by Ellie Pond
11
No Hat Required
Aurora left the pool deck in a daze. Her hair wet and tangled, she ran her fingers through it. She rushed to her room and took the wrong hallway, twice, before she found it. The TV glowed, and the channel turned to a rebroadcast of the ship’s onboard musical, played with the sound off. Today’s activities scrolled along the bottom of the screen. Her suitcase sat at the end of her refreshed bed, the pile of clothes from her broken bag neatly stacked in the dresser.
She unpacked the entire bag into the closet and the chest of drawers where the television sat. With her hair dripping down her back, she continued to unpack, still wrapped in an extra-large towel. But the excursions and activities kept distracting her. She turned the sound on to listen to the musical’s finale and sat on the bed, her cocktail dress on her lap, watching the scrolling activities. Sure, she was competing in the tournament, but there would be time to do other things. The tournament didn’t have active sessions when the ship docked in ports and only a short one after dinner. She hung the dress up and glanced over her shoulder, waiting for the activities that would take place tonight after dinner. The news crawler stopped, and an ad for the ship’s frequent cruiser program came on. She got most of the suitcase put away before the ads finished. The ship’s musical ended, and the curtain dropped as she zipped her suitcase up. The show and the news crawler of the day’s activities changed to a video. Aurora didn’t watch much sports, but she recognized the famous shifter athlete Oliver Sutton. There had been a big scandal a few years ago when he shifted on the field. He claimed it was self-defense, but he didn’t come back after his probation was up. Sutton held a microphone and stood with Rebecca Vane, the cruise director, in front of a screen that flashed ‘tonight’s matches’. Aurora found the remote and turned the sound on.
“Some great matches tonight.”
Rebecca nodded at Oliver. The television screen split, and it reminded Aurora of her high school television station. On the other side of the screen flashed photos of two cruise guests—fighters and their match time.
Aurora sat back on the bed, holding her towel up, wondering if she would want to go to that. She supposed the guys would, but that didn’t mean that she had to. Sutton and the cruise director explained that the matches started off with the smaller animals. Foxes, lynxes, then two young bear shifters for the fourth match. Rebecca and Oliver bantered a few moments about each of the competitors. As she was reaching to turn the TV off, Duncan’s picture popped up on the screen.
“What?”
Aurora stood, torn between running into the next room and wanting to find out what Sutton would say about Duncan.
“Hey,” she yelled, but she couldn’t move away from the screen.
“Yes, the fifth match tonight is two omega wolves, both of whom are fierce competitors. Duncan Larsen from Pennsylvania,” Sutton said, reading his card.
“Oh, from your home state.”
“I doubt he’s a Baltimore Runners’ fan. Fans from Pittsburgh tend to have a thing against Baltimore teams. And Philadelphia teams and Ohio teams.” He laughed.
“So, I guess you’ll be pulling for Kyle Marsh, then, from New Brunswick, Canada?”
“We’ll see. I just want a clean match. It will be a good one, that’s for sure.”
“Next, we have …”
Aurora didn’t hear any more. She had her hand on the door to the next room before she understood what she was doing. She opened the door with a jerk and had to catch her towel with her other hand. “Did you know about this?”
Duncan stood in between the two queen beds. He faced the wall, naked. His clothes for dinner were in a pile on the bed. Even his hat lay on the bed. His butt cheeks had two little dimples, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. Had she ever seen him without his hat? He even wore it swimming.
“You’re not wearing a hat.”
Duncan turned around without covering himself. “Rory, I’m naked and you're worried about my hat.” He laughed. “Did I know about what?” He ran his fingers through his hair.
His eyes were on her now, all over her. Unlike their little chat at the pool bar, he stared into her. His stare was so intense that her skin felt like it was on fire. She was doing her best to not glance at him below the waist. And he chuckled again. He took a few steps towards her. Her mouth opened, and she honestly didn’t remember why she had come into the room.
Duncan took a few steps closer. “Rory, what did you need?” The way he said “need” made her blush.
