Wild Engagement_A Dark Pines Pride Bonus Story

by Liza Street

Behind her, she could hear the Jaynes group laughing. Were they laughing at her? Could her bizarre reaction to Nick have been noticeable? Ugh, she hoped not. How embarrassing. Bad enough she’d bolted like that.

  “Funny how you gave me a ride last week, but I never learned your name.” His voice was low and soft. Like his touch, it zinged through her body.

  “Nothing funny about that night at all,” Becca said, trying to match her voice to his. Level, even. Unperturbed. “I hit you with my car. You were strangely unaffected, and I gave you a ride to town. I was hoping to never see you again.”

  “But you thought of me,” he said, his voice amused.

  She might have gotten herself off to a mini fantasy of what could have happened between them if he’d ridden in the passenger seat and she’d parked somewhere remote.... “Not really,” she said.

  He chuckled. “That’s a lie.”

  It was a lie, and the fact he knew it bothered Becca just as much as the fact she’d told a lie. Not that she’d ever admit to touching herself to thoughts of him, but she could have gotten around that somehow.

  “I’m happy to run into you again,” he said. “I didn’t know you were friends with this crowd.”

  “Just...peripherally,” she said. “Summer was my best friend, and now she’s related to Hayley. I’m sure they were just—” She stopped herself. She didn’t know this guy, and unloading about all the interpersonal drama wasn’t smart. And Becca was smart. She knew how to hold back, she knew how to be tactful. “Smart” and “tactful” were practically in her job description.

  “Hey,” he said, reaching for her arm.

  Before he could make contact, Ross returned with Becca’s drink. He glowered at Nick. “This guy bothering you, Becca?”

  “We’re okay,” she said. She was definitely bothered, but not in the way Ross seemed concerned about. “I’d like to get him a drink. Nick?”

  “A beer, please,” Nick said, sounding surprised. “A session IPA, if you have one.”

  “Sure thing,” Ross said. He returned a few seconds later with Nick’s beer.

  Becca set a twenty on the bar and grabbed her mojito.

  Nick tilted his glass toward her. “Cheers,” he said, “to unexpected meetings.”

  Becca watched him raise his glass to his lips. “You mean the kind of unexpected meetings that involve vehicular manslaughter?”

  He swallowed quickly, his eyes watering, and then he laughed. “Something like that. Should we get back to the baby shower?”

  “Oh...right,” she said. She’d gotten wrapped up in Nick—staring at him, smelling him, flirting with him—and she’d forgotten why they were both at The A-Hole to begin with.

  They walked back to the corner table. Summer grabbed a chair from the table behind her and pulled it over for Becca to sit next to her. Becca contained her smile when Nick grabbed another chair and brought it next to hers.

  “Everybody got their liquor?” Hayley asked.

  Everyone raised their glasses. Hayley raised her milkshake.

  “All right,” she said. “Bring on the baby’s presents.”

  While everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed over onesies and tiny shoes, Becca was hyperconscious of the man seated next to her. His spicy scent—she couldn’t quite place it, but she knew she loved it. It took all her self-control not to scoot closer to him.

  Dangerous territory, she realized. But she still couldn’t make herself move away.

  Chapter Six

  Nick watched Hayley laugh at an over-the-top baby monitor, which included two swiveling video cameras, multiple sound receivers, and a state-of-the-art screen on which to view anything happening in the baby’s room.

  “This could only be from Will,” she said.

  “I tried to stop him,” Eleanor said, laughing, “but once he saw it, he fell in love.”

  Everyone laughed at Will’s expense who, to his credit Nick decided, nodded proudly. Will seemed like a pretty damn good alpha. Vigilant and possibly paranoid, but fair and still able to let loose a little bit.

  Hayley smiled at Marius, who was already taking the monitor out of the box. Her blue eyes danced, but Nick wasn’t affected. Nick had been chasing a dream about Hayley. He’d built her up in his mind as his mate, but it had never been her. It couldn’t have been, because what he was feeling for the woman seated next to him was a thousand times more powerful, more intoxicating.

