by R. E. Butler
She walked into the kitchen, uncertainty gnawing at her. As she prepared Jack’s dinner, she thought about all that Malachi had done for her since she’d met him. He’d done more for her in a few weeks than Damien had in all the years she’d known him. Damien had been kind on the surface, but he’d never gone out of his way to help her. Never shoveled her drive or brought her groceries, and even though Jack was Damien’s son, he never looked at him with any kind of affection. The sort of affection that Malachi gave freely to Jack — that he seemed willing to give to her if she’d let him.
Swallowing the sudden lump in her throat, she pulled a package of pork chops from the refrigerator and put a pan on the stove to heat. She hadn’t bothered getting to know anything about Malachi. Considering how much attention he paid to her, how much he’d learned just by watching, she was starting to feel like a colossal bitch.
“Your mom’s an idiot,” she told Jack as he picked up SpaghettiOs with his fist and shoved them into his mouth.
“Carrot?” he asked, grinning widely with sauce-covered cheeks.
“Carrot.”
* * * * *
Malachi’s stomach growled when the scent of cooking pork wafted into the family room. Nila would think a predator had gotten into the house if he didn’t stop that grumbling sound. He forced himself to concentrate on finishing the installation of the new security system, which he’d completely revamped. She’d had a bare-bones system before, but it wasn’t enough protection. Along with closing out her account with the old security company, he’d added her to his 24/7 monitoring service, which would alert the police and his staff of a break-in.
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket. “Hey, Lucian.”
“Hey. I just got an update from our staff that you’re doing an installation in Wilde Creek. Anything I should know?”
“Checking up on me?” Mal joked.
“You know it. Protecting my investment.”
Malachi had told Lucian about Nila when he first met her. Lucian was Malachi’s best friend, aside from being business partners. Malachi wanted Lucian to know what was going on in case something happened to him, so that Nila would always be safe. He knew that if he was incapacitated, Lucian would come and protect Nila in a heartbeat, regardless of his other obligations.
Lucian sobered. “Is this just a general security system, or did something else happen?”
“No, nothing’s happened, but I’ll feel better knowing she’s more protected.”
“Window alarms?”
“Yep.”
“Motion detectors outside?”
“I haven’t installed them yet.”
Lucian hummed. “Sounds like you’ve got it settled. When’s the wedding?”
Malachi chuckled. “I’ll let you know.”
“You do that.”
“Are you coming back to Wilde Creek anytime soon? I’m tired of paying you a salary when I’m doing all the work.” Lucian went quiet and Malachi straightened. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, of course. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but if you need me, you call and I’ll be there in a two shakes. Got it?”
Malachi said goodbye and hung up, sliding the phone into his pocket.
“Was that your business partner?” Nila asked.
Malachi turned to find her leaning against the doorjamb. He nodded.
“What else does he do besides run the security company with you?”
He hesitated, and saw her eyes narrow and a frown mar her pretty face. “He’s a hunter.”
“Like deer or duck?” Her head tilted as her brows rose.
“Not remotely. He hunts rogue shifters for the government. It’s part of the military, a small group of highly trained soldiers that go after shifters who have harmed humans or become unstable.”
“I didn’t know there were people like that.”
“No one knows what Lucian does aside from me. His family thinks he’s just a soldier; they don’t know that he goes after dangerous shifters to help protect the population. He travels a lot, and he’s very good at his job.”
Her brows creased. “No one knows? But you told me.”
He exhaled slowly. “I trust you not to tell anyone what Lucian does. It’s important to him that his family is safe, and the safest thing for them is to be in the dark about the specifics of his job.” He watched her brows draw closer together and this time he didn’t stop himself from crossing over to her and looking down into her beautiful face. “You’re safe, Nila. I wouldn’t have told you if I thought it would place you in danger. He deals with bad guys, and sometimes bad guys go looking for people to hurt in vengeance, which is why he does all that cloak and dagger stuff. But it’s got nothing to do with you.”
She peered up at him, her chocolate gaze roaming his face. “Are you safe? You’re his business partner.”
“He keeps that part of his life separate from our business, so yes, I’m safe.” He wanted to grin like an idiot because she cared if he was safe or not.
She inhaled slowly, her eyes darkening, and the soft, sweet scent of her arousal spiked in the air between them. He almost bit off his tongue, but he managed to put some distance between them. “I’m going to head outside to install some motion lights around the outside of the house.”
“I made dinner. When you’re done.”
His head shot up. “You didn’t have to.”
“I know. I think that’s why I did it.”
He smiled at her and she returned it, turning into the kitchen and leaving him alone. Gathering his things, he headed out into the cold to hook up the motion lights. He couldn’t help but smile. She’d made him dinner. He’d dance a jig if he knew how.
Dinner with his mate. Was there anything better outside of naked bodies between sheets? Hell no.
