by Layla Nash
I paused to breathe, a little surprised I wasn’t breathing fire or floating with rage, and clenched my jaw until my head nearly exploded as Miles turned and walked to the door without a word. I stared as he exited, closing the door behind him without a word, and I couldn’t think of what to do or say. He just walked out? Just like that? Without another word? I picked up my towel and started trying to dry my hair, even if it felt like I wanted to rip it all out and strangle him with it, and spun on my heel to confront him as the bedroom door opened once more.
Miles strode in and dropped the entire duffel bag of clothes onto the bed. He fished around in the pile of clothes until he came up with a bra. “Not really my style, but this looks like it’ll get the job done.”
He tossed it to me but I didn’t react; it hit my chest and fell to the floor instead. Miles snorted, shaking his head, and shooed Cricket out of the way with his foot as he walked up to me. I almost retreated, though I managed to put some iron in my spine at the last minute. Miles caught my face in his hands and bumped his nose against mine. “Look, witch. We speak different languages. Find some damn patience, okay?”
I blinked. “Uh—”
“Right. Patience.” His thumbs brushed over my cheekbones and he searched my eyes for something I couldn’t even imagine. “Here’s the thing. I’m not going to die anytime soon, partly because I don’t feel like kicking the bucket, but mostly because I just met you and there are still a hell of a lot of things I want to know about you and even more I want to do with you. And to you.” He started to grin and my stomach shivered in anticipation. Miles grumbled in his chest before going on. “And there’s no reason to be conflicted. We had a rocky start. Shit happens. It’s a better how-we-met story than a stupid bar, isn’t it?”
I mumbled something and tried to look away, but his fingers dug in near my jaw and I forced my eyes back to his. Miles shook his head, still entertained more than irritated. “For the record, I’m very pleased that you haven’t had any stay-over boyfriends or whatever you called them. That means I get to have all of your firsts and seconds and everything after. Hear me?”
“I don’t think that—”
“And since it’s been a hell of a long time since I wasn’t an asshole to everyone around me, you’re going to have to find a little patience of your own, witch.” Miles planted a kiss on my forehead before raising his eyebrows at me. “I make jokes. You’ve made jokes. If you’re not in a joking mood, tell me.”
I wanted to stay mad. I really did. I even scowled at him. Miles just smiled, the charm back in full force, and waited. Finally I took a deep breath and kept up my narrow-eyed look. “Look, buddy. I can be any kind of crazy I want. If I want to be mad about something, I’m going to be mad about it—and you telling me not to be mad will never, ever work.”
“Understood,” he said.
I poked him in the chest as hard as I could, hard enough I might have bruised my fingers, and threw my wet towel in his face. “And when I’m not in a joking mood, you’ll know it.”
He snorted and whipped the towel into a twist that he snapped at my ass as I walked toward the door. “Ditto. Now get your ass out there and show me how to make breakfast tacos.”
“I’m putting a bra on first,” I muttered. “Since I don’t really want to give Henry a show.”
“There’s no one else out there,” he said. Miles threw the towel into the bathroom and dug through the pile of clothes on his bed to come up with a pair of silky red panties. He held them up and waggled his eyebrows at me. “You should wear these. Look super comfortable.”
I rolled my eyes and found some regular cotton ones. “Yeah, and if I wore those, you’d never get any work done.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Miles smiled blandly and headed for the living room.
I took a moment to get myself together and fully clothed before I dared follow, still only half-convinced he’d actually made everyone leave. Maybe it was childish to feel weird about his friends knowing we’d been having energetic morning sex, but after spending so much of my life in a nearly-silent house with a nearly-empty family, it was hard to deal with so much noise and energy and talking and movement all the time. I liked his pack, but... it would have been nice to have Miles to myself without an audience.
Chapter 57
Miles
Evershaw shook his head as he stood in front of the fridge and tried to figure out what the hell went into breakfast tacos. Did he even have tortillas? He’d wanted to ask Mercy what the witch was talking about, but didn’t think Deirdre would have appreciated it. So he’d have to wait until he fed Deirdre and tucked her back into bed so she could rest more, then he could make his cousin decipher what the fuck the witch had been mad about. He still had no idea. Even the “explanation” she’d given him didn’t make sense. Something about being conflicted and embarrassed and not having men stay over.
He kept shaking his head as he pulled out eggs and ground sausage and cheese and onions. He could at least make omelets and put them into tortillas. Maybe that was close enough. He started to pour Deirdre a cup of coffee and thought better of it, reaching for decaf tea instead; the witch didn’t need any more caffeine, that was for damn sure.
His phone rang just as he started cracking eggs into a bowl with some milk to scramble. “Yeah.”
Todd spoke, sounding amused. “Has the witch recovered her dignity?”
Evershaw glanced over his shoulder to see whether Deirdre had reappeared, though the witch was nowhere in sight. “She’s working on it. Why are you bothering me?”
“Because I so enjoyed seeing the look on your face after you got your ass chewed by a girl half your size that I wanted to hear it in your voice,” his cousin said. “And because there’s actual news. We got a message from the witch.”