  He wanted Becca.

  She was everything, and his wolf seemed to know it, too.

  While everyone was distracted with trying to assemble the high-tech baby monitor so they could play with it here in the bar, Nick tugged on Becca’s chair so that it—and she—were turned slightly toward him.

  Her beautiful sea-green eyes stared at him, wide with surprise. “What are you doing?”

  “Talking to you. They seem a little busy.”

  She turned quickly and likely noticed that her friend, Summer, was completely distracted with the baby monitor and her mate’s attention in pointing it at her. Sighing, Becca turned back to Nick.

  “This is weird,” she said.

  “You mean our sudden, inexplicable and yet undeniable attraction to each other?”

  A soft blush formed on her cheeks, making her eyes look even greener. “That’s not what I was going to say, no.” Then she paused and grinned. “But you’re attracted to me, huh?”

  “I’m semi-hard just from sitting next to you.”

  Her gaze flicked to his crotch and then quickly back up to his face. “You’re a bit too forward for my taste, sir.”

  He doubted it, if the scent of her arousal was anything to go by. How much did she know about the shifter pride she was hanging out with? Was she aware of the whole concept of mates who were fated to be together? Or would he have to ease her into it slowly? He’d never dated a human before. His pack back in Wisconsin had been large enough that there were always young shifter women to date. And then he’d met Hayley and sworn off other women, believing Hayley was the one.

  Ha. It would be easy to let his previous conviction shake his current conviction in Becca, but impossible. Every muscle, sinew, bone, and thought in his body was about this woman with the sea-green eyes.

  “Well, my apologies, then,” he said, watching her carefully. “I don’t want to offend the person who hit me with her car.”

  “I think we should let that go,” she said in a loud whisper.

  “You mean the past is in the past?” he asked.

  Suddenly, the table had gotten very quiet, and Nick looked over to see everyone watching him and Becca, expressions of interest on their faces.

  “Soooo,” Jackson drawled, “how did you two meet, anyway?”

  Becca’s cheeks flushed even more.

  Nick grinned. “She ran into me. With her car.”

  “What?” Summer’s alarmed gaze flicked from him to Becca, and back to him again. He could practically read the warning in her dark brown eyes: She doesn’t know.

  Nodding, he said, “Yeah, I was going for a quick run. She hit me, and that was that.”

  “That was that?” Becca said, sputtering. “You were naked. Who goes for naked runs in the woods?”

  “People with an appreciation for being one with nature,” he shot back.

  “This is insane,” she muttered.

  “The best part,” Nick said, “was how she agreed to give me a ride back to town, but she made me ride in the trunk of her car.”

  Marius laughed the hardest and loudest at that, but it was worth it to Nick to see the beginnings of another smile on Becca’s face. Her smile was so pretty. She had to know how gorgeous she was. Could she be seeing someone already? He looked at her hands. No wedding band. Well, that was good news.

  “You know, you’re all right,” Marius said, pointing at Nick.

  A witty comeback was on the tip of his tongue, something about not needing Marius’s approval, but Nick swallowed it. “Uh, thanks.”

  “It’s a good thing, too. I didn’t want
to have to take you up to Mount Lisle and beat your ass.”

  “Oh, yeah, that trailhead,” Jackson said. “Perfect spot for a beating.”

  Becca stared at them, her mouth open in shock. “What is wrong with you guys?”

  “Don’t mind them, they never learned manners,” Will said, shooting disapproving looks at Marius and Jackson.

  Becca settled back into her chair. She was the only human in this group of everyone else who knew what the real story was.

  His thoughts skittered this way and that as he watched Becca interact with the Dark Pines Pride. She’d said something about not being as close to her best friend now. If he had to hazard a guess, he’d say it was because her best friend was now in the pride, and Becca had no idea there even was a pride. She’d be forever an outsider until they clued her in to the shifter secret. Something hit him in the chest at that thought—sympathy. He felt bad for her, and he wanted to confess everything. They were both outsiders, but at least he knew where he stood. Becca had no fucking clue, and that was hardly fair.