Chapter 6
It took Malachi about two hours to get the outside lights installed. Every now and then she’d hear a ladder moving around, some drilling, and the occasional muffled curse. She put both of their dinners in the oven to keep warm and got Jack ready for bed. By the time Malachi came inside, Jack was snoozing in the bedroom with the door shut, and she was positively starving.
“Come eat, Mal.”
He took off his coat and toed off his boots. “You called me Mal.”
“Sorry. Brynn does. Is that a nickname just for her?” She felt a little stab of jealousy.
“No, not at all. My sister does, too. I like you calling me that.”
He followed her into the kitchen, and her heart started thumping. She’d never really cared if anyone liked her cooking before. Jack was easy and her biggest fan, but serving Malachi dinner suddenly seemed stupid. If he hated her cooking, he might not want to come over anymore.
She gave herself an internal shake. She still wasn’t one hundred percent sure what she wanted to do with Malachi anyway. He might be gorgeous, but he was still a wolf, and she’d never had good luck with wolves. She was feeling like a bad hostess and wanted to feed him, that was all this was. She didn’t need to read anything into it, because there wasn’t anything there. Right?
She pulled the plates out of the oven and turned around, finding him setting the table with silverware and folded napkins. She clenched her teeth to stop from gushing over how awesome he was. Setting the plates on the table, she pulled a jug of sweet tea from the refrigerator and filled up two glasses. She sat down and said, “I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat, but I figured meat was a good start.”
He looked down at their matching plates — pan-seared pork chops, macaroni and cheese, and steamed green beans. His blue gaze met hers, and he flashed her a brilliant smile, making that dimple show in his cheek again. “It’s perfect. I do love meat, but heck, I’d eat anything you made.”
She felt herself blush and turned her attention to the food. While they ate, Malachi told her about his family, and how he’d just recently come back to Wilde Creek to live and rejoined the pack as one of the protectors.
“You�
�ve mentioned that before. What is a protector?”
He swallowed his bite of food and took a drink of iced tea. “There are two main groups within our pack — the protectors and the omegas. Protectors are those who’ve proven themselves to be good guards. Our job is to keep pack members safe. I’m Brynn’s personal protector, but other protectors guard the alpha house, drive Acksel around, and patrol in the town and the pack’s territory.”
“Why did you want to be her protector?”
“She’s my sister’s best friend, and Acksel and I have known each other our whole lives. As my alpha female, her safety is important to me. But it’s not the most important thing in my world.” His voice deepened and he gazed at her intently.
Her mouth went dry. “What?”
His lips pursed for a long moment and then he said, “You’re important to me, Nila. I don’t want you to hate me just because of my DNA.”
Her chest tightened and her breath froze in her chest. “We’re just having dinner.”
His face shadowed darkly and she saw the hurt in his eyes before he schooled his features and looked down at the plate, stabbing his fork into a chunk of pork chop. He didn’t say anything else, and her appetite swiftly disappeared. She’d insulted him. Again. He finished eating faster than she thought possible, and then he stood, left the kitchen, and returned with a strange metal bar with rubber on both ends.
“I want to show you the new security stuff, and then I need to go.” His voice was calm and clipped, and it made her chest hurt.
He shoved the metal bar under the back doorknob, so the rubber-pronged end surrounded the doorknob handle and the angled rubber bottom pressed into the floor. “This is a security bar. It can withstand 350 pounds of pressure. It won’t necessarily stop someone who’s really determined to get in, but it will slow them down. I have one for the front door, too. When I’m gone, you should install it.”
He showed her the small white boxes on the inside of each window, explaining that they were alarms. If someone broke one of the windows, the alarm would sound. He gave her the new security code, explained how to arm and disarm the system, and then he said, “I canceled your other security program. This is my company’s system. If someone tries to get into your house, or you press the emergency button, my 24/7 monitoring service will alert the police and send help.”
She felt him pulling away from her emotionally, and it left her feeling colder than the snow on the porch. “Malachi, I —”
He turned to look at her as he adjusted the collar of his coat. He waited for her to say something, but she didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.” She hugged her arms around herself. In a heartbeat, Malachi’s strong arms were around her. She stiffened involuntarily, but his gentle hold didn’t change. He didn’t try to force her to do anything, he just held her. It was the most comforted she’d ever felt.
“I’m not him, Nila, and I never will be. However long it takes for you to see that, just know that I’m not going anywhere.”
Her defenses crumbled and she tunneled her hands under his coat and hugged herself close to him. Tears fell as she buried her face in his chest, gripping him like her life depended on it. She cried long enough that her throat grew raw and her eyes burned. He did nothing but rub her back and hold her close, letting her cry on him.
“I-I made you angry before. I’m s-sorry.”
“What?” He cupped her cheek and lifted her face until she was looking at him. “Mad? When did you make me mad?”
“At the table, and when I didn’t let you in right away.”
He brushed the tears from her cheek with his thumb. “I wasn’t mad at all, sweetheart. My wolf was being pretty vocal earlier, and I didn’t want to show you that side of me.”
