Page 10 of Chasing the Wolf (Dark Wing #7)

Chapter 10

Xavier

" Y ou're not eating, Mackie." But neither am I. I take a bite. It's shockingly good. "Eat up, Mac. It's really good."

"I know." She takes a bite, and we eat in silence until she's finished two slices. And I've finished—well, I've lost count. I move to clean the rubble up and take it to the counter, but a crew member beats me to it.

"Hi, Mackenzie."

"Hi." She blushes, and my head snaps in the direction of the male who's carrying away our tray.

"Who's that?"

"No one. Listen, Xavier, don't get possessive of me. Don't get anything of me. You're here for a week. Heck, I'm going to be working most of the week. We're hardly going to see each other, and then you'll be back in Maine and I'll be here. Here where it doesn't snow. And where I don't have to worry about my Alpha dragging me out of my house in the middle of the night."

"Mac?"

"What?"

"Can you at least give me a chance to be your friend? Get to know me as a male and not a cub?"

"What does that even mean?"

"Just give me some time."

"Time? Time isn't something I have a lot of. I told Colton that when he made the reservation."

"I know, he said."

"I have to work tomorrow morning into the afternoon. The next day, I'm on for twelve hours straight."

"And you say your Alpha treats you well?"

"He does. I took the shifts myself. I traded so last week I had three days off. I spent it at my friend Fiona's on an island."

"You bought a plane ticket and came back?"

"I got off the ship when we docked at port, and then, yeah, I flew back to the ship." She smiles. There's something she's not telling me, but I'm not sure what it is.

"You flew back to Florida?"

"Nope, back to the ship." She laughs. "Fiona's mated to a dragon shifter. The captain's cousin."

"The movie star dragon shifter?"

"No, from the other side of the family. So I had people cover my shifts. I'm saving my vacation to go to California for three weeks next summer."

"When do you have off?"

"Tonight."

I smile. Because tonight is the best place to start. "What do you want to do? It's a cruise ship, and there's so many possibilities, but I'm guessing you've done everything?"

She sighs loudly. “If I see you tonight, will you leave me alone?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“I don’t know . . .”

“We could do anything you want.” I see the wheels spinning. She’s about to come back with something that doesn’t involve me. “Together.”

“I'm not much of a partier. I hate loud places, and dark ones are even worse. So I haven't done much clubbing. Even when I have time off. And there are rules."

I raise my eyebrow. "That doesn't feel very free."

"Free?" Her nose wrinkles up. "What do you mean by free? Nowhere's free. We all have to follow rules."

"I suppose. And the rules of... Forget I brought it up. The Timberline pack Alpha's rules apply only to him. That's going to stop soon."

"Right, and you're going to be the one to stop it." It's not a question. She says it with conviction. Conviction that it's a good thing, but there's an underlying tone to her voice.

"You don't think that's a good idea?"

"Heck. No. Well, yes. Yes, I think it's a good idea. It's just that I don't want anything to do with it. There were so many nights where I would be almost asleep in my bed and I'd dream of ways to fix it. Fix our old pack. Bring new business back to town. Cute shops to invigorate the economy."

“Yes, exactly. Mac, you haven't been back in a long time, but things are different. They're really great. The dairy bar is back, and the old cinema is now a three-story gift shop with products from local pack members. There's a new Italian restaurant?—”

"That's not the only thing I dreamed of."

I lean toward her. "What else did you dream of?"

"I dreamed of killing your father. But killing him and his henchmen in a way that I wouldn't end up Alpha."

"So you wanted me to end up Alpha?"

"No."

My heart drops. "Why?"

"That's complicated."

"I see."

She looks down at her lap before locking her eyes with mine. "Yeah, some things just don't matter. It was a long time ago, and I... I don't really care anymore. I've moved on."

There was no time that I thought this was going to be easy. Sure, I hoped she and I would have the mating bond, that she would accept me and we'd fall into each other's arms. Yeah, I can't lie. There was no way that would ever happen. I might not have been around Mac for a long time, but there was no way I thought she'd changed that much. And actually, I'm not sure I'd want her to.

"We're getting along better."

"Yes." I smile at her.

"That's what FO wanted."

"It's what I want too," I say. "And for the record, I had the same dreams."

"And you've made them happen. At least some of them."

All but the Alpha part. But I don't want to tell her about that yet. It can wait. Wait until she's come to terms with what I know we are. "Spend tonight with me?"

Mac recoils like I've offered her milk and lemon in her coffee. "No way in heck am I going to sleep with you."

"I'm not asking you to sleep with me." Though if she'd taken it that way, I wouldn't have said no. "Spend more time with me. I had fun at the class. There's even more exciting things to do around the ship."

"You want me to be your unpaid tour guide?"

