by Alisha Basso
“Uh-huh ... That’s your story, but will Kane believe it? He has some jealousy issues, you know. It’s because of his parents.” Marla leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially. “His father ran around all the time and now Kane really has this thing about honesty and fidelity.” Marla straightened and looked Elise square in the eye. “Did you tell him who you were meeting?”
“Well, no.” Elise bit her lip. Why hadn’t she told Kane about seeing Bryan? Probably because the only time the two men had met, it hadn’t gone well. “I’ll just explain to him—”
“Elise, let me give you some advice. I know this is sort of personal but hey, it can’t totally be hidden. I can tell that you’re almost in heat, and the smell of your pheromones will be upping Kane’s sense of possessiveness. You know how territorial male-weres get about their mates at a time like this. He’s not going to be overly receptive to hearing about you meeting this Bryan guy.”
“Oh, I don’t think—”
“Listen. I’ve known Kane longer than you have. We were even an item for a while, so you have to trust me on this one. I know how he’ll react and it won’t be pretty. When I realized that I loved Ryne rather than him, Kane almost went berserk; it was totally out of character for him, but that’s what he did.”
Elise blanched at the idea of Kane getting really angry at her. For the most part, he was so calm and level-headed, but she’d seen flashes of his temper. Helen had commented on how Kane had been confused and lost when Marla broke up with him, but there’d been no mention of violence. Then again, maybe Helen didn’t know everything. What would he do? Probably he’d start by growling or yelling, which was pretty frightening. Then he’d do that cold staring thing that made the recipient want to sink into the ground. If he truly thought she’d been with another male, she wasn’t sure what he might be capable of doing. As Marla said, male werewolves were very territorial, but she hadn’t been thinking of that when she’d agreed to meet Bryan.
“So, how are we going to keep Kane from finding out about this guy?” Marla’s question jolted her back from her imagined encounter with an enraged Kane.
“Umm... I’ll grab a quick shower.”
“No time for that. Kane will be home any minute, and besides what about your clothes? Even stuffed in the laundry basket he might notice. I suppose you might have time to get them down to the laundry before he gets here, but what if you meet him on the stairs?”
“Then I’ll just...”
“Elise, you are so lucky that I’m here to help you out. Here’s what we’ll do. Do you remember how I gave you some perfume about a week ago? Have you used it yet?” Elise shook her head. “Okay, well put some on—quite a bit actually. It will help mask that scent. If you use it, Kane will have no idea that you’ve been near anyone else. And if you see Bryan again, use it then too. What Kane doesn’t know won’t hurt him and it will save you from his temper.’
“I’m not sure this is such a good idea, Marla. If I just explain—”
“Elise, do you remember how angry Kane was over that picture of him I had in the Gallery? Well, that will seem like nothing compared to how this will set him off. You’ve only been around attached males so far, so you really don’t know how possessive he can be.”
Elise thought back to how Kane had reacted to Bryan talking to her that very first morning. Was it possible that Marla was right? Perhaps she should simply avoid mentioning the whole incident. “Well...”
“Good! I don’t want Kane to be upset with you, not when he seems so happy right now.” Marla grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bedroom. “Now, where’s that perfume?” Before Elise could even speak, Marla spotted it on the dresser and began to douse her with the stuff. When she was done, she stepped back, looking exceedingly pleased. “There! All taken care of and not a moment too soon.” She checked her watch. “Kane should be here any minute so I’ll scoot on my way.” With a friendly wave, Marla hurried out of the room, leaving Elise feeling as if she’d just been caught up in a windstorm.
She lifted her arm and sniffed her sleeve. She couldn’t scent Bryan at all and the perfume itself didn’t actually smell that bad. In fact, it was vaguely familiar though she couldn’t quite place it. It was on the fringes of her mind, if she could only remember... From past experience she knew that the harder she tried to recall something, the more elusive the memory became so she put the matter from her mind and returned to thinking about Bryan.
