by T. S. Joyce
“No pet names, Dustin. And how is it different for werewolves?”
“You tell me, Princess Human, claiming to live in a crew. If you really did live in a crew, you would know werewolves are just naturally badass predators—”
“—murderers—”
“—with superior hunting skills and minds geared for battle. We’re born bad. It’s accepted. Predator animals like Logan and Beast, though? Nah. When they break, they break. Any moment they can go psycho on you and never level out again. What crew, Perky Nips?”
“Even if I okayed a pet name, Perky Nips would never make the cut. And I’m not from a crew.” She stared at his profile to watch his reaction. “I’m from a coven.”
Dustin downshifted and slammed on the brakes. They skidded until they came to a stop sideways right in the middle of the road. “A coven? Your people are vampires?” He was yelling.
Emma giggled and relaxed the seat back a few clicks, then put her feet on the dashboard.
“No,” he said, shoving her ankles until her tennis shoes hit the floorboard.
“I feel like we’re at a place where I can be comfortable in your car, Babe.” Emma grinned and put her feet back up there.
Dustin narrowed his eyes to dangerous little slits. “Just so you know, I researched that little gesture you did earlier, and you said you hated me. I’m really hurt.”
“Dustin, don’t pretend anything I do hurts you.”
“I am.” He eased his foot onto the gas and straightened them out again. “I’ve done everything in my power to—”
“Annoy the shit out of me and everyone else around you?”
“Well, yeah, but I also shared my Chinese food with you once.”
“And I saved your life, so I’m pretty sure we’re even. Four Devils Coven, born and raised.”
“But you’re human.”
“And so are my adopted brother and sister. My parents had trouble having babies. My biological parents didn’t want me. It was meant to be.”
“Why didn’t they want you?”
“I was born in Russia. My parents were poor, and they really wanted a healthy child, but I was born with messed up inner ears.”
“You were deaf from birth?”
This was getting too personal so she brought it back around. “Beast.”
“Oh, yeah, he killed his entire pride.”
“What?” she yelped.
“Yeah, he was the king of the lions. A legend. Nobody fucked with him, and he kept a pride for the longest any male in the history of lions was able to. Usually prides switch out alphas every few years just because the males fight all the fucking time, but Beast held a big pride for ten years. Took control of it when he turned eighteen and kept it until a couple years ago.”
“Eighteen?” Emma’s mind was now completely blown. “Why did he kill his people?”
“Nobody knows. There’s a billion rumors, but none of them make any sense to me. Not with what I’ve seen of him.”
“What do you mean?”
“He protects women still. He went after Logan immediately when he’d clawed up Winter’s arm. The instinct to protect is still there. And he was fucking king, Perky Nips. Why would a king murder his entire kingdom and banish himself to a life of nothing?”
“I don’t know,” she murmured, baffled. “Why are you driving so slow?” The speed limit was fifty, and he was going twenty-five.
“Because you’re human. You’re basically a water balloon. One fender bender, and you’re donezo.”
“Okay, that’s not true at all. At least go the speed limit.”
“Do you have a death wish? You saved me, now I’m saving you. You’re welcome, Shortcake.”
“No.”
“Shit, I really thought that one would stick.” Dustin turned into the parking lot of a local grocery store and announced, “We’re here,” as he pulled up beside a red minivan.
A pretty brunette was leaned up against the van looking pissed, her eyes tracking Dustin as he got out. Inside the woman’s car, a giant dog barked and scratched at the window.
Dustin tried to hug the woman, but she ducked away and ground out, “You didn’t tell me he wasn’t potty-trained.”
“Oh, yeah. Well…he was an outside dog when I stole him from Kane, so…”
“You stole him from the dragon?” the woman screeched.
“Sarah, this is Emma, my new girlfriend. Emma, this is Sarah, my old girlfriend.”
Emma explained, “I’m not his girlfriend.”
Sarah nodded in understanding. “I gave him a pity blowjob one time.”