  Chapter Seven

  All the gifts had been opened, and Becca was feeling the effects of her one mojito. She gave hugs to Summer, Eleanor, and Hayley, and said her goodbyes to the others.

  She couldn’t drive quite yet. Maybe another hour. What she could really use was a walk downtown, to sort through all the intense feelings flowing through her. She stepped out of The A-Hole and into the cool spring air. Stars twinkled overhead, barely visible because of the lamps lining the street. She sucked in a deep breath.

  The baby shower had been fine, not the awkward ordeal she’d envisioned—at least not for the reasons she’d expected. It hadn’t really been awkward at all. More like tantalizing. Sitting so close to Nick had been a delicious torture. Every time he moved, she caught a whiff of his cologne. Every time she moved, her entire body lit up with awareness that he was close by.

  “Sorcery,” she muttered. It was the only explanation. He’d gone to a magical wizard school and learned how to entrap women with some kind of spell.

  Even though the idea was hilariously unreal, her heart soared at the thought that he might have wanted to entrap her. Trapped by the hottie? Certainly didn’t sound like a hardship.

  “Hey! Becca!” a smooth, deep voice called from behind her.

  Holy shit. He was coming after her. She didn’t even need to turn around to know it was him. She stopped walking, but kept her eyes trained ahead of her.

  His presence was visceral. There was no other way to describe it. Whenever he was nearby, she could feel where he was. The sensation was uncanny. She’d never felt this way about anyone else before, and it was confusing. Was it just him? Did other people feel him the same way she did?

  “Mind if I walk with you?” he asked.

  “Free country,” she said, shrugging. Pretending nonchalance. She had a feeling he could see right through her charade, though.

  She was shocked when he reached out and took her fingers in his. She looked down at their joined hands, and then finally to his face.

  His expression was serious. Then he cracked a grin and said in a terrible rendition of a southern accent, “I aim to court you, Miss Van Housen.”

  Her mouth twitched, but she refused to smile. She didn’t want to be courted; she didn’t want to fall in love. All her courting was long behind her. While a one-night stand might be a welcome distraction, things would inevitably get messy.

  And yet, he walked in step with her, shortening his strides so they matched hers. His hand fit hers perfectly.

  Undeterred by her lack of response, he spoke again. “I can tell you feel like an outsider with that crowd, but trust me, they really care for you.”

  “Really?” She arched an eyebrow. This was news to her, and she wasn’t quite sure she trusted it.

  “Really.”

  Figured, he’d be a better expert about the Jaynes group than she would be. Irritating. Shaking her head, she said, “And how do you know them so well?”

  “Ahhh...”

  Becca stopped walking, curious to watch him now that she’d unintentionally put him on the spot.

  He gave her a sheepish grin. “Okay, I may as well humiliate myself even more. I mean, you’ve already seen me naked.”

  Nothing to be embarrassed about there, she thought, biting her lip to keep from smiling.

  “I chased Hayley out here,” he said. “I thought I was in love with her, and I’d been trying to get in touch with her. Things at home weren’t going so great, so last week, I decided to see if she’d come back to Huntwood—she’d mentioned it when I first met her.”

  “And then you saw she’s with Marius,” Becca said. She quickly extinguished the twin flares of disappointment and jealousy that tried to burn through her. “You must have been disappointed.”

  He shrugged. His brown eyes looked straight at her as he said, “Not really. More disappointed in myself. I’d been chasing something that wasn’t real. I mean, not that Hayley isn’t real, but you know what I mean. What I thought I felt for her—that wasn’t real.”

  “How do you know?” Becca asked. “She and Marius aren’t married.” What was she saying—they were having a baby together and Becca had never seen two people more in love. They were as devoted to one another as Will and Eleanor, and Jackson and Summer. But she was curious whether Nick would jump on the opportunity to continue chasing after Hayley.

