The Carpenter’s Dilemma (Family Secrets Book 2)

by Noah Harris

  Artemis grinned, and Dean immediately realized that the woman was up to something, “Dean, I’d like you to properly meet Dante. Dante, this is Dean, as I’m sure you know.”

  Dean blinked, his mind latching onto the name in recognition, “Oh the—”

  The big man stepped closer, and Dean could see the scars around his neck. Dean winced at the sight, knowing that the other man had noticed, “Those didn’t heal completely, huh?”

  The man’s brow raised, probably at the apologetic tone in Dean’s voice, “Silver don’t heal well for us. Especially when it’s dug into the skin—it cuts clean and deep.”

  Despite the awkwardness, Dean admired the almost gravelly tone of the man’s voice. The man looked just as ill at ease as Dean felt. What did you say to a human who had figured out your weakness before he even knew what you were? Probably the same things that Dean would say to the man he had never met as a man, but had fought with in his wolf form.

  “Err,” Dean began, wanting to apologize, but unable to bring himself to do so.

  Dante seemed to sense it and grinned, “Don’t. I deserved it. It’s what I get for thinking you were going to be easy to scare off.”

  Dean’s brow raised, “You were just trying to scare me?”

  Dante looked embarrassed again, “Well, at first. But then the stick and the necklace and . . . I got a little mad. I’m sorry about that.”

  Dean looked at Mikael who only shrugged, looking amused at the two of them, “Umm, well, I’m guessing the word around here wasn’t too nice about me. After being around you guys long enough, I’m thinking I understand why you did it.”

  The big man grinned wide, “That and you got to give a little of it back.”

  Dean couldn’t help but laugh, “Well, maybe a little of that, too. That doesn’t hurt.”

  “Kinda mad I missed the showdown,” Dante huffed, his shoulders easing, “would have been something to see, that’s for sure.”

  Dean motioned to himself, “You can see how well that went.”

  The dark-haired man glanced back toward the group and snorted, “You stood up to Father, made him mad, and managed to not die in the ring with him. Then you turn around and get your man, and you’re on your way to being a full member of the pack if—at least if the gossip is reliable. I’d say you did pretty well for yourself . . . for a human.”

  Artemis appeared behind Dante, clapping a hand on his shoulder with sudden force, “Aren’t you just gracious, Dante?”

  Dean couldn’t keep the grin from coming back to his face as he watched the larger man wince under her grip, “He was only telling me what a good job I did, shaking things up around here and all.”

  Artemis snorted, “And looked pretty scary doing it. Seriously, I didn’t know humans could get that mad.”

  Dean frowned, “Err, haven’t you heard about all the wars we’ve had? Humans have a pretty short temper, we just use guns a lot more is all.”

  “Eh, it was still pretty great, watching your tiny butt come storming in here. You do know that only you could get away with driving his truck like that, right?”

  Nervousness flashed through Dean, “I didn’t . . . I didn’t do any damage to her, did I?”

  Mikael came around to them, sliding an arm around Dean’s shoulders and squeezing the man against him, “She’s okay. Nothing a good bit of water and soap can’t fix. And Artemis? His butt is not little.”

  Dean eyed the taller man, “Did you just tell your cousin I have a fat ass?”

  Mikael blinked down at him, “Well, I meant in a good way. As in, it’s not tiny, it’s a good ass.”

  His brow rose once more, “So if my ass was actually tiny, you wouldn’t think it was good?”

  The larger werewolf looked up at the group surrounding them in confusion and a little fear, “Help. I don’t think I know the right answer here.”

  Dean’s face broke into a wide smile, “I never got to do that before. That’s actually kind of fun.”

  “You were joking?” Mikael asked, sputtering with outrage and relief.

  “We’re in mixed company,” Dean told him, patting his arm consolingly, “so I won’t say just why I’m not worried about how you feel about my ass. But yeah, I was joking. I had to try it just once. Consider it payment for having to come out here and yell at you, again, to make you see some sense.”

