Page 19

“Later,” Grey says and ruffles my hair on his way out the door.

The way he is with her is really, really sweet. And I’d have expected nothing less from my brother.

She’s timid. Nervous. She’s definitely grappling with some stuff. Grey is perfect for her.

“Be right back,” I tell her and follow my brother out.

He looks over his shoulder curiously at me.

“Talk to you for a minute?” I ask.

We get to my car and I open the back door. “Her stuff from the HoJo.”

He gives me a look, the look he gives me when I’m sticking my nose into someone else’s business. Which is kind of often.

“I’m friendly with one of the maids there. She said her room was paid up until yesterday so by tonight they’d have moved her belongings out into a storage area. She quit her job at the diner for a family emergency. I scented three shifter scents beyond your mate’s on those things. Not fresh, but also not all that old. One of the scents matches the guy in the freezer. Nadia said someone was banging on the door yesterday.”

“Fuck, Bailey,” he clips. “You realize what coulda happened, don’t you?”

“Huh?”

“If any of them were hangin’ around there they’d have caught your scent, known you’re one of us and took you.”

“Oh,” I whisper. “I was careful.” I point to my nose. “I didn’t catch any scents there before I approached Nadia.”

He rolls his eyes and asks, “Anything else of interest?”

I shake my head. “She didn’t have much there at all. There’s a bunch of wrapped gifts with names on them that were hidden. I put them into the suitcase. I also found seventy bucks hidden under the mattress, wrapped between two bags of catnip. The whole suitcase had catnip dustings in it.”

I found out catnip helps hide scents from shifters from Tyson. Ty told us he ate it daily for years whenever he was within thirty minutes of Arcana Falls or Drowsy Hollow.

Grey says, “I’ll go through everything when I get back. Leave it here. But do not go maverick on this shit, Bailey. If your help is needed, we’ll ask for it. Yeah? Which room at the HoJo?”

I look away and roll my eyes. “Four.”

Jason Creed strolls up on foot looking and smelling as incredible as he always does.

“Grey. Squirt.”

I shoot him an evil eye for the nickname, but I don’t really mean it and he knows it. He snickers, flashing his dimples which makes me weak in the knees (as always) before his attention turns to my brother. “Anything I need to know before you go?”

Grey raises his finger to Jase and levels me with a serious look.

“Tell me you hear me, Bailey. My mate’s former pack alpha, her brother, is probably still out there plotting to take over, to take the council members out and kidnap Erica. Don’t fuck around.”

“What’d she do now?” Jason asks, looking tweaked.

Now?

“One sec, bro,” Grey says and looks me in the eyes. “Tell me you get me, baby sister.”

“Okay, okay.” I wave my hands in assent.

“Talk later, Bail. Thanks for comin’ over. Jase’ll hang and make sure all’s well until I get back.” He jerks his chin toward the door, giving me a meaningful look that means scram .

He already texted me saying she needs a friend, that she’s filled with guilt and that her former pack did damage to her self-esteem, doesn’t value and respect women. He said she’s feeling guilty about shooting Tyson, about poisoning some of our alphas. That she was forced to do these things. I assured him I’d help. And I will.

I grab the three-quarters full trash bag of clothes I threw together and go inside with my big tote bag slung over my shoulder.

Stacy is sitting on the couch, nibbling on her thumbnail. She looks like a fish out of water.

“Hi. How are ya? Settling in okay?” I ask, setting my tote on the coffee table, the trash bag on the rug.

“I…yeah. Thanks.” She clears her throat.

“Honestly?” I prod.

Her face flushes pink. “I… don’t know actually,” she says with a shrug while watching me fish through my tote, pulling out the bottle of coconut rum.

“You guys drink that orange juice we brought over?” I unearth two tetras of pineapple juice, too.

“It’s still there,” she replies.

“Want a beverage?” I ask.

It’s only two in the afternoon but I do plan to loosen her up with liquor. I want to know more. I also want her to relax and feel at ease.

It worked wonders with Amelia when she got here and it seemed like it could have helped with Erica before the council carted her off to be locked down with Riley as Cicely cracked open a bottle, so I’m gonna try it with Stacy.