  He shook his head. “Even if something unfortunate suddenly happened to Marius”—he paused and gave a little smile, as if enjoying the thought—“I still wouldn’t want Hayley. She’s a nice woman, but she’s not the woman for me.”

  “Wow,” Becca said. He sounded so genuine, so honest.

  Honesty was a huge turn-on.

  “Does it make you think less of me?” he asked.

  “Why would it make me think less of you?”

  “That I changed my mind about Hayley so fast.”

  She thought about it. “No. It takes more courage to let go of something that’s been a goal, even if it was wrong. Some people would insist they’ve been right all along, but you admitted it was a mistake, and I think that takes more strength than holding onto something that wasn’t right.”

  “Actually, it was effortless,” he said. “No strength or courage required.”

  “Really?”

  He squeezed her hand and they stopped walking at the end of the block. She could sense that he was looking at her, so she returned his gaze.

  “Really,” he said. “As soon as I realized Hayley wasn’t the one, I thought...well, I wondered if there might be someone else, instead. So it was easy to let go of her because I already had hope, you know?”

  Someone else. If he was talking about Becca, he was getting way ahead of himself. And yet, here he was, holding her hand, walking with her.

  He gave a little laugh, like he could imagine what she was thinking. “Anyway,” he said, “how about you? We got all heavy with my stuff. What’s your story, Becca?”

  “Not much to tell,” she said. “I was married, and my husband died. Cancer, and it went fast, which was good for his sake.” She kept the details rote, like she usually did. “It was almost four years ago.”

  “That must have been hard,” Nick said.

  Suddenly, she felt very old. Losing her husband, even at a young age, made her feel old and jaded. What had Nick been through? Nothing like that, she suspected. “It was. Very hard. We didn’t get much time together. He was a wonderful man, and a great husband. I miss him all the time.”

  And he’d wanted her to be happy. Was she happy? She didn’t think she had been, in a while. There’d been an absence of pain, but that didn’t mean happiness.

  “You’ve been alone all this time,” Nick said. It wasn’t a question. “Except for Summer.”

  Becca nodded. “Yeah. She’s been great.”

  “But now she’s got new friends, too.”

  Perceptive asshole. She blinked back tears and pretended to look
across the street, away from him. Like the springtime decorations in the window of the bakery were captivating. “Yeah, she’s got new friends,” Becca said, her throat full. “No big deal, though.”

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  Gently putting his thumb on her chin, he turned her face toward his. “I see you,” he said, his chocolate brown eyes swirling in the darkness. “And it’s okay.”

  She forced a soft laugh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  His gaze was mesmerizing. She didn’t want to look away, even though she felt caught. Trapped. What on earth could this mean? His lips looked so kissable, and she wanted to reach up and cup his cheek, feel the stubble decorating his strong jaw.

  “I see your lonesomeness,” he said, “because it mirrors my own.”

  Becca inhaled sharply. He was right. She was lonely. She liked to think of herself as self-sufficient, especially after Grant’s death. And she was. Completely, utterly self-sufficient.

  But she was also lonely.

  “I want to kiss you,” he said, his voice quiet and dark, liquid heat. “Is that okay with you?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  He reached up with his free hand and gripped the back of her neck in his callused palm, and angled her face up toward his. She saw his eyes, dark with desire, and those lush lips surrounded by stubble that would scratch her face. As he lowered his lips to hers, she closed her eyes and breathed in the moment.

  It seemed wrong to describe a kiss as perfect because nothing was perfect in this world. But if she were to take the stand tomorrow as a witness to this kiss, and she had to swear to tell the truth and the whole truth, dammit, she’d be swearing that this was one perfect kiss. It started with a press of lips, and the soft sound in her throat expressed need. As soon as she made it, he parted her lips with his and touched his tongue to hers.

  She wanted more. She needed more. She kissed him back, sliding her tongue against his. Sighing into his mouth, she pressed herself against him. He kept hold of her neck, controlling the pace of the kiss, and he let go of her hand to wrap his other arm around her waist, tugging her closer.