by C. D. Gorri
“So,” he began, “how are you feeling, no ill effects after our little accident?”
Cassie plugged her other ear with her finger and got up to go to leave the room while her stepmom snapped her fingers and mouthed furiously at Cassie, “What accident?!”
“Yes,” she said, “I mean no, I am fine!”
“Who is that in the background?”
“Oh, that’s my mom, well, technically Stephie is my stepmom, but she’s always been like my mom mom, anyway, um, why’d you call me?”
OMG! Cass just spill your guts to the man then be rude to him! Smooth!
“I told you I can’t stop thinking about you, sweet Cassie. I can’t stop picturing your pretty, cinnamon colored hair. I swear, I have never noticed that particular shade on anyone else, so damn sexy,” he growled into the phone and she was struck dumb.
“Really?” she whispered, but of course he heard her.
“Really. I’ve been dying to run my fingers through it to see if it’s as soft as it looks. Then there’s your big hazel eyes, though I don’t know if that’s the right color description. To me, your eyes are this deep, mossy kind of green, with a ring of amber fire in the center, warm and earthy, sexy as hell, like all of you. I could get lost in your eyes, beautiful,” he murmured, voice even deeper if possible.
“Oh,” she swallowed. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant, Cass. But holy shit did he just say that?
She pressed her thighs together, trying to ease the sudden ache. Her panties were getting wet from a phone call. Holy. Shit. Remember your plans to ignore him, inner Cassie screamed.
“Shut the fuck up,” she whispered to herself, but not low enough.
“I’m sorry?” he laughed into the phone and she jumped, her face burning with embarrassment.
“Uh, nothing, I wasn’t, uh, talking to you. Anyway, I’m sorry, what were you saying?” She pressed her forehead against the wall of her bedroom where she’d sought sanctuary. The dark purple paint felt cool against her heated skin.
“Anyway, I was wondering if you had any plans for tomorrow?”
“Oh, that, it’s nothing, well, I think I found a job,” she smiled, caught up in the excitement of having possibly joined the ranks of the gainfully employed.
Cassie normally kept things to herself. Truth be told, she’d never had a close girlfriend or bestie in any sense of the word.
Stephanie was the closest thing Cassie had to a confidant, but some things you just don’t share with a mom. No matter how cool or pretty she is! LOL.
And yet, it seemed completely natural for Cassie to walk to her white-canopied, full-sized bed and lie back on her purple tiger-striped bedspread while talking to David. Yes, it was her childhood bedroom and the same exact bedding she had in her high school years, but that didn’t matter.
Cassie smiled and told him everything about her phone interview earlier that evening. The woman she spoke to, a Cat Maccon-Nighthawk, was one of the founders of the center.
She’d wanted to hire Cassie on the spot, but she insisted they follow protocol and at least meet first. Cassie had of course readily agreed! They planned on a face-to-face interview the next day.
“Ah, Cat! Yes, I know her, she is a very good pack-, uh, person. Her husband, Tate, founded the center with her and her brother is their biggest benefactor. I volunteer there sometimes,” David said.
“Nice! So, maybe I will see you there occasionally,” Cassie answered without letting on that she caught his little slip. She knew exactly what he meant by Pack. Still, it was his secret to share. They’d only just met, she wasn’t expecting any sudden confessions. Besides Werewolves in Maccon City, were no big surprise to Cassie.
“Beautiful, you are definitely going to be seeing a lot more of me and soon too. In fact, how about we grab lunch after your interview and you can tell me all about it?”
“Well, I don’t know-”
“Come on, Cassie, take a chance. You have to eat, right? We’ll just get some lunch and talk,” his deep voice was entirely too persuasive for her own good.
“Okay, yes, I’ll go with you,” she said on a laugh.
Cassie unwound herself from her bed and walked down the stairs to the kitchen as if she were walking on air. She felt happy.
Not what she told herself to feel with Mark all those long months she’d stayed with him in New York. How many nights had she sat alone in their tiny apartment while he did who knows what? All the while telling herself she was content with it all.
