Page 12 of Love Bites (Timber Creek #2)
CHAPTER 12
SUMMER
“I can’t get rid of my Willie, not even when I shower,” my dad said from where he sat in my café, surrounded by his gardening club that held meetings here every Wednesday morning for the last two years.
Lance, his best friend, nodded along, as if my father hadn’t said anything out of the norm. “Have you tried videos? Maybe he needs inspiration to adapt to his new life.”
“Tried that.” My dad shook his head. “He didn’t rise to the occasion.”
“Can you hear yourselves?” Zara said as she leaned back in her chair, sipping on her coffee that had to be nearly empty by now. The young witch was our local doctor and was about as no-nonsense as they came, which only seemed to spur on my father and his best friend. “We’re talking about buffalo, and yet every word out of your mouth sounds like a dirty innuendo, Heath.”
“That says more about you than it does me, darling.” My dad grinned, then winked at me as I crossed the room to refill Zara’s coffee. “I just need Willie to remember he’s a wild animal that is supposed to live outside , and not in my living room. Not that I mind his company, but there is a whole herd of buffalo waiting just outside my doors, ready to include him in the family.”
“How about you start with leaving the door open, and stop feeding him?”
Heath pursed his lips, giving a slight shake of his head. “I could, I suppose. But what if he starves?”
“He is a wild animal, not a pet,” Zara deadpanned. Lance opened his mouth, but she held up a hand to stop him. “Stop feeding into this insanity.”
I chuckled, turning back to the counter to leave them be. It had been a week since I got back from Boston with Max, and my life had returned to normal.
As normal as it could be after experiencing his bite. I still hadn’t heard from him since he’d disappeared from my roof, but maybe that was for the best for now, or so I kept telling myself.
The café was empty besides my dad and his club, so I pulled up a barstool and grabbed my notebook, flipping open to the page I’d scribbled my bucket list on. It wasn’t as pretty without the visuals I had on the board in my room, but it was enough to let my mind wander.
After our trip to Boston, I was itching for more adventure, and all of these dreams seemed too small now. In the moment, Grigor and his threats had scared me, but in hindsight all I could remember was how alive I’d felt.
For once, I hadn’t been West’s little sister, the baby Larkin, the low-power wolf, or the happy baker girl. I’d crafted my own identity that night, and then lived a life I never could have imagined, even if it was only for a few hours.
Visit a vampire den, I scribbled at the bottom of the list, then crossed it off. “Look at me, doing things.”
“Talking to yourself again?” Indi said as she flickered in beside me, appearing out of thin air.
“No, I was summoning you.” I drew a pentagram on a page, then wrote her name in the middle.
“Ha ha.” Indie grabbed the paper and crumpled it before small flames licked up her fingers and incinerated it. “You know that stuff doesn’t work like in the stories. I’m not a demon from hell, sent here to terrorize you.”
“Not unless it’s a crime of boredom, right?”
“And bad fashion choices.” Indi nodded. “I can’t allow either of those in good conscience.”
“Why I keep you around.” I hopped off my barstool and headed to the kitchen. “Want a snack?”
“Sure,” Indi said, but there was a beat of hesitancy. I turned around to question her and saw my notebook she held aloft, finger pointed at the line I’d just written and crossed off. “Um?”
My eyes blew wide as I looked from her to my dad and back, then tipped my head to the kitchen doors.
Indi followed me back into the space, and I turned on every appliance I could, grabbing the notebook back from her. “You can’t tell anyone. Or, wait,” I paused, “Tell every single person on the entire planet.”
“Dang.” Indi’s nose scrunched, and I grinned. Demons had a hard time following direct orders, so if I’d told her to tell no one, she most likely wouldn’t keep it secret. But by asking her to tell everyone , she now couldn’t tell anyone. “Okay, spill it, sister.”
So I did. I told her about Max showing up here, about what he needed help with, and how I also seemed to be the perfect candidate for it all.
Indi’s eyebrows skyrocketed when I told her about our trip to Boston. “You slept in the same bed as him?”
“I’m not sure he actually slept , and that sounds way dirtier than I intended,” I added when Indi chuckled. “I don’t know where he went, but I think I was alone most of the night.”
“That’s almost as bad as him sleeping on the floor.”
“That’s what I thought!”
