"Maybe," she answered, a smile evident in her voice. I found her reflection in the mirror and saw the matching curve of her lips.
Spinning me back around, she resumed making up my face. "I never gushed over a guy because I haven't found one that makes my heart flip out."
She slid a finger under my chin, all work stopping again as she tilted my head up and hooked my gaze. "We both know who makes your heart flip out."
I tugged my chin from her grip. My hands snatched at the foundation bottle and sponge so I could finish the job myself, but Clover danced out of the way.
"I get that he screwed it up somehow." Finished laying down the base, she took up a brow brush and some loose powder that matched my hair color. "But don't cut him out of the running yet. That's all I'm asking. He's been in charge of his life, and mine, since he was fifteen. And it doesn't help that he's an alpha, maybe the president of the Woodsmen when Taron steps down. It makes him think he always knows best."
I closed my eyes, relieved that her working on my brows and eyelids gave me a chance to hide from her searching gaze.
Clover had told me enough about her parents' death, the truth this time, for me to understand that she and Braeden had been on the run for their lives until they landed in Night Falls. They had no money, no family, were hunted by the prides or packs whose territories they traveled through, were unable to use human social services and were too young to get jobs, especially Clover. But Braeden had kept his little sister safe and healthy for over two years on his own.
But however well Clover thought she knew her big brother, she was wrong about one thing. She seemed to think he wanted me for me. But that wasn't it -- it was all the qualities she had just mentioned, the protective role of a big brother and a pack alpha who "always knows best," that had led to him claiming me in the barn.
Sighing, I watched her sort through her blushes.
"If you think I'm supposed to be with Braeden," I asked, hoping for at least a slight change of topic "then why are you dolling me up for Rooster?"
Her mouth quirked as her cheeks colored. "Who said this is for Rooster? Jailor man still has his ass parked in the living room."
I looked at the window no longer covered in plywood.
Clover wagged a finger at me, her other hand fisted on her hip.
"You're not climbing out of that in a skirt!"
I looked at the jeans I had on then back up at my best friend, one brow cocked and ready to fire. I had thoroughly intended to go as dressed, didn't want the make-up on, didn't want to look in any way like I was making an effort because Taron's idea was all kinds of fucked up.
"You're wearing this," she said and reached into her closet to extract a knit aqua blue skirt that would have fallen to her knees but would hit me mid-calf. Placing it on the bed, she dug around in the closet some more and came up with a matching sweater and black leather boots.
"This," she said, holding up the outfit, "is going to totally rock your curves."
I nodded, dumbfounded and wondering if she had started planning from the moment Braeden had told her about Taron's plan. I mean, the outfit was in Braeden's favorite color and I'd never seen her wear it. But she hadn't left to go to so much as the resale store.
"And these are totally kick ass," she added with a nod at the boots. "I have a theory about tough guys and chicks in boots that could crush their nuts."
I snorted, half choking on the idea.
"Braeden's gonna be walking around all blue balls while you're gone."
Leaning down, she whispered in my ear. "If you can manage to pick up a little of Rooster's scent, that would be awesome. Just a little, though, I don't want Braeden to maim him."
********************
Paisley
Despite growing up in Night Falls, I had never really thought about the lack of "civilized" places to go on a date. We had a small diner, a truck stop, a resale shop, a hardware store, a feed store, a small grocer, a gas station that also sold snacks, and not much else. Then there was the fact that, regardless of where you went, everyone knew everyone, aside from the humans being ignorant about the fact they were living in a town where they were outnumbered by shifters.
Somehow, Rooster made the date enjoyable without it being weird.
Well, not too weird. He rented one of the Crockers' cabins. Only he must have spent the morning cleaning it and had swapped out the bed for the dining room table at his house and two matching chairs. Fresh flowers filled a crystal vase. The silverware and plates were from his place, too. And even though Edna stayed in the room as a chaperone and served us a delicious beef stew, I was pretty sure he'd done all the cooking, too.
I should have been floored, should have felt my heart flipping out, as Clover liked to phrase it. Two years older than me, he had definitely moved beyond being a boy and becoming a man. He was lean and tall, his freshly shaven jaw perfectly angled. The thick lashes and irises were the same dark roasted coffee color as the mane of curls that tried to hide his face.
Every girl I knew back in Michigan would have had to wring out her panties as he spoke in that soft drawl of his, telling me about the plans he and his brother had for building on their land.
But my body just wouldn't respond.
Was it stupid to think it should? I mean, to think that a relationship had to start with attraction on both sides? Rooster was decent, hard working, enjoyed pretty much everything I enjoyed.
"Thank you," I said as he pulled his truck into Braeden's drive two hours later and shut the engine off.
The sun had already set but twilight still illuminated the sky. I could see the frown on his face as he turned to me.
"No one gets to leave Night Falls with you," he sighed as he rolled down the window on his side to keep the cab from fogging up.
With Edna in the cabin the entire time, this was the first time we were addressing the elephant sitting between us -- I wasn't supposed to be here, wasn't supposed to know about shifters, was supposed to be back in Michigan already.