I had suggested to Grey that I bring some of the other girls over with me to welcome her properly, but Grey thought it might be a little soon for that and asked me to put her at ease, befriend her, but plan something like that with some of the other women a little later on.

So, it’s just me today. I’ll have to be mindful I don’t get drunker than she does before she starts opening up.

“I…okay,” she says softly and follows me to the kitchen where I pour us drinks, adding ice.

We both hop up on stools at the kitchen island.

“How’s mated life so far?” I ask.

She gives me a surprised look but says, “It’s good. He’s… he’s really… um… kind.”

“Cheers.” I hold my drink out. “To Greyson Blackwood.”

She lifts her drink, bumps mine with it, then we both take sips.

“I’ve known most of my life that Grey was born to be a leader and a husband. He’s always been so protective. You’ll be the envy of a lot of the unmated females in the pack. The super alpha pickings are slimming down and everyone’s watching.”

She smiles hesitantly and takes another sip of her drink.

There’s uncomfortable silence for a long minute when I decide to fill it, hoping to put her more at ease.

“Girls from other packs are often jealous about the alpha situation here, wishing they could live here and have more chance of landing a super alpha or even a regular alpha. I can’t imagine in smaller packs with just one that it’s the same culture since girls won’t necessarily be clamoring the same way.”

“I have no idea. This is my first experience with females in another pack.”

“Really?” I ask.

She nods. “We kept to ourselves at home. And nobody in my pack was clamoring for our alpha.” She makes a face of distaste.

“Unattractive?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “My brother is considered attractive. But he’s as mean as a honey badger. Are you… um…unmated?”

“Never even had a boyfriend. That could be because of who my brother is. It could also be that nobody is interested.” I shrug.

“You’re very pretty. You have a great figure. Beautiful skin. You seem very nice. I’m sure there are many males who are interested.”

I shrug. There’s only one male I want to be interested in me, and he seems like he still sees me as a six-year-old in pigtails.

“I’m not overly familiar with mating to one person,” she says. “Our alpha doesn’t really believe in one mate per alpha, so all this is new to me.”

“Doesn’t believe in it? How?” I ask. “How old is your alpha?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“And he’s sexually active, I take it…”

“To put it mildly,” she mutters.

“No offspring, obviously.”

She shakes her head.

“Well, that he hasn’t had kids yet should tip him off. Alphas can’t mate until they knot their fated mate. After that, they can mate again if they lose their mate, reject her, or she’s barren. He’s not curious about the fact that he hasn’t had kids yet? Clearly he knows he’s not found his soulmate because he wouldn’t have knotted yet.”

She shrugs and takes a big sip of her drink. After swallowing, she adds, “He doesn’t ponder life stuff with me, so I don’t know. This is really good.”

And it is, but I suspect she wants to change the subject.

“It is, isn’t it?” I take another sip and decide to lighten the conversation. “I’m not much of a drinker but this combination – a Malibu sunset – it sounded yummy. I forgot the grenadine, but I figure it’s mostly for color. I was going to make it for our next girlie get together at Amie’s because she loves watching the sun set over the lake behind their place, but she and her sister are now pregnant, so it’ll be a while before we have a cocktail get together. I guess you and me are test pilots. If I am gonna drink alcohol, I prefer to drink alcohol that tastes like juice.”

“I’m not much of a drinker, but I like this much better than my father’s moonshine, which I tasted as a teenager and blech.” She takes another mouthful. “Amie. Is that one of the newer mates? One of the humans?”

“Mason’s mate, yes. Amelia Quinn, formerly Brennan. She’s human. The alpha council order goes like this…” I count on my fingers, “Tyson, Mason, Riley, Greyson, Jason, Lincoln, Joel.”

“So Greyson said they mate in order of age?”