“Okay, so you found the den?”
“Yes, thank you.” I resumed the story, happy to have a friend understand how sidetracked I got with random side-stories that were equally as important but often lost me somewhere in the middle.
“Aren’t vampires supposed to be super violent?”
I hummed. “They were not friendly, that’s for sure. As far as I can tell, they’re interested in feeding, fighting, and fu?—”
Indi slapped her hand over my mouth right as my dad walked through the door. She dropped her hand and spun to face Heath, while we both grinned like we’d just been caught red-handed. Subtlety was not our forte.
“Sorry, Heath,” Indi said with a sheepish smile. “We were just talking about demon mating habits. My biological clock is ticking, and all.”
My dad frowned, looking between us. “Aren’t you over a hundred, Indi?”
“Yep.” She nodded emphatically. “The perfect time to raise a little hellion, don’t you think?”
I smiled as I stared at my dad, doing my best to even out my heartbeat and breathing, reducing any signals his wolf would pick up on that we were lying.
“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked, glancing between us.
I gave him a thumbs up. “Right as rain.”
He looked around the kitchen again, then nodded. “You might want to turn off your mixers. You haven’t put the ingredients in yet.”
I slapped my forehead, then leaned over and turned them off. “I knew I forgot something.”
My dad kissed my forehead with a laugh. “Just like your dad, huh? Anyway, we’re all done. Dishes are on the counter.”
“Okay!” I waved him out of the kitchen, headed back to the neat pile of dessert plates and coffee cups ready to be taken back to the dishwasher.
Indi followed me out, mouthing talk later.
I nodded, and she disappeared. Conveniently, we hadn’t gotten to the part of the story where Max bit me and lit my body on fire.
For some reason, I wasn’t ready to talk about that yet. Maybe because I kept having to reassure myself it had actually happened and wasn’t just a figment of my overactive imagination.
“Bye sweetie!” my dad called as the door bells jingled, waving as he walked down the street towards our family’s restaurant.
I grabbed the dishes and headed into the kitchen as the bells jingled again. “Be right there!” I called.
Setting the dishes on the counter, I fixed my ponytail and straightened my apron, then went back towards the café, pausing at the scent I smelled on the other side. Sandalwood and copper.
Max was back.
My heart raced as I opened and closed my hands, trying to think through everything I wanted to say to convince him I needed to go with him on the rest of his den hunting adventures. I’d had a taste, and I needed more. His biting me and subsequently freaking out was just an overreaction and we didn’t need to worry about it — or maybe I just shouldn’t bring that up at all?
I pushed the doors open, aiming for calm confidence that went up in smoke when the door swung back harder than I’d anticipated, almost nailing me in the forehead.
“Oh, hey Max. Funny seeing you here.”
He crooked his head, staring around my café then back at me. “Where you live and work? Yeah, major coincidence.”
I laughed way too hard, waving him off. “Good one.” Smooth, Summer. Real smooth. “How can I help you?”
Max held up my luggage, the lavender daisy print suitcase looking absurd against his all-black getup. “Bringing this back for you.”
Okay, apparently we were pretending the bite never happened. Well, I could play along, especially if it got us past this weirdness and back out on the search for dens.
“Oh, thanks!” I grabbed it from him, wheeling it to the hallway that led up to my apartment above. “So, you went back to Boston?”
Max shoved his hands in his pockets. “I did.”
“And?” I leaned my elbows on the counter. “Did you go back to the den?”
“Nope,” Max said, his brows drawn down in annoyance. “It was gone. Whatever happened after we left, they decided to move by the time I got back.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.” I grabbed a dessert plate and a pair of tongs, sliding the glass door open and picking out a rainbow sprinkle sugar cookie, then slid it across the counter to him. “It’s almost like you need a partner.”
Max looked down at the cookie, then back at me. “No.”
I grabbed the plate, then circled the counter to stand in front of him, hand outstretched. The cookie was a guess, but for some reason, I was willing to bet this moody, broody man loved a good sugar cookie. “You need me. Just say it.”
Max shook his head. “Are you insane? You remember what happened, right? Or did it get lost in your pretty little head?”