Not telling Kane about the meeting didn’t sit right with her, even if the perfume did work. Marla could be wrong. Kane might not be that upset and even if he was, at least it would be all over and done with, rather than hanging over her head while she waited for him to find out through some other obscure source.
Giving a decisive nod, she grabbed a brush and quickly began to fix her hair, only to knock an earring loose. It tumbled to the ground and gave the faintest of tinkles as it rolled across the floor. With an exasperated sigh, Elise set the brush down and got onto her hands and knees, and began crawling along searching for the small bit of jewellery. It wasn’t immediately visible, so she lay flat, stretching her arm underneath the dresser and feeling around, but having no luck.
Darn! Where had the silly thing gone? Still on all fours, she surveyed the floor in frustration. She was sure it had rolled towards the dresser but possibly she’d been wrong. Bending her head closer to the floor, she surveyed the surface in front of her...
Suddenly something nudged her butt and she shrieked. Turning quickly, she lost her balance and fell onto her side landing in an undignified heap. Brushing her hair from her face she looked up to see Kane standing over her, in his wolf form. His tongue was hanging from his mouth and she knew without a doubt he was laughing.
“That was not funny!” She spoke slowly and distinctly, letting her irritation show. “You scared me half to death.”
He cocked his head to the side showing no remorse, then shoved a cold wet nose against her face.
“Hey! Stop that. What’s with you?” Despite herself she giggled, his whiskers tickling, and reached up to run her hands through his fur and scratch his ears. With her arms still around him, Kane suddenly shimmered and became human again. His head dropped down and he kissed her thoroughly until they were both gasping for breath.
“Hmm... You smell...different...tonight.” Kane looked at her in puzzlement.
Elise froze, a little knot of fear forming in her stomach. Trying to sound casual, she responded. “Really? How so?”
Kane sniffed her again. “I don’t know. Your own scent is muted and there’s this floral smell. It’s sort of familiar, but I can’t place it.”
Okay. This was her chance. Gathering her courage, she began her explanation. “It’s that new perfume Marla gave me. You see, she had this silly idea that—”
A hot mouth suddenly cut her off. Kane’s tongue invaded her mouth, gently stroking then retreating, teasing her lips and driving all thought from her mind. He slowly pulled away and moved to nibbling at her ear. “Oh yeah. I remember that now. It was nice of her, but I like your own scent better. Don’t wear this stuff too often, okay?”
Elise nodded and tried to refocus on the topic of Bryan but Kane was now biting and sucking on the cords of her neck causing shivers of delight to course through her. Involuntarily her hips moved against him. All right. Maybe this wasn’t the time. But later on tonight, she’d definitely let him know.
She ran her hands across his shoulders and down his back, luxuriating in the feel of his smooth skin and solid muscle. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Hey! I think you forgot something when you shifted.”
“Hmm? What?” Kane was now biting at her breast through the material of her shirt and Elise had difficulty concentrating.
“Your clothes, silly. You forgot to think ‘clothes’ when you phased back.” Elise giggled. Only an inexperienced young Lycan would forget to magick back their clothes when changing forms.
“No I didn’t. I purposely left them off. The
sight of you on all fours with your rear end pointed up to the ceiling was what had me changing into my wolf in the first place. I have great plans for us.” His hands began to work their way under her top and she grabbed his wrists to stop him.
“Appealing as that might sound, it’s almost dinner time.”
A rumble worked its way up from deep in Kane’s throat. “They can eat without us. I’m in no condition to leave this room without mating you first.”
His words had her dropping her gaze to his lower anatomy where a certain part of him was validating his statement. A rush of excitement flowed through her and she felt her body readying itself faster than she’d ever thought possible. Yep, her heat was definitely coming on. As she frantically began helping Kane peel off her clothes, she decided that this next week might prove to be the most exciting one of her life.
