by Lori King
“You—you can’t do that!” Tavi sputtered.
“The hell I can’t. I’m the manager, Tavi, what I say goes. If you don’t like it, there’s the door. Fucking stupid women. I hate being surrounded by ignorance all day long,” Shane snarled.
Biting back a rude response, Tavi closed her eyes and counted to ten. It didn’t seem to matter how high she counted, all she could see was a red haze of pissed off. A gentle hand on her arm startled her and she dropped the pan she’d been holding into the water with a splash that left her and Mila covered in bubbles. Opening her eyes, she realized that Shane had stormed off leaving her and the other waitress alone again in the prep room.
“Are you okay, doll?” Mila asked, looking genuinely concerned. “Shane’s a douche. Don’t let him get to you.”
Drying herself with her now-damp apron, she nodded. “I’ll be all right, but he knows I can’t afford to cover food that’s sent back.”
“Don’t stress it, Tavi. I’ll chip in some tip money and help cover it. Thankfully it was just a chicken sandwich, so it’s only like eight bucks. Shane is just trying to prove he’s got a bigger cock than you do,” Mila said, making a graphic gesture with her hand over her groin.
Tavi laughed. “He might have a bigger cock, but I have bigger balls. That skinny peckerwood won’t last a month.”
“I’ll take that bet. I think he’ll make it two before Ray kicks him to the curb,” Mila teased back.
Ray Bunton was the owner of Between the Buns, and the worst business man Tavi had ever encountered. He spent ninety percent of his time on the golf course trying to look more important than he was, and the other ten percent hiring and firing managers at the restaurant.
“Nah, Shane will get too full of himself and leave for greener pastures. Ray doesn’t care what any of us does. Hell, Shane and Fawn have been using the storage room for extracurricular activities every afternoon,” Tavi said in a soft voice.
“Oh yeah? Damn, see what I miss having to go to class during the day? I knew Fawn had something on Shane to get that prime schedule. I hate having to cover all the evening shifts.”
The squeak of the door had the two women jumping apart as though they’d been caught doing something wrong, and once again they were face to face with the redheaded devil wearing the managers badge.
“I’m sorry, did I miss the invitation to play Gossip Girl? Get a move on, ladies, or you’ll both be hitting the want ads tomorrow.” Instead of leaving, Shane stood guard with his arms crossed over his chest and his arrogant nose tipped like there was a stench in the air.
Mila rolled her eyes and grabbed a pile of menus on her way out the door. Tavi turned her back on Shane and focused on washing the last couple of dishes as quickly as possible. Her hair stood on end just before she felt him press against her backside, and his hot breath against her ear.
“You know, if you want to make things easier on yourself, I can think of a few ways,” he whispered. The effort that he made to sound sensual and sexy was lost on her as her stomach revolted at the idea of him touching her.
“So can I. A sexual harassment lawsuit would set me up nicely while I hit the want ads…” she taunted.
With a sharp curse, Shane stepped backward so quickly that he nearly fell on his ass. Tavi was disappointed when he caught himself. The menacing look he gave her kept her temper in check when she might have kept going. It was hard to control her tongue when he was such a disgusting person.
“I’m taking you off wait staff for the week. You can bus tables until I think you’re ready to promote again. I can’t have my waitresses unable to take a simple order.” With that he spun on the heel of his boot and stomped out of the kitchen leaving her blissfully alone.
Her mouth had once again gotten her into trouble. She needed to be waiting tables in order to make tips. Without tips she didn’t even make enough each week to cover her bills. Fuck this was bad. Her hopes for an extra night off in the near future went up in smoke, and she fought back tears of frustrated fury. Grabbing an empty dish tub she headed for the front of the restaurant to clean up after the dozens of customers that had already been served this afternoon.
Grumbling her dissatisfaction with her current circumstances would help no one, so she got busy clearing tables. The quicker they were emptied, the quicker they would be filled again, and hopefully Shane would reconsider when he realized he needed more wait staff. Otherwise she’d be hitting up the local church food pantry for groceries this weekend.
Could her life get any more complicated?