Not anymore. This was different. She felt it in her bones. David was unlike any man she’d ever met. Werewolf or not.
The smells coming from the kitchen made her stomach grumble. Cassie was starving. Stephanie had prepared a light dinner of grilled cheddar and mozzarella cheese paninis paired with her signature homemade tomato soup. The pitcher of iced tea sat untouched in the middle of the small glass-topped table.
“Stephie, I’m back!” She called out.
Cassie smiled to herself while she poured two glasses. She couldn’t wait to tell Stephie the news. I have a date. Lunch only, but still, it was definitely a date. She waited for her mother to return to the dining room with a small garden salad for them to share.
“Alright, start with the accident,” Stephanie said as she dished out heaping scoops of her chopped kale and cherry tomato salad with her special warm shallot and bacon dressing.
“Well, it’s no big deal, Stephie,” and so Cassie explained meeting David, literally bumping into him, and everything that happened after.
“David Evangelos? The doctor?” Stephanie asked, eyes wide.
“Yes.”
“Surely you noticed he’s a Werewolf, Cassie?”
“I did,” Cassie said eyes down.
She knew Stephanie would never mean to hurt her. Still, she braced herself for what she knew was coming. Cassie had heard the speech so many times as a teenager, especially when she developed the hots for a certain Werewolf in high school. Mason Lane.
She’d recently learned that Mason now ran one of the most exclusive liquor companies in the northeast and was happily married with a couple of kids. She was happy for him and his family. She remembered his wife, Abigail, vaguely. Anyway, it was only a little crush. One she had eons ago. Cassie scooped up some soup waiting for the familiar speech.
No dating Werewolves! They’re just a bunch of horny animals only looking for a girl to say yes. Don’t be that girl, Cassie! A Werewolf’s biology makes him more hormonal, and therefore, he wants to have sex frequently with anyone willing. It’s nothing personal. Stay away from Werewolves, Cassie you’re just a normal, they will only hurt you!
“So, David is taking you out tomorrow for lunch? Well, that is just wonderful!”
“What?” Cassie choked on her spoonful of soup. She winced as Stephie pounded on her back with one hand, while offering her a napkin with the other.
“Well, if he’s pursuing you, he must be thinking you’re his!” Stephanie clapped her hands together with glee then attacked her huge grilled panini and chomped down on the sour dough bread. Geez, her teeth were sharp.
“Excuse me? What are you talking about? What happened to the ‘No Werewolves’ part of our program?” Cassie ignored her own sandwich and narrowed her eyes at her stepmother.
Something was definitely up! That sixth sense that told Cassie when someone was a supernatural, also told her when her beautiful stepmother had something up her sleeve!
Like that Christmas when she was eleven and Stephie had baked all their holiday cookies with almond flour and agave nectar instead of regular old flour and sugar! Not the same, no matter what people said!
“Oh, well, it’s Pack business, dear,” Stephie said as she tucked an imaginary strand of hair behind her ear.
The woman always looked perfect and she knew it, Cassie thought as she narrowed her eyes.
“No way, Mom, I am not falling for it! Now tell me!” Cassie whined like she was still a kid.
“You’ve always told
me to stay away from Werewolves, and now you’re clapping your hands and saying whoop-dee-doo! What the heck is happening here? Come on! Spill!”
“Well, Cassie, you know I can’t discuss Pack business with a normal-”
“And you know I am not exactly a normal! I can tell who’s a shifter, Steph, that is not normal! Please?”
“Okay, okay! I never could say no when you said please like that! Ugh, alright,” she began, her blue eyes sparkling, “so, lately talk about fated mates, and true mates has been everywhere in the Pack! Now that the curse is over, remember I told you about that,” Cassie nodded and motioned for her to continue.
“Anyway,” Stephie said, “we’re all a lot closer to our Wolves. Like a lot. I can feel my Wolf Cassie every minute of the day! And she is awesome!”
“Okay, yes, you rock. Now out with it!”
