by T. S. Joyce
She could hear Levi swallow hard. “It’s my honor, Grey.”
Grey gave a wicked grin. “Today, beer and fun, and celebrating tonight. Tomorrow we will get back to reality.”
“Beer’s not my favorite,” Marissa quipped to lighten the emotional moment.
“Oh, my God, Marissa, I got you those nasty alcoholic cherry limeade drinks you like. They’re in the beer fridge in the garage.”
“You love me and I love you, too,” she sang. She skipped away while Grey’s chuckled followed her down the hallway.
At the mouth of the kitchen, she sang in an opera voice, “I’m heeeeere.”
Morgan rolled her eyes. “I’m halfway done with the fruit salad. Where have you been?”
Marissa leaned on the counter and popped a blueberry into her mouth. “Makin’ out with my boyfraaaand. I have one of those now.”
“No, you weren’t. I can still hear a lie, Marissa Justine Henry.”
She hissed air through her teeth. “The middle name, too. I’m definitely in trouble.”
“Beer,” Morgan said, pointing to the garage door with her cutting knife.
“I want a juice box,” Thorne said from where he was tugging at Morgan’s pants.
“And a couple juice boxes for the kids,” Morgan corrected.
The rumble of four-wheelers sounded from the front yard. Outside the huge front window, Dean and Rachel were backing quads off their trailer and onto the grass.
She loved days like today. It had been so long since they’d all just relaxed together.
Levi met her in the garage and helped her load beers, apple juice boxes, and magical boozy cherry limeades into a big blue cooler. They dumped a bag of ice on top, shut the lid firmly, and Levi carried it out to the front yard like he was holding a pillow. He was so damn strong.
He’s ours, the wolf reminded her.
How could anyone feel such happiness?
Grey had pulled her camo four-wheeler out of the garage by the time they were all loaded up. Levi hopped on and waggled his eyebrows. “I changed my mind. I would rather have your tits pressed against my back the whole way to the lake.”
Marissa lifted her chin primly. “Accepted. But do you even remember how to drive one of these things?”
He winked at her. “I guess we’ll find out!”
Dean and Rachel, Wade, Brent, and Logan blasted out of the clearing on their quads racing straight for the tree line.
“Come here, get on,” Levi said through an excited grin. He held out his hand, and she took it while hoisting her leg over the back.
“Hold on!” he said as he spun out, spraying mud in a rooster tail behind them.
She threw her arms around his waist and whooped as they cleared the tree line. He gunned it, and her stomach dipped behind her. It had been a while since she’d ragged on her four-wheeler! He maneuvered around the trees after the others. She grinned at Morgan, who was speeding beside them in the side-by-side, the kids strapped in their seatbelts, yelling and laughing beside her. Levi blasted ahead, splashed through a huge mud puddle, and belted out a laugh that she felt through her whole body.
It was perfect. The storm clouds roiled above them, but it wasn’t cold. The wind whipped at her messy bun but her hat stayed in place. Levi did, in fact, remember how to drive a four-wheeler just fine. Maybe that had been part of his training.
Jason pulled up on the left on a dark gray four-wheeler, his hat backward, a challenging flash in his eyes when he and Levi looked at each other.
The motor roared as Levi and Jason gassed it and Marissa held on for dear life. “Go, go, go!” she yelled at Levi, and then whooped at Jason, “You’re slow, old man!”
Jason narrowed his eyes at the thin trail through the woods and hit the gas, pulled to the side quick to avoid a tree, then steadied out neck-and-neck with them again. Logan came blasting through the trees, laughing like a maniac.
Marissa couldn’t even catch her breath because she was laughing so much. When Levi hit a small log, they went airborne for a couple seconds and then hit a trail that led at a slight slope toward the bank. She could smell the faint scent of water over the oil and gas and fumes of the ATVs. “We’re close!” she said, holding tighter to Levi’s stony middle. She could feel each individual ab. Good gah, he was hot.
