by Dena Christy
Maybe he should go to his gym and pound on the heavy bag for a while. It was what he’d had to resort to since she’d blown back into the area, and it wasn’t helping that much. At least it would exhaust him enough so that maybe he could sleep without dreaming of her.
He washed his hands and splashed some water on his face. He had to get out of here.
He yanked open the door and took three steps away, and came face to face with Rafe. It took all his will power not to curl his lip at him.
“Something wrong?” Rafe raised an eyebrow, and it was on the tip of Mason’s tongue to warn him away from Grace. He didn’t like the thought of the pack’s enforcer touching her, kissing her or whatever else he thought about doing with her. He didn’t want anyone he knew knowing what it was like to be in her arms, to know what it felt like to have her naked body wrapped around them.
He tightened his jaw, gave a shake of his head as his gaze swept Rafe up and down. “Nothing.”
“Don’t look like nothing to me. Looks like you got something on your mind. It have anything to do with that pretty blond at the bar?”
Mason gave a shake of his head. He wasn’t getting into this with Rafe, because with the mood he was in, it was going to come out in a way he was going to regret. His best bet would be to go to the gym and take his frustrations out on the heavy bag instead of the man in front of him. But some devil inside him remembered the way she looked up at Rafe when he tucked her hair behind her ear, and he slammed his shoulder into him on his way by.
“Look if you got some prior claim, say so.”
Mason stopped for a second. That was the problem. He didn’t have a claim on her, and he had no right to be this pissed off at Rafe.
“I got no claim, man.” And he’d repeat it to himself over and over like a mantra if need be so he got the message through his thick skull.
“Then you'll have no problem when I hit that.” There was a smirk in Rafe’s voice, and Mason knew without a doubt that he would sleep with Grace if given half the chance.
A mental picture of Rafe’s huge body pumping inside her while she cried out in ecstasy painted itself in Mason’s head and he couldn’t let it go. His anger rose inside him and he turned on the man he’d always considered a friend. He gripped Rafe by the front of his shirt, and would have slammed him against the wall if Rafe didn’t have two inches and more muscle on him.
“You want to go?” It didn’t take much for Rafe to shove him back, and they were starting to draw an audience. Mason knew he should back down, that Rafe talking to Grace wasn’t worth getting in a fight over, but his blood was up.
“Outside.” Mason jerked his head and then strode out of the bar in a civilized manner. He shrugged his shoulders back, and shook his arms to loosen up. Rafe rolled his neck, and turned to face him in the middle of the parking lot.
“Ready to do this?” Rafe grinned at him, and Mason knew that he was not taking this at all seriously. As far as Rafe was concerned this would be a bit of sport, a brief interruption between his drinks and his flirting. Mason wanted to makes sure that he got the message that Grace was off limits as far as the flirting went.
“You going to leave her alone?” The words were out before he could stop them, and Rafe gave a shout of laughter.
“Fuck no.”
Anger took hold of Mason and wouldn’t let go. His hands curled into fists and his instincts took over. As he and Rafe danced around the parking lot, they both got a few shots in, but it did nothing to burn out Mason’s anger. He came at the enforcer with deadly intent, and a hard look came over Rafe’s face. Soon enough, with their werewolf blood raging in their veins, it became a battle between two well matched warriors.
Someone in the crowd must have seen that this was not going to end well, that things had escalated to more than a couple of wolfs sparring for fun. Several wolves came forward and pulled them apart.
“Get off me.” Mason shouted as he pulled against one of the wolves holding him. Blood trickled down the side of his lip where Rafe had gotten a good shot into his mouth. He consoled himself that at least the other man was going to have a hell of a shiner.
“Not until you calm down.” The man holding him was Gerry, an older wolf in his sixties. “If the alpha gets wind of this shit show he’s going to kick both your asses. Now settle down and shake hands.”
Gerry let him go, and Mason blew out a calming breath. Rafe stuck his hand out and with some reluctance Mason took it and shook it. Alex came out of the bar, with two beers in his hands and handed one to each of them. Mason took his and turned away.
He walked over to his truck, and sat down on the back bumper. How could he have lost control like that? Now was the time to be showing everyone their solidarity, not fighting amongst themselves.
“So we good?” Rafe sat down on the bumper next to him.
“Yeah, we’re good. It’s been a hard couple of months.”
“Well, here’s to a better future.” Rafe tilted his bottle toward him, and Mason clinked the top of his against it. The future had to be better, because the past had definitely sucked.
2
Grace stared straight ahead as she sat at the bar. She could feel eyes on her, and it wasn’t paranoia that made her think so. Everyone had seen her and Rafe talking and having a good time, until Mason had started something with him. God, werewolves were such hot heads sometimes.
And she’d just about had enough of Mason’s attitude. For the two months since she’d been back in East Brook, every time she’d seen him when she’d come to talk to Logan in Cold Bay she’d gotten nothing but attitude from him. At first she thought she deserved it. She’d hurt him so much, and although she’d broken up with him for reasons other than the ones she’d told him, her guilt over the past had kept her from making an issue out of it.