“Which witch?” Evershaw lowered his voice and kept an eye on the door. He didn’t want Deirdre to overhear if it meant the pack needed to deal with one of her fellow witches. There was no love lost there, certainly, but he didn’t want her to feel responsible or complicit if he had to kill one of them.
“The aunt.” Todd’s tone went carefully neutral. “She claims she has some concerns about Deirdre’s state of mind. Something about a spell being cast on her or something. She wants to meet you and Smith somewhere public. Soon.”
Evershaw rubbed his jaw, frowning as he stirred the cooking sausage in the pan. So much for breakfast in bed with his witch. “Fine. Give me an hour.”
“Again? After all the noise you were making earlier, you really—”
Evershaw hung up before Todd could finish whatever he was saying, but Evershaw heard him laughing out in the hall. He sighed and focused on the task at hand. Feed Deirdre, get Mercy in there to figure out what was actually bothering the witch, and then he could end the bullshit with her aunt. And hell, with the way his luck was going, the witch would be responsible for trying to kill him so he could wrap all that up at the same time. Easy-peasy, like Deirdre said.
He scraped the eggs into the sausage. Too bad Deirdre didn’t understand how important food was to the wolves, or she’d realize it was a big step to have him cook for her. For him to feed her from his own hands. He’d never cooked for anyone since Ashley shit on his heart, but he wouldn’t even mind wearing a stupid apron if it made the witch laugh.
The eggs were almost set by the time Deirdre appeared, her hair in a demure bun that practically begged to be mussed up and taken down in passion, and she eyed the mess he’d made with mild disapproval. Evershaw pointed the spatula at her to direct her to a chair. “All right, witch. Prepare yourself for the best fucking breakfast tacos in the entire world.”
She still eyed him dubiously, but her mouth softened into a smile as he toasted tortillas and started piling food onto her plate. The tension in his chest began to relax. She was safe and fed, would be able to rest all day, and that was all that mattered in the world. The wolf could rest as well, content that his mate was cared for. Even if neith
er of them were convinced that breakfast tacos were actually a thing.
Chapter 58
Deirdre
He ate quickly and without much conversation, which was just fine with me. My head still churned from the events of the previous day and night, since it felt like everything else in my life was playing in fast forward. Miles said something about a business meeting and that Mercy would keep me company. He kissed me quickly and disappeared into the hall to shout at someone.
I shook my head and started gathering pans and dishes to wash, since apparently the man was incapable of cleaning up after himself. At least he could actually cook. Although that raised more questions about why he didn’t just cook for himself more often instead of being a lazy ass and making Mercy do all the work for him. Maybe it was part of the pack deal. The boss didn’t have to cook.
I was still muttering and shaking my head when Mercy skipped in, and the force of her personality almost knocked me back a step or two. She immediately tried to box me out of the kitchen. “I’ll take care of those!”
“I’d rather do them,” I said. I didn’t exactly throw an elbow to keep her from taking over the skillet Miles had used to make a mess of eggs on the stove and the floor, somehow, but she backed up with an oof. “I haven’t done chores in over a week, so I’ve gotta make sure I remember how. Why don’t you feed Cricket the rest of this bacon?”
She eyed me sideways and gingerly picked up the bacon crumbles as the cat stalked her from the counter. “I think I need a stick for this.” Mercy concentrated on not losing her fingers to my precious furbaby but still managed to make conversation. “So I take it you had a good night?”
I laughed in surprise, my cheeks burning, and frowned down at the sink full of dirty dishes. “Yeah. For the most part.”
“For the most part?” She snorted, trying to suppress a grin. “I guess he didn’t do his job, then.”
“Can we not talk about it? You’re his family. It’s…weird.”
“Not for us.” She shrugged and threw a chunk of bacon across the room so Cricket could exercise his fat ass, and she hopped onto a stool to pick through some of the leftover sausage. “But if it makes you uncomfortable, no problem. I don’t need details. It just…would be nice if he had someone. Todd didn’t think he’d ever get over Ashley.”
I refused to react, just in case she was fishing for information, and pulled open the dishwasher to start loading. “Oh? Miles hadn’t mentioned her.”
“Well, he’s an idiot, but he’s not a total idiot,” she said. “I don’t know all the details, but he thought she was supposed to be with him forever and apparently she didn’t get the memo. Crushed him. Apparently that’s when he really started being an asshole. He was just kind of a jerk before, and she tipped him over into total douchebag territory, at least when it comes to people who aren’t pack.”
“That’s too bad.” I closed the door and washed my hands, taking my time so I didn’t have to confront her right away. Just in case my face gave away too much of what I was thinking. “She must have done a number on him.”
“Not just him.” Mercy sighed and leaned her elbows on the counter, trying to ignore Cricket as he stretched up to pat his paws along her thigh, hoping for more treats. “Whatever happened to them destroyed his pack, too. Tore everyone apart and most of them went with her. They regretted it later, Todd said, because she just kept up the bullshit with a new alpha. Evershaw didn’t... It took a while for him to accept people again.”