Right, she was mad. “Why in the heck did you sign up for a cage match?” She took a step closer to him and poked him in the chest. But that single index finger on him felt like she was being covered in oil. Like he spread over her. She meant to pull her hand away, but it didn’t leave his chest, and when he took a step closer to her, her hand flattened on his chest. His left hand came up and under her towel, pulling at her until she lifted her leg up and around his. His pine scent erased any thought she had on her own. His whiskers scratched her cheek as he whispered into her ear. “I’ve been having to find a way to deal with my frustrations my whole life, Rory. Unless you want to help me with that.”
She could feel his hardened cock near her entrance, and if she rolled her hips, it would be so good.
What was she doing? This was Spencer’s brother. She pushed hard with her hand, and he moved away, quietly laughing, but something in Aurora knew the laugh wasn’t genuine.
“Excuse me. I am going to shower, again. Suggest you do the same, Princess.” His eyes glowed more like his wolf's right now.
Aurora grasped to keep her towel up. What the heck had happened? She had practically thrown herself at Duncan. She wrapped her leg around his. But more so, she hated that he had called her “Princess.” That was something that the other guys did. She and Spencer had gone as Luke and Leia for Halloween one year. And ever since then, she was “Princess” to the whole family. But Duncan—he had always called her Rory, like her grandmother did. She watched him walk to the bathroom.
“Shower, Princess. I don’t need my alpha pounding on me before my match.”
She pulled the door closed behind her and jumped in the shower again. But she wasn’t washing her hair.
By the time she toweled off again, the TV blared that someone was in her room. This time she had brought her dress for dinner into the bathroom. She put it on and glanced at herself in the mirror. Not bad. The long-sleeved, embroidered, sheer overlay hung over a simple black tank dress all the way to her feet. It was sexy yet conservative as she wasn’t showing any skin, really. A quick messy bun with her mostly dry hair and a little mascara and lipstick was all she had time for. She took a breath and opened the door, expecting to find Duncan there. But she was surprised to see Spencer sitting in her desk chair wearing a suit, and he was holding something in his lap. Something white. Her cover-up.
He looked her over, his face void of emotion. It made her remember the guilt when she had broken her grandfather’s electric drill.
“You look amazing.” He stood up and went over to her.
“You do, too.” And he did. The dark suit brought out the blue of his eyes and accented the hazel in his left eye. She compared the brothers. That wasn’t something she had ever done before. She held out her hand. “Thanks for getting my cover-up.”
“You might want to use it more.”
He wanted her more covered? His behavior was morphing into that of a mated shifter. Her jaw clenched. He smelled her cover-up before giving it back to her. Not that it was unusual for a shifter to do. But this time she worried if what Tad had told her was true. She took it and put it on the dresser. She tried to turn around but couldn’t. Spencer’s heat radiated behind her. He stepped closer so that his front pushed against her back.
“We need to talk, but I need to say this first,” he said, his breath on her neck.
“Okay. And this is how you want to talk?” she said as lightly as she could and glanced at him over her shoulder.
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“Yes. Aurora, this pact has always been something I have believed in. And it’s fast approaching. If you can’t do it, that’s fine, but you need to say so now, because my wolf won’t understand for much longer. You’re my best friend, and if you want to date someone else, marry someone else, I will be happy for you. But not my brother, not anyone in my pack. It’s all I can do right now to not throw open the door to the other room and rip Duncan’s neck out.” He gripped her hips and pressed his erection into her back. He pressed his closed lips to her neck. She had thought of this moment before, mostly when her friends encouraged her to like Spencer. All of her friends wanted to date him, and her ex-boyfriends had insinuated that it had already happened. But with those few images, she had always hoped her emotions would click over to something besides friendship, like in books. It hadn’t.
Spencer was the world to her, someone she could talk to for hours, joke with, depend on. This pact would be fine. Whatever was going on with Duncan would stop and stop now. She rotated in Spencer’s entrapping arms so she faced him nose to nose.
