“Yeah, Ben is keeping security tight with all of the rumors floating around.”
“There more than rumors if I’ve heard correctly.” Grace looked Jack dead in the eye daring him to lie.
“More than rumors,” he hedged. Jack looked at Anne. If she was passing along secret information then Ben would want to know. Tonight would not be the night to ask her though. Anne was so drunk Jack would be surprised if she remembered her own name.
“Damn,” Henry muttered. He turned to Patrick. “We should probably go to that enforcer training Ben is setting up.”
Holly spit out her beer. Anne and Cal yelled, pushing back from the table. When Holly stopped cackling, she wiped tears from her eyes. “I know you guys think you’re the shit, but you wouldn’t last two minutes in a training session with Derek. Let alone the Tates. They’d chew you up and spit you out.”
The brothers frowned. Patrick lifted his lip in disgust. Henry looked offended.
“We can hold our own just fine,” Patrick folded his arms. “Kinda cocky words for someone who can’t even try out to be an enforcer.”
Holly gave them a shit eating grin over her beer. “Didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?” Patrick and Henry barked at the same time.
“Ben opened up the position of enforcers to women.” Jack watched the brothers’ faces go from surprised to pissed. He pointed at Holly. “And she’s the reason why.”
“That’s bullshit,” Patrick slammed a fist onto the table causing the old wood to crack.
“What’s Ben thinking? We protect our women. Having female enforcers defeats the purpose, don’t you think?” The anger in Henry’s words began to burn the air around the table.
Jack’s wolf hated it. Having a less experienced wolf challenge the Alpha’s decision did not sit well with it. Jack could always take the younger men outside and remind them where they sat on the totem pole. It might improve his mood.
“Ben’s thinking about the wellbeing of the entire territory,” Cal’s voice rose to drown out his brother’s outrage. Cal must have seen the look in Jack’s eyes because he continued to try talking some sense into his brothers. “Besides, this is the 21st century. Women don’t have to be sequestered any more. They can defend themselves and their Packs.”
“Yeah, we could really benefit from Holly’s experience,” Jack tipped his head in Holly’s direction. It earned him a bright grin from Holly and a glower from Grace.
“So, you agree,” Grace turned to face Jack.
“Agree with what?”
She pointed at Cal. “What he said about women being able to defend themselves and whatever.”
Jack look around the table. Patrick, Henry, and Cal were suddenly very interested in something happening across the room. Grace was leaning across the table ready to spring her trap. “I agree with Ben that he should allow women to try out to be enforcers.”
“But that would mean you think women can protect and defend against other wolves.” Grace had an angry, determined look on her face waiting for Jack to stick his foot in his mouth.
Suddenly, Jack was exhausted again. “Don’t go putting words in my mouth, Grace. You are not Holly. Holly has training. She was an enforcer for her old Pack.”
“So if I get training, you’d get off my back about moving to town?”
“Stop grasping at straws,” Jack bit, his patience gone. “Defense training would take months if not years to master. And that’s if you’d stick with it.” Jack leaned across the table getting into Grace’s space. He felt his eyes shift. From emotion or nearness to Grace he didn’t know. “Let’s be honest. Something terrible will happen to you before you get the chance to learn how to protect yourself and the rest of us will be left to feel guilty because we didn’t stop your reckless behavior. All because of your wounded pride.” Jack inhaled the scent of Grace: anger, sunshine, paint, and settled back in his chair. “Don’t be stupid. Move.”
Thick tension crowded the table. Jack heard one of the Pack’s more timid wolves, Debbie, whine in distress. When Jack looked up he saw the bar staring at them in silence. Mark, Derek and Dave were all shaking their heads. A few of the women looked ready to feed Jack his balls. There was enough rage coming off of Grace that he was positive she was going to try and literally feed him his own balls.
“Is there a problem here?” A tall, leanly muscled man stood next to their table. He was wearing jeans with holes worn in them, a fleece button up and work boots. They were all clean but well used. Jack didn’t recognize him but the way his body was angled towards Grace had him jumping up.
