Page 20 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

Leo stilled. Luna worked his hand free and set him on the ground.

“Okay,” Luna said, trying to figure out what to say next. What would she want to be told if she had done that as a kid? “Uhhh. Did you hurt your hand?”

Leo giggled at the absurdity of her question. “No!”

“No,” Luna agreed, and turned to the bookstore employee. “Did you hurt your hair?”

“No,” the woman said sunnily, untying her purple ribbon from its ruined knot.

“Then no harm done,” Luna said, tapping Leo’s shoulders. “Off you go. No more climbing!”

Leo raced back toward Oliver. Luna looked up to find him watching her with a strangely soft expression, and the bond flared in her chest. Then Darren tackled him from behind, and Oliver’s expression turned exasperated again as he whirled to drag Darren off.

An old, croaky voice echoed from the back room of the bookstore: “Are you in one piece, Vi?”

“I’m fine, Chester,” the bookstore employee, who must be Vi, called back. She fiddled with her purple ribbon, her customer--service smile slipping as the silky material escaped her fingers. “Damn.”

“I got it,” Luna offered. She stepped behind Vi, and only after she felt her stiffen did she realize that she was majorly invading this woman’s space. But Luna already had the ribbon, undoing the tangles that Leo had accidentally created and redoing a proper knot around Vi’s dark hair.

“There,” she said. “Now you’re perfect again. Vi, was it? I’m Luna.”

She held out a hand, wondering why she had even done that. It wasn’t in her nature to get in other people’s business like that. If someone needed help, she let them figure it out for themselves. But it had seemed so natural. She was there, wasn’t she? So she might as well.

If Vi was still weirded out by the invasion of personal space, she hid it quickly.

“Nice to meet you,” Vi said, the picture of politeness with not much behind it. Then her expression faltered and she reached up to touch her newly done ponytail. “And thank you.”

“No problem!” Luna beamed, oddly proud of her little act of helping. She waved over at the kids, who were back to clambering over Oliver. “Little rascals. They’re usually super sweet.”

“They are,” Vi said, her practiced smile turning warm. “They come in a lot. They don’t buy many books, but it’s good to see them anyway. They make me glad I’m—”

She faltered, blinking hard. Her smile went back to its perfunctory self. “Anyway. Can I help you with anything else?”

Luna nudged her, her curiosity piqued. “Glad you what? Come on, you’re the first Claw Haven local who hasn’t started getting super personal within thirty seconds of meeting me! Except that orc with the flour, I guess. No idea what’s up with him.”

“Orc with the—?” Vi shook her head, stepping back. For a moment Luna thought she was going to make a quick exit. Then she hesitated, looking back at the Musgroves peppered around the store.

“I’m just glad I moved here for my sister,” Vi said finally. “She’s going through a hard time and it’s good to be here for her. That’s all I was going to say.”

“Oh,” Luna said, touched. “That’s…that’s so nice.”

Vi patted her hair into place self-consciously. “And how have you been? You’re the woman who’s been staying with the Musgroves, I assume.”

“That’s me!” Luna posed, only feeling a little like an idiot as she did it. Especially after Vi had gotten sincere with her like that. “It’s been…uh…”

She had been about to give her usual schtick about how she was making the best of it. That the family were so nice it made up for the grump she was chained to until the snow thawed. But looking around the bookstore, she suddenly felt oddly vulnerable.

“Weird,” she confessed. “Like, this is a family outing. Who does that? They already spend all their time together at home! It’s—it’s ridiculous.”

She stammered to a stop as a familiar arm bumped up against hers, the bond squalling inside of her as she looked up to see Oliver raising his dark brows at her.

“What did I miss?” he asked, so casual it threw her.

This was a totally different man than the one she’d been stuck with: a softer, more giving version that only seemed to come out when he was with his family and ignoring Luna’s existence.

But he wasn’t ignoring her now. Having some of that softness aimed her way made Luna tongue-tied.

“I was just saying how ridiculous you guys were,” Luna said, trying desperately to make it clear she wasn’t insulting him this time. “You know. All your super-cute family outings and dinners and board game nights, as if you don’t already spend all your time together.”

To her surprise, Oliver didn’t even roll his eyes. He just cocked his head, like she had a point.

“It is pretty ridiculous,” Oliver said after a moment. “But wolves will be wolves, I guess. Are you ready to go? Leo’s going to throw a tantrum if he doesn’t get dinosaur nuggets soon.”

“Oh, that child and his dinosaur nuggets!” Luna giggled, still stupidly flustered for reasons she couldn’t fully understand. She waved at Vi. “Good to meet you, Vi. Stay chic.”

Vi made a face like she had never been called chic before. But like everything else, she hid it quickly under a mask of professionalism.

“I will,” she said. “You, too.”

Luna struck another pose. Usually it made her feel cute and silly.

This time it made her feel like she was an actor who didn’t know her lines.

Luna always knew what to say—until Claw Haven.

Until the Musgroves. Until Oliver, who took her off guard with everything he said—even the nice things. Especially the nice things.

* * *

She couldn’t help staring at him as they climbed into his car.

Oliver glanced over at her. “What?”

“Nothing,” Luna said. “I’ve just never seen you so relaxed.”

“I’m not relaxed,” Oliver said instantly. “Would you be relaxed around that?”

He pointed at the van in front of them, which the rest of the Musgroves were piling into.

Uncle Roy was scowling at a self-help book the aunts had got him, seemingly as a joke.

The younger kids were still trying to chase each other, only stopping when Ben grabbed them and hoisted them into the back seat.

Sabine was helping Grandmother Musgrove into the front while Vida ignored everyone and bobbed her head to music trickling out of her giant headphones.

“No,” Luna admitted. “But wolves will be wolves. Right? With your cozy little packs. All protective and whatever.”

Oliver said nothing. His hands tightened on the steering wheel, his gaze fixed on his family with an intensity that made Luna think she’d said the wrong thing.

She leaned forward to meet his eyes. “Was that speciesist or something? You are cozy. Insufferably so, some might say.”

The insult jolted Oliver back from whatever he had been spiraling into. “What? Right, no, sure. Put your seat belt on.”

And there was the Oliver she was used to.

“I was getting to it,” Luna complained. She clicked the seat belt into place, watching the Musgrove van pull into the icy street. She waited for Oliver’s car to follow them. Nothing happened.

“Are we waiting for a reason?” Luna asked.

Once again, Oliver said nothing. Luna looked over to see him twist the keys in the lock. Then he did it again. And again.

“Shit.” Oliver sighed, wrenching the keys out. “I think we’re going to miss Leo’s dino nuggets.”