day?” she asked as she moved around the kitchen.
Until he knew what was going to happen with Keith and who would become alpha of the Holly Hill pack, he wasn’t ready to talk about it. “To take over a pack, yes.”
She was facing him more fully now as she put all the food into serving dishes. Her quick glance at his face was assessing. “I see.”
He had a feeling she did.
“That makes sense to me.”
Amusement tugged at his mouth. Yet again, she made him want to smile. “It does?”
She gave a definitive nod. “You always did like to boss people around. It fits.”
His wolf huffed a laugh in his head even as a chuckle punched from him. “Maybe I just liked bossing you around.”
Now the image of bossing her around in the bedroom slammed through him, instant fire in his veins, the fantasy so vivid, he felt out of breath with it.
She dropped her lashes, hiding her eyes from him. “I don’t think you’ll find that as easy to do these days.”
His ears perked up. Another challenge.
“It wasn’t easy before,” he admitted. “You’re a stubborn little thing when you get ideas into your head.”
That made her smile at least, but she turned away to check the noodles. Still hiding. The thing was, he doubted she realized that hiding would only draw out the predator in him. Already his wolf was practically vibrating in eager anticipation.
“No…um…mate in the picture?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he answered carefully. No way would he risk scaring her away before she was ready to hear it. Not to mention the fact that he’d kissed her only yesterday.
Unbidden, his gaze dropped to those soft lips, and his wolf whined in his head, whimpering to be nearer to her. Didn’t she know a mated wolf wouldn’t look twice at another woman?
Maybe not. Humans didn’t operate the same way.
“Don’t you need one to be alpha?” she asked.
“No.” She wouldn’t appreciate his thinking that question was cute, so he kept a straight face.
“Oh.” Her gaze skittered away, and Cade frowned. What had he said wrong?
Then her chin went up. “You can tell me if I’m not supposed to ask questions, you know.”
She turned and scooped out a noodle to test the consistency, but her shoulders were still stiff and neither he nor his wolf were having it. He walked up behind her and reached around her to flip the gas off on the burner. He could smell the noodles were done. He put both hands on the counter on either side of her, caging her in, though not quite letting himself press against her back. Lips to her ear. “You can ask me anythin
g you want, sweetheart.”
This close, even not quite touching, her shiver skated right through him. Delicious. Her apples and spice scent also wound around him, surrounding him. This was what she’d smell like in the throes of passion, and he couldn’t wait to experience it.
“Anything?” she asked.
Now why did he not trust the note in her voice? He may have teased her as kids, but her revenge had always been worse than whatever he’d done. Still, he had to earn her trust, and he knew that. “Anything.”
She spun in his arms to face him, though careful not to touch him more than necessary as she did. Expression serious, she tipped her head back to look him straight in the eye. “Are all wolves this touchy feely? You seem to have no boundaries.”
His lips twitched, but he managed to control the laughter that wanted to work its way out of him. Even cornered, Shyla didn’t back down. Damn his mate had grown into an incredible woman. The schoolgirl he’d once known would’ve hidden in her room or found some excuse to leave the house. While he might miss how protective the girl had allowed him to be, as alpha, he respected the line in the sand the woman intended to draw.
Except something about the stiff way she held her body away from him snagged his attention and he focused, bringing all his senses to bear. A fear lurked in her eyes, turning them darker, an emotion that had his wolf growling softly in his head. Fear of him? Of what he was?
She wasn’t ready.
“Wolves are that way with people they…like.” He grabbed the noodles, careful not to accidentally brush her with it, and moved to the sink where she already had a colander waiting.
He hummed softly to himself, very off key, but it filled the small kitchen with sound and gave his little mate a chance to breathe as she watched him with those wary eyes. Which she did, and after a second she joined him in getting the food to the table and loading their plates.
“Uh…” Cade glanced around the kitchen. “Where’d my water go?”
Shyla paused, reaching for the salt, and winced. “I thought you were done with it.”
That was fast. He made a mental note to keep his glass with him at all times in future.