Grace stood so fast that the table rocked making everyone dive for their drinks. She stepped between him and the stranger. “No problem, Dane. Jack was just reminding the town of his opinion about me. I’m ready to go when you are.”
Dane looked Jack over from head to toe. He took in Jack’s appearance before inhaling to scent his emotions. Dane met Jack’s gaze. The look wasn’t threatening, it was analytical. Jack could feel the man taking his measure. He wanted to slam his fist into the asshole’s face.
“I see why you didn’t hire him,” was all he said before turning to follow Grace outside.
“Hold on, who the hell are you?” Jack growled following the pair out.
“I’m the contractor Grace hired to fix up her cabin.” Dane didn’t bother turning around to face Jack he just kept walking towards the dirt parking lot.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
The man shrugged, “Grace asked for a ride home. Said she drank too much.”
“And why the hell are you still here to give her a ride home?”
Dane led Grace to a pickup. “I’m camping at the cabin for a few days.”
“No fucking way,” Jack strode forward to grab Grace but she ducked out of his reach.
“You don’t have a say, Jack Taylor. Ben gave the okay and Ethan gave the okay. Since both of them outrank you, you can deal with it. Now, go away. I’m tired.”
Jack stared open jawed as Grace stepped up into the truck’s cab. “You would rather have some unknown wolf sleeping outside your front door than me? Have you lost your mind?”
“No, I think I finally found it again.” With that, Grace slammed the door.
Dane paid no attention to Jack as he opened the driver’s door. “Are you sure he’s not an ex?”
Jack heard Grace’s reply just before the door closed. “Thank God, no.”
Chapter Six
“Tell me you at least kicked up some gravel on the way out,” Betsy whined hopefully. “The bastard deserved a face full of rock.”
“I probably would have reversed over him but Dane was driving. He’s a good guy. He even drove the speed limit on my dirt road.”
Betsy and Grace were in the kitchen of Betsy’s small apartment cooking. More accurately, Grace was cooking and Betsy was yelling directions. In between instructions, Grace told Betsy what had happened the night before.
“I’m not surprised about Jack. That man doesn’t talk enough. There’s something freaky going on in that head.” Betsy clicked her tongue. “I would not be surprised if he had cut up animals in that wood shop of his.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Of course there are cut up animals on Jack’s property. The man is a wolf. I’ve seen his freezer.” Grace cocked her head at the mass of lumpy dough she was elbow deep in. “Is it supposed to look like this?”
“Oh hell no, that thing is a mess,” Betsy didn’t bother looking up from her phone.
“Why didn’t you say anything? I’ve been kneading this for half an hour!” Grace threw the sticky mess into the trash.
“You came to my house at seven in the morning. Do you expect me to let you get away with that?” Betsy finally stood up and started to roll up her sleeves. “Besides, no one makes a decent loaf of bread on the first go. You’ve got your first screw up out of the way. Now, clean your hands and get your ass over here.”
Betsy started measuring more flour into a new
bowl.
“So,” Grace drawled, “you left pretty early last night. And without a goodbye too. What was that about?”
Grace had a pretty good idea what had caused Betsy to disappear last night. It wasn’t because her step brothers had showed up. That wasn’t anything new though. There was only one bar in town it was nearly impossible for the Robbins brother not to crash ladies night.
It also wasn’t new that Cal had taken the opportunity to lecture Betsy about her life choices. Cal really took the over protective brother role very seriously. Grace was willing to bet that had nothing to do with why Betsy had run out on them last night.
Grace was willing to bet that Betsy’s disappearance had something to do with the fact that she had seen Paul stomp out of the bar.
Betsy kept measuring out ingredients. “It’s not much of a ladies night when your brothers are there.” It wasn’t a lie, Grace would have noticed if Betsy was lying, but if that wasn’t an evasive answer Grace was a cat.