He accelerated on a straightaway down the hill, and as soon as he hit the muddy shore, he hit the hand brake and they skidded to a stop at the edge of the lake.
“Winners!” she crowed, standing up on the seat behind him.
Logan and Jason swooped in right beside them. She wiggled her butt around as Levi punched his hands in the air and chanted with her, “Winner, winner, winner.”
“You’re ridiculous and immature,” Logan muttered as he got off his quad and threw his hat at a tree.
Marissa pointed and brayed like a donkey, “Haaaaaa.”
“I’m never racing you again,” Jason murmured, kicking the tire of his ATV.
Levi mimed a crying face, and Marissa belted out a laugh and did the same. “Waah. Waaaah.”
“I hate you both,” Logan muttered. “I need a beer.”
“Coming,” Morgan sang from where she was parking the side-by-side up the bank. The blue cooler was strapped in the back, and the kids were scrambling out of their seatbelts.
“I need six beers,” Jason said.
“I need seven,” Logan challenged him.
“Oh, my God,” Morgan muttered. “We aren’t making this a competition. We didn’t bring enough beer for that.”
“I feel like there is just enough beer for it,” Logan said, stalking the cooler.
“I order you to stay away from it then!” Morgan demanded.
“Ignore,” Jason said, popping the top up.
Thorne’s little legs moved double-time as he ran and jumped into Jason’s arms. Jason handed him a juice box and did a silent cheers with a can of Budweiser. The ease with which Thorne toasted his drink was disturbing.
“I don’t think that’s good parenting,” Levi observed.
“Good thing I ain’t a parent,” Jason deadpanned. He set Thorne on the tailgate of the side-by-side and chanted, “Chug, chug, chu—”
“Jason!” Morgan yelled.
“Race to the water,” Levi called, peeling off his shirt. He was already knee deep into the waves but Logan was dumb enough to try to beat him. By leaping off the shore. And belly-flopping into the water. And hitting the shallows. And getting the wind knocked out of him.
Grey tossed Levi a football.
“Help…me,” Logan gasped.
Levi pelted him with the football. Logan barely caught it and then flipped him off as he floundered around like a beached whale, gasping for breath.
Dean untied the grill and charcoal from the bed of the side-by-side and Marissa laid out a camp lounger to get some sun and ogle her favorite eye-candy, Levi Sexy Bunz Wright.
Marissa Wright.
Huh. She sipped her cherry limeade. It had a ring to it.
Levi was out in the water in a pair of jeans that were sitting so low on his hips she could see the perfect V muscles there. And the light trail from his belly button down into the hem of the denim. He was tan and confident. He didn’t care at all that he was all scarred up. He just owned it as he tossed the football to Logan and Jason. Apparently, all was well with them again. Thank goodness.
He turned to her and winked and, oh, that straight, white, bright smile. She gave a little wave. Last night, they’d slept together. She kept thinking about it at random moments—how it had felt to have him inside of her, how his hands had been so warm and strong, the taste of his kiss.
Levi’s smile went wicked as if he could read her thoughts.
Logan launched the football at him, but Levi caught it easy without even taking his eyes off her. He clapped the football in his hands as he dragged his eyes down her body. How you doin’? he mouthed.
She cracked up and peeled off her tank top so she could get some sun on her sho
ulders.
“Y’all go relax, ladies. We got this,” Dean said to Rachel, Morgan, and Sarah from where he and Grey were setting up the grill.
“Gentlemen,” Sarah drawled as she dragged a pair of camp chairs over to Marissa.
She and Morgan sat beside her, Rachel on her other side, and Delilah stayed in Morgan’s lap, wearing a little tutu bikini and floppy hat, red heart sunglasses covering her purple eyes.
“Mom, I take my shirt off, okay?” Thorne asked.
Lana giggled and helped the wiggling boy out of his shirt so he could play football half naked like the men.