“That was a pity blowjob?” Dustin asked in an offended tone. “That was terrible if you were doing it out of pity. I barely came, and you bit my di—”
“Do you want the dog or not?” Sarah asked testily, jamming her finger at the mutt barking behind the window.
“Yeah, give him to me.”
“A hundred more bucks for traveling here to meet you.”
“I already gave you two grand to take care of him.”
Sarah shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Fine,” Dustin muttered, digging through his wallet. He slapped a hundred-dollar bill onto Sarah’s outstretched hand.
With a dead-eyed look, Sarah pointed her key fob at the car and hit a button. The side door slowly opened automatically. When it was able, a mangy-looking, long-legged mutt scrambled out. He charged Dustin, his tail whipping back and forth with such excited fury, it blurred. He had an under-bite, patches of fur missing, and he smelled like a wet hamster, but Dustin knelt down and greeted him like he was his best friend. “Gray Dog, Gray Dog!” he said in one of those barking voices frat brothers used during drinking games.
“Okay,” Emma said, trying to wrap her head around what was happening. “So you said he was a puppy, but this dog is super old and borderline hideous.”
Dustin glared at Emma and covered Gray Dog’s ears. “Rude.”
“And did you seriously steal him from Dark Kane? The Dark Kane. The End of Days, the Apocalypse, the biggest and most terrifying shifter on the face of planet Earth, you stole his dog?”
“Well I was supposed to kill him. Stealing felt like a better option at the time,” Dustin answered. “Come on, Gray Dog.”
“Aw man, he pissed in the back seat!” Sarah yelled, leaning into her minivan.
“Good, now he is nice and empty for the ride back home,” Dustin said as he lifted Gray Dog into the back seat of his car. “See you later, Sarah.”
“No you won’t because the dragon is going to eat youuu,” she sang over her shoulder.
Sarah made a good point.
“What the hell are you doing?” Emma whisper-screamed as she sank into the passenger’s side. “Dustin, you are going to get yourself killed.”
“False, I’m going to get myself inducted into the crew.”
“Why is this so important to you?”
“Shut your door. Let’s go.” Dustin’s voice had gone deadly serious in a flash.
Emma refused, but Dustin reached over her lap and yanked on the door handle. She blasted her foot against it and locked her leg. “Tell me, Dustin. Why do you want to be in the Blackwing Crew? Real answer.”
“Because it’s not a pack!” His eyes flashed blue and green, and then he huffed an angry breath and stared out the front window. “And because I have to.”
She got it now. It all made sense, even though Dustin wasn’t explaining it well. He was on the run from his pack. His brother must’ve been a part of that pack and attacked him last night. Dustin was searching for sanctuary in shifters, like she was searching for sanctuary in sunlight.
“Do you really think Gray Dog will get you in?” she asked, shutting the door gently.
Dustin shrugged, his longer hair twitching with the motion. “Don’t know, but I’m pretty fuckin’ desperate to find out.”
This was a side of Dustin she’d never seen before. He wasn’t joking or smiling. He looked worri
ed, sitting there with a faraway look in his eyes, biting the edge of his thumbnail, leg shaking in quick succession.
When Emma rested her hand on his tense thigh, he flinched under her touch. Looking down with a shocked expression, Dustin did something that stunned her to stillness. He pressed his hand on top of hers, then grasped it. His eyes sparked with intensity as he lifted her knuckles to his lips. He let a soft peck linger there, then rested both their intertwined hands on his leg again and leaned his head back against the seat rest. “Why do you think they let Winter and Logan in the crew?” he asked quietly.
Emma was having a really hard time formulating an answer because Dustin’s casual hand-hold was warm and strong. So steady. It felt good to touch warm skin, not the cold vampire skin she’d grown up embracing. “Because they saved Kane and Rowan from the A-Team. And because Winter’s last alpha vouched for her.”
“And Logan?”
“I think he made it in because they wouldn’t have gotten Winter without him.”