Her hands tightened on his back, the material of his shirt gripped tightly in her fists. “I know what you are, Mal. I don’t want to hold my past against you, but I don’t know how to stop myself.”
“We’ve got time. I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me to.”
“Okay,” she sighed the word and pressed her cheek against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. He held her for a long time, just the two of them in the family room, and then he gave her a final hug and said goodbye, making her promise to use the security bar when he left.
As she closed and locked the door, setting the alarm and using the security bar, she realized she was shocked at his behavior. He hadn’t tried anything with her. She was upset and vulnerable, and he left. She wasn’t really sure what to make of it.
Picking up the phone, she called Diane.
“Hello honey,” Diane said, answering in her always-cheerful manner.
“Hi. Are you busy?”
“Never for you. What’s up?”
Nila proceeded to tell Diane about the situation with Malachi. Diane was silent for a long moment. Nila collapsed onto the couch, tired from the emotional upheaval of the evening and all the pacing she’d done while she talked.
“Let me ask you this: is this Malachi fellow kind?”
“Yeah. But so was Damien.”
“Oh, bullshit.”
“Diane! You never curse.”
“And you never used to look at your past with such rose-colored glasses. Damien was not a nice male, your aunt and I never thought so. He didn’t treat you like a queen; he treated you like you were his property, and he never once treated you like a wolf’s mate.”
“What?”
“He never marked you or brought you into his pack. You spent full moons waiting for him to come back. Don’t you remember crying to us about how you could smell the other women on him but he always said it was nothing? Come on, honey. I’m not saying he never cared for you, I’m just saying that he never treated you like he did. From what you’ve told me, Malachi is entirely different. Would Damien have slept on the couch for you? Gotten Jack before his crying woke you? Shoveled the damn walk, cleaned the snow off your car, or installed a security system? Get real, get a clue, and grab hold of that male before some other woman smarter than you digs her claws into him.”
She didn’t like the thought of that at all. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m scared he’s going to betray me. I feel like I can’t trust my own instincts because I was so wrong about Damien.”
“I can’t tell you what to do, honey, but I can tell that you already care about Malachi, and he clearly has feelings for you. He wants you safe even if it means he’s not the one keeping you safe, and he spent how long at your house tonight and didn’t even try to kiss you? Snatch him up, Nila, fast.”
Nila chuckled. “Thank you, Diane. I love you.”
“I love you too. Now get some sleep, and when you get up in the morning, grab that wolf of yours by the collar, give him the kissing of a lifetime, and tell him you’re ready to be his mate.”
“He didn’t ask me to be his mate,” she pointed out.
“Trust me. My first husband was a wolf, and when a wolf finds his real mate, he can’t help but want to be with her.”
Another point in favor of Malachi and against Damien, who only seemed to show up around the full moon to cause her trouble. Nila ended the call and lay back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. Diane was right. Malachi wasn’t acting anything like Damien, even back in the beginning when she’d thought Damien was treating her well.
Lifting her phone, she called Brynn. “Hi. Do you have a minute to talk?”
There was the muffled sound of Brynn telling Acksel to leave her boob alone, and then she said, “I’ve got plenty of time to chat. What’s up?”
“It’s about Malachi,” she said, wiggling against the cushions until she was comfortable, as she began to talk to her friend, who happened to be Malachi’s boss.
* * * * *
Malachi thought Brynn was acting weird as he drove her to work the next morning. She was grinning from ear to ear, but refused to say why. In fact, she hadn’t said a word the whole drive.
“What is up with yo
u? Did you secretly kill Acksel in his sleep for snoring? I know you said you were going to do that once.”
“No.” She drawled the word out and then giggled.
“Brynn,” he sighed, “spit it out or stop giggling, you’re making me batty.”
“I can’t, Mal. But I had a great phone call last night and…it’s going to be a good day, I promise. In fact, I think I’ll stay in for lunch and you should find something to do with yourself. Get some fresh air.”
She giggled again and then coughed, trying to hide it.
He groaned. Mia and Brynn had spent the better part of their younger years driving him nuts, and Brynn apparently hadn’t grown out of it. Then again, neither had Mia.
He escorted Brynn into the office and then went to the room that housed the security system to review the overnight recordings. He paused when he entered the room and Nila was standing next to the chair.
He blinked in surprise.
“Good morning,” she said softly.
He noticed that her hair was down today. Usually she had it up and out of the way while she worked. He liked seeing her hair down.
“Hi, Nila.”
She cleared her throat and her cheeks pinked. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to lunch with me today?”
Clarity washed through him. Brynn knew about this. It’s why she was acting like such a loon.
“I’d love to.”
“Really?” She looked genuinely surprised.
“Of course. Do you want me to make a reservation at Luna’s?”
“Brynn already did.” She paused and said, “You’re not mad, are you? That I talked to Brynn about this?”
He smiled and closed the distance between them. He wanted to hug her, but he settled for just standing close to her. “Not at all.”
“She said that you aren’t going to be coming here anymore, and I thought this might be my last chance.”