Neither of us had opened the menu yet, so I decided to break the ice and move things along. “So, do you know what you want?”
“This place has amazing burgers!” he told me enthusiastically. This guy must really like food. That made sense, considering he might eat a lot to maintain his muscle mass.
I smiled at his enthusiasm. He looked a little embarrassed at my amusement and rubbed his chin. “Or you know, they have girl stuff like salad or chicken, too.”
I rolled my eyes at the assumption. “Nah, I want the barbecue bacon cheeseburger. Have you tried that one? It’s a true culinary masterpiece.”
He looked surprised but pleased. “Oh, yeah. That’s what I’m getting.”
We grinned at each other, and I relaxed a little as the waitress came over to introduce herself. She positioned herself so that her body was angled towards him and away from me. As she spoke, I could see that she had flirt mode turned on high. When she got to the part of her spiel where she asked if we wanted to start with drinks Cody, smiled at me.
“I think we are ready to order. What would you like?”
As I placed my order, she scribbled impatiently on her notepad. No doubt she was eager to get back to flashing her bedroom eyes at Cody. He placed his order as well, then thanked her and leaned forward toward me and placed his elbows on the table. She looked irritated, as it was clear he was politely dismissing her, but she flashed one more smile at him before heading inside to put our orders in.
“We are finally alone,” he said in a joking manner.
I glanced down at the table as my brain scrambled for something to say. “Yeah,” is all I managed to come up with. I was completely out of my depth here, because flirting and dating were not things that I did on a regular basis.
A rational thought from deep down in my brain tried to surface thought the web of confusion that clouded my brain. I had wanted to ask him something yesterday. Ah, yes. The ‘reading reports about me’ comment he had made. I looked at him as I tried to think of a way to bring it up. Why did he have to be so good looking? It was difficult to focus when he was looking at me with those gorgeous eyes.
He drummed his fingers on the table and tilted his head to one side. “You know, I haven’t ever seen a female wolf out in public before without at least one of her pack-mates with her. Where is your pack?”
I froze, ice running through my veins. All thought instantly left my brain. How could he know what I was? Was he one of the wolves who had chased after me? Was he one of the men who broke into Evelyn’s house? Could he be one of the murderers?
He saw the wide-eyed panic on my face and raised his hands defensively.
“I didn’t mean that in a threatening way. I was just curious,” he said gently.
I could try to run from him and hope he wouldn’t chase me in public, but I thought about my determination to find Evelyn’s killers and raised my chin. I could run, or I could hold my ground and try to get some justice for Evelyn. I hid my shaking hands under the table and replied with a bit of challenge in my voice, “Where’s your pack?”
“Touché,” he grinned, then hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I’m part of the Seaside Pack.”
I frowned. “I thought there weren’t any packs in the area?”
“There weren’t, at least not until about 6 years ago.” He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his chair. “Which means you had to have been out of the loop for at least that time. We were huge news when Austin claimed some territory out here and started gathering wolves to him.”
I groaned to myself. If only he knew; I had been ‘out of the loop’ for a lot longer than six years. I had never been in the loop to begin with. But this was my chance to get some information out of him.
Cody seemed relatively unthreatening, and even though Evelyn was constantly telling me how dangerous other wolves were, I did have a craving deep down to be near my own kind. There was so much I didn’t know about myself and the world I was excluded from. I tried to justify staying here at the table instead of running.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to talk to him for a bit and see what information I could get. It was unlikely that he would harm me in such a public place, and he had done nothing so far to indicate he intended to try.
The waitress picked that moment to come out with our drinks and try to flirt with Cody some more. He once again politely assured her that we had everything we needed, but I was kind of grateful for the interruption, because it gave me time to compose my thoughts and figure out the best way to question him without giving up too much info about myself.
He finally succeeded into getting her to return inside. “She is certainly persistent.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s one word for it.”
He chuckled, and I switched our water glasses.
“Just in case,” I assured him as he laughed.
I plunged right in. “So how much of this area is your pack’s territory?”
“Most of us live in Seaside, but our pack goes all the way out to Emporia, up to Richmond, and down to the North Carolina border.”
I paled. Emporia was almost an hour west of here, so my home and my job were right in the middle of their pack lands.
I couldn’t just come right out and ask if his pack had murdered any older ladies recently, so I decided to start with an easier question. “So, uh, how friendly is your pack to random wolves that you might find on your land?” I ran my hands up and down my thighs nervously as I waited for his answer.
He considered his answer for a moment. “Depends on the wolf.”
“Could you perhaps give some example scenarios?” I asked hopefully.
He laughed. “I guess. So, in our hypothetical scenario, is our mystery wolf hiding from another pack?”
“No.”
He gazed into my eyes steadily. “Has she ever harmed another person, human or not?”
I held his gaze. “No.”
“Would she be willing to meet with the pack-master?”
I dropped my gaze at that question. Evelyn had taught me that there is nothing I should fear more than meeting a pack-master. I took a deep breath.