“Yeah, that’s how it has always gone in our pack except technically Riley and Grey went out of order as far as doing the actual deed. Riley is a couple months older than Grey. But… extenuating circumstances, I guess, because Erica was gone for seven years. Riley identified her seven years ago, which was out of order but because Ty was missing all that time and Riley was not only a Savage family member but also because Riley sort of took lead alpha position for the council we all just figured that’s why he identified his mate first. But it turns out she used witchcraft to make him fall for her before her time.” I take another sip. “She’s madly in love with him…it’s obvious. She was young and made a mistake. I’m glad it’s going to work out; I think she’ll make an excellent addition to the pack and to our girl crew. But Riley scented her the other night just moments before Grey identified you so if he had’ve mated her immediately it would’ve gone the way it usually does – in order.”

“You’re not upset with her?”

“Extenuating circumstances. It’s good the council alphas voted to force them to stay together in a cabin. Nose tells us it worked.” I tap my nose, take another mouthful of my drink and am nearly at the end, so I drain it. “Drink up; I’ll make us another. Oh… I have some stuff for you. But I wanna grab something from my car, too. Be right back.”

I hop off the bar stool and go outside.

Jase is sitting on the front step, doing something on his cell phone.

I round him and stop in front of him.

“You gotta guard from out here or you wanna come inside with us?” I ask.

“I’m good here,” he mutters, not looking up from his screen.

“Not guarding real well if you’re focused on your phone,” I mutter.

Still not looking up at me, he taps his nose.

“Some of them use masking potions,” I remind him.

He finally glances up and his expression is irritated. “I’m on it, Bay. Can take thirty seconds to answer a text. Your faith in me is touching.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Jason,” I say softly.

He ignores me and continues tapping away on his phone.

“Okay, whatever.” I concede and go to the car.

I grab my package from the shipping store.

He’s gone around back, so I don’t pass him on my way back inside. I fetch the bag of clothes from the coffee table and heft it onto the island before I unzip it.

“Here are some extra clothes for you. If there’s anything you don’t want, feel free to donate. I’m a bit of a clothes horse and know you don’t have a lot of things here with you so figured I’d do a quick rummage for you.”

Her eyes widen.

“You don’t have to take them if you don’t want them,” I tell her quickly. “I can send them to the donation bin in The Hollow if you don’t.”

“I… I’ll have them. Thank you, Bailey. You’re right, I don’t have much, although thank you very kindly for the clothing you brought the other day. I love them.” She runs her hands along her yoga pants. “They’re super nice. I’d like to pay you back for them when I can.”

“You don’t pay for a gift, silly. It’s my pleasure. And as for that pile, I just threw in a few pairs of jeans, jean shorts, a pair or two of yoga pants, some tops and some pjs. I’m guessing we’re about the same jean size, though I’m shorter than you and a little top heavier.” I scoff, seeing her eyes on my chest.

“Yeah, you’re definitely blessed in that department. Not all of us are.” She points to her own chest.

“Yeah, but you can run without giving yourself a black eye, so…”

She laughs hard, then goes serious. “This was… very thoughtful of you. Thank you, Bailey.”

“My pleasure.” I rise and get the juices out of the fridge, then put more ice into our glasses and mix us another drink. I’ll let Grey give her the suitcase instead of telling her I stuck my nose into her business.

“You’re being so nice to me,” she whispers when I put her new drink in front of her.

“You’re family now. And why wouldn’t I be nice? We can all use more girlfriends, right? Plus, I’m not a bitchy person. At least I don’t think I am.”

“I’m just surprised I’m not considered a pariah. Because of how I wound up here. Maybe everyone won’t be as nice as you.”

“You wound up here because you were supposed to,” I tell her, taking a sip. “That’s something pretty dang clear from the way the council alpha matings are going so far. Everything so far seems to be happening for very specific reasons. Erica might have some idea how the rest of the pairings will go, since her coven has been involved in some of the pairings, but she isn’t allowed to talk about anything she does know.”

Stacy looks confused, so I give her the abbreviated version of the matings of Tyson, Mason, and Riley so far. Though she knows the basics from Grey, I get more into detail from the perspective of the girls.

By the time I’m through all those stories, we’re on our third drink.

“So…” I say, “There are some bitches, but not many in the pack. Most everyone will give you a chance to fit in. It’ll be up to you if you take that chance or not. I hope you do. We’re a close-knit community. We love to have fun together.”

She doesn’t look convinced.

