August pushed the Coors my way. “That’s what you were drinking, right?”
I wasn’t sure why he was asking me, since he was well aware of the answer—August was the most attentive person in the Northern hemisphere.
I wasn’t sure whether I should be drinking another beer. Then again, I was walking home, not driving, and I had a werewolf metabolism, so one more couldn’t hurt. “I’ll only drink it if I can pay for this round.”
He smiled, as though amused. “Same way you’re going to pay me for the hardwood finishing?”
“You do know I wasn’t fake-offering, right?”
“I know.”
“Then why won’t you let me? I’d be using your money to pay anyway.”
His smile vanished. “Stop thinking of it as my money. It isn’t. It’s money that was owed to your family—”
“Stop saying it was owed. Nothing was owed. You just gave me a handout because you pity me.”
His eyebrows shot up. “That wasn’t pity.”
“I’m not mad; I’m just stating a fact.”
“Don’t state incorrect facts because that makes me mad.” He lifted his bottle to his lips and drank a long, hard gulp that made his Adam’s apple judder.
“I didn’t come over here to fight with you.”
His freckles darkened. “We’re not fighting; we’re talking.”
“Well, let’s talk about something else, then.”
The spicy scent of his skin seemed to have gotten stronger. Perhaps because he was flushed from the heat of our talk. “What are you doing for your birthday next week?”
“Haven’t planned anything. Probably just dinner with Evelyn after her shift at The Silver Bowl.” Even though he hadn’t asked, I explained why we’d been there the other day. “Actually, how about we all go to dinner there?”
He cocked up an eyebrow. “All?”
“Your parents, Jeb, Frank, you? We could go late so Evelyn can get out of the kitchen.” I scrunched up my nose. Had I really just suggested his family join me? Just because they’d been to most of my birthdays, didn’t mean they cared to sit through yet another one. Especially after everything that had transpired between me and their son. “Unless—unless you have other plans.”
“I have no other plans.”
“You really don’t have to come if—”
“I’m honored to have been invited. And I can already tell you Mom and Dad will be there.” A smile finally fractured his tension-filled face.
“Okay,” I whispered.
He turned in his seat, and his knee knocked into mine. The contact made me jump, which in turn made him lay a big palm on my thigh. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to pin me in place or calm me.
It wasn’t calming in the least . . .
“Sorry about that. Not much room in between these barstools.”
I wondered why he was passing it off as an accident when it was blatantly not. My gaze dropped to his hand, which he hadn’t removed.
“You’re not supposed to touch me,” I said, my voice coming out a little choked.
“We’re no longer dating, so I don’t really see how I’m breaking Liam’s rules.”
August was so close that I could hear the steady cadence of his heart through his tight Henley, which meant he could hear the frenzied tempo of mine.
“Right?” he asked in a voice so rough it sounded like he’d used the big drum sander on his throat.
I swallowed, and I swear everyone in the bar heard my saliva go down. I grabbed the beer and chugged some down to cool off and calm down just as Kelly bustled over with August’s and Cole’s order. August slipped his hand off my leg and thanked her.
Before jetting off toward another table, she studied me, then August.
“I should probably give Cole his seat back.” I started to get off the barstool when August caught the edge of the seat to cage me in. “He can find another seat.”
“August . . .”
“He’s not even back yet.”
Cole stood with Matt and Lucas. Were those three still discussing Tamara and Liam? Hadn’t they exhausted the subject yet?
As I turned my attention back toward the plate topped with ribs and barbecue sauce, my gaze stumbled on Sienna and Amanda, also huddled together.
Long feather earrings fluttered against Sienna’s bare freckled shoulders, tangling with her pale, wispy hair. She was nibbling on her lip as though nervous. Were they also discussing Tamara? She must’ve sensed my stare, because she looked up. For a second, she froze, but then she offered me a tentative smile. Instead of reassuring me that I wasn’t the most detestable person in Tracy’s, it filled me with guilt.