Chapter 22
When they finally made it downstairs, dinner was over and everyone had gathered in the game room. Elise apologized to Helen for their absence at the table, but the older woman just smiled knowingly. “Don’t worry about it, Elise. There’s some leftover pasta in the fridge, despite the best efforts of those two,” she nodded towards the group who were circling the pool table. “Thankfully Daniel and Franz didn’t eat us out of house and home this time.”
The two young men in question grinned and Franz called out, “We’re growing boys. We need our food.”
Giselle, who was also there, simply rolled her eyes, and resignedly shook her head.
“Are you sure you want to be bonded to this one, Giselle?” Kane asked from his position leaning against the doorframe.
“I ask myself that question every day.” She responded dryly. Franz affected a wounded pose before turning back to his game.
Rose was standing in the corner observing the others and being her characteristically quiet self. When the girl glanced her way, Elise gave her a friendly, encouraging smile. Just because Rose was near the bottom of the hierarchy, there was no reason not to acknowledge her. In fact, Elise was sometimes uncomfortable with the whole ranking system. It went against the Western culture they lived in, yet it was an instinctive wolf habit to develop a pecking order.
With some surprise, Elise realized that rather than smiling back, Rose was looking at her rather oddly. As their eyes met, Rose looked her up and down and then, seeming to find her worthy of contempt, the usually shy girl pointedly turned her back. Elise felt a brief flare of anger combined with shocked disbelief at the girl’s actions, and it took her a moment to push down the desire to march over there and demand an explanation. So much for her ideals of equality! Glancing around, she saw that no one else had witnessed the exchange. Had it actually happened? She quickly replayed the event. No, she hadn’t imagined it.
Elise’s mind raced trying to find an explanation. Was Rose attempting to assert herself and move up in the pack? If she was, picking on the Alpha’s mate was certainly not the place to start! Maybe it was her own fault, Elise speculated for a moment. She wasn’t the most aggressive individual and her rank had usually been guaranteed by association— first , due to her father and now because of Kane— rather than her own strong personality. Possibly, she should be asserting herself more and letting others know where she stood, though with the exception of Marla that first morning, no one had really challenged her; they just instinctively accepted her position.
Briefly, Elise thought of dealing with the incident immediately then quickly dismissed the idea. There was no need to create a scene by putting Rose in her place in front of everyone. No, she’d wait and speak to her privately.
Kane pushed off from the doorframe. “Well, I’m going in search of food. How about you, Elise?” With another thoughtful look at Rose, Elise nodded and followed Kane upstairs into the kitchen.
*****
“It will only take a few minutes to heat up the pasta.” She peered into the fridge and pulled out the food while Kane took plates from the cupboard and set them on the table.
“All right. Do you want me to make a salad?” Kane inquired while getting out the cutlery.
“No, I can do it.”
“Okay, then while dinner’s heating, I’m going to check on something in the office.” Kane headed down the hallway and Elise nodded absentmindedly as she pressed the appropriate buttons on the microwave. Once it was on, she pulled out a head of lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes in order to make a quick salad.
Marla wandered through while she was working and snatched a cucumber slice out of the bowl. Casually leaning a hip against the counter, she munched on the veggie, then grabbed a piece of tomato. “So, how did it go? Did the perfume work?”
Elise nervously glanced down the hall to ensure that Kane wasn’t within earshot. “It was fine, but I still don’t feel right about this. I’m going to tell him the truth as soon as I get a chance.”
Marla shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea...”
“If what’s a good idea?” Kane walked into the kitchen frowning.
“Er... Elise and I going shopping tomorrow. I think next week would be better.” Marla made a quick recovery.
“Oh, that’s nice.” Kane seemed distracted and Elise asked him what was wrong. “Nothing, really. I’ve misplaced a report that was on my desk. It was the one from Chloe and her university friends, about the negative environmental impact of drilling for oil on our land. I was sending it to our lawyers tomorrow.”