Grey messages me to ask if everything is okay. I tell him it’s all good.

“Grey,” I tell her, putting the phone down. “Making sure all is well. You have questions about the pack? About anything to do with my brother or our family? I’m happy to fill in some blanks for you.”

She shakes her head. “If your brother wants me to know things I’m sure he’ll tell me them.”

“You seem like you’ve got a lot on your mind,” I say. “Is it because of your cousin that was …” I dash my index finger across my throat and pop my tongue out to the side.

She blinks hard.

Oh, whoops.

I face-palm. “That was insensitive. I’m so sorry. These drinks creep up on you.”

“It’s okay. That’s definitely been something I’ve had on my mind, yeah. Also… everything. I don’t know how all this is going to go. What’ll happen. What my brother will do. How many lives might be lost. I’m also not convinced that Greyson won’t suddenly decide this isn’t worth it.”

“Grey won’t reject you! He’s super-happy about mating with you.”

She shrugs slowly, looking contemplative.

“What has you thinking that?” I ask.

“There’re a lot of problems attached to mating me though, aren’t there?” She’s slurring a little, obviously a lightweight like me. “Me trying to harm alphas with that herbal blend, my brother trying to cause problems. He’ll probably try to get the witch again so he can get his hands on more potions or… if he finds out she can write spells like you explained, even worse. He’ll probably try to harm the alphas again. Who knows what he’ll do to the girls back home? And you said Greyson’s father rejected his mother so-”

“Whoa whoa whoa, there’s a lot to unpack here. First, a severing is rare. My father apparently had a very good reason for severing his relationship with Grey’s bio mom. And that doesn’t mean it’s hereditary.”

Shit. I shouldn’t have told her about that when I told her about Riley and Erica. I should’ve let Greyson do it.

“No, but what if your pack votes to kick me out?”

I shake my head. “Nobody gets between an alpha and his mate.”

“They just voted to have Riley and the witch locked in Tyson’s house for a week, though.”

“But that was different.”

She raises her eyebrows at me.

“Believe me, Stacy. That’s different. They could tell because of their bond that Riley needed this. He was refusing to be around her and it was causing problems with his connection to the pack, his connection to himself, even. The council? They don’t get involved in most cases unless they need to. As for you and Grey? You got paired with someone who can look past the hassles. My brother is a problem solver. Things happen for a reason. You came here for those reasons. He identified you as his mate because that’s how it’s meant to go. You have problems and he's a problem solver. He’ll help you. You really like him so far, don’t you? I mean, you should, he’s not just a super-alpha with power and status. He’s also handsome and kind. You really do like him, right?”

“I do. I really do,” she answers sort of dreamily.

I absolutely adore the look on her face right now. I believe her.

“That’s what matters. That there’s chemistry and that you’re honest and true with my brother. No matter how you wound up here, you’re here now and this is where you’re meant to be. That’s good enough for me and it’ll be good enough for the vast majority of the pack. There are always a few skeptics or bitches but the good folks in the pack outnumber the not-so-good ones.”

“I heard someone outside last night… he said he’d reject me if he was Grey.”

“Don’t pay attention to the negative talk. Pay attention to how you feel with my brother. How he makes you feel. How he seems to be feeling.”

She smiles and stares off into space for a minute. “I didn’t think it could be like this,” she admits.

“Like what?” I ask and reach for my drink.

“The… the…” She lowers her voice. “The sex.”

I choke on my drink for a second and once I recover, I giggle. While waving my hand. “I’ll have to take your word for it. All grown up and never even been kissed over here. But, please feel free to not elaborate. If you weren’t mated to my brother I’d want all the hot and heavy details but… it’s Greyson, so…”

“Point taken,” she says. “My turn to make drinks.”

She hops off her stool and wobbles. Then she giggles.

I giggle too.

“I like these drinks. They make me all warm and gooey,” she says as she opens the fridge and pulls out the juice.

I’m feeling warm and gooey myself. “Mission accomplished then. I was hoping to help you relax. And get you talking,” I admit.

She laughs and slaps her leg animatedly. “Mission accomplished, I guess.”