“Well, some of our legends are resurfacing. Matebonds between couples are growing stronger and unmated Wolves are discovering their fated mates, or what you’d think of as a soulmate.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, very few Wolves that I’m aware of have ever found their fated mates, but now the overall belief is that the Curse of Natalis had something to do with that.”
“So?”
“Well, now that the curse is broken, well, not only are Wolves re-awakening everywhere, but Pack magic is stronger than ever. That being the case, our natural instincts are returning to us tenfold.”
“But what does that have to do with me?”
“Oh Cassie, I used to think fated mates and matebonding were legends, but baby, if he continues to pursue you, you might be David’s actual fated mate! Some Wolves won’t go for anyone unless it is that special one, and he has been single a long time, baby. So, you get where I am going with this?” She said excitedly.
“No? What you think he like likes me?”
“Oh my God, Cassie, are you twelve? I mean, he might think you are his! Like you and he might literally be made for each other.”
“Oh please,” Cassie said, refusing to listen to the furious pounding of her heart. Could it be? No. Don’t get your hopes up.
“He will pursue you and claim you and do everything he can to keep you, baby girl. If you are his. Isn’t that incredible?”
“Oh, please! Yeah totally incredible. Like made up incredible.”
“Cassie!”
“Well, come on, Stephie, I barely know the guy! Besides, he’s got some hot little she-Wolf nurse he’s probably banging right now!” Cassie said the words and regretted them instantly. Bile welled in her throat.
Hope and jealousy shot through her, one warring with the other. She trembled with the new and powerful emotions until she felt nauseous. They clawed at her until she was struggling to breathe. Then she felt Stephanie’s hand on her shoulder.
“Oh baby, you see! I’m right, aren’t I? You feel it too! The pull to mate is strong for normals and not-so-normals alike!”
“Look, I may feel attracted to him, I won’t lie to you because I know you’d just smell it. But you had to see her, Mom, she was gorgeous, and she already warned me off him. I don’t stand a chance.”
“Did this she-Wolf threaten you?” Cassie smiled as Stephie went full on mama-Wolf mode.
“No, don’t worry about it. Like I said, he’s banging the hot nurse. He’s just being nice to me because he feels guilty.”
“Really, I mean, language! But seriously Cassie, don’t you get it, whoever he was ‘banging’ or not, it stopped the minute he laid eyes on you. Trust me, Cassie, if he is your mate, he won’t want anyone else.”
“But I’m just me. I’m short, chubby, recently dumped me and he’s, well, you’ve seen him!” She wanted to cry out loud at the injustice of it.
“Stop that, Cassie, you are a beautiful woman! Anyone would be lucky to have you!”
“I can’t think about this now. Let’s just eat and I’ll tell you about the interview I’m going on tomorrow.”
“Okay, but only if you help me get the wreaths made for the ball. It’s going to be held at The Villa on the edge of town. Did you know they hired my little shop to do the arrangements?”
“Did they? That place is a little rundown though.”
“It is lovely now! A new owner bought the place and they’ve been fixing it up, making it more modern.”
Cassie and Stephanie spent the next hour talking about her interview and her stepmother’s newfound success with her little floral shop, Moonlight Blossoms.
They cleaned the kitchen and strolled through the frigid night air to the small greenhouse Stephanie had built on the property.
When Cassie stepped inside the scent of pine wreaths and holly hit her fresh in the face. It was a good smell. One that reminded her of home and recently, of David. She felt Stephanie’s hand on her shoulder and squeezed it in return.
“You get started wrapping wire around those red velvet bows and attaching the mistletoe to these wreaths,” Stephanie barked out orders and Cassie went to work.
Thoughts of David, mates, and her own failures plagued her mind as she worked. He’s just a friend, she told herself. But even in the conversation she was having in her head, she knew that was a lie. Oh crap, this was gonna be harder than it looked.
CHAPTER 9
“What do you mean how did I know Rayne was the one? Come to think of it, why do you want to know?” Cael scratched his head as he tried to teach his older brother yet again to control his Change.
“Well, I met this woman,” David puffed out a breath as he stood out in the woods that bordered on side of his enormous beach house with his brother.
