Page 44 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

Luna blinked hard.

Hector was still there. Cleft chin, tanned skin, and a heavy jacket, which she would bet he bought at the airport when he realized that his suit jacket wouldn’t stand up to Alaska in the spring.

He was grinning on the stairs, arms raised like he was waiting for Luna to run into them.

They did that when they met at airports.

They’d turned it into a game, with one of them yelling “You’re finally home from war!

” or “You cheating bastard!” or something equally silly before running into the other’s arms. They’d devolve into a shouted reunion full of fictional garbage until they got the giggles.

It was one of Luna’s favorite things in the world.

And yet she stayed rooted to the spot, staring like she’d never seen her fiancé before.

“Hector,” she said faintly. “You’re— Hi! You’re here! Why are you here?”

Oliver cleared his throat. Luna realized too late that she still had her hands all over his muscled chest. She stumbled back, hoping she didn’t look too guilty.

“You said it was happening today,” Hector said. “For real this time. I wanted to surprise you.”

“Oh,” Luna said as he descended the steps and walked over, pressing a kiss to her red cheek. “That’s—wow. So thoughtful.”

Hector squeezed her shoulder. The silence stretched as Luna tried to think of something, anything to say.

Hector laughed. “Is this a bad time?”

“No,” said Luna and Oliver in unison.

“Right,” Hector said. He let out another laugh, raising a hand toward Oliver. “I’m hoping you’re the husband.”

“I’m not,” Oliver said. “Not in any way that matters.”

“But you’re the bond guy, right? Oliver? You’re pretty much how she described. Tall, dark and scowly.”

“Yeah,” Oliver said. “That’s…that’s me.”

Luna tried to check if he was offended. Tall, dark and scowly wasn’t that bad, right?

He’d heard way worse when he was eavesdropping on her phone call the other week.

The bond in her chest fluttered. She couldn’t get a sense of what Oliver was feeling, even when she secretly tried to reach him through the bond.

It was like touching a brick wall. He’d closed himself off.

“Wow,” Hector said. He punched Oliver’s shoulder, a self-conscious grin widening when Oliver didn’t even rock back with the motion. “Okay! Uh, there was an old lady following me, and I don’t know where—” He jumped as Grandmother Musgrove appeared on the stairs. “Jesus!”

“Hello,” said Grandmother Musgrove politely. “Would you like a tour?”

Before he could answer, Leo squeezed onto the stairs behind her and yelled, “Dinner’s ready!”

Grandmother Musgrove’s smile didn’t falter as she corrected herself. “Would you like dinner?”

Hector stared at her, then at Leo, who was beaming at him with the excitement of a kid who had been watching a spark crawl up a line of dynamite for a long, long time, waiting for the fun to finally begin.

* * *

Luna had never heard the dinner table so silent.

Even on that one night, when Sabine had bet the kids ten dollars they couldn’t stay quiet for a full minute and everybody else joined in; there was still the ever-present snicker of Vida trying desperately not to laugh as Darren made faces at her across the table.

Leo kept looking at the other adults like he was waiting for someone to say something. Whenever he opened his mouth, Vida pinched his elbow and gave him a stare so pointed that Luna got the feeling she’d missed an important conversation.

“So,” Hector said finally. “It’s great to meet the family who’s been taking care of Luna! You guys really own an inn, huh? Like, you run it. Fetch towels and man the front desk and all that jazz. That’s adorable.”

It was adorable. In theory. But Luna knew what went on behind the scenes now—the endless cleaning and admin.

Fixing one thing only to have something else break.

Even before the renovations, being in charge of anything was a lot to handle.

If you were in charge, anyway. Not like her dad, who used his title to get everybody under him to do the real work.

“Uh-huh,” said Oliver when the silence continued to stretch.

He was sitting next to her, slowly and methodically sawing a rare steak to pieces.

He held his arms tight against him, careful not to touch her.

For once, Luna did the same. Their legs had brushed under the table a minute ago, and Luna had had to stop herself from jumping up out of her seat.

It’d felt like a betrayal of the man sitting on the other side of her, even though she’d done so much worse with his express permission.

The bond tugged at her ribs, wanting her to lean into Oliver.

She told it to sit still and shut the hell up.

“Soooo,” Hector said. “What do you do for fun around here? Go…sledding?”

He gave Luna a wide-eyed look. Luna couldn’t figure out if it was because he’d run out of things to say or because he had a family of werewolves doing a very bad job of not staring at him.