Chapter 2
Owen and Cash shared a cabin at the Gray Pack den as most sibling sets did. However, with the recent addition to the Gray Pack family of eighteen wolves from the Quiver Creek Pack, along with Bryson Samuels from the Kaplan Pack, the den had been hard pressed for space, so Owen and Cash had allowed two of the new pack members to stay with them. River and Creek O’Brien were decent guys, but they were more of the strong silent type so no one really knew much about them yet. They’d teamed up with Justin, Heath, and Tate Truehope to build new cabins and work on the infrastructure of the den to make it more comfortable for their growing pack.
This evening they were dressed in matching black sleeveless shirts and black jeans. To Luke they looked like a pair of auburn-haired biker bookends with freckles. Not that he was knocking freckles, but it certainly stole the edge from their badass image. Quiet guys, Luke often wondered if they were still trying to warm up to their new home, or if they had secrets they were trying to hide. The Quiver Creek Pack had been a hodge-podge band of misfits and rogue wolves who leaned on each other in order to survive. The only thing anyone really knew about the O’Brien brothers, was that they were born in Ireland, and brought to the US as small children. Otherwise they hadn’t shared any details of their history, and that left Luke feeling like Devin Gray was leaving his pack with a weak spot. What if they weren’t good guys like they wanted everyone to believe?
He felt like all of the Quiver Creek wolves should have been forced to find housing outside of the den until they’d proven their loyalty and their worth, but he had to abide by his Alpha’s decision. That meant playing nice when the new members were around so as not to cause more trouble.
Despite the fact that Rafe, Devin, and Damon had all stayed home, the poker table was overflowing. Justin and Heath sat across from River and Creek, also around the table were Owen, Cash, Ryley, and Luke. Liam Gray had just walked through the front door carrying a stack of pizza boxes.
“About damn time! I’m starving.” Heath let out a short bark of appreciation as he leapt to his feet to help Liam—or in this case to get first dibs on the food.
Cash snorted and poked Heath in the side. “Not likely Bullwinkle.”
Heath had earned the nickname, Bull, back in junior high when he’d suddenly filled out a couple of months before any of the other guys in his class. Wide and bulky, all three Truehope brothers were built like bulldozers, not overweight by any means, just muscular enough they’d give body builders a run for their money. They were the epitome of what Luke wanted to be physically, but he lacked the structure to carry it off even if he trained every day for years.
Last year had been extremely hard on the Truehope brothers, and Luke felt guilty for his jealousy. Their older sister Tawny had been viciously attacked by a visiting member of the Diego Pack late last summer, and because of pack politics the three guys had been forced to sit back and let others handle her attacker. Luke hadn’t been there for the Diego Alpha battle, but he’d heard it was a blood bath.
While the majority of the Gray pack was handling the visiting Diego wolves, Luke and seven others had been off collecting the Quiver Creek wolves. They’d been involved in a blood bath of their own that resulted in four Quiver Creek wolves never making it out of Wyoming. He could still smell the maple leaves and pine needles mixed with blood and fear if he thought about it too much. Thankfully he’d fulfilled his obligation to the pack and returned physically un
scathed. The memories might haunt his dreams, but that was a secret he guarded closely.
Rattled out of his melancholy musings he was surprised to find everyone had gravitated to the kitchen leaving him alone at the prepped poker table. Liam was walking his way with a concerned wrinkle on his brow. It made his eyebrow piercing tip awkwardly and Luke had to bite back a laugh.
“What’s up, Little Gray? You not hungry?” Liam asked, handing him a cold bottle of beer.
Accepting the alcohol, Luke shook his head just as his stomach growled. “Nope just got caught daydreaming I guess. Did you get extra this time?”
Liam turned his head to look at the mob of large men devouring the pizzas and laughed. “Yes, but I doubt it will be enough. I swear this pack needs to invest in a pizza chain. We’re already half of the Pie Hole’s annual income.”