“The dragons will be trying to breed soon,” Dustin said low.
“Maybe. It will be a huge risk to see if Rowan can carry a pure dragon child, though. Adoption or surrogacy would be safer.”
“Either way, they’ll need a crew they can trust, not a collection of rogues. They’ll want a crew with interest in raising cubs and little dragons. With instincts geared toward protecting the young.”
“You think they’ll only allow couples in?”
Dustin swallowed hard and looked a little green around the edges, but she didn’t understand why. “Forget I said anything,” he muttered, settling her hand into her own lap.
Her palm tingled and chilled in the absence of his touch. Behind her, Gray Dog whined and stared at Dustin’s profile. For the first time in her life, she wished she was a shifter so she could feel what Gray Dog was feeling. So she could sense whatever reaction Dustin was having. With her human senses, she felt nothing, and now Dustin’s face was plastered in that smile he fooled so many with. Not her, though. Not anymore.
“If this doesn’t work,” she said, “I think you need a plan B.” Because she sure as shit didn’t want to watch him get burned to ashes and devoured by the dark dragon.
Dustin didn’t say anything, only shifted gears and pulled out of the parking lot, aiming the nose of his car toward Kane’s Mountains.
Minutes drifted by before he spoke again. “You want to pretend to be mine?”
“What?” That wasn’t the direction her mind was going. “I was thinking an escape plan.”
“But you think it, too. You think we’ll have a better shot at being Blackwings if we work together.”
“Work together? Dustin, being in a relationship with someone isn’t a job.”
“It could be. We could both get what we want—invites into Kane’s Crew. And once we’re in, we could just…I don’t know…stage a big fight and break up or something. No harm, no foul.”
“No harm, no foul,” she repeated, disgusted. “I’m not going into this trying to trick the dragons. I want to earn my place, not swindle my way into their crew.”
Emma crossed her arms, leaned back against the seat, and stared out the window as the October woods blurred by. Pretend to be his? He’d lost his damned mind. She and Dustin were as different as two people could be. Pretending to be in a relationship with him felt like a very, very bad idea. And thankfully, Dustin didn’t push her on it. Wise Wolf kept his trap shut and didn’t suggest any more ridiculous scam-artist ideas.
Fucking typical werewolf. She was angry. Angry they’d had some sort of breakthrough today, angry she’d begun to feel differently about him, and then he’d pulled this. While he’d slept, she’d cared for his bleeding neck and slept near him, listening to his breathing until her heart knew the cadence. And then she’d been simultaneously irritated that he’d undressed her, but flattered that he’d researched how to take care of her. He’d teased her with first-date jokes, kissed her hand, but then he let it slip that he was exactly the kind of man she’d assumed he was in the first place—a scammy werewolf.
Her disappointment was as deep as a well.
“Your neck still looks like shit,” she grumbled uncharitably.
“Yeah, well, it’ll heal up good-as-new eventually.”
“You speak as if you’ve had your throat nearly ripped out before.”
Dustin snorted. “You wouldn’t survive a single day in a pack. Hell, you probably won’t survive in a crew. Do you feed your vamp family?”
“No. I’m their kid, not their feeder, and that was a dick thing to ask.”
“I don’t understand you.”
“As a human or as a woman?”
“Both. You get mad at everything. It’s like you’re looking for reasons to be pissed. Life is going to be long and dark if you don’t switch that shit off.”
“Sorry, Dustin, not all of us replace feelings with jokes.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’ve obviously been through something hard, Dustin. I didn’t get you before, but it makes more sense now. You’re funny. You make me laugh. You’re witty all the time and have a smart remark for everything.”
“You’re talking like that’s a bad thing.”
“It is if you’re just trying to cover up all your shit, Dustin.”
He snarled loud enough for her hearing aid to pick it up. “So you have me pegged, huh?”