She sighed as she pushed her drink away and stood up.
“Sorry for that scene.” Rafe came to stand beside her, and she pushed her lips together as she looked up at him. “I’m going to assume that any chance of you wanting to see me again is out of the question.”
“The last thing I want in my life right now is drama. I think you’re a nice guy, but I’m not looking for anything right now.” And that was certainly true. She didn’t even know if she was going to stick around in East Brook now that she was no longer needed to save her pack.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been called a nice guy before.” Rafe gave a rueful shake of his head, and smiled down at her. “Still, no hard feelings?”
He stuck out his hand and she looked down at it for a minute. For a second she wished that Mason wasn't crowded into her head as much as he was. She’d meant what she’d told Rafe, he was a nice guy, even if he didn’t think so. Why couldn't she be attracted to him? At least then she would have a shot at something she’d dreamed of having for years. A settled life and a family. Although Rafe didn’t strike her as the settling down type, so perhaps it was for the best that there wasn’t that spark between them.
“No hard feelings.” She took his hand out and shook it. “It was nice meeting you. Hopefully there won’t be any fights if I happen to see you again.”
“Maybe you should talk to him about what ancient history means. I don’t think he gets it.” Rafe gave her one last smile and turned away to go over to a group of men on the other side of the bar.
The last thing she wanted to do was talk to Mason. She was going home and trying to put the disaster this evening had turned into behind her. What was she thinking? That fifteen years was enough time to put the past behind them? The events of that summer still haunted her, and she’d been a fool to think that things would be different for him.
With a shake of her head, she hitched her purse up on her shoulder and walked out of the bar, trying to ignore the eyes that followed her. She was sure that the ones watching her wanted to know what was going on and why two members of the Cold Bay Wolf Pack were apparently fighting over her. Her past relationship with Mason was not common knowle
dge, so as far as the people in the bar were concerned she must be some sort of femme fatale. What a joke that was.
She marched out the door and put the occupants of Sawyer’s Place behind her. Let them think what they wanted, they would anyway.
The gravel in the parking lot crunched under her shoes, and as she made her way to her car, she glanced to the left and saw Mason. He was sitting against the bumper of what she assumed was his truck, with his head hanging down.
Her heart went out to him for a second. He looked so alone, sitting there by himself. He turned his head, as if he could sense her looking at him, and the scab forming on his lip made her harden her heart. What was she doing feeling sorry for him? The man was a jackass and had brought all this on himself.
She turned her face forward and walked to her car.
“You can date him if you want.” His voice was a bitter rumble, and for a second she thought she could not have possibly heard him correctly. She paused in the act of pulling her keys out of her purse and turned to look at him again. His eyes were on her, but in the dim light of the parking lot she could hardly see his expression.
“What did you say?” She must have misheard, because there was no way he actually thought she needed his permission to do anything.
“I said you can date him if you want.” He turned his head back forward and stared straight ahead.
That’s what she thought he’d said, and the rational part of her brain said it wasn’t worth getting into it with him. It had been a long night, and neither of them were in the frame of mind necessary to have any sort of discussion. She unlocked her car door, tossed her purse inside but instead of getting in, she slammed it shut again. The sound of it rang out like a shot as she spun around and marched over to him.
“I don’t know if you realize this or not, but we haven’t been together for fifteen years. I don’t need your permission to see anyone, and if you think I do, think again. You don’t own me and you have no right to tell me who I can and can’t date. I’ll see whoever I want, when I want.” She put her hands on her hips as she could feel the heat of her anger rising inside her.
He shot to his feet and towered over her. She didn’t back down because she knew, no matter what she said to him or how angry he was, he would never retaliate against her physically. It was a good thing too, because she could see his face darken in his anger.
“Oh I know you’ll see whoever you want. It certainly didn’t stop you from doing that when we were together fifteen years ago.” His lips curled out of reflex and as it tightened it opened the cut on it. A small bit of blood beaded on it, and he made no move to wipe it away.
“I thought you were over it?”
“I am.” There was so much heat in what he said, that she suspected he was trying to convince himself rather than her.
“Oh really? Then why are you being such an asshole? Why are you starting fights with members of your own pack?”
He turned away and braced his hands on the tailgate of his truck. “I think you should go home. There really isn’t much for us to say to each other.”
She stared at his back, tempted to make him turn around and face her. Why was she starting all this? She’d told herself over and over that she needed to move on, to move past him and all the shit that had happened. She couldn’t exactly do that if she was going to be picking fights with him in the parking lot.
“Stay out of my business and I’ll stay out of yours.” She turned and walked away from him. If he wanted to be a jerk and stew in the past, there was nothing she could do about it. Logan had told her to come to him if Mason’s behavior got to be too much, but she was reluctant to do that. Fifteen years away from her pack, away from all that was safe and familiar, had taught her that she couldn’t wait for other people to fight her battles.
She got in her car and took one last look in the rearview mirror. Mason was no longer standing at the back of his truck, and she saw his lights come on. He pulled away from the bar, and she bit her lip as she watched him speed away. He was never going to be able to forgive her for what he thought she’d done all those years ago.