“I noticed Paul has been hanging around the restaurant lately.”
The noise that came from Betsy was pure frustration. It would have done any wolf proud. “That idiot hasn’t just been hanging around the restaurant. He’s been harassing my kitchen staff.” She whipped around wielding a measuring spoon like a knife. “Last week he wandered around the prepping station during the entire dinner service. He kept asking questions and sampling things. It slowed down everything.” Her eyes rolled. “And since the female population of this town is in love with him no one kicked him out on his ass.”
Grace pointed at Betsy. “Did you kick him out?”
Betsy threw her hands up. She always got animated when she was angry. Paul made Betsy angrier than most. “I tried being polite.” Grace doubted that. “I told the owner to drag him out. When that didn’t work, I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him out.” Betsy turned back to the dough. “The idiot made a big show of it making it look like we were hooking up.”
“So, last night you snuck off to give him a piece of your mind?” Grace guessed. When Betsy didn’t say anything she asked, “How did that go?”
“Weird,” Betsy admitted. Her face was pinched. She looked confused. “I went to the parking lot to cut him off at the knees but before I could open my mouth, he bit my head off.”
That was weird. Pail never lost his temper. Sure, he was as dominant as they came but he was more of a joker than a fighter. He didn’t yell at people.
“He just went off on me. I don’t know what he was so upset about. He just kept saying that he was done and that he wasn’t going to be standing in the way of me and my poor decisions.” Betsy shook her head, at a loss of words.
“Do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”
“None. I don’t have time to make a bad decision let alone so many bad decisions that they drive Paul insane.”
Between her head chef position at the only fine dining restaurant in seventy miles, taking care of Mr. Robbins now that his back kept him from working, and her three ever present brothers Betsy really didn’t have the time to do anything. Let alone the opportunity. Grace was surprised she’d offered to teach her how to cook with what little free time she did have. Something wasn’t adding up.
Betsy snapped to attention. She narrowed her eyes at Grace, “Don’t think you can distract me from asking about the hottie living on your porch. I’m pissed I left for that.”
Grace blushed. “There’s nothing to say. He’s my contractor. He’s very nice and I’ve acted like an idiot in front of him twice.”
“Oh,” Betsy sang, “you like him.”
“Shut up,” Grace shoved Betsy out of the way.
Betsy gasped. “You do! I was just joking around. You want him.”
“He’s hot, okay? That’s it though. There’s nothing going on.”
“Nothing going on my lily white ass. The man is camping outside your house. People don’t do that.”
They do if someone is stalking you Grace thought. She didn’t say anything though. She didn’t want to freak out any of her friends.
Early that morning Dane had gotten up and seen a wolf standing under the tree line. Neither of them had sensed him there. Dane shifted and tried to chase him down but he lost the wolf in the woods. Grace had tried to pick up a scent, a print, anything that would help her identify who was sitting outside her cabin at night but couldn’t find a trace. Just like before. It scared her.
What scared her more was that Dane was treating it like a serious threat. It was one thing for Grace to freak out but it was something else to have another person validate her fear.
Dane came back into the clearing after losing the wolf’s trail and walked right up to Grace and clasped her to him. His body had been overheated from shifting and he’d smelled musky. It comforted Grace’s frazzled nerves.
“It’s no big deal. He’s just trying to save on commute time.” That was the best she could come up with to explain why Dane was staying with her. “Besides, the timing is off.”
“I think its fate. You make the choice to get on with life and practically the next day a hot man literally knocks on your front door.” Betsy stopped what she was doing and turned to Grace. “You should go for it. He’s nice. He got the clear from Ben, so he’s not a psycho and if he turns out to be an ass you can always kick his hide back to South Creek.”
“I don’t know, Betsy.” Grace didn’t feel right moving on so quickly. She just got dumped by her mate. That should be properly mourned.
Betsy turned back with a shrug. “Whatever you want, girlie. You’ve got some time to figure things out. Now, break out the tomatoes. We’ll make some spaghetti sauce while this rises.”
