by R. E. Butler
She'd done an amazing job on the finances in the short time she'd been buried in them, and then he realized with shock what she'd done. She hadn't paid herself. Granted, her paycheck should only have been about $300, but she'd blanked herself out of the books for the week, drawing a big fat zero for her salary but paying him and everyone else full, even catching up on some past overtime he hadn't been able to pay. Stalking to the front to check credit card receipts, he saw her scribbled signature on her charge for a full tank of gas on Friday.
"Need something, Jason?" Fritz asked, coming in from pumping a tank of gas.
Shoving the receipt back into the cash drawer he grunted at the young wolf and walked out. She wasn't home and she wasn't at the restaurant. He caught her scent and saw her when he drove by the park. She was lying down on a picnic tabletop, one knee up, talking to Chris who was sitting on top of the table next to her. How had Chris gotten his claws into her so fast? Originally he thought that Chris was merely a small annoyance, but he was flat out trying to turn her to him. Two weeks into his sentence and he felt like he was fast losing what little ground he had.
Sunday night he watched carefully for an opportunity to talk to her about her idea of doing the books and finally Michael and Linus managed to distract Chris and his band-mates, a mini clique in the pack, so he could snag Cadence's hand. He pulled her over to their side of the bonfire. "The strangest thing happened when you did payroll on Friday." He took a drink of his beer.
Her curious expression slipped down into a frown and then she shook her head and flipped her long hair over her shoulder. "Don't know what you're talking about. I'm the best bookkeeper you ever had."
He loved her spark. Little spitfire. "Perhaps, but you also forgot to pay yourself. And you paid for your own gas."
Her pretty eyes narrowed accusingly. "Checking up on me?"
"It is my business; I'm allowed to do that." He rolled his eyes at her. "Why did you do that? I told you that you should hold back my check; I wasn't suggesting that you should do it to yourself."
She hummed in her throat and bounced on her feet a few times. "I don't need the money. Not right now anyhow. You've sacrificed enough. So don't worry about it."
"I don't want you to do that; it's not your place."
She looked at him curiously. "Okay, Jas." She smiled at him, snatched the beer from his hand and took a long drink, and then gave it back to him with a laugh and walked back to the other side of the fire where Chris and his group were giving him the hard-stare. Jason tipped his beer towards Chris and he could see it pissed Chris off, which he enjoyed a great deal. Then Chris pissed him off even more by wrapping a lock of her hair around his finger and giving it a gentle tug. When she looked up at Chris with a soft smile, Jason wanted to throttle him. He moved forward an inch with her and Chris shoved him back a mile.
Monday morning, he overheard a conversation that made his blood run cold. She was in her office at 8:30 and he was in the front of the shop, debating on asking her to lunch and risking rejection. "No, I'm not sure who it was, but I didn’t recognize them. It was definitely a wolf, but not anyone I've ever smelled before."
Jason practically ran back to her office, startling her. "Hang up." He demanded. She looked confused. "Hang the fuck up right now."
"I'll call you back, Chris." She said with an annoyed voice, putting the phone back in the cradle.
"Yes, my liege?" Her sarcasm was dripping.
"You smelled a strange wolf? Where?" He demanded.
"Last night at my house. Why?"
"Why wouldn't you tell me?"
"I think the better question is why would I tell you? It's nothing, I'm sure, just a curious rogue or maybe a new teen that shifted before I came back." She shrugged.
"The fuck it's nothing." He yanked her from the chair by her arm and hauled her out of the shop. She struggled to stop his pull but wasn't strong enough. Staring at the helmet he shoved at her, she said, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Taking you to your house so I can figure out what's going on. Get on."
"No." She growled.
"Get on or I'll put you on." He growled back.
He thought she might fight him, but instead she huffed and put the helmet on, sliding behind him. It had been so long, too damn long, since she'd been on the back of his bike. He grabbed her hands and put them around his waist and she muttered under her breath, ‘I ought to gut you' and his laughter was drown out by the start of his bike. Her hands were warm, hot almost, through the material of his shirt, and in order to clasp her hands together, she had to press her whole body against him.
Reacting naturally to being so close to him, he could smell the need streaking through her as she molded herself against him, pressing the apex of her sweet thighs into his back, the vibration of the enormous motor ratcheting up her desire. She didn't know it, but her beast was calling to his beast, and it was the sweetest feeling. It was just further proof to him that she really was meant for him. The part of her that was wolf knew that they were mates and craved that closeness, even if the human part of her didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.
The smell hit him as soon as he rounded into the driveway and stopped the bike. She slid off first, pulling the helmet from her head and running her hand through her hair. He sighed in relief. It was one of Jake’s teenagers that had shifted just a month ago. Of course, no wolf should be sniffing around her, regardless, so that was a problem in and of itself. At least it wasn’t a rogue or another pack coming around.
"I think you're overreacting." She said.
"There's no such thing as overreacting when it comes to your safety."
"Whatever." She snorted.
He snatched her by the back of the neck with one hand and drew her to him. "Do you think that I don't care about you? How could you possibly believe that I would want anything to happen to you?"