  Mikael made another harsh noise, “You’re lucky you’re cute, you know that?”

  To Dean’s surprise, Apollo’s deep voice rang out clear, “I think I see it.”

  Both men stopped their bickering to stare at Apollo. The normally silent man looked between the two of them, seeming just as surprised as everyone else that he had spoken aloud. Realizing he was the center of attention, the man simply shrugged, accepting the looks as well as his own comment. It was then that Dean noticed Lucille had apparently slipped back into the group, peering just as curiously at Apollo as the rest.

  How did she do that?

  “Er, see what?” Dean asked, finally breaking the silence to see if he could get the man to speak again. Hell, the only other time he’d spoken was when he and Artemis had shown up at Dean’s house. Even then, the man was largely silent, only cutting across his twin’s rambling to deliver the message they were sent to bring.

  A little bit of devil flashed in Apollo’s face as he smiled softly, “You two are . . . cute.”

  Everyone but Artemis looked surprised at the man’s admission. Artemis herself only smirked, shrugging as she looked between all of them, “Ya know, I do try to tell all of you that he can talk. Nobody wants to listen to me, noooo.”

  Even Lucille looked a little taken aback, speaking softly, “I feel it is about as rare as me showing emotion. You can’t help but be a little surprised when you actually see it happen, even if you know it must.”

  This time it was everyone but Apollo’s turn to stare at Lucille. Dean snorted, “Did . . . did she just make a joke?”

  Katarina and Mikael looked at one another, shrugging before Katarina spoke up, “It’s been known to happen. Though actually, I thought she had totally forgotten how, it’s been a while.”

  “So,” Katarina continued, “what is it that you’re going to do?”

  Dean let his gaze slip upward, watching the clouds move across the blue sky, “I’m going to go home. I’m going to pet my dog, feed my cat, and take a nap.”

  That brought a chuckle from her, “I can’t say I disagree with that plan, but I’m guessing you’re probably going to have to do more than that.”

  “Does having excellent sex with me count?” Mikael asked, somehow managing a tone of pure innocence.

  Dean sighed, eyeing the man, “That aside, and thank you for that in advance, Mikael. I’m going to resume the work I was doing on the farm. I apparently need to raise more food than I planned on, so I need to make sure as much of the crop survives as possible.”

  He hesitated before Katarina nodded, “We know that you were named Keeper of the Stories, Dean.”

  That made him snort, “Word gets around fast here, huh?”

  “Werewolves gossip a lot,” Katarina explained, not that Dean hadn’t figured that out on his own.

  “Well, I have to dig my grandfather’s things out and go through it all and start doing my studying,” he said, looking forward to it. If they were anything like the stories his grandfather used to tell him, it was probably going to be pretty interesting. Dean wasn’t exactly a historian, but his grandfather’s tales, and the way he’d told them, had always fascinated him as a child. That old interest, and the fact that the stories were a little piece of the man that he could hold onto, made him eager to begin his work.

  She nodded, “Well, we don’t want to keep you.”

  Lucille spoke up, “We just wished to say goodbye. We weren’t able to the last time Mikael left, after all.”

  Mikael looked a little guilty, but Artemis barreled on, “And I’m sure the two of you would like to have a little time to yourselves.” />
  “Not much privacy out here,” Dean admitted, glancing about, “it’ll be nice to be back.”

  It was Lucille who spoke next, “Well, don’t forget that while you’re out there, you have a pack waiting for you here. Father may not consider you an official member of the pack yet, but we consider you a member of our little family all the same.”

  “Thank you, Lucille,” he said, trying to keep the amazement out of his voice.

  He looked to Mikael in wonder: a part of their little family?

