by Selena Scott
He recognized the deflection for what it was, and he was still curious about Wren’s life, but he decided not to push too hard. “Things are… actually really good.” He laughed a little. “I’m actually kind of surprised. I’d figured she’d put up a little more of a fight about dating me.”
“Nah, I had her pegged as a secret softie a long time ago. I bet she’s just a pile of pudding on the inside, right?”
That wasn’t exactly the way he would have categorized Diana, but he could see where Wren was coming from. “Yeah.”
“You two made the beast with two backs yet?”
“The beast with two… Oh! You mean sex? Yeah, last night actually.”
It occurred to Orion that maybe he should be a little more discreet about his sex life with Diana, but he also knew that Wren wasn’t being nosy. She was just the kind of friend you talked about sex with. If Ida were here, she’d be blushing and admonishing Wren, but as it was just the two of them, neither was particularly embarrassed by the blunt nature of the conversation.
“Good for you, man. Any good?”
“Are you kidding? Have you seen Diana?”
Wren laughed. “Fair enough. But the good looking ones aren’t always the best in the sack. Trust me. They think they can just lay there and look pretty.”
“Not Diana. Nah. She’s a champ.”
For some reason that made Wren burst out laughing. “Orion, you’re priceless. I’ve never heard a man refer to a woman as a champ at sex before.”
He furrowed his brow. “There’s not really a better word to describe it.”
Wren opened her mouth to say something but clapped it closed and squinted out the window instead. “That’s weird.”
“What?” Orion leaned forward and caught just a flash of tail lights before a car disappeared down the driveway.
“That’s the third time today that Quill has driven up to the house and then turned and driven away.”
The home that the Wolf siblings lived in was more than just Wren’s Grandmother’s former home, it was also housed her hair salon on the first floor. She would have been in the prime position to see anyone who’d pulled into the driveway.
Orion mulled over this information, trying to think of any human custom that would involve driving one’s car up and down a driveway repeatedly. He came up blank. And judging from the look on Wren’s face, she was coming up blank as well. And she’d been born and raised in human culture, so that was really saying something.
“Why would he be doing that?”
“I don’t know,” Wren said slowly. “I mean the only reason he comes around is for Dawn, right? He’s her mentor after all.”
“Right, so he pulls up, realizes that she’s not here and then drives away?” Sounded plausible enough to him.
“Sure. Because cell phones don’t exist,” Wren said drily.
“Oh. Yeah. Why would he drive over here instead of calling her?”
“Maybe,” Wren began. “Maybe he has something to talk to her about that he wants to do in person.”
This one Orion didn’t need spelled out for him. If Quill needed to talk to his little sister about something in person, there was a very good chance that it was of a personal nature. He… didn’t like the sound of that.
The truth was, Orion liked Quill. He thought he was competent and interesting. But there was something just a little bit off about him.
It was strange to Orion that Quill was a bear shifter. As someone who’d grown up in mountains outside of Portland, Quill had had a lot of experience with bears. They were protective, straight forward, hunters. Quill on the other hand gave off a vibe much more like a scavenger. He was wily and good at hiding in plain sight. If Orion didn’t already know Quill was a bear shifter, he would have guessed he was a fox or a coyote.
“You think he has something personal to talk to Dawn about,” Orion guessed.
Wren shrugged, her eyes squinting in just such a way that told Orion that yes, that was exactly what she’d thought.
“What kind of personal thing do you think they have to talk about?” he asked slowly, a pit of dread opening up in his gut.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, seeing as she’s your little sister and all, but Dawn is a very pretty girl.”
“You think Quill thinks that Dawn is pretty.”
Wren cocked her head to one side. “Have you spent much time around them lately?”
“Not really.”
“Maybe just try to catch the two of them together and see what conclusions you come up with.”
“You’re saying that I’ll spend some time with the two of them and I’ll suddenly realize that Quill thinks Dawn is pretty?”
“Orion,” Wren dropped her head into one hand. “I tried to be discreet here, but yeah. Come on! Look what happened with Phoenix and Ida! You and Diana for god sakes. Based on what little information I have, I think there’s pretty much a ninety percent chance that Quill and your sister are banging it out on a regular basis.”
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Orion was standing, one hand in his hair. He was looking around, completely befuddled. He’d known that Dawn was pretty, sure. And he’d known that she was getting older. And yes, of course he’d known that people in their twenties generally found other people to have sex with. It had just never occurred to him that…
“Good Jesus, she’s been so cheery lately. You think…? No. Oh, lord.” He pulled his cheeks down with his hands, smushing his face into a mask of horrified older brother. “You think she’s been in a good mood because she’s…” he lowered his voice into a whisper. “Making the beast with two backs?”
Again, Wren burst out laughing. “I don’t know! Go ask her if you’re so curious. I’m just saying that maybe lil sis isn’t so lil anymore.”
“I need to talk to Diana.” Orion was up and walking toward the front door of the salon.
“Wow, hold on, big guy. I didn’t mean to rile you up.”
“No,” Orion said, waving Wren off. “It’s okay. I just, I need to talk to Diana.”