"Your solution was very nice," I assured him. "It was sweet all the work you put into it."
Twisting on the bench seat of the truck, he slid a little bit closer. He reached for my hands and I let him take them, some part of me hoping lightning would strike and I could stop feeling miserable about Braeden while trying not to feel anything at all.
"You were always the forbidden fruit," he smiled, his voice dropping low. "Beautiful but human."
"I didn't feel that way."
I hadn't felt attractive at all until I went away to college. How could I? Outside of the truck stop, there wasn't any place in Night Falls a man seemed to look twice at me. And having a truck driver want to take you out and show you his rig was far from confidence building.
"Yeah," he squeezed my hands softly. "I can see how it would cut. I wish I'd written down all the stupid lines I wanted to say before you went to college. Not pick up lines, just stuff to fill conversations I never started."
Freeing one hand, I wiped at my eyes, all of Clover's hard work threatening to melt.
"You made up for it tonight," I whispered.
My heart wasn't flipping, just squeezing with hurt for both of us. He really was sweet and handsome and thoughtful.
"Are you in love with Braeden?" he asked, his tone never changing.
I freed my other hand and scratched at my neck, the skin heating across my chest and up my face. "It doesn't matter. I won't pick him."
"It matters to me." Rooster captured my hands again and slid closer. "I think Taron just did this month's worth of courtship so the pack had a cooling off period. Everyone will see you don't want to out us to humans."
"I'd be locked up in a loony bin if I even tried," I snorted. I wanted my hands back as fresh anger bubbled inside my stomach. But Rooster didn't deserve my ire, so I let him keep holding them.
"Doesn't anyone understand that?"
"I guess," he shrugged, his fingers tightening around mine. "That's certainly an a
rgument that can be made to keep you safe."
Silence filled the truck's cab for an uncomfortably long minute before he spoke again.
"I want you to be safe, Paisley. But I don't want a mate who's in love with another man."
I shook my head, unable to look Rooster in the eye as my own started to fill with tears. "You deserve better than me."
Pulling my hands from his, I opened the truck's door and slid out. He moved behind the driver's wheel, his gaze locked in a forward position. I walked around to his side, stood on tiptoe and kissed the side of his cheek through the open window, the apology on my lips left unsaid.
********************
Braeden
Returning from her date with Rooster, Paisley entered the house through the side door into the kitchen. I sat on the couch, the heavy drapes in the living room drawn so that what little light was left from the setting sun was blocked out.
The kitchen was equally dark, but she didn't turn a light on, just felt her way around the small dinette. Overshooting the hall, she came close to stumbling over my outstretched legs. I pulled them in, the slide of my boots over the wooden floor audible.
"Shit," she jumped back then reached for the table lamp and touched the base once.
Seeing it was me waiting in the dark for her to come home and not my little sister, she scowled.
"You scared me. What the hell are you doing in here with the lights out?"
"Thinking."
To say that I was obsessing would have been the better answer, but I couldn't get the truth past my lips. Clover had done a hell of a hatchet job on me, dressing Paisley in that tight knit skirt and sweater then going on and on after Paisley left about what a great catch Rooster would be, how his eyes were dreamy and his mouth wickedly sexy.
Then she dropped her last little bombshell before slinking back to her room with a sly smile on her face.
Rooster, she informed me, had rented one of the Crockers' cabins for their "date."
Not jumping on my bike and ripping the little punk's head off took every last ounce of willpower I had. Planting my ass on the couch, I had been immobilized, couldn't so much as reach the few inches it would take to turn the nearest light on.
"Thinking?" she repeated, her tone rough.
From the second she stepped in the door, I'd been waiting for some whiff of emotion from her, now I was getting it.
Anger.
Given that the alternative was her coming in all mesmerized and covered with Rooster's scent, I'd settle for anger.
"Yeah," I answered.
"Good luck with that," she snarked then turned in the direction of the hall.
Before she could step away, I closed my fingers around her wrist, my grip tighter than I wanted but outside my control.
She stared at me, gray eyes questioning.
"Rooster's a good kid," I fumbled. "You ever realize the crush he's had on you all these years?"
Her hand twisted within my grip as her cheeks brightened. I was still sensing anger, not embarrassment or anything else that would hint that he'd finally shown her just how deep a crush he'd been nursing.
"No," she bit out. "I lived in a town where almost everyone my age ostracized me and I didn't know why until someone put a bullet in my best friend a few days ago."
"There are more lined up," I said, still screwing up every damn word that left my mouth. "Suitors, I mean."
"That must make you very happy." She jerked her hand free from my grasp. "Means you won't have to worry about falling on your sword and doing me again because no one else wants to."
Paisley moved to walk past me. I caught her by one hip and pulled her onto my lap. Pushing my face into her pale brown hair, I inhaled, my wolf searching for another man's scent.
"Did he kiss you?" I asked, my beard brushing softly against her neck.
Stiffening in my arms, she crooked her neck and tried to pull away.
"No, I kissed him."
Her answer issued unreadable, delivered in such a deadened tone a computer might as well have spit it out.