  He could live with that.

  chapter

  Eighteen

  Even he had to admit that his healing time was surprisingly fast. It had only been a couple of days and he was already able to move around quite freely without much in the way of lingering pain. Sure, there was the odd twinge that came from his side at times, where Samuel had taken his foot to it, but that was about it. Even the discoloration of his face had eased, now back to the faintest of darkness along his jawline, and it was easily concealed as he hadn’t bothered with shaving since he’d returned. The dark facial hair had done wonders in covering up the bruises, and for some odd reason, Mikael seemed to appreciate the scruffy look on him.

  Other than a few tasks about the place, he had been relatively lazy since returning to the farm. It had felt less like slacking and more like taking stock of everything that had happened in the past week and trying to make sense of it. Not only had he gone deep into werewolf territory, he had ended up being shoved out, only to go charging back in. Then he found himself neck deep in the mess that his own big mouth and hot temper had made. Somehow that had turned into him being battered and bruised, and the political structure of the werewolf pack shifting because of his actions.

  His fingers twined around the necklace hanging just above his collarbone as he waited for Mikael to reappear. The man had been insistent on taking over for Dean while he recovered, despite the fact that Dean was more than capable of doing his own work now that he wasn’t limping about. Yet, some part of him enjoyed the bit of spoiling. It wouldn’t last past today though—Dean couldn’t stomach sitting around doing next to nothing for much longer.

  Not for the first time, he wondered what his grandfather would think about the whole thing. Dean had thrown himself into a mess. But he had gathered that his grandfather hadn’t been completely innocent in this regard either, and had somewhat of a tumultuous relationship within the pack at one time as well. Dean suspected that those interactions hadn’t been this bad. What would the man have thought about Dean so stubbornly refusing to bow to tradition, to the point of endangering his own life—and even being willing to use those very traditions to balk against the one that stood in his way?

  It was hard to say—his grandfather had honored the old ways, yet hadn’t been afraid of change. That much Dean did know. The old man had liked solutions for problems that involved thinking, enjoying a good bit of cleverness. Dean didn’t consider himself a clever man, but even he had to admit that he’d especially liked using Samuel’s vaunted traditions against him like that. It would help if he could ask his grandfather what he thought, but save for visiting his grave, there wasn’t much Dean could do.

  It was at times like this that he felt the ache in his chest over the loss of his family more strongly than ever. His grandfather especially would have been a great source of wisdom and understanding during these recent events. God knows he could have been helpful in showing Dean a way to avoid some of the things he had stumbled into. Then again, he knew full well he would have never made this much progress if someone had been guiding him along the way. His grandfather would have been the first to point that out as well.

  Now it was just a matter of time to see if his decisions had truly been the right ones or not.

  “Quit looking so serious!” Dean jerked at the sound of Mikael’s voice, startling him out of the deep train of thoughts.

  Even from here, he could see the man’s easy grin as he caught Dean’s gaze and began striding toward him. Again, he thought of how nice it was to see the easy grace and humor back in the man. It had taken Dean a little while to realize what had changed about him, since he’d first felt the difference in that final meeting with Samuel and Matalina. There was a confidence to his movements now, more so than ever before. Whatever had caused Mikael to leap into the fray to save Dean, then stand up to his father and assert his rights, had changed Mikael profoundly.

  To watch him move in that easy way, with the slight touch of cockiness to his body’s movements, was a pleasure that Dean couldn’t quite describe. The fact that the man was shirtless probably wasn’t doing much to keep his thoughts in check either. Somehow, this new confidence just added to the way the man’s muscles shifted beneath his tanned skin.

  As Mikael approached, he had a ghost of a smirk on his face, as if he were reading Dean’s mind. Not that it was very difficult to read what was there. In their short time back on the farm, their sex life hadn’t fallen to the wayside in the slightest. If anything, their sex had become even more heated and demanding than it had been before. At first he thought the added intensity was a case of making up for lost time, or perhaps a manifestation of the fear Mikael had experienced over almost losing Dean. Yet the aching of his ass told a different story. Both of them seemed to have found a new facet of their intimacy after that time on the floor of Mikael’s cabin before Dean walked out to face his near death.