Levi looked over at her again, like he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and this was it. This was the happiest moment of her life so far. It was crazy having that realization now instead of a year from now. It wasn’t reminiscing about “the good old days.” Today, right now, it was the good old days. And she was going to absorb and appreciate every second of the good, because life wouldn’t always be like this. But if she was lucky…real, real lucky…it could be like this sometimes. And she would appreciate these moments more because she knew how dark things could get.
“Time out,” Levi called and dragged his legs through the waves until he reached her.
She and Rachel and Morgan laughed and yelled out curses as he shook his hair out all over them. He picked her up easy, tossed her over his shoulder, and swatted her ass as she squirmed. Unceremoniously, he dumped her back on her feet in the cool, thigh-high water and stood out of the way as Logan launched the football.
Marissa caught it with a clap of her hands. Werewolves were strong.
Levi squeezed her ass and whispered in her ear, “I like when you play.” He bit her earlobe gently and then kissed her temple quick before he walked backward in the water, hands out ready to catch her ball.
And she had to. She had to say it. This was the moment she had to tell him how she felt.
“I love you, Levi.”
His face went slack, and he froze in the water, chest rising and falling with his deep breaths. “Say it again.”
“Baaaaaarf,” Jason called.
“Let them have their moment!” Wade demanded from where he was setting up a fold-out table.
“I love you,” she repeated.
Levi ducked his gaze. Was that a blush on his cheeks? He scratched his short facial scruff with his thumbnail and then ran his hand through his messy, wet hair. He shook his head and lifted those stunning bi-colored eyes back to her. “Really?”
“Really, really.”
“Well, I love you, too, but I think you already figured that out.”
There was too much energy in her body so she let off this high-pitched squeal that made Logan plugged his ears and Jason hunched his shoulders. “Throw the ball!” Brent shouted from the shore where he was currently getting ready to shotgun a beer.
She chucked it at him, and he barely caught it right in the center of his chest. “Not cool. I have a beer. That’s a party foul.” He tossed it to Jason.
It was starting to smell like hamburgers as Dean and Grey worked their magic on the grill, and Brent did, in fact, shotgun his beer.
“I wanna do that with my juice box!” Thorne exclaimed.
“No!” Marissa and Morgan yelled at the same time Jason, Logan, and Brent yelled, “Yes!”
“Don’t teach him that!” Morgan admonished.
Brent reached into the cooler and pulled beers, tossed them one by one to Jason, Logan, Levi, and Marissa.
Marissa fidgeted with the cold can, shifting it from hand to hand. Everyone was watching. “I haven’t done this in forever.”
“You bite it first!” Thorne yelled from beside Brent as he jumped up and down with his juice box. “With your long wolf teeth!”
“Are you serious, Brent?” Morgan demanded. “You taught my five-year-old to shotgun a juice box?”
“I didn’t do that!” Brent defended himself.
Grey had an oh-shit expression on his face, and Morgan caught it. “Greyson Bellview Crawford.”
“It was an accident,” Grey murmured as the boys busted out laughing.
“Your middle name is so dumb,” Jason chortled, doubling over.
Levi dredged through the thigh-high waves to stand by her. He pulled her into his side and clinked his beer can against hers. “One, two, three, go!”
Marissa bit the side of the can with her long, strong canine then popped the tab as she tossed it back. She gulped the rushing beer until it was gone and then tossed the can in the water. She lifted her arms and was about to do a victory yell but burst out laughing at little Thorne shotgunning his juice box like a pro and his daddy behind him shotgunning a beer right along with him.
Morgan just shook her head and rolled her eyes heavenward as though praying for patience.
Marissa picked up her empty can still floating near her, and when she stood back up, Levi was looking at her with this hungry expression in his eyes. “Hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
She thought he was joking, so she laughed, but his expression stayed serious.
“Wait, really?” she asked. “Me shotgunning a beer is hot?” Her cheeks warmed with a blush, and softer, she said, “I guess it doesn’t take much to impress you.”