“We can talk if you want, but I am good with it.” Aurora held his gaze.
Spencer leaned into her and softly kissed her closed lips for only a second before he pulled back and let her have space. She felt nothing.
“You have your first round of the competition after dinner, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s talk after that, figure everything out. Are you ready to go?”
She breathed out, her heart racing. “I think so. I need my cruise wristband, that’s all.” She took the orange band from the nightstand.
Spencer grabbed her cover-up off of the dresser and threw it in the garbage bin on the floor. “I’ll buy you a new one.”
“I can wash it.” She went to pick it out of the trash, but the look on his face stopped her.
He offered his hand to her, and they left the room for dinner.
“You’re sure we start in the Forest dining room? Didn’t the guy at the check-in desk tell us we were upstairs tonight?” Spencer put her hand on the crook of his elbow.
“What guy? Daniel at the front desk? It was amazing he could say anything with the way you were growling at him.”
“He looked at you.”
“Yes, because we were standing at the front desk asking him a question.” Aurora stopped and grabbed Spencer’s other arm. “You can’t do this to me.” She motioned her hands around in the air.
“Do what?”
“You know exactly what I am talking about. Go all alpha.”
“It’s my job title: alpha.”
“Right, but your birthday isn’t until Friday. You never know what might happen.”
“I am thirty-two; it’s in the statistics you love so much. There hasn’t been one shifter fated mate pair to find each other after thirty-five and only three after thirty-two. We could skip dinner and go do it now.”
“Wow, that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. I’ll pass, thanks.” She pulled away towards the dining room entrance and then stopped and turned abruptly. “Why would you even say that to me?”
“Aurora, stop. It’s enough. We work, we’re friends. It will be good. We’ll have a good partnership.”
“What if I want more? What if I’m convinced you deserve more?” That scared her more than the pact itself.
His eyes flashed. “Is this about you assuming you’re not good enough? Because that’s shit, Aurora. Anyone would be lucky to have you. I’ve told you that before. I thought you were over that when you kicked that rat to the curb.”
She pulled him to the side of the large open hallway. “I am over that. It has nothing to do with Gary. I know I am the bomb. It’s that I’ve seen what fated mates are in your world and we aren’t it. You have to recognize that I know that. What if you are the fourth person to find their mate after thirty-two? If we mate, you’ll never know and you won’t be able to tell your fated mate from anyone.”
Spencer huffed a breath. “Okay. Okay. Are you saying you want to call the pact off or postpone?”
“Postpone. Is that okay?”
“Sure.” But Spencer didn’t look her in the eye.
“You mean it?” Aurora stood on her toes to hug him.
“But I don’t want to smell Duncan on you.” He pointed his finger at her.
She crossed her arms and resisted the urge to rip off his finger. “There’s nothing going on. Don’t worry about it. I need to use the bathroom. I’ll see you in there.”
Spencer nodded.
* * *
There was a large floral chair in the oversized bathroom. Everything on the ship seemed to be oversized. With shifters, bigger always meant better. Somehow she felt empty but happy. This was the right choice. And whatever was going on with Duncan, she would stop it. She loved Spencer, but not romantically, no matter how much everyone around her told her to. It was comfortable. And no, she hadn’t told him no to the pact. But she felt it in her bones that the perfect person was out there for Spencer. At the same time, she longed to belong to the pack, be with them. More than working for the company. Maybe that was what she wanted. She had talked to Mrs. Larsen about it once, about being turned to be part of the pack, but she let her know that it wasn’t an easy choice. That she should make sure there wasn’t something else she wanted in life—like a different career—or that she wasn’t a mate of someone else, maybe a bear. She could belong to the pack and stay human, as Lara was.
She sat down in the large floral chair and put her head back and closed her eyes. She wasn’t ready to face the guys.
* * *
The head of the dining room himself escorted her to her table—a distinguished man with a touch of gray in his hair.