“Talking to you, Amie and her sister Ivy… I so, so hope I wind up with a super alpha. Or even a regular one. To hear about the knot your whole life and never get it? A crying shame. Please Lord don’t let me have to mate a beta.”

She lifts her glass and taps my glass with hers. “The knot? It’s amazing!” she exclaims, and she does it so animatedly I can tell she’s for sure as much of a lightweight as me. “Sex has never been like this. I hated it before this.” She makes a face of distaste. “And I didn’t know much about the knot thing. A couple of the older ladies in our pack brought it up, but I thought it was a myth.”

And I can tell something else, too. She’s going to be part of the girl crew. I decide she needs to know this, but before I get a chance to say it, she leans in closer and even more animated.

“And I don’t even think it’s just about the knot. Because yeah, that expanding thing and vibration thing is incredible but nobody ever used their tongue on me down there and phew… the way Greyson does that? Oh, my stars… that’s some magic.”

I’m stunned silent for a second but then I burst out laughing.

She covers her face, which is red with embarrassment.

“You’re totally gonna be a key member of the girl crew,” I say. “I’ve had great friends in the pack already but the new girls coming in to mate with the council? You’re gonna fit in with everyone really well. Amie. Ivy. Definitely. I bet Erica, too.”

“Unless they secretly hate me because of what I’ve done. Especially Ivy.” Her expression is now sad.

“No, no. They won’t hate you. Everyone has their regrets in life. Erica feels like everyone will hate her and they won’t once they get to know her, not as long as she treats Riley right, which I think she will. So with Erica you’ve got someone who knows how you feel. And Ivy and Amelia were both resistant to mating with shifters, hadn’t even known shifters exist before all this – or Ivy didn’t, Amie sort of knew but hadn’t had visual confirmation of it until Mason saw her, marched up to her and laid a hot, wet one on her before he whisked her off home to knot and mate her.”

Stacy fans herself. “If you told me all this a week ago, I’d have been mortified for her. It’s so, so frightening to have an alpha set his sights on you and not give you a choice. Now, after seeing and experiencing a super alpha who sees his mate and decides he’s claiming her? When it’s fated? Now I think it’s hot.” She over enunciates hot and then takes a big sip of her drink. I follow suit.

“Greyson carried me home telling me he was going to light me up. And did he ever.” She smiles, then tacks on, “Like a glowworm.”

I giggle. “Too much information. You can fill Ivy and Amie in if I leave the room.”

“Deal,” she says and laughs, but then her smile dies and I know she still thinks Ivy will hold her shooting Tyson against her.

“And seriously, once you talk about your side of the story, Ivy will get it. I really believe that. Ivy’s had a rough go, too. She thought she’d never be able to show her face around here again after Ty rutted her in front of half the pack when he lost it about the way Mason was looking at her. She’s settling in though. She’s getting more and more comfortable. She sees that this is the place for her, the people for Her. Hopefully it won’t take long and you’ll see it too.”

“I mean… I’ve seen plenty of females rutted against their will.” She shrugs. “It’s not pretty but no other female would hold that against the girl. We understand. Males can get… aggressive.”

“Well, I’d never seen it until then. I’ve heard of it but never seen it in this village in my lifetime. It wasn’t easy to watch.”

“It never is,” she says softly and gets a faraway, sad look in her eyes.

“But we don’t need to talk about that dark time. Ivy and Ty are fine now. She thought she’d hold her grudge forever and after witnessing it myself, I thought she should. But, now she’s pregnant with his baby and over the moon about it.”

“Aw, that’s nice. I’m glad they could work it out.”

“I hafta pee,” I tell her. And on that thought, I have another thought, so I grab my bag and take it to the bathroom with me.

Behind the door, I open the envelope and pull out the small, blue glass bottle. Pretty small for the money I spent. I hope it wasn’t a waste of money as I break the perforated plastic seal. It takes me a couple minutes to figure out how to unscrew the lid, but when I do and see a rollerball. I shake it, then tip the vial and roll some on my wrist before I put my nose to my skin.

Interesting scent. Not sure I love it, but if it’ll drive Jason Creed wild I’d fucking bathe in it.