Technically, I hadn’t stolen August away; he’d broken up with her because he was reenlisting, which had nothing to do with me. But sitting next to him, letting him buy me a drink so publicly, letting him brand me with his hand . . .
How could she not hate me?
I thought of Tamara then and realized I didn’t hate her because I was no longer hung up on Liam. Was that why Sienna wasn’t sticking pins inside a voodoo doll version of me? Because she’d moved on?
“Ness?” August’s voice made my attention jounce back to him.
“Did you say something?”
“Only your name a half dozen times.” He placed his elbow on the bar and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I had no right to be jealous or mad. I think I haven’t gotten it through my head that I have no claim on you anymore.” He sighed. “Might take me a while to accept it, so bear with me, okay?”
I bit down on my lip, thinking of my conversation with Sarah. I valued Evelyn’s opinion, but I also cared deeply for the man sitting beside me. I glanced around the room, wondering if anyone was looking at the two of us in disgust.
No one was looking at us, period.
No one seemed to care.
I was drinking a beer so they probably assumed I was twenty-one. Maybe if they knew the truth, they’d gawk and wrinkle their noses.
“You have nothing to apologize for, August.” I filched a fry and swirled it in the little heap of ketchup next to his burger. God only knew why I ate it since my stomach was jam-packed with food, beer, and nerves.
Cole returned then, blasting us with the charred scent of tobacco. “Just gonna grab my food. Don’t want to interrupt anything.”
I hopped down from the stool. “I was leaving.”
Cole’s blue-gray eyes zipped to August. “Don’t leave on my account.”
“I’m not.” I smiled at both of them. “Matt made me run two hours this morning, so it’s a miracle I even made it out.”
“I heard about your little half-marathon. Apparently I’ll be joining you two on Saturday. Matty’s on my case about getting in better shape.” Cole was already in amazing shape, so I wasn’t sure how running could better it.
Werewolves had a couple advantages over humans—one of those being our metabolisms. Once the shifting process slowed though, around forty, shifter bodies didn’t burn off calories as quickly, but even then, most remained in athletic form.
“I could use a run, too,” August said. “If you don’t mind the added company.”
“Gosh, I’d love the added company. Especially Matt. After the third mile, I pretty much turn mute, whereas he can talk the whole way through.”
Cole chuckled. “Sounds like Matty. Don’t you know his full name?”
I cocked an eyebrow.
“Matty-the-Motormouth-Rogers.”
I smiled. “I’m sure he loves that. Anyway, see you guys on Saturday.” I went back to my table to grab my stuff. “I’m gonna head home.”
“So soon?” Lucas asked. “The evening’s young.”
“If I’m expected at the gym tomorrow morning, I need to get myself to bed.” I rooted around my bag for my wallet. “Am I expected tomorrow morning?”
His expression sobered. “I’ll text you.”
“Okay.” I plucked out two twenties and put them on th
e table. “If I owe anymore, just tell me in the morning.”
“Sure thing, Clark.”
“It was nice seeing you, Amanda. And I guess we’re going to be hanging out a lot more come Monday, huh?”
She bobbed her head, which she’d nestled in the crook of Matt’s arms, and shot me a disarmingly nice smile. “Yep.”
“What’s happening on Monday?” Sienna asked in that silken voice of hers.
“Ness is starting UCB.”
“Ooh, that’s fantastic! You’re going to love it.” She smiled, and again, I wondered why? “I’ll try to meet up with you two at lunch if we break at the same period. Can’t believe I’m graduating in nine months. It went by so fast.”
As she discussed the passage of time with Amanda, my mind stuck to the nine months part.
In nine months, she’d graduate and Tamara would have a baby.
I was so lost in thought that I bumped into someone by the entrance of the bar.
26
“Well if it isn’t my favorite Boulder bitch.”
I glared at Justin, my knee itching to make contact with his crotch. “Get out of my way, Justin.”