She started her car and pulled out of the parking lot at a more sedate pace than he had used. When she’d first come back home, she’d foolishly thought that Mason would have moved on past the events of the summer when she’d been eighteen and he’d been twenty. Fifteen years was a long time to hold on to bitterness. Perhaps he had moved on until she came back to remind him of how horribly it had all ended. Why the hell had she lied to him when she broke up with him?
Her mind worked overtime as she drove out of Cold Bay toward East Brook. She knew the answer to that. Telling him that there was someone else had been the only way she could get him to accept their break up. And she couldn’t tell him the truth about why she’d been forced to leave him and her home behind at the age of eighteen. Only one other person now knew that there had been no man for her other than Mason that summer and even Logan didn’t know the extent of the devastating reason she’d been forced to flee East Brook.
She sighed as she pulled into her driveway, and killed the lights on her car. Her late mother’s house loomed in front of her, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t get it to feel like home anymore. It was the house her mother had shared with her stepfather, and most of the memories inside it were not happy ones.
But she had no other place to go, since she’d given up everything from the life she’d built over the past fifteen years to come home. She’d tried living her life as a human, and the wolf side of herself had missed not being part of a pack. She’d never given up her membership to the East Brook Pack, and therefore could never join a new one. Maybe she should have. Perhaps she wouldn’t be in as much turmoil as she was now, reliving painful memories she thought she’d buried a long time ago.
She got out of the car and walked to the house. As she walked in, she looked around, as if seeing it for the first time. There was no sense of attachment when she was in here. Everywhere she looked there were memories tucked away, most of them bad. Perhaps she should cut her losses, list the house for sale and put East Brook in her rearview mirror. Now that Logan had gotten both packs to follow him as alpha, she was surplus to requirements.
She locked the front door and went to the bedroom she’d claimed for her own. She wasn’t going to be able to decide anything tonight. What she needed was a good night’s sleep and hopefully she would achieve clarity in the morning. If she decided to move on from here, at least she knew that she could do it. She’d started over once, she could do it again.
The sound of fists pummeling the heavy bags and the general chatter that went on in Mason’s boxing gym usually soothed him, but not this morning. He’d gotten some funny looks when he’d come in this morning, and it only reminded him of what an ass he’d made of himself last night. What the hell had he been thinking, going after Rafe like that?
He’d tried to put it out of his mind, but unfortunately he couldn’t. All night he’d been bombarded with images of Grace standing over him in the parking lot. The fire in her eyes when she’d told him that he didn’t own her made him want to pull her to him and see if he could capture some of that fire on her lips. Thank God he’d resisted the impulse, since he didn’t want to compound his stupidity of the evening by making an even dumber mistake.
“Hey Mason.” A cheerful child’s voice piped up beside him and he looked down to see Connor, Logan’s son, grinning up at him. He certainly looked a lot better than he had the last time he’d seen him. His heart had gone out to the boy when he’d come into the bar last night to tell his father that strange men had taken his mother. He was glad for both Connor and Logan’s sake that no lasting damage had been done to Faith. Mason was fairly certain that Logan would have lost his mind if anything had happened to his woman.
“Hey Connor, go get changed. You’re going to be working with Don today.” Mason reached out to ruffle the boy’s dark hair. As Connor sped away toward the change room, Logan walk
ed up to him with a neutral expression on his face. There was a hardness in his eyes, and Mason didn’t fool himself into thinking that last night’s debacle hadn’t reached his alpha’s ears.
“Logan…”
“In your office. Now. What I have to say doesn’t need an audience.” Logan’s voice was low, and could easily have been described as a growl. Yep, he knew about what happened last night, and as Gary had predicted he was not happy about it.
Mason sighed and turned around to walk toward his office. There was a lull in the noise for a second, which meant that the other people in the gym had not failed to notice their alpha’s presence.
Mason opened his office door and swept his arm out to indicate to Logan to go in. He closed the door behind him. Logan was right, Mason certainly didn’t want an audience for the dressing down he was sure to get. He squared his shoulders and prepared himself to face his alpha like a man. Once his anger had rushed out of him last night he knew he’d been in the wrong, and now it was time to pay for it.
“Look Alpha, I really have nothing to say for myself.” Mason turned around to face Logan, and pain went slamming through his jaw as his alpha’s fist connected. His head snapped back and he hit the door behind him. The noise of his body slamming against the wooden door would surely have been heard. “What the fuck was that for?”
“Well you seem to want to fight, so I’d thought I’d give you one. Do you need me to kick your ass? Don’t fool yourself into thinking I won’t do it.”
Mason shook his head and cast his eyes to the floor. Hopefully the sign of respect would take some of the anger out of his alpha. He didn’t want to fight with Logan, and while they were evenly matched in size and build, he knew that Logan was pissed enough to wipe the floor with him. Besides, he wouldn’t put up that much of a fight against him knowing that he deserved to have his ass kicked.