A knot formed in my throat. He’d lost a whole pack because of a woman; that explained a lot. And maybe he knew something about being alone and what it felt like to look around and feel like you could just disappear out of your own life without much more than a sneeze. I made a thoughtful noise, though, and watch Cricket heave himself up onto the kitchen counter. I shooed him back off and he grumbled, sashaying over to test his claws on the corner of the couch, though he scampered pretty quickly when I ran the tap to flick water at him. “It seems like he’s got good people here. At least most of you all put up with his bullshit.”
She smiled, then smacked her hands on the counter. “What are we doing today? Evershaw said you’re supposed to rest.”
“I’m going stir-crazy,” I said. Even though part of me was definitely still exhausted after not getting a whole lot of sleep the night before. Which was entirely his fault. “Can we take a walk or something?”
“Sure thing.” Mercy hopped to her feet and went immediately to the door. “I’ll let Henry know. We can wander around inside. Want to swim? We have a pool. Or we can do laps in the gym.”
“I don’t have a suit,” I said. And I didn’t know how many hickeys and nibble marks Miles left on me. “So maybe not swimming. Besides, I just ate.” I attempted a lame smile when it looked like she’d offer to let me borrow one, and tilted my head at the door. “Let’s just walk. You can show me around. I feel like I’ve only seen these rooms, the first cell you guys had me in, and the garage.”
“There’s so much more,” she said. Mercy took a deep breath and then proceeded to talk nonstop for the next hour.
She knew everyone in the building and stopped to talk with everyone we passed, introducing me as “the alpha’s guest” so I got courteous nods and smiles and not a single raised eyebrow or hint of surprise.
When she finally stopped to get a drink of water, I managed to wedge a question into the blessed silence. “So everyone already knows about me, I take it? Since everyone already seems to know my name and why I’m here.”
“Pretty much.” She waved at someone across the massive living room she’d called the “gathering room” and started towing me over to a smallish room with built-in bookcases. “Since you saved his life a couple of times—and then yelled at him a lot in public more than once—everyone knows who you are.”
I cleared my throat, nodding and attempting to smile at a young woman who looked a great deal like Henry, before I gazed around the library Mercy showed me. “And no one is mad about... well, about a witch being in the building?”
“Why would they?” Mercy shrugged. “You saved the alpha’s life. And you’re here to help.”
“But I hexed a bunch of them,” I said slowly. Maybe she didn’t understand. She hadn’t been there when they tried to capture me and I’d tried to kill as many of them as I could.
She blinked a couple times as she looked at me. “Yeah. They were kidnapping you. Why would they hold that against you?”
I felt like maybe we were having two different conversations. “Because I could have hurt them.”
“Sure.” And she continued to stare at me like I was insisting that the sky was purple.
“And they wouldn’t care that they got hurt?”
“Nah.” Mercy grinned and linked her arm through mine, dragging me out of the library and into another long wing of rooms and hang-out areas. “That’s just part of the job. We work for Evershaw. He’s not exactly the kind of guy who negotiates things out, you know? We’re always ready to fight, and sometimes following his orders means running afoul of some pretty powerful people—including witches. Well, you’re our first witch. Everyone was very excited. The guys who did end up hexed haven’t stopped bragging about it.”
“Oh,” I said weakly. Such weirdos. “That’s…good to know. I can hex whoever else wants me to.”
“Really?” Mercy swung around and grabbed my shoulders, stopping us short. “Really really? Can you do some magic for us?”
“She’s not supposed to,” a gruff voice said, and Henry appeared out of the woodwork. “She’s supposed to be resting, Mercy, not being dragged around and shown off.”
“Shown off?” I asked, as Mercy made a face at him.
“She was bored and going stir-crazy.”
Henry’s frown was far too severe for someone as handsome as he was, but he relented when I threw my arm around Mercy’s shoulders and made a sad puppy dog face at him. The shifter sighed. “I don’t know what the alpha was thinking when
he let you be part of the witch’s guard detail, Mercy.”
“Guard detail?” I smiled and glanced around, wondering how the hell I could get back to Miles’s rooms for an afternoon nap. We’d been walking for what felt like hours, and everything inside the warehouse was starting to look the same. “Sounds fancy.”
“And ridiculous,” Mercy said. “As if anyone would have looked sideways at the alpha’s mate.”
Henry made a sharp gesture to cut her off and another shifter I didn’t know, standing a couple feet away, made a strangled noise. Mercy’s face reddened and she folded her arms over her chest. “The alpha’s guest, I mean. No one would say anything to the alpha’s guest.”
“You didn’t say guest,” I said. I looked between all three of them—the two I knew and the stranger, all of them equally uneasy—and tried to parse what the hell was going on. Of course there were more secrets I hadn’t been let in on, just like Miles’s past and Ashley and the old pack. There were still more rules that I didn’t know anything about. Of course. Just perfect. “You said mate. What’s a mate? What did you mean by that?”
“It’s nothing.” Henry offered a tight-lipped smile to me. “Mercy misspoke. She doesn’t think before she speaks, and this is just one of those moments. Are you ready for lunch?”
I set my heels and folded my arms over my chest. “Don’t treat me like I’m stupid, Henry.”
Mercy tried to catch my hand. “It’s really nothing.”