  “So, what trouble were you getting into?” Dean asked, shoving his desire to the side for the moment.

  Mikael blinked innocently, “What makes you think I was getting into trouble?”

  “Because you look like the cat who got the canary,” then quickly amended it, “or maybe the wolf who got the rabbit.”

  Mikael snorted, “Cute. Thought you liked me as a wolf.”

  Dean nodded, “You are a pretty beast. But I’ve got to say, I like the man better.”

  Mikael followed Dean’s wandering gaze down his own body, flushing a little under the scrutiny. One thing Dean loved about the other man was how curiously shy he could be at times. The man would wander about the place, wearing very little, barely batting an eye at his nakedness, and look damn good while doing it. He’d manhandle the hell out of Dean, then fuck him against whatever nearby surface suited his purpose. All that with absolute confidence and eagerness. But the moment he was put under the spotlight alone, he became bashful.

  “Quit objectifying me,” Mikael grumbled, unable to hide the pleased tone in his voice.

  “Quit looking so good,” Dean shot back easily, leaning comfortably in his chair.

  With a noncommittal grunt, Mikael made his way up the porch and plopped down in the chair next to Dean. Again, Dean found it difficult to restrain himself, and now in closer proximity, he could see the sheen of sweat on his skin even better. It wasn’t the sweat, but the sheen it created, that accentuated every line and dip in his well-shaped body.

  “So, seriously,” Dean asked, eyeing the other man still. “Is this just the honeymoon stage, or are there some weird werewolf pheromones at play here?”

  Mikael stared at him, “It took you this long to finally ask me that question Dean, really?”

  Dean huffed, “Mikael.”

  The other man laughed, “Is this one of those questions where you’re going to be unhappy no matter what I say?”

  It was Dean’s turn to stare, “No, I’m serious actually. That is a question I’ve had and I really want to know.”

  Mikael shrugged, “Alright then . . . it’s both.”

  “Both?”

  “Yeah, both,” Mikael nodded, sitting down and making himself comfortable. “It’s kinda like everything with werewolves. You’re attracted to me, and I’m attracted to you, that is normal and natural. But it works more for me, because you always smell exceptionally good to me, especially at certain times. So, a bit of both.”

  “You know they say humans can’t detect pheromones, right? That humans apparently lost the ability to detect
them, so that whole thing should only work for you, and not for me.”

  “Maybe you’re just really horny?” Mikael offered, though the grin on his face told Dean just how helpful the man was really trying to be. “Do I smell really good to you?”

  Dean snorted, “Well, yeah. You’ve never smelled bad to me, even when you’ve been sweating up a storm all day.”

  Mikael shrugged, “You’ve always been a bit different. It’s not like all humans are the same after all. Some of you are just a little different from the other different ones, if that makes any sense. It’s not like you guys are immune to people smelling good.”

  Dean frowned, “It’s not the same thing though.”

  That earned him a head cock, “You got something on your mind? You’ve never sounded that worried about being weird.”

  Dean glared at Mikael, “Not helping me feel better here.”

  “Seriously,” Mikael replied, eyeing Dean now and feeling concerned. “What’s going on in your head that has you sounding like that?”

  Dean gave a short sigh, “I guess I’m just thinking about things now that everything has calmed down and I actually can think.”

  “Okay, what are you thinking about so hard?”

  “Well, it’s kind of like this pheromone thing. Humans aren’t supposed to react to pheromones. They’re also not supposed to . . . hear the forest or whatever the hell was going on in the woods the other day. They’re not supposed be able to lay a full-grown werewolf out like I did either. As strange as everyone makes my grandfather out to be, it’s obvious that I’m even stranger. It’s a little . . . disconcerting.”

  “Okay, I’ll grant you some of that. But like I said, every human is a little different, and even the humans in the pack take on different parts of the werewolves they’re around. Maybe you just respond more to smell than the average person, without it being pheromones. And you said adrenaline is what helped you against my dad, so there’s that.”