Pulling up to her cabin Grace could see Dane on the roof. The sun was starting to set. There was a definite chill in the air but she could see sweat drenching his shirt.
He was temptation personified. There was something about a man wearing a white t-shirt working with his hands that got Grace going. When that man was over six feet of cut up muscle, it was a sight to behold.
It also helped that Dane was sweet, playful and easy to talk to. After the debacle at Miller’s Bar, Dane hadn’t pressed Grace for details. He hadn’t asked awkward questions or given unsolicited advice. Instead, Dane started talking. About his life, about South Creek, about his business. Within minutes, he had Grace laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe.
Then he asked her about her life and what she was planning to do with the cabin. He didn’t criticize her for her choice to move out of town. He had wanted to know more.
Grace looked down at the covered food sitting in her passenger seat. Taking a deep breath she got out of the car and yelled, “Dane, do you want to call it a day and have dinner with me?”
Dane froze on the roof, his hammer mid swing. “Yes, I’d love to.” He sounded eager. He looked around. “Let me just put my things away and I’ll be right down.”
“No rush, I’ll get everything set up while you clean up and take a shower.” Grabbing the take away boxes Grace went inside.
The house was a wreck. Everything was clean but elbow grease only went so far. The floors suffered from their cleaning. Now they showed all of the scuffs and scrapes that were hidden under years of dust. There were piles of remodeling junk all over.
Rushing to the kitchen, Grace put the sauce on low and started boiling water for pasta.
Grace ran to the bathroom. She gathered all the piles of clothing and pushed all of her makeup into drawers. Checking to make sure there wasn’t anything embarrassing she left behind. Grace ran across the hall to her room.
“Grace?” Dane called as the front door shut.
“Back here,” she called, “just getting you a towel,” she lied. Grace snatched a clean towel from the dresser.
Dane was standing in the hall. This close she could see the rivets of sweat that cleaned pathways down his dusty face. He smelled like hard working man. Underneath the sweat and dust was the unmistakable scent of wol
f. Her own beast gave a purr of appreciation.
A cleared throat woke Grace out of her trace. Dane was smiling. Obviously, she had been caught. Heat blazed her cheeks.
“Well,” her voice was shrill, “I’ll just leave you to it. Take your time. Dinner will be ready whenever you are.”
Dane flashed his teeth. “Thank, Grace.” The deep tone sent shivers down her spine.
Not wanting to make a fool of herself again, Grace squeezed past Dane and made a beeline go the kitchen.
Why did the man have to be so hot? He fried her brain. He didn’t make her feel like an idiot about it though. He smiled. He played along.
The timing was garbage. And Jack’s sudden obsession was a disaster in the making. But there was chemistry between her and Dane. Maybe Betsy was right. There wasn’t any reason not to.
“Can I help with anything?” Dane’s hair was wet. It was styled haphazardly as if he had run his fingers through it. He was wearing a new shirt. The thin black cotton clung to his damp skin. Grace could see the definitions between his deltoid and bicep.
“If you want, you can set the table.”
Dane started opening cabinets trying to find plates and cups. “Everything smells delicious.”
He passed closely behind Grace at the stove. Her body lit up with awareness. She shook her head trying to clear her dirty thoughts. “You’ll have to thank my friend Betsy. She’s teaching me how to cook. If I had been on my own we’d be eating frozen pizza.”
Dane chuckled. “That’s my specialty. The trick is to not burn it.”
Grace smiled widely. “Well then, you’ve got me beat.”
Dane put out plates, silverware and cups. Grace drained the pasta. They both helped put the food on the table. Once everything was set, they sat down.
“Why is your friend teaching you how to cook?” Dane asked between bites.
“I thought it was about time I learned how to feed myself.” Grace shrugged. “Frozen pizza and rabbit can only go so far.”
“Now I feel like you’re attacking me personally. I happen to roast a mean rabbit.” Dane pointed a fork at her.
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