He was out the front door and jogging toward the bus stop. It didn’t even occur to him that a year ago, this was the kind of problem that would have stayed securely within the confines of his own mind. Wanting to spare his siblings the worry, he’d never have talked this over with them. He’d have left it up to himself to figure it out.
But here he was, racing off to find the only person on this earth he trusted to help him with his problems, his equal in every way.
***
“You think Quill is boning my sister?”
Diana blinked up from the document she’d been reading. Orion stood in the doorway of her office, his hair standing on end and an utterly befuddled look in his eye.
“Maybe close the door?”
He strode in, kicked the door closed behind him and collapsed into one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. His eyes did a slow perusal of her hair in its tight ponytail, the neat edges of her dress. “You look cute. But yeah, do you think he’s boning her?”
Diana winced and laughed at the same time. “Will you quit saying boning? I hate that euphemism.”
“What’s wrong with it? Am I using it wrong? Never fails to amuse me how many different words human use to talk about sex.”
“You’re using it correctly. It’s just gross to me is all. Pick another term.”
“Beast with two backs? That’s the one Wren taught me this morning.”
Diana couldn’t help but wince/laugh again. “You’re moving in the wrong direction. How about we just call it sex.”
Now he was the one wincing. “So, is that a yes? You think they’re having sex?”
Diana sighed. She pushed aside the information regarding the medical research that Quill had emailed her and she’d printed out. She’d been poring over it all afternoon. “No,” she answered slowly. “I don’t think so.”
“Wren thinks they are.”
Diana had met Wren a few times and didn’t know
her well, but her first impression was that she was a woman who saw through bullshit. “Well, if Wren is right then Quill directly lied to my face on your porch this morning when I asked him if something was going on between them.”
Orion reared back. “Hold on, Quill was at my house this morning? Why?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. He had an excuse but it seemed a little thin.” Diana tipped her head back. “He’s been acting a little funny recently, and he says it’s because of this.”
Diana tapped the papers in front of her and then explained them all to Orion. She explained all about the program, the advantages it offered. She watched him carefully for reaction, but he seemed to be doing the same thing to her.
“So, what’s wrong with it?” he asked after a moment.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that it sounds too good to be true, but you’re acting all… quiet. If it were really worth my time, I figure you’d be excited.”
A little glow started up in her gut at how well he knew her. “I’ll admit that there’s something about this situation that is making me hesitate. Something isn’t quite right, but I can’t tell what it is. You know? Is it Quill? Is it this program? I don’t know. I wish I could pinpoint it because honestly, if this program is for real, it would be an absolute lifesaver for you and your siblings. How much medical debt do you all have? A couple hundred thousand dollars, right? Well, with just a three day commitment to this medical research, you’d wipe it all away.”
Something lit up in Orion’s eyes. “Sounds like we need to do an experiment of our own.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m thinking that we need to do something as a group and try to watch Quill and Dawn to see if there’s anything going on. If there isn’t anything going on then you know that it is something else bothering Quill. This program maybe.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah,” he said, sitting up, obviously liking this idea. “Let’s take them someplace undeniably sexy and see if there’s any,” he wiggled his fingers and his eyebrows in tandem, “vibes.”
Diana laughed. “Or you could just talk to your sister.”
“Nah, this is way more fun. Let’s go to a club.”
“A club.” She groaned internally. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone to a club and she could tell from the devastatingly charming look in his eye that he was totally going to convince her to go along with this stupid plan.
“Yeah. I’ve never been to one. I want to go to one like they have on tv. With flashing lights and oonce oonce oonce oonce,” he imitated the sound of heavy bass.
“Oh lord.” She dropped her forehead into her palm. “You’re going to force me to revisit my early twenties, aren’t you.”
“If you went to clubs in your early twenties, then yes.”
“Is there anything I can say to talk you out of this?”
“What should I wear?”
She groaned again and lowered her forehead to her desk.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Orion was kind of… giddy. This was fun. Really fun.
He’d somehow talked Phoenix and Ida, Wren, Dawn, and Quill into having dinner with him and Diana. They’d gone to an Italian restaurant down the street from the club they were going to go to when it was, apparently, a more appropriate hour. According to Wren, nobody went to a club when it was still light outside. Orion was happy to defer to the expert.
Which meant that the group had chatted and laughed over dinner, gone to the bar next door for a drink and now that they’d settled up their tab, were finally heading over to the club.
Orion felt delightfully human. He wore a V-neck T and jeans and boots, an outfit that Diana had insisted would blend in just fine. Apparently Ida had had the same thought because Orion’s scowly brother was currently outfitted in exactly the same thing.
Quill, however, was in a tight hoodie and dark athletic pants, a frown on his face. Orion had been watching him very carefully all night and hadn’t seen any hint that he and Dawn were sleeping together. If anything, Orion had only observed a level of mild indifference on Quill’s part. He’d sat next to Dawn at dinner, sure, but he’d barely said a word to anyone, concentrating on his food instead. Orion would have wondered how the hell Diana had gotten Quill to agree to this outing if it weren’t for the fact that he truly believed it was physically impossible to deny Diana anything.