Luke made his way in to get a plate of pizza from his favorite pizza joint. No one made better pizza than Maybel Grabos, and the Pie Hole was a local institution. If anything ever happened to it, Luke figured the town would erect a monument in its place. By the time he’d returned Ryley and Liam were in a deep debate about fishing lures leaving him to his own company once again. Sure, he could join in the joking and banter happening three yards away at the kitchen island, but he’d still feel awkward and alone. As much as he wanted to be a part of the group, it just never seemed to feel right.
Well you did insult most of them, dipshit. His inner voice taunted him, and guilt made the pizza he was eating taste like cardboard. It wasn’t that he’d intended to hurt anyone’s feelings with his opinion on the mating of humans, but his conscience wouldn’t allow him not to speak up.
Werewolves were a dying breed. Just a hundred and fifty years ago there were hundreds of thousands of them living and working alongside humans. Hell, without the help of wolf packs, the Civil War might still be happening, or the country would have been decimated and gone back to the Brits. It didn’t seem right that there were less than two thousand werewolves left in the United States. Luke knew that a lot of that had to do with the growth in technology as well as generally low birth rates among their species. It was a lot harder to keep secrets these days, and there were gobs of people who would lose their mind to lay hands on a real life “monster.” He felt strongly that there was another reason for the decrease in numbers.
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, wolf packs began seeing an unusual shift in their matings. Humans were suddenly a new source of the mating bond, and wolves were mating with them in droves. The odd phenomenon caused the pure blood of the wolf packs to mingle with the blood of humans and before long—half-breeds. Many of the skills that wolves had had two hundred years ago had died off, or were extremely rare, and Luke vowed not to be one of the masses. He would wait his entire life for his true werewolf mate if he had to, but he’d never take a human to mate.
“Earth to Luke? Come in, Luke.” Ryley made a noise in his throat like static just as Cash moved up behind him and boxed his ears.
Jerking away from the other man’s huge hands, Luke snarled and rubbed at his stinging earlobes. “What the fuck, man?”
“You were daydreaming again. Want to share the details? Maybe you’ve got a pretty little piece of fluff you’re not sharing?” Liam said from across the table. Everyone but Cash had taken a seat around him, and he felt his cheeks heat with embarrassment.
Giving a sharp shake of his head, Luke growled back. “It’s nothing. I just have a lot on my mind. And no it’s not a fucking woman. I’m not like you pussy-whipped pretty boys, needing a woman to hold me down.”
Instead of getting pissed off, Liam and Ryley just exchanged a telling look and laughed at him. “Then you don’t know what you’re missing, Little Gray. I get to go home to a home-cooked meal, a warm bed, and a hot woman every night. What the hell do you go home to? An empty house, an empty fridge, and a brother you avoid,” Ryley said with a shake of his head.
Luke’s temper fired up. “I’d rather have nothing, than mate a human.”
Dead silence rang through the room, and Luke instantly felt the anger of all of the other men in the room directed his way. He held his ground for a few breaths before huffing and rolling his eyes. “Seriously? I can’t be the only one worried about destroying our blood line. Surely you guys have thought about what the half-breed blood will do to it?”
Liam shot across the room faster than Luke could blink and knocked him backward out of his chair flat on his back. With his throat pinned by his older cousin’s hand, he regretted bringing up the subject, but it was too late to take the words back.
“If I ever hear you call my woman a half-breed again I’ll rip your throat out myself, Luke Gray.” Liam’s eyes were glowing with his fury, and his face was tensed in mid-shift. Luke could feel the sharp edges of the other man’s claws as they pressed against the skin of his throat. With a tiny nod of his head, Luke submitted, and Liam released him.
Behind Liam, the other men still glared at him, and he dropped his head with a growl. “Don’t worry it won’t happen again. It’s clear I’m not allowed to express my opinion.”
Ryley rolled his eyes, and snorted. “Get over yourself man. No one gives a fuck what your opinions are, we’re just here to play the game.”