"I see," I said, even though I didn't. "I guess that means the two of you will be going on another date."
I relaxed my grip, nothing keeping her on my lap except her will to stay.
"I'm not supposed to be here," she whispered, her scent changing unexpectedly to one of anguish. "My professors are going to drop me from my classes. I'll have to start the semester over..."
Pulling Paisley tight against my chest, I stroked at her hair. "Baby girl, it will be a long time before you get to go back to school."
Maybe never.
A sob spilled out of her. Fisting my shirt, she pressed her face against my shoulder. It felt like old times, like when she had sprained an ankle out at the creek that ran through her grandmother's land and I'd carried her up to the cabin.
She had been sixteen and I was already falling in love.
Relaxing slightly in my arms, she sniffed. "Rooster said Taron's only doing this to give everyone a cool down period, show them that I can be trusted. Could he be right?"
I stroked a finger along her neck, wished I could direct my alpha energy into her for a little extra comfort.
"I think Taron is playing more than one game," I finally answered, guilt coloring my tone. "He needs the pack to calm down and focus on the real threat. But he's also working on a personal agenda."
I didn't tell her I was his personal agenda. He thought I was irrevocably in love with the human in my arms, and he was probably right. And almost every obstacle that had existed just a week ago to my admitting my feelings was gone.
She knew the pack's secret and wouldn't be returning to school or taking some job halfway across the country when she graduated. I wouldn't have to pull Clover away from Night Falls or expose her, and Paisley, to the dangers of living in another pack's territory.
The only remaining obstacle was me. I had been doing my best for more than four years to politely drive her out of mine and Clover's life. Even if she could forgive me for that, I had completely screwed up in the barn.
"Personal agenda?" she snorted. "When did I piss in his Cheerios?"
"You didn't," I laughed, a little of the tension leaving my body.
Maybe I was about to make another mistake, but I had an idea, one that might make Paisley come to terms with staying in Night Falls. I doubted I could unbuild the bridge I had erected between us, but I could do something that would make her a little happier, bring her and Clover all the way back together in their friendship and let her find a mate among the pack without feeling like she was exchanging one jailor for another.
"Get up, baby girl," I said with a light pat on her plump ass. "There's something you need to see."
********************
Paisley
Magic.
Braeden Hughes showed me magic.
But first he made me change into pants and a different set of boots, then he rode me on the back of his bike to Mojo's place. After some tense whispering between the two, the real adventure began as Mojo took us into his basement, where a trapdoor led to what I thought was a sub-basement but was a tunnel.
For almost my entire life, I had lived in Night Falls and there was an entire underground world I had no idea existed.
Of course, there was also an entirely different species of mankind I had just uncovered -- which was way more important. I hadn't yet settled on whether their taxonomy should be homo proteus or homo tranformus. With the dog-eared Harry Potter books on my shelf at gran's, I was leaning toward transformus, with further breakdowns, such as homo transformus canidae for shifters like Braeden and Clover and felidae for those like Joshua.
And now Braeden was showing me an entire underground cavern to explore that went on for miles, so many miles he couldn't tell me how many.
"Are there mapped areas, at least?" I naively asked.
"Nope," he answered, laughing as he stepped from the narrow tunnel we had been walking in since descending from Mojo's
basement ten or so minutes before into a larger, taller tunnel that would allow us to walk side-by-side instead of single file. "We just use our memory and our noses."
Yeah, that was going to be a bit of a problem for me. I was more big concept, forget the details, and I did not have super-human smelling or night vision.
"But if we were to get separated--"
"We won't," he growled lightly.
I didn't know if it was a warning against any lingering thoughts I might possess about bolting for the nearest exist and fleeing Night Falls or if the possibility distressed him for other reasons. He had been oddly sweet in fitting me on the back of his bike, apologizing that we weren't taking something with four wheels instead, and making sure I was safely in place even though I had taken rides on the back of his bike before -- back when I still considered us friends.
Braeden stopped a few long steps past where my feet had become rooted to the ground. He turned, his movements hesitant as he approached.
"You don't need to worry, baby girl, I'm not going to lose you."
I stifled a harsh laugh, his words uncannily dovetailing with the thoughts running through my head even though he didn't mean them that way. I wanted to ask him why we had stopped being friends, but I instead chewed at the inside of my bottom lip for a few minutes as we continued walking.
When he stopped in front of another narrow tunnel, the evening's more practical considerations resurfaced.
"But what if you got hurt -- I could get lost trying to get help."
The big flashlights we were both carrying gave off more than enough light for me to see the wry smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"I'd have to be dead, in which case you should wait and ration the water because Mojo knows we are in the tunnels. Even if he couldn't get the entire pack in here searching the tunnels for us by noon tomorrow, he would find you if only to get his flashlights back."
His answer didn't satisfy me, especially when he looked so cocky delivering it, like he really was the big bad wolf and nothing could hurt him unless it had enough force to kill him immediately.
Comes Now the Wicked Woodsman (A Night Falls Alpha Wolf BBW Shapeshifter Romance) Page 9