by Lauren Dane
Right then he had to handle Pembry business. “What’s going on with Darrell and my father? Have they been over? They’re ducking my calls.”
His uncle’s expression told Mac what he thought of that. “I saw him corralling your mother into the car. Lights are on at the house so I imagine they’re home. God knows where your brother is, but he’s not making trouble at the moment so I’ll take that as a win,” his uncle said.
“Before he left he wouldn’t tell me what JJ said to him or how the fight started. Do you know?” Mac asked as he plopped down on the couch.
“If I were to take a guess, I’d wager it had something to do with Josiah Dooley, but I don’t know for sure. You know your dad doesn’t say much to me unless he has to these days.”
“The witches are pissed. He’s stirring up a hornet’s nest and I don’t know why. But I do know there’s nowhere to go but more tension unless we can work this out.”
His family was tearing apart and it weighed heavily on him. The knowledge of what was to come if things kept heading in the same direction.
He hated it. Resented it. And it didn’t matter. Because he had to clean it up.
“Anyone want to tell me why my mother is losing her shit so much worse than usual? This seems like a lot more than her normal high-strung behavior.”
His aunt and uncle averted their gazes and he barely withheld an impatient sigh.
Barely.
Secrets never stayed secret. Not forever. And this whole thing was headed for a spectacular crash.
“Scarlett keeps her own counsel, Mac. If she has things to hide, she’s not sharing them with any of us here,” Huston said.
Mac hadn’t gone to a goddamn war zone to come home to shovel secrets for anyone.
He stood and headed toward the door. “This festering stuff has poisoned our pack. I got dragged back here across the world to clean up a damned mess and it makes it a lot harder when no one wants to speak honestly.”
Though he tried not to slam out of the house, he knew he failed as he stomped down the steps leading to the yard beyond.
“You know the law,” Huston told him as he caught up.
“I’m sick and tired of trying to handle this bullshit with one arm tied behind my back.”
“Dude. I get it. Okay? We’re not the enemy.”
“What the actual fuck? Why is everyone getting in my way instead of helping?”
Huston shook his head. “Let’s go for a run. You’re all kinds of messed up right now. Get yourself under control. Especially if you’re going to go rubbing up over Aimee on the regular.”
Mac growled but stalked to the woods just beyond. He’d cut short some pretty spectacular rubbing all over one another to return home to this?
Huston was correct though. It would indeed be on the regular. Now that he’d tasted her, he planned to taste her a lot more.
A run would help him get himself reined in. He needed to burn this all off before it singed him.
He did one of the few things that always felt exactly right. Mac slipped his human skin and let his wolf come and take over. He tore into the trees, his cousin already ahead of him on the trail.
Chapter Eight
“Okay so I didn’t tell you this last night, because it happened late and I figured you and your husband would be doing filthy things to one another.” Aimee grinned as she waggled her brows at her best friend. She’d come into the Counter, the soda fountain Katie Faith’s family owned and ran, to dish a little on the way to her next home visit. “I have a date. Tonight. With Mac Pembry.”
Katie Faith’s eyes got wide as she said, “Get out! I want to know every single detail right this very moment.”
“He showed up at my door after that whole thing outside city hall. To apologize, though I was mean to him at first.”
“You were not. You snapped at him I bet. But you’re not mean.” Katie Faith said it with so much conviction it made her smile.
“Well, he said how I was nice to other people and it made me mad. So I told him I was nice to people but that I wasn’t a doormat. And then he came in and we made out for like twenty minutes. Oh my God.”
“You’re very nice!” Katie Faith sniffed her annoyance before her tone went a little lower. “Is he a good kisser? Duh. I bet he is. You wouldn’t tolerate a bad kisser. Plus, look at him. He just looks like he’d lay one on you that had you making very bad choices.”
“Right? He’s such a good kisser and he takes charge.” She fanned her face with her hand a moment at the memory. “He held me by the back of my neck and got all growly. It was...dominant. Not underrated.”
Katie Faith’s knowing look made Aimee want to giggle with glee. So she did. “Like Christmas and my birthday all at once.”
Katie Faith gave her a thumbs-up. “I always thought bossy guys were idiots like Darrell. Bluster and pecker measuring to deal with their various complexes and stuff. But Jace, well, he’s as bossy and dominant as they come and it’s not to deal with any complex. He’s the real thing. Which means he’s also protective and loyal and courageous. And for me? He’s a big giant softhearted dude and that’s pretty freaking cool.”
It was, as a matter of fact.
“So he asked me to dinner tonight. He’s picking me up at seven,” Aimee continued.
“Wow. I’m so giddy. I have a werewolf and now you will too.”
Aimee snickered. “Hit the brakes there. It’s a date, not marriage.”
“But now that you’ve made out with him you’re going to go back for more. And if he can’t keep you that’s on him.” Katie Faith nodded as she finished.
“I’m not sure, but I think you just said I was easy,” Aimee teased.
“Only when you want to be. Which is the best kind, in my opinion,” Katie Faith said.