“Why would he want to meet me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re on his land. Of course he would want to meet with you to see if you are a danger to his pack.”
I looked at him incredulously. He wanted to know if I would be a danger to his pack? I couldn’t help it and started to laugh. Cody also saw the humor in that statement but quickly regained his serious look.
“Looks can be deceiving sometimes. You could be a spy for another pack looking to move into our territory. There has been some evidence lately of other wolves here on our territory...”
I sat up abruptly in my chair. Could he be talking about Evelyn’s murder? Was it possible that his pack had nothing to do with it? Maybe they could help me get to Evelyn’s old pack.
They might be motivated to help me if they were angry enough about another pack killing on their lands. I was probably going to have to meet with their pack-master if I wanted to or not. I would rather go on my own power than be dragged there.
I returned his serious look. “Can you honestly promise me that no harm will come to me if I agree to meet with him?”
“I promise.” He smiled. “Austin is a good man, and we don’t mean you any harm unless you intend us harm.”
“All right,” I agreed. I wondered what I had just gotten myself into, but I was determined to turn what could be a hopeless situation to my advantage.
A man came out on the patio carrying a tray with our food. Our waitress must have given up on Cody, because she was nowhere in sight. My mouth watered, and I was eager to sink my teeth into the first real meal that I had in days. I might as well enjoy it, as this could end up being my last meal if things didn’t go well with meeting the pack-master.
Cody and I devoured our meals in a contemplative silence. My mind was on how I was going to manage this situation so that i
nstead of being murdered by a pack of wolves, I convinced them to help me hunt down some murderers. I don’t know what was on Cody’s mind, but he seemed deep in thought.
Our waitress sauntered outside towards our table; I guess we hadn’t seen the last of her yet. She asked Cody if he liked his meal and if he needed anything else. He declined, and she turned back in disappointment. She flicked a glance in my direction, and I took the opening to ask for separate checks out of habit. After a couple meals with Kelsey and her friends, I had quickly realized that if I didn’t ask for a separate check, I got stuck with the entire check.
She shrugged and headed back inside.
“You’re not really like other girls, are you?” Cody asked softly, almost to himself.
It was my turn to shrug, and I played with the last lonely fry on my plate, trying to scrape up enough ketchup onto it to be able to eat it without pouring more from the bottle.
Cody’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it out. “Austin wants to know if you can come to the house tonight after work?”
So, their pack-master already knew that I was here with Cody. Good thing I agreed to the meeting; I wonder what he would have done if I had said no. I wasn’t sure if I should lie and pretend I needed to go back to work to buy myself some more time, or just try to get this over with as soon as possible.
I opted for as soon as possible, because having to sit and wait for a couple of hours in a state of pure anxiety seemed like torture to me.
“I’m actually done work for the day.”
“Huh, I guess I should have guessed that, because you don’t really look dressed for work.”
I just sighed. “Do I need to wear fancy clothes or anything to meet your pack-master?”
He grinned. “Fancy clothes?”
“You know, something other than jeans and a T-shirt? I kinda want to make a good first impression.”
He just smiled. “Believe me, what you are wearing now will impress him just fine.”
I frowned at him, not sure what he meant by that.
Our waitress came out with both of our checks. Her phone number was written on his, of course. I didn’t bother to hide my eye roll this time, but she didn’t even notice. I pulled some cash out of my bag, because I didn’t want to wait for her to run my card and come back again. I had enough interaction with her already.
Cody must have followed my train of thought, because he also drew some cash out of his wallet and placed it on his check. We stood up at the same time as the waitress continued to chatter at him. Now that he was standing, she had to tilt her head up at him, as he was a good foot taller than her.
He looked at me in exasperation, but I just grinned and headed for the door.
“Excuse me, I think my date just left,” I heard him say to her as I opened the door and started to walk through. He had called this a date earlier as well, but I was sure that he was just using that as a pretense now.
He clearly had recognized me as a wolf during our first meeting and had been sent to bring me to the pack-master. I had to have been deluded to think a guy like that would ever have an interest in asking me on a real date.
He caught up to me, and we walked through the restaurant towards the front door.
“Do you collect stalkers everywhere you go?” I teased him, once again resorting to bad humor in my anxious state.
He opened the door to the outside and gestured for me to go first. “It’s never the girls that I want to have stalking me,” he answered, and I laughed.
“She seemed pretty, though,” I told him shyly. I wasn’t sure about how he felt about having to ignore the advances of a pretty girl in order to take me to my sentencing.
“Yeah, pretty annoying,” he reassured me.
We shared another grin, and he gestured to a black truck. “This is me.”
“Okay, I can follow you there.” I started to turn to where I was parked.
He looked embarrassed. “I actually need to bring you there.”
I looked at him suspiciously, thinking of all the nefarious reasons behind that decision.
“I promise, I will take you home right after,” he assured me. “No funny business.” He had turned on his most charming smile, and I tried my best to remain immune to it.