Firmly put in his place, Luke forced himself to reclaim his seat and focus on the gambling in front of him, and before long the tension in the room eased, and he actually relaxed to join in the laughter and joking a bit. He found out that the Alpha Devin and his twin brother, Damon, were taking to fatherhood with their new twins, but worrying about their exhausted wife, Caroline. Only five days old, Caleb, and Noelle Gray seemed to already have their parents wrapped around their tiny little fists. So far he’d managed to avoid coming face to face with the infants. He and babies just didn’t mix well, and he figured it was best to keep his distance.
“I’ve been talking to Tina and KJ, and they want to throw a surprise party for Caroline and the guys. With all of the chaos a few months ago, and then the holidays the girls never had time for a baby shower. Now they want our help planning one,” Cash said, tipping his beer back and emptying it.
“We don’t know the first thing about baby showers,” Justin protested, receiving nods of agreement all around.
Liam rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing to it, guys. It’s just a big party only with baby socks and streamers instead of fireworks and horseshoes, and miniature sausages in biscuits rather than bratwurst in buns.”
He received eight matching looks of apprehension and disgust from around the table, and Luke decided to keep his mouth shut and see how the older guys handled this one.
“I’m with Justin. Can’t we leave that for the ladies to do?” River added, looking very uncomfortable at the thought of miniature anything.
“We could,” Owen said with a resigned sigh, nodding his head, “but we aren’t going to. They’re our Alphas. We need to show them we’re happy about the new generation of Grays in the Gray Pack.”
Luke bit back a nasty retort about the infant twins’ lineage, and listened as everyone begrudgingly agreed, and began tossing ideas out. Caroline Gray was a full-blooded human until last year. That’s when Devin and Damon found her and mated her. It all went down in a blink of an eye, and there was never any discussion with the pack. Bada-boom bada-bing and she was wearing a ring.
Caroline was pretty, and feisty, so she made a decent Alpha Bitch, but Luke still struggled with accepting her as a wolf. In his mind she was as human today as she’d been before the Gray twins met her, only with an extra skill set and a fur coat she could call at will.
As the beer flowed freely, the party planning twisted into something perverse and almost pornographic—as most conversations usually did during poker night. Ultimately it was decided that all of the pack Betas would meet up for lunch the next day and lay out more definitive plans. That meant Luke was required to join in because of his position in the pack. Disappointed and running out of money, he made his exc
uses and skipped out of the game for the night.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to keep from saying something wrong if he was backed into a corner, and the good deed that the ladies were trying to pull off, was his idea of hell.
Walking into the cabin he shared with Noah, he noted that it was indeed empty. The cold night air whooshed through the backdoor as it closed behind him, and in the pale moonlight he could see his breath on it. Only the sound of his empty refrigerator humming filled the small house, and he lamented the hollow feeling in his chest.
It had been years since he’d felt warm inside. Nine years to be precise. At the age of fifteen it shouldn’t have mattered so much to him to have his family torn apart. His mother’s affections were ripped away from his father when she found her true mate, Nathan Mathis. It was a betrayal that still burned in his heart, and he held onto his dislike of the human man turned werewolf who now occupied his father’s place in his childhood home.
Anger filled his stomach and he scolded himself. It had been a long day, and there was no reason to think about his stepfather tonight. Pulling the last three beers from the refrigerator he carried them with him to his empty bed determined to drink his mind blank. Maybe a woman to come home to wouldn’t be so bad. As long as she didn’t try to lead him by the pecker like the rest of the women did with their men…and she wasn’t human.
“Hey Mom, can I take my new nail polish to school to show Jackie? She didn’t believe me when I told her that it was called New York City Ballet. I think she’s jealous.”
Tavi rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she poured herself coffee and listened to her daughter chatter. It was a struggle to stay awake after her late night, but she wouldn’t miss a minute of the time she got with Sonny for anything. At ten years old, Sonora Louisa Reid was constantly on the go, and never without a smile. With long dark-blonde hair, and a petite heart-shaped face, Sonny was absolutely beautiful. She’d likely go a long way on her looks alone if allowed, but Tavi was adamant that her daughter would be as educated as she was beautiful, so she pressed her to hit the books hard. Even at a young age, her daughter had picked things up and learned easily. Her newest addition to her nail polish collection was a reward for straight A’s on her report card last semester.