“Hey, Princess, I saved you a seat across from me.” Gunnar patted the table next to him. Spencer sat at the end of the table with Tad across from Gunnar. Across from her empty chair was the biggest man she had ever seen, at least four inches taller than Duncan and six taller than Spencer. His arms were the size of her thighs. His ship uniform pulled taut across his back. He stood as she approached the table, and the rest of the guys stood up, too. At the end of the table was a woman her age with long natural blonde hair.
“Classy,” she laughed. “Hi, I am Michele. First Officer Laurit is joining us for dinner since my friend Lauren is obsessing about her game play after dinner and needed to nap. Lauren’s going to storm the castle and take the crown.” She waved across the large table at Aurora.
“Our Aurora’s not worried. You’ll take down the competition.” Gunnar fist bumped Aurora.
“In it to win it.” Aurora laughed, but she wasn’t convinced.
“Michele is from Pennsylvania, too. Erie. Isn’t that right?” Tad moved his chair closer to Michele’s. That was cute, him thinking he could outmaneuver Gunnar. Aurora watched. Maybe Michele wasn’t into him, either. No, she seemed to be directing most of her questions to Duncan. Not that he was answering with interest. Not that it mattered, because it didn’t.
“We ordered for you, but if you don’t like it, we can re-order. Sorry for starting without you.” Tad picked up the menu in front of his plate and passed it to Aurora.
“We’ll eat a second dinner with you?” Gunnar patted his flat stomach. “I thought you would want the lasagna with steak and bread, but Duncan ordered you salmon, potatoes and asparagus. So I just got an extra lasagna. You know, in case you want that, too.”
“Yes, I told Spencer that you should start without me. Sorry.” Aurora glanced at Spencer, grateful that he had made an excuse for her taking so long. “I think I’ll let you have the lasagna, Gunnar. I like to eat healthy before a competition. I know it’s not a real sport, but my roommate in college was a nutritional major and she … wait, did you say Lauren was from Erie? Lauren whose mother owns a diner?”
Michele was sipping her drink. “Yes!”
Aurora screamed. “No fruit cake way. Lauren Hill?”
“Yes—do you know her
?”
“Heck yeah. I am so excited. Oh wait. I am so going to lose. She knows all my tells. And she’s the smartest person on the planet.” Aurora’s face hurt. This was the best thing ever. She hadn’t seen Lauren for nine years since Lauren had to leave school to help take care of her mother’s restaurant.
“This is your amazing sophomore roommate who we all thought was a figment of your imagination? She’s real?” Gunnar laughed. Aurora wished she could be more like Gunnar: relaxed with whomever he was with.
“She’s real.” Michele patted Gunnar’s hand.
“Yeah, she had to leave every weekend to help her mom at their restaurant.”
“I have no idea what the hell Lauren and you are going to be doing. Lauren started to explain to me, but I’ve got to be honest: I love the girl, but sometimes I can’t understand a thing she is saying.”
“Sounds like the girl for you, pompous ass.” Gunnar smacked Tad’s shoulder.
Aurora smiled. “The tournament is seven rounds of games. They announced twelve different board games that might be played. Catan, Carcossone, and 7 wonders are a few. Everyone plays all seven rounds. The first three finishers of each game score points, then for the finals, the top contenders vote on what games will be played.”
“Lauren was going on about how many points for each place and what she needed to get for each game to make up for some game called Race for the Universe that she says she’s horrible at.”
“Race for the Galaxy.” Aurora nodded; she wasn’t great at that game either.
* * *
Duncan and Spencer said nothing during dinner, unless it was a single-syllable word. But the conversation flowed anyway. Michele was as lively and smart as she was naturally beautiful. And it wouldn’t be the first time that Gunnar and Tad had it out over a girl.
“Collette, tell me there’s Key lime pie tonight.” Laurit smiled at the server with the golden-strawberry hair and ocean blue eyes. Gunnar would order seconds to be able to talk to the stunning young woman.