“Mmmmmm,” he said, shaking his head and staring at her cleavage. When he looked back up at her eyes, he assured her, “Watching you chug my favorite beer with your tits pushin’ up against your little bikini, throat exposed to me, legs splayed, and that little longhorn tattoo peeking out from your shorts? Spank bank is full.”
She tossed her head back and belted a laugh. “I’m glad to know that’s all it takes to get you riled up.”
Levi snorted and caught the football that flew at him. He tossed it back to Logan easy. “It takes way less than that. All you gotta do is look at me, and I’m ready to go.”
“Good. I keep thinking about last night.”
She caught the ball Jason threw to her with a clap and chucked it all the way to Brent on the shore.
“Good thoughts?”
“Lots of good thoughts.”
“No regrets?”
“Not a single one. Not even a little.”
“Good,” he murmured softly. “I’m gonna keep making you happy. When you smile, it makes everything in me…well, it makes it easier.”
“I think that’s the way this is supposed to be.”
Levi gave her the sweetest hotboy smile she’d ever witnessed. He caught the ball and tossed it underhand in a perfect spiral to Logan. “I do, too.”
That man was all scars and dominance and a mission she didn’t entirely understand yet. But she would. With her, he softened. He smiled. He let down his guard.
It felt good after so long of thinking he didn’t know she existed.
Now, she didn’t feel like staying invisible as much. She was fine being confident, playing and teasing with the boys. It was the first time in her life opening up to a boy had ever been so easy. So effortless.
She wasn’t ducking her head or staying quiet or hanging out in the corner like the wallflower she used to be. A sun had trouble being seen surrounded by storm clouds. But Levi had come in and cleared those clouds, replaced them with a brilliant blue sky. And she could shine as bright as she wanted to now.
He made it safe to be exactly who she was and who she wanted to be.
Yeah. She believed it.
This was exactly how love was supposed to be.
Chapter Twelve
We need to meet.
Marissa frowned at the text message. How had Cassian even gotten her number?
This was the tenth text he’d sent today. And the tenth one she’d ignored.
Please, Omega.
His urgency grew with each message, though, and put her on edge. She typed a message back. I’ve already told you I decline your offer. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind. I’m taken. Send.
You don’t understand. Omega, I’m begging you. For the sake of my ent
ire pack and yours, please meet with me.
Marissa set the phone down fast, as if it was a snake. She glared at it, her heart racing.
The survival of the Silver Wolf Clan depends on us meeting. I have to tell you something important.
Then tell me now. Over text.
I can’t. Please, I’ll explain everything, just meet me at O’Connell’s bar in an hour. Or hell, I’ll meet you at the end of your driveway by the mailboxes off the main road if you’ll feel safer that way. Bring your bodyguard if you want! Just…meet me. Trust me. You need to hear this.
It was a trick. Trust him? Trust was earned. Outside of the Dallas packs, she didn’t trust anyone.
But…he seemed so desperate, and he’d mentioned the people she loved. It scared her.
She boxed up two more jewelry boxes Grey had made to order and printed out the address labels in the small office attached to the massive woodshop behind the house. Morgan was busy with the kids today, and Grey was working out in the shop. The sound of his saw was loud against her sensitive ears so she had to wear earplugs, but she could still hear him plain as day.
Levi was out werewolf-proofing a chicken coop for the four little baby chicks Lana had begged for from the feed store. She was an animal lover. Ironic that she lived in the heart of two packs of werewolves. They were forever predator-proofing animal enclosures.
I can be to your driveway in half an hour. Please just consider it. Talk with me, and then I’ll never contact you again.
If I meet you, I’ll be bringing my entire pack. Send.
If you wish, but know I’ll be alone. I’m not asking for war with the Demon Wolf.
Shhhit. Grey would absolutely annihilate him if he knew Cassian was anywhere near his territory.
Grey had worked on his patience over the years, but Wolf was still in charge. And that monster hated everyone outside of the Dallas packs. Territorial didn’t even begin to describe him.
Marissa let off a low growl and set the phone down on the table again. Clicked the computer mouse over the next order and printed out another shipping label.