She struggled under the grip on her neck and he dug his fingers in enough that her movements soothed her and she let out a whimpering sigh and stopped moving, her eyes glazing over slightly. "You haven't cared about me since I was a kid." Her words were slurred slightly as the pressure points under his fingers lulled her into submission.
"That's a fucking lie and you know it."
"I don't know anything for sure anymore, Jas." She closed her eyes with a soft sigh.
“I’m going to take a walk, check around, but I believe it’s one of Jake’s wolves. Go in the house and shut the door and wait for me. Got it?”
He was very tempted to kiss her, but he thought with the way things were going he’d wind up with a broken nose if he tried that, so it was better to give himself and his wolf a little breathing room. Loosening the grip, he rubbed the pressure points and watched her eyes blink open and then come back into focus. Releasing his hold on her neck, he waited until she walked in the house and shut the door, and then he took a long walk. He smelled the wolf, and it was definitely not one of his. But he did recognize it, so he called Jake.
“Well, hell. I’ll come by for a sniff and then round up the youths. You know that part of the problem is that you and Chris are fighting over her, and its drawing attention to her unmated status.”
His sigh was edged in a growl. “She’s not unmated, Jake.”
If Jake was there, he would have put his hands up in defense, that sound was clear in his voice. “I’m not the enemy here, Jason.”
“I know. I know.” He walked back until the house was in view. “I’ll let her know that you’ll be around.”
“I’ll apologize on behalf of the kid, but the best way to put this sort of behavior down is to claim her.”
“I would, if she’d fucking remember.”
“So do a better job of jogging her memory. She’s not an idiot. She’s just out of her depths. Your father’s orders to alter her impression of the marking along with no one being able to treat her like the alpha she is has stunted her. Your best bet would be to treat her like an alpha, Jason. You don’t have t
o break the oath to include her in the inner workings. Maybe a little more pack time would help.”
He sounded damn encouraging. “Jake?”
“Look, I love my son, but he’s running on a misguided notion that getting Cadence is going to change things for him within the pack. It’s not enough for him to be mated; even to someone as powerful as Cadence. He’s volatile, foolhardy, and immature. I worry he’ll undo all the good our packs have managed to enjoy the last few decades. And more than that, I know what happens when a male chooses his mate and she leaves him for another. I wouldn’t wish that hell on anyone. Do what you gotta do, Jason. I’ll talk to you.”
He hung up in silence and chewed his lip. And then he made a few more phone calls.
Bounding up onto the back porch he walked into the kitchen like he owned the place and said, “I hope you’ve got something to eat around here, we’re going to have a meeting.”
“Why don’t you go to your own place?”
“Because I don’t want to, and I’m here anyway.” He moved to the cabinets, hoping to spur her into action. He’d been very clear with his instructions to the wolves that were coming. They were going to full-on discuss pack business and they were to include her in everything. And his secret weapon was Casper, newly mated.
While she watched in silence, he pulled plates and cups from the cupboard and when he was rummaging in the refrigerator, she gave him a gentle shove on his hip. “You’re making a mess, Jas. Scoot.”
Moving aside to handle the table, he set for seven, pulling three more chairs from the dining room into the comfortable kitchen. “Hey, Cades, do you remember that time we dyed eggs in my mom’s kitchen for Easter?”
She turned from the refrigerator with a plastic container in her hand and her eyes danced. “She was so mad when we forgot to put down the plastic tablecloth to catch the dye.”
Jason chuckled, glad he’d pulled her back in time so easily. There was so much history between them. “Yeah, she made me scrub that table all night. There’s still a place on it that has a little bit of green dye embedded in the oak. I think she wants to throttle me every time she sees it.”
“Probably.” She snorted delicately, drumming her hand on the top of the container. “There are seven of you?”
“No, sweet, just six, plus you.”
“Me?”
“Sure, why not? You may not shift, but you’re still a wolf, and you’re staying in town. That means that you should know what goes on in the pack.” Her brow furrowed, but her lips split into a soft smile, and she turned back to the fridge with a happy little hum.
Jason blew out a mental breath. She hadn’t told him off or tried to argue. She’d just accepted things which meant Jake was right. He had been trying to treat her like she wasn’t like them and ignoring the wolf in her. No wonder she didn’t know how to deal with anything that was going on around her. She was literally clueless. Sure, she could have asked, but after what she’d told Michael about feeling unprotected, devalued, and now with the in-fighting between himself and Chris, she didn’t know how to handle anything.
He tried to envision her as a new wolf, which is how he would have treated her at age 16 even as a half-breed. His father hadn’t included her in the pack workings because her father had forbidden direct contact outside of her relationship with Jake and Renee, but he would have been twenty at the time and he would have taught her everything he could in private. One of the first things that a new wolf learned was their place in the pack. New wolves always started out at the bottom, unless they were born alpha. And Cades was; that was for sure.