He grinned, nice and wide, putting all of his teeth on display. He looked like he had an abnormal amount of them, or maybe they were just all bigger than normal.
“Or what? You’ll call all those boyfriends of yours to the rescue?”
“Do you have the shortest memory in the history of shifterkind, or are you missing a brain completely?”
He smirked.
“I don’t need anyone to rescue me, asshole. Now get out of my way.” I tried to shoulder my way past him, but he blocked me.
I shoved my elbow into his jaw, but he anticipated my move because he bent backward and swiped at my arm. A burn erupted over my skin. The bastard had clawed me!
“Gosh, dueling you’s going to be so fun,” he slurred.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flurry of movement. Cole seized Justin’s two buddies by the neck and clapped their heads together, and then Matt was jumping another large guy.
A hand dragged me back. Not a hand.
August yanked on the tether to get me out of the way, then stepped in front of me. “You just never learn,” he growled right before delivering a mean right hook to Justin’s ear that had the hateful Creek swaying a little.
Unfortunately, it didn’t make him stumble or fall.
“Fucking mutt.” Justin’s lips flapped, and spittle hit August’s forehead.
I drew my bleeding arm closer.
“What did you just call me?” August asked in a deadly whisper.
Lucas shoved past August, rubbing his palms together. “Justin, my man, I’ve been meaning to pay you a visit for some time now.”
Justin rubbed his temple. “That reminds me . . . Taryn’s no longer wrapped around my cock. But she’s going around the Creeks. If you get my drift.” He tossed Lucas a wink that made him pounce, but the shifter fell into a crouch, managing to get out of the way. When he lurched up, he headbutted Lucas in the chin.
I gasped at the sound of cracking. Lucas seemed stunned for a second, but then he narrowed his eyes and barreled into Justin so hard he backed him into the door of Tracy’s and right out into the street. I stood frozen for a second, but then I moved, heading out onto the street after them.
August hooked his finger into one of my beltloops and held me back. “Lucas can handle him, sweetheart.”
“But—”
“But nothing. You stay away from that asshole.” He pulled me to the side, along the windowed façade and then farther down the sidewalk, but then he stopped walking and cinched my wrist, slowly tugging it away from my leather top. As he took in my wounds, his eyes flashed with bloodlust. “He did this?”
As he started to turn, I grabbed a handful of his T-shirt. “Don’t bother.”
He listened to me—even though it seemed to take everything in him to do so.
A car alarm made us both look back at the scene unfolding outside Tracy’s. Lucas had tossed Justin onto the hood of a car, cracking the windshield. A police siren layered itself over the sound of the wrecked car. Matt and Cole gripped Lucas’s shoulders and peeled him off Justin, and then they shoved Lucas down the street in the opposite direction from where I stood with August.
“We have to go. The cops in Boulder are all dirty,” August hissed.
I remembered someone telling me they worked for Aidan Michaels. Did they know what he was? Would they still be loyal to him if they knew?
August gripped my fingers hard, as though afraid they’d slip out of his hold, and towed me down the road just as police strobe lights painted the pavement and the gathered crowd blue. Even though my arm hurt and my legs felt like a solid bruise, I lengthened my strides to match August’s. In minutes, we’d reached my apartment.
I dug through my bag for my key, but my fingers shook from a mixture of adrenaline and fear. My bag toppled, and everything inside spilled onto the sidewalk.
August crouched to retrieve my things. When he noticed how hard I trembled, he stood and cupped my jaw. “Sweetheart, it’s okay. You’re okay. Everything’s okay.”
That miserable phrase again. All those words ever did was herald chaos into my life.
Sensing I wasn’t reassured, he wrapped one hand around the base of my neck and pulled me to him. I let out a dismal whimper, because nothing was okay.
“I couldn’t even . . . I didn’t even manage—” My voice caught on a sob. “How am I supposed to . . . block Justin in fur when I can’t even . . . do that in skin?”