"I'll pay you."

"I don't want your money, Xavier. I've never wanted your money."

"I know. You, Colton, Hawke—none of you ever took advantage of me." That wasn't always the case. I had plenty of so-called friends who wanted to go out. Wanted me to buy table service, get the best room in the club, reserve the best hotel rooms when we went out on spring break. But not Colton, not Hawke, and I know Mac is in the same position. "What would you want to do?"

"I... To me, this isn't a vacation. This is where I live."

"Right, but if you were playing tour guide, what would it be? The casino? The shifter club? Dancing? Maybe the theater?"

"The one thing we can't do as Dark Wing pack members is gamble at the casino. Sometimes we have a table at our crew bar, but any money the house makes there goes to charity. And I'm not a shifter club kind of girl. Plus, I have a feeling that's where Colton will be and I'm not interested in seeing him doing shifter club kinds of activities. I'm not much of a dancer. But maybe the theater. My friend Billy is starring in the current production. He's got a really great voice. It doesn't start until nine, though."

"Rama had questions about the Xenie." I love that she named it the Xenie instead of the Java Lava.

"Right, she did!" Mac grabs my hand, and it's like I've won the biggest deal of my life. She weaves us between deck chairs, servers, and cubs running for the pool's side entrance. "Rama!" Mac drops my hand, and I wiggle my fingers at the loss of her warmth. I'm making headway, but we're one day in and I'm not that much closer.

"Hey you winning mixologists! Have a seat. I need help. Gordon and I thought we'd written down your recipe exactly, but it's not coming out the same way."

A trio of females sit around the tiki bar. One wears a sash that says "bride-mate." She laughs and points at us. "Don't tell her the secret. We're enjoying all of her failed attempts."

"Come on, maybe it's that much better," another one says.

"All right, what do you have?" Mac sits on a bar stool, and even though there's another stool open, I crowd in behind her. Mac twists her neck. "Have a seat."

"I'm good. It's a busy evening." I get as close as I can without touching her, my chest to Mac’s back.

Mac blinks at me, mostly upside down. "Suit yourself. What do you have for us?"

Rama pushes two glasses across the bar to us.

I hold my glass up in front of Mac. "Cheers."

She clinks with me. Even though the tiki hut's fake grass is dusting the top of my scalp, I'm happy where I am. And so much closer to her. I take a sip, and Rama's right. There's something off about the taste of the drink.

"It's the coffee and something else. I mean, mostly it's the coffee.” Rama says.

"And the simple syrup," I add.

"It's too sweet?" Rama asks. "It's more a consistency thing, isn't it? The syrup was made for the class right beforehand, so it was thinner. But what's wrong with the coffee?"

"What's right with the coffee?" I'm no barista, but I could tell it was old and most likely not great when it was fresh.

"True, I guess we don't use much coffee here because guests go over to Java Lava to get theirs. Let me brew a fresh pot."

"Okay." I sip my drink and enjoy standing close to Mac. It's a perfect early evening. The sun's low in the sky. The crowd on the pool deck is thinning out. I'm guessing the crowds are heading to the formal dining rooms for the full dinner service. But I don't care about that. I'd take standing close to Mac with a Kunyon game on the large screen in the background, a light breeze rustling the tiki bar roof, any day.

"All right, I've got new syrup and new coffee." Rama shakes the shaker with more rhythm than Mac or I had. But I liked Mac’s hips swaying more.

I lean forward and whisper into Mac's ear. "It might be that you shook your money maker better."

Mac laughs. And when Rama pours the contents of the shaker into six glasses and a tablespoon in a single shot glass, there's lots of humming and yeses from the other side of the bar.

I reach for my drink and have to step away from Mac. I clink glasses with her and take a long draw. "Better," I say.

"It's still not quite there," Rama and Mac say at the same time.

"It smells right." I lean over to Mac's side and decide to slide onto the stool next to her. “Don't you think it smells right, Mac?" My back's to the bar, my eyes on the game, but I flick them to the top of her drink, then hover my nose over the top of my glass again and inhale. Deeply. It takes everything in me to not cough and have my eyes water. "What do you think, Mac?" I hold my drink to her. "Give it a sniff."

She inhales but doesn't cough. She doesn't friggin' cough because I was right. She's got some sort of spell or potion on herself. One that makes it impossible for anyone to scent her or for her to scent anything.

"You know, I think it's got a little bit of an orange scent to it. Maybe that's what's wrong?" I lie. I lie through my teeth, but only to see what she's going to do.

Mac stares at the glass. It might leap out at her and call her a fraud. She tosses it back. "I don't think so. Here." She rips my glass out of my hand and tosses it back too. "Nope, didn't taste any orange."