“Okay, that I can get on board with.” There was no reason to be ashamed of liking sex. She had this attraction with a really smoking-hot guy. If they got horizontal—or vertical, he seemed the stand-up-sex type—she had no reason to pretend she didn’t want it.
“But this is going to be in public. Which seems, uh, a bold choice. What do you think?” Her judgment felt strange. She wasn’t used to questioning it, but that was before she’d found out about Bob.
“I think he’s a werewolf and you’re a powerful witch and he’s going to want to show you off. I like Mac. I always have. I’m not a fan of some of his family, but he’s always been good to me. Where are you going? Do you know?” Katie Faith handed a Vanilla Coke her way.
“I don’t. But it’s Diablo Lake. There are two places that seem likely so the pub or Salt & Pepper. Why? Are you going to show up with Jace and be all, oh my, what a surprise?”
“Of course I am. I think it could actually be a good thing for us all to be seen together being cordial. The town could use some stability. Also I’m nosy and I want to be there to see how hard he puts on the woo. It’ll keep Jace on his toes too.” Katie Faith snickered.
Aimee snorted. “It’s a good thing that boy has superpowers. You’re a trial. Anyway. I can call you when I find out. But if I tell you to go, you best take your pretty butt away. I can’t get at all his good parts if you get him all worked up in the bad way.”
But Katie Faith was right about it being a positive thing if they were all seen with each other.
“And you need to tell Jace before you arrive. I don’t want you springing this on him in the middle of my date.” You had to set limits with Katie Faith or she got a little wild sometimes.
But there was no doubt her life would be so much worse without Katie Faith in it.
“I need to get to work.” Aimee finished up her soda and dropped money on the counter. Katie Faith just glared at her, but she knew not to argue. Aimee was going to pay and that’s all there was to it. “Talk to you late
r.” She blew Katie Faith a kiss as she left.
* * *
He brushed his palms down the front of his thighs before he got out of his car. Mac loved this neighborhood. The houses were small with prodigious, heady-scented gardens. He paused before knocking on her door, breathing deep. Pine and roses. The wall of trees just beyond her back door lent the pine and the trellis and porch columns were covered in fragrant climbing roses in full bloom.
A witch lived there, that much was for sure. But there was more. It was her. It was the magic, that unique scent and energy that only Aimee had.
He knocked and hadn’t succeeded in wiping the smile off his face before she answered.
She smiled back immediately. “Right on time.”
He got the feeling she was a punctual person. He bet she’d never been tardy for class.
Then he noticed what she was wearing. A bright blue shirt. Snug enough to highlight her curves. Her skirt similarly hugged her long legs leading down to boots that managed to be sexy and practical at the same time.
“Wow.” He studied her face. Her eyes had been made up to emphasize the color. The lipstick. “I like red lipstick.” He grinned and her smile got bigger.
There she stood looking like delicious temptation. Bold and totally in charge.
“I find it incredibly sexy that you’re so confident,” he murmured as he bent to brush his lips against hers.
“Now it’s my turn to say wow.” Her voice trembled slightly, inciting his wolf. “You look great.”
He’d gone for a button-down shirt and jeans, so he was glad she approved. Also because he’d spent an inordinate amount of time deciding what to wear. And changing twice.
“You want to come in or are we pressed for time?” Her mouth tipped up at the corner. “This is kiss-proof lipstick. We could test it. It comes with a money-back guarantee so you’d be doing it for science.”
“Why, Miss Benton, you’re quite the temptress this evening.” He followed her into her front room where she closed the door and turned to face him.
“I’m glad it’s working.”
He backed her against the door, his body just shy of hers. “It works, all right.”
Hands on her hips, he bent his knees and kissed her long and slow, tasting her carefully.
“Yeah, so I think this lipstick is a keeper,” she managed to say after he broke away. She had no idea if it had smeared on her or not, but it wasn’t on his mouth and if it attracted kisses like the one he just laid on her, it was definitely a keeper.
He grinned and then his stomach growled really loudly.
“Okay I get it. You’re hungry. And Katie Faith has called me already three times to see where you’re taking me and telling me how hungry she is too. I should have said, oh, by the way, there’s probably no way to avoid Katie Faith and Jace showing up wherever we’re going tonight. She’s nosy and bossy and my best friend. Plus she thinks it’ll be good for the town if we’re all seen together not fighting in the middle of the street. My only excuse is the kiss you laid on me made me loopy. Er. Loopier than usual.”
“So this is a double date?”
“No. Well. I told her no. You’ve met Katie Faith so it’s a roll of the dice really. I let her know I’d call when I was ready to have her show up. I don’t think we need them at our table for dinner. Maybe for pie after? I mean, Jace isn’t a bad guy. Maybe you know that. You probably do because you were in school and you’re both alpha wolves and I’m babbling now.”
He kissed her again because it pleased him to do it and she tasted so good. “Babbling is okay. We can have dinner with them at the pub. That’s where I figured we could go. They can leave after pie though. How’s that plan instead?”
She laughed. “That sounds like a very good plan.”
Chapter Nine
Mac couldn’t deny his pride at the way people reacted as they entered the Red Roof Inn together.