“I didn’t know you’d had a study done on that.” Marla looked mildly interested.
“It wasn’t general knowledge. Only those in the Alpha house really knew about it.” Kane ran his hand through his hair distractedly. “Was anyone in the office today moving things about? That room is supposed to be off limits if I’m not there but...”
The microwave signalled their food was ready and Kane, being the closest, stopped mid-sentence and removed the steaming bowl of pasta. While his back was turned, Elise stared at Marla. The blonde woman had been leaving Kane’s office when she’d arrived home that afternoon. Did Marla know where the report was?
Opening her mouth to ask, Elise saw Marla making a pleading gesture and shaking her head. Elise hesitated, but then sighed. Marla had been trying to be helpful this afternoon, in her own twisted way, so she supposed she could return the favour. Mouthing the words ‘you’d better tell me what’s going on later’ and giving Marla a scowl, Elise schooled her face into a pleasant expression before Kane turned around.
Marla wandered off, ostensibly to make a phone call, while Kane and Elise ate, but returned before they were finished. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down to visit, idly chatting about her day. Kane was done eating first and started to gather up the dishes, while Elise finished her meal. He spoke over his shoulder as he placed the items in the sink. “Oh, Marla. I almost forgot. I didn’t make it into town today, but Rose was going in, so I asked her to stop by the Gallery to get that package for you.”
“Really? That’s interesting. Rose was in town, but you weren’t. Hmm, I wonder...” Marla’s voice trailed off.
Elise looked up from her plate. “What do you wonder?”
“Nothing—just wondering if she got the package or not. She didn’t give it to me, so maybe it wasn’t even in, after all. I’ll have to ask her later.” Smiling, Marla glanced at her two companions. “I’ll clean up, if you two want to take a walk or something,”
Elise raised questioning brows and looked at Kane who nodded in agreement. “All right. I’ll tell the others we’re going in case anyone wants to tag along.”
As soon as Kane disappeared from sight, Elise turned to Marla and questioned her sternly. “Why were you in Kane’s office this afternoon if it was off limits? And what did you do with that report?”
“I didn’t do anything with the report—at least not on purpose. Kane’s computer has the fastest processor in the house so I was using it to do some research on the collector who bought that photograph. I must have scooped the report up with
my stuff by accident.”
“Why didn’t you simply tell Kane?”
“Because I wasn’t supposed to be in his office and I didn’t want to mention that picture again. He’s been in a good mood lately and I don’t want to spoil it.”
“Okay... But if you’re not supposed to be in his office, then stay out of his office. I don’t want to have to cover for you again. Find that report and put it back.”
“It already is. I snuck back in while you were eating and slipped it under some files. He’ll think he missed it somehow.”
Elise nodded, but had a funny feeling about the whole incident.
*****
It turned out that everyone wanted to go for a walk, except Marla and Carrie. Leaving them at the house, the rest headed towards the woods in a loose pack formation, the other couples instinctively walking behind Kane. Elise was one step back and to the right of him. John came along next, followed by Helen, then Giselle and Franz, while Rose and Daniel brought up the rear. Elise glanced back once or twice, wanting to talk to Rose, but the present formation didn’t allow for it.
As they entered the tree line, a sound came from the left and in a blur of movement, Kane and John positioned themselves protectively in front of the others, muscles tense and senses alert. It took less than a second for them to identify the source and realize there was no danger. As the two men visibly relaxed their stance, Julia and Thomas emerged from the brush.
“Hi there!” Julia called out. “Great night to be out, isn’t it?”
Kane nodded in acknowledgement, but looked inquiringly at Thomas. “Your first night back on patrol?”
“Yeah, just the immediate area, nothing too far from home yet.” Thomas looked down at Julia who was holding his arm. “And she insisted on coming along.”
Julia grinned. “After last time, I don’t want you out of my sight.” Thomas rolled his eyes, but none the less, looked pleased at the extra attention he was receiving.