“Seconds don’t usually fight.”
“He said . . . he said”—I pulled in a shuddering breath—“that dueling me . . . would be fun.” I’d always suspected Justin was planning on doing more than standing guard over his new Alpha, but the realization that my suspicions might become true felt like salt in my veins.
August pressed me away and tipped my head up. “You think I’d let that happen?”
“You won’t be in the ring,” I murmured.
My navel pulsed and heated. And then my body slammed into August’s, and it felt like hugging a rock, except this rock hugged back.
He dropped his mouth to my earlobe. “Of course, I’ll be there,” he whispered.
My navel thrummed again. He was talking about using the tether to cheat.
“They must know what we are, August, which means they’ll keep you away from the fight.”
His gaze crowded with shadows. I gathered he hadn’t considered that.
“How about we discuss this off the street?” he asked.
Because my boots had become one with the sidewalk, he steered me up the stairs, and then he unlocked the door and pushed it open. After shutting it behind us, I dropped down in one of the dining room chairs while he went into the kitchen. He grabbed a dish cloth and wet it, then returned to tend to my arm. I tried not to wince, but failed.
August’s jaw slackened and tensed, as though he were working out a kink in his cheek. “Why are you still bleeding?”
I stared at the grooves Justin had etched into my skin. “Probably because I’m taking Sillin.”
August’s green gaze jerked to my face. “Why are you taking Sillin?”
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth before releasing it and sighing. “Because we’re experimenting with it.”
“Experimenting?”
“I volunteered to take Sillin to test its long-term effects.”
“You what?” he choked out.
I was pretty certain he’d heard me.
His eyes gleamed with anger. “And Liam okayed this?”
I got those two had baggage, but that didn’t give August a right to blame Liam for this. “I didn’t give him a choice.”
“He should’ve picked someone else to experiment on. You can’t be taking Sillin and doing all that training!” He clapped the table, which made me jump. “You shouldn’t even be doing all that training in the first place. Yo
u shouldn’t have signed up for another duel!”
“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” I muttered.
His nostrils pulsed. “I hate this. All of this.” He carved the air with his hand. “Ness, I lost you once before”—his voice shook with anger, but also with something else—“and I don’t want to lose you again.”
I leaned over and placed my hands over his. “That’s why I’m experimenting with the Sillin. We suspect Morgan’s taking it, and she fought a duel.”
“She’s an Alpha, Ness. The way things affect her body isn’t comparable to the way things affect yours.”
I slid my hand off his and curled my fingers into my lap.
He leaned back in his chair, making the rungs creak, then looked toward my uncle’s closed bedroom door. There was no other heartbeat in the apartment—Jeb wasn’t home.
August crossed his arms. “Besides, she wouldn’t have been able to shift if she were taking Sillin.”
“I’m trying to see if a habituation to the drug modifies the body’s response to it.”
“Habituation? How long are you planning on taking it?”
I studied the bloodied tracks on my forearm. Unspoken words saturated the air between us. He wasn’t pleased, but was it with me or with our theory? Or was it with something else altogether?
“Maybe the happy news will knock some sense into Liam and make him cancel the duel,” he grumbled.
So he’d heard about Tamara.
I peeked up at him through my lashes. “You think Morgan would accept canceling the duel?”
August sighed. “She didn’t seem overly keen on dueling the day Liam challenged her. And she did offer Liam a peace treaty. Maybe it’s still on the table.”
“That was to save her son. Alex is free now.”
“He could become unfree.”
“You’re not actually entertaining thoughts of kidnapping him?”
“If it saves your life, I’m entertaining many thoughts. Killing Justin’s another. In case you were wondering.”
I leaned forward and touched his arm. His tendons twitched under my fingertips. “It’ll turn this town into a bloodbath.”
“So it’s okay if your blood’s spilled, but no one else’s?”
A Pack of Love and Hate Page 15