Uncle Roy was straight-up glaring, not even bothering to be subtle about it.

Aunt Althea and Aunt Barney kept kicking him under the table—Luna could hear the impacts and see Uncle Roy’s face crease up—but it didn’t stop him.

The kids were politer about it, except for Leo, who only stopped staring to look at the other adults pleadingly.

The only ones who rarely looked were Grandmother Musgrove, who only glanced up at them a few times to give Luna a reassuring smile, and Oliver, who kept his gaze firmly on his steak.

Hector’s wide-eyed look got even more panicked.

“There are some cute cafés we go to sometimes,” Luna said. “They’re thinking of opening more if tourism keeps increasing. And, um…”

Usually, when people asked what she did for fun, she started listing activities.

Places with a high fee or a waitlist that would make whoever she was talking to jealous.

Clubs or restaurants or classes for exotic new skills nobody needed.

There was nothing like that here. Luna didn’t know how to tell Hector that she spent most of her time emailing or talking to people; that she spent her time going for runs, playing board games, watching TV, going shopping, or holding tools while Oliver fixed up the inn.

It wasn’t glamorous, but it was somehow more fulfilling than every party or restaurant or experimental plunge she’d paid thousands of dollars to submerge herself in.

“There’s this nice pottery place,” Luna tried. “They’re going to start offering classes on Saturdays. No, don’t make that face, there’s a lot to do! Especially with redoing the inn and setting up the fair—”

Grandmother Musgrove cut in. “Luna has been instrumental in getting the word out about Claw Haven. We never had this many visitors before she arrived.”

Luna ducked her head. Grandmother Musgrove’s compliments always made her cheeks warm. Something about the sincerity in them, no joke or underlying irony to hide behind.

“Oh, yeah?” Hector reached over and touched her wrist. At first, Luna thought his hand was cooler than usual. Then she realized that she’d just gotten used to touching people who ran hot.

“What’d you do?” Hector asked. “Call your secret marketing team and beg for a…what do you call it?”

“Newsletter swap,” Luna said quietly. “You promote them, they promote you. I had good luck with some sponsors today. Claw Haven is a good investment. I think we’re really helping people find what they need here.”

Hector nodded that empty nod he did when his dinner guests started talking business. “Sure! Yeah, it’s cozy. The monster stuff is cute. Especially that fireplace. Roar, am I right?”

Uncle Roy grunted. It was obviously a lead-up to saying something—Luna could already hear it, Yeah, ’cause cute is definitely what us monsters want to aim for—but then his grunt went pained and Aunt Althea leaned forward with a strained smile, gold tooth glinting.

“It’s been so lovely having Luna around. We’re going to miss her. The inn has been a totally different place since she got here. And it’s only going to get better! She’s been showing Oliver how to man all the newfangled admin stuff—”

“And the ads,” Aunt Barney added.

“—and the ads, yes, thank you. And we still have a lot left to do with her redesigns!”

Hector kept nodding. He was smirking now, stroking her wrist with his lukewarm thumb. “You must’ve had a very good time here to do all of that for free.”

He said it like he said everything else: light, breezy, easy-going. It still made Luna stiffen, and she didn’t have to look over to know that Oliver was rigid at her side.

Hector leaned around her to address him, still smirking.

“So, did you have to tag along to all those super-cool cafés, or did she leave you outside on a leash? Oh, man, she said she had to tag along when you went jogging. I’d pay to see that.

” He reached over and shook Oliver’s arm.

“You’re strong, right? Ever just give up and carry her? ”

Luna made the colossal mistake of glancing over.

Oliver was staring. Not at the hand on his arm, like she’d expected.

But at her. He looked away as soon as their eyes met, but it was too late.

Luna knew what he was imagining: their trip down the mountain with Luna’s legs around his waist and her chin nestled against his shoulder.

After a while, it had become soothing. She’d almost fallen asleep against him as she had done the night before, her cheek pillowed against his warm skin, listening to him breathe.

“Well,” Hector said, grabbing another bread roll from the dwindling bowl in the middle of the table. “Don’t seem like much of a conversationalist. Guess you’re fun in other ways.”

“Hec,” Luna said, stung.

Hector hesitated mid-bite, his grin faltering. He genuinely thought he was being funny, Luna realized. He even looked sorry that his “joke” hadn’t landed.