Dawn was her usual quiet self, though she’d seemed to make an effort to chat with Wren over dinner. Maybe, if Orion was really looking for it, he could detect the fact that Dawn was maybe going out of her way not to talk to Quill.
But for the most part they just looked like two people who were decidedly not in the middle of a forbidden affair.
All thoughts of his sister and her mentor flooded out of Orion’s head when their group stepped through the front doors of the club, each of them flashing their IDs at a gigantic man in black glasses. Orion exchanged looks with his siblings. The bouncer was a shifter for sure, but one that he’d never before encountered.
Before he could think twice, Orion leaned across the red velvet rope separating him from the bouncer and shouted over the music. “What kind of shifter are you?”
The man jolted and eyed Orion with extreme suspicion.
Orion lifted his palms outward. “I’m a wolf. Same as my brother and sister.” He pointed out Phoenix -who was still scowling- and Dawn. He wasn’t related to Quill so he didn’t think it was his place to out the fact that there was also a bear shifter in their midst.
The bouncer’s eyes narrowed.
“He’s pretty new to human culture,” Diana said, sliding under Orion’s arm and placing herself between him and the bouncer. “Sorry for the intrusive questions.”
“Oh.” Orion looked from her back to the bouncer. “Sorry. I didn’t realize it was rude to ask.”
The bouncer seemed to loosen up a little bit. “You came out of the woodwork after the internment camps got closed down, then?”
“Yeah.” Orion nodded enthusiastically. “We lived up in the hills for most of our lives.”
“Right. I was in hiding too. Until a few years ago.”
“What’s the hold up?” Wren shouted over the bass beat, reappearing at Orion’s side. “Let’s dance!”
“Just making friends,” Orion shouted back, tossing his thumb toward the bouncer.
“Hi there, muscles,” Wren said, tracing an appraising eye up and down the bouncer’s body. Orion couldn’t tell if he’d passed the test or not. Apparently the bouncer couldn’t either, he frowned at Wren, one of his hands going to the back of his neck, like he was very uncomfortable having his muscles pointed out.
“Okay, I know it’s apparently rude,” Orion said, unable to help himself. “But I hafta know. What kind of shifter are you? I’ve never scented anything like it before.”
The bouncer shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat. His eyes darted around the club, making sure that no one would overhear him. He leaned forward. Orion, Wren and Diana all leaned forward as well.
“Polar bear.”
“No shit!” Wren said, her eyes going wide. She stuck one hand out. “I’m a raven. Nice to meet you, snow bear.”
The bouncer looked at her hand for a long minute before he reached out and shook it, looking like he wasn’t quite sure what to make of Wren.
“Orion!” Diana hissed in his ear. “Look!”
He tore his attention away from Diana and the bouncer and turned toward the bar where Quill and Dawn stood shoulder to shoulder, trying to get the bartender’s attention. The bartender was young and good looking, when he turned and saw Dawn standing there, he immediately smiled, pretty much completely ignoring Quill.
Orion watched as Quill looked back and forth between Diana and the bartender, scowling the whole time.
They watched as Quill said something to Dawn. She quickly said something back, looking both flustered and annoyed at the same time. Ida and Phoenix approached a moment
later and Dawn took her drink and stepped aside, letting the newcomers fill in between her and Quill.
“Interesting,” Diana mused, her eyes narrowed and slightly skeptical.
“Very interesting,” Orion agreed.
He tugged Diana to the bar where they got drinks as well and then he turned to survey the dance floor, Diana tucked safely under his arm. As soon as they’d stepped into the club, he’d noticed a rather unsettling number of male eyes trailing her around. He’d also noticed that the closer she was to him, the shorter the amount of time the gazes lingered on her. If he could have stuck her under his T shirt he would have.
“Huh,” he said, scratching at his head. “I think I’m experiencing jealousy.”
“What?” Diana shouted over the music.
“I don’t like all these idiots looking at you!” he shouted back. “I’ve never been jealous before.” He paused and thought about it. “It sucks.”
“What idiots?” she scanned the bar. “All I see are a bunch of floozies in short skirts trying to catch your eye.”
He laughed at the expression on her face, sure that it was mirroring his own. “I have no idea what a floozy is, but you’re cute when you’re jealous.”
She crossed her eyes at him and stuck out her tongue. “I have an idea,” she said. “Let’s just go ahead and make everybody jealous.”
Orion wasn’t sure what she meant until she grabbed his hand and hauled him out onto the dance floor. Diana was good at everything, so it didn’t exactly surprise him when she turned out to be a very alluring dancer. She was all hips and soft curves and only eyes for him. He didn’t have a ton of experience on a dance floor, sure, but he also didn’t have a ton of self-consciousness either. And besides, it didn’t take a dancing expert to put your hands on a woman’s hips and grind up against her.
Which, he noticed with a grin, was also the route that his brother was taking with Ida. Phoenix frowned around at the dance floor as Ida bopped and danced against him, making it so that he didn’t have to move too much and aggravate his injury. Orion caught Phoenix’s eye and the two brothers just kind of shook their heads at one another. Two years ago, they were in their wolf forms 99% of the time, avoiding humanity at all costs. And now, here they were in a club with flashing lights and terrible music and their women all loved up on them.