“Yeah, I think I do. You’re fireworks, Dustin.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“You’re dark on the inside, but you’re popping off pretty sparkly distractions so people don’t see who you really are. You cover up all your shadows with jokes. You make people laugh so they don’t have a chance to be disappointed with what you are really saying, with what you are really feeling, with what you really are.”
Dustin gritted his teeth so hard his muscles jumped in his chiseled jaw. He shifted gears again, hit the gas, and finally he was going the fucking speed limit and beyond. “You have a whole lot of judgement for someone who has issues of their own. You have me pegged? I fucking observe the people around me, too! Princess of the vampires, coveted, sheltered in the center of a coven so no one hurts you or hurts your feelings so you can feel superior. I fucking remember your answer when Kane asked why you wanted to join the crew. Boredom, Emma? Really? Must be nice to have so much free will, but life doesn’t work like that for everyone, and it sure as fuck doesn’t work like that for me. Never has.”
“I’m not judging you, Dustin! I’m telling you, you don’t have to be a firework with me. I’m okay with the shadows! I was raised in darkness. The real you scares me less than some plastered, empty smile and hollow eyes. And you’re wrong about me.”
Dustin shot her an intense glare, then eyes back to the road. To her, then back. “I’m wrong about which parts?”
“All of them. Was I wrong about you?”
Dustin gripped the steering wheel so hard it creaked under his grasp. “Forget what I asked you earlier. I couldn’t pretend to care about you if I tried.”
“And there it is,” she gritted out, shaking her head against the urge to cry.
“There what is?”
“Your ugliest firework. The dark one with all the smoke. The one meant to burn eyes and make people look anywhere but at you. The one where you say something mean and make them flinch away. Success, asshole.”
He sped down the gravel hill of Kane’s land, going way too fast, but handling his car like it was made to race on loose dirt. He blasted across the bridge, but she didn’t want to be in here anymore. Not with him. Not when he’d purposefully hurt her.
“Let me out.”
Dustin slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop near a thin dirt road that led to a clearing for the trailers. He exhaled explosively and said, “Emma—”
“Nope.” She shoved open the door and got out, then made her way down the dirt lane, dashing her fingers under her eyes just
to make sure none of those stupid tears had betrayed her and leaked onto her cheeks.
Before she even registered that he’d left his car, Dustin was there, a solid wall of muscle, his arms around her, a snarl rattling against her cheek, his chest heaving under her. He was hugging her too tightly, so she was stuck with her arms pinned between them.
“You were right about everything, Emma. All of it. I shouldn’t have said that. You’re really nice and pretty, and it wouldn’t be hard pretending to like you as more than a friend. I just… I just say dumb shit sometimes.”
“All the time,” she corrected him.
He huffed a laugh and loosened his grip on her. “Yeah, all the time. I think maybe you should stay away from me, Emma.”
“More fireworks?”
“No. This one is a warning because you’re a friend. Maybe you’re the realest friend I’ve had, I don’t know. No one’s called me out before. No one’s seen through me. The best thing you can do for yourself is steer clear.”
Emma frowned and eased back to gauge the seriousness in his eyes. That answer? Dead serious.
He was so close, so warm. He smelled of cologne and laundry detergent. This was the first time she’d been all pressed against a big, strong man like this. Slowly, she slid her arms around his waist. He cocked his head in such a confused-dog fashion, she laughed.
“I don’t think friends hug like this,” he said, looking thoroughly troubled.
“Okay, let’s stop then.”
“No!” Dustin cleared his throat and said it again at a lower volume. “No, I think this is fine for just a minute longer. One minute, and then we let go because that would be crossing some friend line that would be totally gross.”
“Oh, completely gross. And besides, you’re not my type, Wolf. I like dark-headed immortals with cold skin and fangs. Not tall, strapping muscle men with tattoos of angel wings on their chest. What are those for anyway?”
“Does everything need a meaning? I got those to attract—”
“Don’t you say bitches.”
“—chicks.” He grinned cheekily. “Clearly it worked because I can basically feel your lady boner against me right now.”