I use the facilities, wash my hands, and look in the mirror, fixing my slightly askew eyeglasses. I shorten my bra straps by two inches to give myself a bit more perkiness, unbutton the top button of my sweater, sniff my wrist again, then mosey out.

“What ‘cha doing?” I ask Stacy, who is rooting through the fridge.

“Gonna put a snack platter together,” she tells me. “If you think that’s okay?”

“Better than okay. Just gonna go talk to Jase outside. Be right back.”

“Okay!” she replies enthusiastically and pulls more food out of the fridge.

I mosey outside, feeling just a little wobbly. When I get to the door, I take a deep breath and compose myself.

When I get outside I’m disappointed to see Grey is home already. He’s talking to Jase in the driveway.

Both their gazes swing towards me and they halt their conversation. My brother’s forehead crinkles a little and his nostrils flare as he closes Stacy’s suitcase on the roof of his car.

Oh shit; is he smelling the pheromone perfume? I stumble a little, but make a decent recovery (I think), greeting, “Heya!”

“You drinkin’ in there, Bailey?” Grey asks.

“What if I am?”

“Smells like it,” he mutters, then asks, “My mate, too?”

“Uh, yup. She’s making us a snack platter right now.”

He looks a little surprised.

“Hungry Jase?” I ask, stopping less than a foot away from him. I stare up at his face. He’s so tall. He’s so hot. So very hot. I’ve had this crush on him since I was a little kid, and it went from simmering to a rapid boil once I hit puberty. But I think it all started that day he lifted me off the ground after I scraped my knees falling after his horrible, insufferable, bully sister tripped me. He dusted gravel off my knees and I didn’t even want Mom to disinfect them when I got home because of what I felt inside myself when he touched me. I could still feel his touch and I didn’t want her to wash it away.

Once I hit puberty, I started having recurring dreams of him picking me up off the ground, dusting the gravel off, then giving me his mate mark. My throat often tingles when we make eye contact like my body is gearing up and anticipating it. Sometimes I swear I could just bare my throat and shout, “Just do it already, Jason! We both know I’m yours!”

Sadly, he doesn’t know it.

“Later, Jase. Thanks again,” Grey says, on the move toward the house with Stacy’s suitcase in hand.

“You’re not driving home,” Jase tells me while two-finger-saluting my brother. “You’re shitfaced.”

“Pff. Course not. I can walk. I can practically see the roof of my house from here.” I gesture. Jase looks the way my finger is pointing and I admire his profile. His jawline, which is stubbled with facial hair that’s a touch darker than the hair on his head. Man, does it look soft...

“What you doin’?” he asks, shrugging me off.

Oops. My hand is on his jaw.

“You had a little fluff there,” I dust my hands off on my denim skirt.

“I’ll drive your car. Get in.”

“Lemme go say bye to those guys first,” I say excitedly, admiring the way his jeans fit as he walks to my car.

Maybe this perfume is working! Maybe he wants me alone before he reacts to it. Ooh…wahoo and whoopee! Maybe we’re going to make out in the car!

“Today sometime?” he prompts, one eyebrow raised expectantly.

I unglue my feet from the driveway and giggle, then skip inside and call out, “Okay, bye! Love you, Grey! Loved hangin’ with you Stacy. See you guys soon!”

There’s no answer so I wander up a flight of stairs and peer down the hall toward the kitchen and see the makings of the snack platter on the island. As I loop my big bag over my shoulder, I hear Stacy giggling upstairs.

“Ah, I see. Goodnight,” I say loud. “Hee hee. Honeymooners.”

I twist the lock for the door on my way out and find Jason Creed, the super alpha of my dreams, looking broody in the driver’s seat of my car.

Suddenly, my palms are sweaty and my belly is wobbly. I get to be alone with him in a car. It might only be for the one and a half minutes it takes to get the car swung around and down around the corner to get to my house (which would be faster to walk to than to drive to), but it could be something else that happens. Something I’ve wanted for a long, long time.

I square my shoulders as I open the car door feeling a little lightheaded, either because of the booze, the possibilities, or maybe because my bra is a little too tight.