“Yeah, and?”
“And I can’t stop thinking about her,” David stretched his muscles. In under a minute, he was back to his gigantic buff-colored Wolf.
That was fast for him, but not painless. The Change was cruel to bones and muscles alike. Pulling and breaking, twisting and tearing, it was a symphony of pain and gory details that made even the doctor in him cringe. And yet, at the same time it was beautiful.
His emergence into his other half was more than just natural and basic, it was fucking magical. Now with the curse gone, it was even more powerful. He felt the bonds of his Pack tighten around him. With his Wolf’s eyes, he could see the silvery threads that connected him to his brother and others nearby.
David loved being a Werewolf. Unlike some Wolves, he had completely settled into that side of himself from the second he’d had his first Change. Hell, he wouldn’t know how not to be. The advantages over the Curse being over proved challenging, but totally worth it.
Especially, now that his beast had become so vocal. His Wolf was constantly pacing near the surface. Especially these last twenty-four hours. He was restless and antsy. One word growled again and again in David’s mind’s eye. MINE!
Cassiopeia DeMarco was taking up every waking moment of his time. Even his dreams weren’t free of her. Her soft cinnamon locks piled high on her head, wispy curls framing her heart-shaped face, her pink lips tilted up in a smile just for him. Her curvy body outlined in tight pants and that pale ivory sweater she’d worn.
Oh yeah, he’d envisioned peeling off that sweater so slowly. Savoring every inch of her creamy flesh as he revealed her to his hungry eyes. Fuck yeah, he wanted to unwrap her like a present, kiss her skin, taste her flesh. Grrrr. He couldn’t take it. He had to have her.
It had only been twenty-four hours since he had met her. And yet, David knew without a single doubt that she was made for him. His fated mate. Mine.
Every single instinct he had was screaming at him to make her his. Ever since the moment he’d scented her in that coffee shop. Fuck. He needed to see her again. Soon.
He wanted to take her in his arms and worship every delectable inch of her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. He closed his eyes and swore he could almost smell her cocoa butter and vanilla scent in the air. He had it bad alright! And it felt so fucking good.
�
�David, are you even listening man?”
“What?”
‘I said, you’re good to go. You controlled your Change back and forth in under a minute, bro! Awesome!”
“For real?”
“Yeah, man, besides, I gotta get back to Rayne. Promised her I’d pick up some cherry cheesecake.”
“Ah, cravings hitting her already?”
“Yeah, man I think it might be twins,” Cael’s smile was contagious.
David couldn’t help grinning as he slid into the extra sweats he’d brought with him. Sure, he was close to home, but he didn’t relish walking naked even if just to the car. They’d parked a few miles away from the house, but it was still his property.
“I’m happy for you, Cael, you both deserve this chance,” he said without any hint of jealousy.
How could he be jealous now? Not when his thoughts immediately went to Cassie as he thought of his brother’s impending fatherhood.
Oh fuck, she’d look so beautiful swollen with his pup. He turned his back to his brother before he saw the semi-hard-on he’d gotten just thinking about a pregnant Cassie. Slow down, David, it’s too soon for all that.
It was too soon, but someday. Yeah, someday. He jumped in his car and thanked fuck he was wearing sweats. Just thinking about his little asteri had him growing harder by the second. He shifted gears and headed back to his house.
Asteri mu, he thought to himself. Indeed, she was his little star. His mother taught both he and his brother a few words in her native Greek, but he recalled that one. It fit her. His Cassiopeia, as beautiful and bright as any constellation.
She ruled the stars in his sky as her namesake did those in the northern hemisphere. She was quickly possessing every thought in his head.
He couldn’t stop himself if he wanted to, and what’s more, he didn’t want to. His stomach clenched with anticipation as his Wolf rose to the surface. He fought the beast for control. The only thing they both agreed on was Cassie would be his. Mine.
We have to take it slow, he admonished his beast. She was a normal and needed to be wooed with care. He grinned at his use of the archaic word, but it felt right somehow.