Well, that did it. I slammed the cookie down, plate rattling, and jerked my chin up, but unlike last time we’d been together, I didn’t have heels on. I only reached his shoulder in my sneakers, so I hopped on top of a stool to meet his eye. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” His deep blue eyes blazed as he stared back at me, not giving an inch, but he’d lit my fuse the moment he taunted me. “You’ve probably already ended up on some vamp watch list after that stunt you pulled, being immune to Grigor’s mind hold. Which, speaking of, should have been impossible. The moment he sliced into your skin, you should have been paralyzed by his magic. Even without the blood, his touch alone should have granted him control over your body.”
“Really?” I frowned, thinking back to those seconds in his hold. It was all kind of a blur now. “I was stunned for a minute, and definitely creeped out, but certainly not paralyzed . Maybe he was just bad at it?”
“Bad at it?” Max huffed. “He’s one of the strongest vampires in the U.S., and Grigor is known for keeping his victims in thrall rather than erasing their memories and letting them go like he’s supposed to, like he’d kept Quentin. Knowing him, he’ll obsess over you now out of spite. And you want to march right back in there, or into some other den, and let any vampire see you and report back to him?”
“Tell me, Massimo dearest” — I poked his chest — “while you were busy posturing and dick measuring with Grigor, did you even notice how the Black vampire to our left watched us? Looked excited you were challenging his leader? Or how he locked eyes with the curly-haired female across the room?”
Max’s mouth slackened, a frown forming as he tried to remember. But it was obvious he had been too focused on Grigor to notice anything else in the room.
“That’s what I thought. Well, I noticed. Posturing for power roles is very much a part of pack life, and I’m used to watching for signs my brothers may be under attack. And let me tell you, that den was like a powder keg, ready to blow. Not everyone in that den likes Grigor’s leadership style. Dissent is something we can work with, whichever way the dice rolls, and is what you were looking for anyway, right?” I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “See? You.” Poke . “Need.” Poke . “Me.” Poke .
“What I noticed” — Max leaned forward almost imperceptibly, his blue eyes darkening as he damn near pushed me off the stool — “was you being unable to take my lead. The safest way for you to enter a den is if you belong to me, silent and obedient like a good Source unless told otherwise. Then you’re off limits to anyone else in there. I tried to get us out of there safely, tried to convince Grigor you were mine, and you couldn’t do it.”
“And yet, you told me none of that first. I’m good at a lot of things, Maraschino, but mind-reading isn’t one of them. You didn’t even give me the basic rundown so I could pretend to be yours.”
“I don’t think you can pretend at all. That would take a little impulse control, wouldn’t it? After you sprinted down the city streets of Boston in your wolf form, I think we both know that’s not exactly in your wheelhouse.”
I blinked, but I refused to let him see how that one stung. He wasn’t the first person to throw my impulsiveness at me, and he wouldn’t be the last. Instead, I flashed him my sweetest smile.
“Oh, honey. You think I can’t fake it?” I patted his shoulder, trailing my finger across his collarbone. “I’m a woman. We have to be exceptionally good at faking it to keep your fragile male egos intact.”
“What?” Max frowned, but I was already scheming.
“Oh, that reminds me!” I tapped the side of my head, like I’d forgotten something. “West mentioned he had something to talk to you about.”
“He didn’t text me.”
I laughed. “Must have slipped his mind. You know Westly, busy busy Alpha. Anyway, I’m heading up to the house after I change, so just tag along. I’ll be back down in five minutes, okay? Eat your cookie and relax.”
Without waiting for a reply, I hurried across the café and ascended the stairs as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket.
Summer
Family barbecue still on for today?
Terran
I thought you were busy inventorying the new merch you got last week?
Dad
Just fired up the grillie with my Willie!
Aspen
Dad, please. You coming, S?
I swore under my breath, having forgotten she was back in town. I had a lot of lies to sell today, and Aspen always seemed to read right through me.
Summer
Change of plans.
Jade
Come on over, Summer! Cooper and Heath are cooking.
I grinned, knowing that meant everyone would show up. Although Terran and I owned restaurants, our brother Cooper was the best cook in the family.
Summer
Sounds good. My boyfriend and I will be there in an hour.
West
BOYFRIEND?
Chuckling, I pulled my apron over my head and slid out of my work clothes, grabbing a sundress instead. “Let’s see your acting abilities, Massimo.”