Rama's eyes are round, and she's glancing back and forth between the two of us. "Right, okay, that wasn't it. I'm sure there wasn't any orange in it."

"It's still the coffee. The syrups are the right thickness, but the coffee is blah. How old are the grounds?"

Rama pulls out a prepackaged white packet of coffee grounds and flips it over.

Mac clasps her chest and dramatically falls over onto me.

I catch her. "I think you killed her."

"No, I'm alive. But seriously, you could have killed me. That's garbage. You should throw that away right now."

"I don't know if I'd go that far. I mean, that's a bit extreme," Rama says, tossing a new packet of grounds in the air and catching it.

"The only thing that's good for is juggling. Give me three of them," Mac says.

"I—" Rama says.

"Oh, I want to see her juggle coffee grounds," the bride says.

"What the guest wants..." Mac jeers playfully at Rama.

"Okay, okay." Rama tosses the one in her hand to Mac, along with two more from a container below the counter.

Mac collects the bags of grounds and hands them to me. I was surprised she’d learned how to juggle, but I guess not. I smirk at her. She wants me to juggle. This will be the best juggling performance of my life. The fact that she actually remembers I juggle is already a win.

I take the bags from her and start with a simple three-ball-bag cascade. Then I switch to a crossover pattern. I step back from the tiki bar to avoid hitting the low ceiling, and before long, I’ve drawn a crowd.

"Give me another one." I cock my head at Mac, and Rama tosses her one.

"Ready?"

"Toss it at my nose." I'm watching for the packet. But it doesn't stop me from registering that there are several cell phones and one fancy camera-video contraption pointed at me.

The only one I care about is Mac, and she's clapping along with the rest of the circle. There are cameras on me. But then, I am making a spectacle of myself. I do a twirl and catch the packets one by one in my left hand. I grab Mac's hand with my right and take a bow. There are two white-uniformed crew officers standing at the edge of the crowd that slowly disperses.

The male officer approaches. "Well done." He looks vaguely familiar. His name tag reads Oliver S.

Holy fuck! It's Oliver Sutton, retired star Kunyon player of the Philly Originals team. I'm trying not to appear starstruck. I've met lots of celebrities and athletes since the Raw Timberline Skincare brand has taken off. And they're just people—usually people trying to score a free bag of sample products. But still just people.

"If the whole skincare thing doesn't work out for you, you could join the crew," he says.

Mac laughs. Hard and loud. Until the two officers and I are staring at her. "Sorry, sorry. I just can't picture Xavier living in a crew cabin. Not even one as nice as the captain’s. He's an 'I live in a Victorian mansion on the top of a hill' kind of guy. An 'I only eat at exactly noon and six' kind of guy."

"Well, nevertheless. That was some real talent." Sutton puts out his hand, and I shake it. "Oliver Sutton, cruise director, and this is Rebecca Cottage, my co-cruise director and the best cruise director on board."

"Xavier Wilder. It's nice to meet you both. And thank you, but these aren't the sort of talented hands you have." I nod to them both.

"Hold up. All this talk of hands is weirding me out," Mac says.

The wind changes, blowing at Mac's back. I'm not sure why I do it, but I jump in front of her, blocking them from getting a full whiff of her missing scent. "Well, it looks like everyone on the crew is the best at what they do. From the mixology classes to the far superior coffee at Java Lava."

"You're friends with Mr. Wilder?" Sutton asks Mac.

"Me?" She laughs. "No, no, my brother is his friend. I'm just a friend by association."

"That's not true. You're my friend."

"Really?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Of course. She's my friend." I put my arm over her shoulder.

"All right, then. I'm glad you two friends are having a good time." Oliver crosses close behind her. His head snaps to me.

I'm still holding the four coffee packets under my arm. I take a step back and toss them on the bar. Rama picks them up one at a time and tosses them into the garbage can.

"Yes, that's where they belong!" Mac sings and takes back her place on her stool. This time I slide in next to her.

"This is the perfect one," Rama says, dividing the shaker among a growing number of guests. She pours a little extra in Mac's and mine before holding up her tiny Xenie of her own.

There's oohing and aahing from around the bar.

"Holy Canobie Lake Park! This is amazing," Mac says.

"I have no idea what that means, but thank you?" Rama cocks her head to the side. "After all, you're the one who invented it."

"Maybe, but this is better than ours." Mac elbows me lightly in the stomach.

I take a sip. "It is.”

"That's because I asked a server to get me a box of coffee from Java Lava while Xavier was juggling." Rama laughs.

Mac takes her phone out and snaps a picture of my hand around the drink. "Did you still want to go see the show?"

"Yeah." Not really. I'd rather stay here and talk to her all night. But excitement twinkles in her eyes, and I'm helpless to deny her.