The hostess, one of his cousins, took them to a table he’d thankfully remembered to reserve in advance. The place was already humming with conversation. Music played over the sound system and it smelled like pizza dough and beer.
Not bad at all. “Oh, we’ll have two more people with us,” he told his cousin as he held Aimee’s chair out and then helped her sit.
“I’ve never had a positive chair-holding-out experience. It’s always sort of random and out of sync and then I have to surreptitiously redo the whole sitting and chair-moving process. But you did really well. Thumbs-up,” she told him as he joined her.
“You’re very strange and it totally turns me on.”
“That’s an unexpected and yet awesome compliment. Thank you.”
He tipped his chin at the sight of Jace shouldering his way through the crowd, protecting Katie Faith from getting jostled. Mac approved of how he was with his wife.
He knew Josiah’s reputation. It would have been hard to grow up in the shadow of that. He also knew a little something about growing up in someone’s shadow and having to prove yourself.
What Jace appeared to have with Katie Faith told Mac he was already a better man than his father ever had been.
Aimee’s face lit up when she caught sight of her friends. She waved at them as they made their way over and sat.
“I ordered a pitcher at the bar on the way in,” Katie Faith told them.
“Because you’re one of heaven’s own angels, that’s why,” Aimee said. “We just sat down two minutes ago so we haven’t ordered yet.”
“Kismet. Now food. Oh my God, I need food.” Katie Faith looked to Mac. “Hi. Why do you eat so late?”
“Why do you eat so early?” he asked back.
“I’m hungry early. Normal people are, you know.”
“When she gets hungry, or you wake her up early, she’s really awful. Like a rabid raccoon. She’ll be better once she eats and gets some liquor in her,” Aimee explained to Mac.
“Fair enough.” He and Jace then tipped chins and clasped forearms and the tension eased.
The crowd, who’d been watching carefully, also relaxed. It was always sort of amazing how seemingly small things like being together in public made a difference with folks.
“Who’s getting what?” Katie Faith asked. Jace got up and returned with a bowl of bar snacks and the pitcher.
“These should help everyone’s evening.” Jace set the bowl near his wife who gave him a grateful smile.
“That’s her way of saying we all need to order things she wants to eat a bite or two of. I figure you’re a werewolf and can defend yourself and your food if need be, though. You have to be firm with her.” Aimee winked at Katie Faith.
It wasn’t that Katie Faith wasn’t bossy. She totally was, but Aimee moved with it. Pushing back here and there but the two of them weaved together the order in a flow of insults, bizarre inside jokes and laughing.
“Are they always like this?” he asked Jace.
“Yes. Accept that now. They have a penchant for trouble too. Best to just nod and go with it. You can’t outlast them. Katie Faith’s like a kitten. Don’t tell her I said that.” Jace smiled slightly as he looked over to his wife briefly. “Now here’s the part where I say Aimee is like my little sister and I’d be vexed if she got hurt or misused.”
There wasn’t any pretense that this was a first date in any human sense of the term. They both knew what it was to find a female who’d piqued the interest of man and wolf. He enjoyed women, yes he did. He hadn’t been a monk; no he’d had plenty of wonderful, pleasurable moments with them over his life.
But he’d never mistaken any of those for anything but temporary relationships. Fucking was one thing. But Aimee represented more. He’d have to get to know her better, but she made all the chaos seem to part and quiet a little. And that wasn’t anything to sneeze at.
&
nbsp; She came with an extended family who all wanted to protect her and he liked that even as it ruffled his feathers. Which was one of many reasons why it was clear he was interested in something serious. “Understood,” he said with a nod, meaning more than one thing.
For the time being he’d allow this protection because she was close with her friend and her friend’s husband. But maybe one of these days he’d want to protect her. Maybe she’d be someone he considered his.
“Do people always stare at you when you’re out or is this a new thing?” she asked him as the food arrived.
“I’m a good-looking man.” Mac shrugged and she laughed. He liked it. Craved it even. Amusing her. Having her be interested in what he had to say. He hadn’t realized just how funny she was at first, but by that point he got it. Another super sexy quality she possessed.
“You’re a very good-looking man. I can’t lie.” She put hot sauce on her pizza, which made him suspicious. But there was that compliment so he went with that.
“Oh, very even? Well, thank you, ma’am.” He liked flirting with her. There’d been a lot less lightheartedness in his life before she came along. “It could be they think it’s strange to put hot sauce on pizza.”
“You’re supposed to be worldly, Macrae. Take a walk on the wild side. A little hot sauce makes most everything better.” She took a bite, humming in delight.
“Worldly?”
“Essentially anyone who gets to live somewhere else is worldly. Plus it was across an actual ocean so bonus points.”
She made the weirdest sort of sense. It fascinated him.
The wolf thought so too. Wanted to puzzle her out, to play and pounce each time she delighted him.
Aimee leaned in, placing a hand on his forearm, leaving little zings of electricity in her wake.
His magic surged in response, but when her gaze locked on his, it settled, caressing hers, like a whole body embrace. All the tumult left him in a warm flow.
He mouthed, “Wow,” and she smiled. A small, private smile.