“What about my car?”
He looked over to where I had gestured to my car. “I can follow you home, then we can go to the house.”
I thought about pointing out that the logistics didn’t make sense. My house was in the opposite direction from Seaside. But I decided to let it go; it had been a while since I went home, and I really should attempt to fix my hair and put on a little bit of makeup before meeting the pack-master.
“All right, so you can follow me.” I headed toward my car, not waiting for verbal agreement.
Chapter 6
I drove home slowly, making sure I didn’t lose Cody on the way. I felt apprehension that something unpleasant might be waiting at my house, but I was sure that just about anything would be scared away by Cody’s 6’4” heavily muscled frame.
I eyed my neighborhood closely as we drove through, looking for any unusual people or cars. Nothing seemed out of place as I pulled into my driveway, but I waited at the front door for him before going in.
My security alarm started going off as I pushed the front door open, and I quickly entered my code. Cody hovered behind me as I checked the alarm activity on the security panels. There had been no activity while I was gone, and everything looked normal.
I led Cody into the house and gestured to the couch. “I’m going to shower and change really quick if you want to watch some TV.
He plopped down on the couch, and I tossed him the remote. “Do you want a drink? I have water or diet soda?”
“Water is good.”
I tossed him a bottle, then headed upstairs. I was eager to get a hot shower with decent water pressure; the locker room showers on base weren’t exactly 5-star quality. After an amazing shower, I was feeling more like myself. I wrapped a towel around my hair and pulled on my fluffy robe. I went into my closet and eyed my selection of clothing.
I had no idea what to wear to a meeting like this. Cody was wearing jeans, so I figured that would be fine. I had some black skinny jeans that Kelsey had picked out for me. I decided to dress up a little with a sweater instead of a long sleeved T-shirt.
Shoes? I had a choice of cute but uncomfortable ankle boots, flats, or Uggs. Since I was already nervous about the meeting, I went with Uggs. I know so many people out there think they are the ugliest shoes on the planet, but I am convinced that is because they have never slipped on a pair and walked on the clouds. They are the most comfortable shoes on the planet, and I desperately needed some comforting.
I towel-dried my hair the best I could, then stared at the wavy blonde mess in the mirror. I sighed and pulled out my hairdryer, I might as well go all out today. After I had my pale blonde hair looking shiny and bright, I swiped some mascara over my eyes to darken my eyelashes. I eyed myself critically in the mirror, then added some bronzer to my pale skin and a little bit of lip gloss. That was more than enough primping for me.
I headed back down to the living room, where Cody’s large frame was sprawled over my couch. He was intent on playing a game on his phone but glanced up when I jumped down the last couple of stairs. He took a second glance, then stood up.
“You look nice…not that you didn’t look nice before…” He rubbed a hand through his hair. I was starting to realize he did that when he was nervous. I felt surprised, then flattered. I made him nervous?
“Uh, thanks,” I said awkwardly. I was eager to change the subject. “Are you ready to go?”
During the ride to the pack-master’s house, I peppered Cody with questions. Where exactly were we going? How long would it take? What was Austin like? Would more of the pack be there? How many wolves were in the pack?
He answered almost all the questions with a grunt or “You’ll see.”
I sat a couple m
inutes in silence to rethink my strategy for getting some answers from him. By that time, the shipyard traffic was out and the tunnel was backed up for miles. We were going to be sitting in the car for a while if we were heading to Seaside. I chewed my bottom lip and looked across the car at him from under my lashes. Maybe I should try to get him talking about casual stuff and then ease in some questions about the pack.
“What kind of music do you like?” I asked him.
He looked at me with a glint of humor in his eyes. “Giving up already? I thought you had another twenty minutes of questions in you, at the very least.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “This might seem funny to you, but this is my life that is on the line,” I told him worriedly.
He looked repentant and ran his hand through his hair. “I already promised we aren’t going to hurt you. If it will make you more comfortable, I guess it won’t hurt to tell you some things, because you are going to see them yourself when we get there.” He took a breath, and I leaned forward eagerly.
“The pack house is in Seaside. Austin has a kick-ass mansion where most of the high-ranking pack members live.”
“With all their families? That must be a huge house.” I tried picturing it.
He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “The whole pack is a family.”
“That sounds nice,” I murmured wistfully. What would it have been like to grow up like that? Surrounded by a huge family, full of love.
Cody cleared his throat. “Yeah, you might meet some of them. I don’t really know who is there right now or if Austin has anything planned…”
That caught my attention. “So how long have you guys known about me?”
He looked embarrassed. “Well, our grounds border the state park that is out that way. There’s a river that separates the park from our territory.”
I felt incredibly stupid. Then Sunday night I had not only met two of their pack members, I had also been directly on their hunting grounds. I had the feeling this meeting with the pack-master was not going to go well for me, and I started to regret rushing into this.
Finding Somewhere to Belong Page 6