For a quiet moment he watched her move around the kitchen with a grace and ease that just screamed wolf. Just last weekend he’d been here, laughing with her, with his close friends, and it had felt like such a natural thing. He wanted that with her all the time. He wanted to build a life with her that was just them. The pack was theirs, too, but he wanted to go to bed at night with her scent in his nose and wake up with his arms around her.
She didn’t have a grill but she had all four burners on the stove going in short order. She would know everyone well, but she was closest to Michael. Michael, as second, Bo, third, Linus, fourth, Clay fifth, and Casper, lower ranked but a good guy all around. And he was still sporting fresh mating bites.
“Need help?” He leaned against the counter. It was a bluff. He could grill upside down, but to actually turn on a stove and cook something other than dry scrambled eggs was out of his reach. Fortunately she didn’t call him on it and smiled up at him and said, “I got it covered.”
He heard the bikes announcing the arrival of the men, and he went to the front door and let them in. They all looked happy, excited. There was a hum of electricity in the air around them and it was because they were finally able to include their alpha female in pack dealings. Once again he felt the weight of his actions and the repercussions that his people felt as a result of them. It wasn’t just about him and Cadence now; it was about all of them.
They all greeted her with just the right mix of friendship and respect. They all accepted her welcoming cheek kisses with glances at him as if he would throw them out of the house for the action, but he didn’t mind. He knew her intentions were pure. If she had any idea how much she turned the pack on just by being herself, she’d never want to leave the house.
Michael, an excellent cook in his own right, stepped in to help and Linus pilfered beers from the fridge and they all sat down. He took the head of the table and left the left chair open for her, and the others fell into the other chairs, carefully arranged so that Casper was sitting next to her.
The table was set with fried chicken tenders, pasta salad, sliced roast beef, and ziti. She sat down with a glass of iced tea. She really only drank beer at the bonfires.
The chatter was casual around the table, and after waiting for her to fill her plate, they set in on the food like locusts.
After a few quiet minutes while the men all appreciated her cooking, Michael started the ball rolling, “So Casp, looks like Gwennie can really mark, huh?”
Casper grinned. He wasn’t playing right now; he was so thrilled to have found his mate. “Man, I’m bruised head to toe!” Casper was only 24, but he had a pretty tough go of things until Gwen started paying attention to his drooling over her.
Cadence turned her head as if she hadn’t really noticed Casper and made a soft sound. She must have looked confused because Casper said, “Don’t worry, Cadence. It’s what mates do. I marked Gwennie, too, so that when we’re not together, no one will lay a hand on her.”
Linus laughed. “It’s like lo-jack for mates. Someone finds your mate and they return them to you untouched. Dig?”
Her voice was breathy, light. “I dig.”
Jason had a feeling she was itching to touch her neck. Her whole body was screaming in protest of sitting still. But she stayed firmly rooted to her seat and listened as the boys switched topics smoothly and began talking about their exploits. The seed had been sown. She’d get the connection, he was sure of it. Neck. Bite. Mate. He willed her to know it, to understand it, and cross the bridge to him.
As the meal dwindled to a close, he rapped his knuckles on the table and everyone went silent. “Alright, then, gentlemen, and Cadence, on to business.”
For the next hour, they talked pack business in more depth than normal. By the time they were both watching the men leave on their bikes, she’d had a crash course in pack dealings and had made some good observations and comments when prompted by him to speak her mind. She had fit in even more smoothly than he’d expected and he couldn’t have been happier at this moment. Well, he could be much, much happier, but this was good for happiness of the clothes-on variety.
“Want me to help you clean up the kitchen?”
“Nah. I’m hoping the dish fairy will show up while I’m sleeping.” She yawned and stretched, making a little squeaking noise. Adorable female.
He looked up at the half moon. “Well, if she do
es show up, send her my way, okay?”
“Sure thing, Jas. Thanks. For tonight.”
“For what?”
“For including me. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate the gesture. You guys were never the problem with me feeling like I belong here. You know?”
“I was a problem.”
“You are a problem on a good day.” Her biting sarcasm was gone; her tone was all light teasing and friendship. He’d broken down part of her armor today, her shielding around herself that kept her apart from him. If she wouldn’t think he was nuts, he’d break out in show tunes.
“True. I was miserable for a long time.”
He turned towards her and had every intention of doing some large romantic gesture, sweeping her off her feet and kissing her until they were both dizzy from lack of oxygen, but she blocked the effort with a chaste kiss and a gentle “goodnight” and shut him out of the house. Still, he had a spring in his step when he strode to his bike. Thanks to Jake’s little teen wolf problem, and his sage advice, he’d just closed the distance between himself and Cadence in a way that Chris would never be able to. Chris might be able to give her the girls of the pack to go out drinking with, but he could never bring her to a pack meeting with Jake as alpha, and what Cadence clearly craved was a home and family. Not just bar buddies. That, he could most certainly do. And he would. As much as he’d complained about his parents growing up, and his idiot brother, Cadence had one hell of a rough upbringing. But that diamond tough exterior was what he loved, almost as much as the melty, gooey girl that teared up when King Kong died.