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25

RILEY

I loved watching Cody work. Well, other than seeing all the women flirting with him. He flirted back, but I knew it was just his way–a role he played to make people feel welcome in his saloon.

I couldn’t fault the women because he was just that manly and gorgeous, but I wanted to claw all their eyes out with the newfound feelings of possessiveness.

Tonight it didn’t bother me so much. Especially not after he said he loved me. I worked for an hour, bussing tables and washing glasses until the crowd thinned. The big group of out-of-towners left and things got back to a normal Cooper Valley cadence .

The band scheduled to play came in and started setting up during the lull between the happy hour and late night dance crowd, but country music still blasted from the speakers in the meantime.

I slumped onto my stool at the bar where Cody poured me a club soda with lime, making it look like a cocktail with the thin cocktail straw and everything, but was very alcohol free in case someone from the sheriff’s department came back to card some more. Meaning Dad, but I figured he’d move onto some other petty idea if he was still being a cranky ass.

It was during this lull that Boyd Wolf and his wife came in. I didn’t know them personally, but Boyd had been a famous rodeo star before he quit the circuit and fairly infamous for Cooper Valley. He’d quit and settled down with Dr. Ames, the local OB-GYN. That was all I knew about them. Was. Past tense. This week, however, I now knew Boyd Wolf’s secret.

I studied him, looking for any evidence of his being a wolf. There was his physique. They all had that in common—Cody, Tyler, Boyd, and his brother, Rob Wolf. Big, good-looking guys with perfect, cut muscles. Growing up in this town, I just assumed half the men in the county looked so buff because they were cowboys. Their bodies had been shaped and hewn through hard work and manual labor. Now, I knew it was probably because some of them were also blessed with wolf genes.

Cody waved at him and held up a finger, as he was talking with a customer at the end of the bar.

Boyd waved in return but smiled at me, like he recognized me, and tipped his hat. He led his wife over to the bar, and they settled in the empty stools beside me.

“Hey there.” Boyd stretched out a hand. “Boyd Wolf.”

The doctor stretched out a hand as well. “I’m Audrey.”

We shook. “Riley Abbott.”

“Right, Deputy Abbott’s daughter.” Boyd grinned.

“Yes,” I agreed. “And Cody’s girlfriend.” Girlfriend. There, I said it, and it felt good. No, better than good. I was proud of being Cody’s mate, and I wanted to show the other shifters that I was one of them now. Or, kinda one of them.

“Boyd, get down here and settle a dispute about rodeo belt buckles between these two yahoos.” Cody pointed to two men who seemed to be at odds with each other.

Boyd grinned and moved down the bar to referee while Cody made drinks.

With him gone, Audrey turned my way. “I’m so glad things are working out with you and Cody. He’s a great guy.”

I wondered if she knew that I knew. “Yes, he’s a keeper.”

“Listen.” Audrey leaned in closer, laying a hand on mine. Looked me square in the eye. I felt like she was going to tell me I needed my appendix removed or something. “I know how overwhelming it can be to find out your new boyfriend is also a different species.” She dropped her voice to almost nothing on the word species.

“You know, ” I said, wide eyed.

She laughed, then whispered, “I’m married to one, so it’s pretty hard to miss when your husband–mate–is not only growly by nature but can turn into a wolf.”

I gnawed on my lip, wondering if I should ask. “So… um, you’re not a wolf, too?” I lowered my voice to match hers. The band was tuning up, so the sharp twangs from a guitar cut filled the air, so it would be hard for anyone to overhear. Still…

She shook her head. “No. I was the doctor at the rodeo when Boyd got gored by a bull. Imagine the shock I was in when his wound seemed to heal before my very eyes!”

I gaped in surprise. “Wow.”

Cody had said he would heal if he got shot, but gored? I cringed just thinking about the horrible injury.

My brain started skidding around. Was it pack protocol to mate anyone who found out? Maybe this mate thing with Cody wasn’t biology so much as a mandate. That usual flicker of doubt lit like a match on flint. Wait. No. I needed to stop doubting Cody’s intentions. Worrying that I was too young for him. Or that players never settled down. Or waiting for him to leave. That was the big one, and I blamed my dad for all that and other worries in my head.

“Anyway, I just want you to know that I’m here to talk about it. How to keep a secret from your family. How to manage integrating into a new world. I’m here anytime you want.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at the older woman although probably still a few years younger than Cody. “I really appreciate that. I do have a million questions.”

Audrey fished a business card out of her purse and handed it to me. “Here.” She wrote her cell phone on the back of it. “Call me anytime. My sister also mated a Wolf brother, and she’s closer to your age. Maybe the three of us could get together to hang out.”

Really? Two women I could talk with who knew about shifters? And nice, to boot? “I’d love that. ”

The crowd had thinned out around the bar, and Audrey and I shifted closer to where Cody and Boyd were now chatting. Another man had joined their conversation and was talking and gesturing loudly. He’d obviously had a few beers already.

“How can I compete on the dating scene with Cody, though?” The man’s voice boomed as if his preschool “inside voice” was broken. “Every woman here has either hooked up with him or wants to hook up with him.”

Some of that glowy warmth that had been in my chest leaked away.

“Well, you’re in luck.” Cody was genial–obviously adept at handling drunk guys. “I’m off the market now. The ladies are all yours, Hank.”

The guy, Hank, lifted his glass to him in salute. “Show me your ways, oh great one. You’ve scattered your seed far and wide, Mr. Player.”

Cody caught my eye and sent an apologetic look. “Nope. No seed scattered. You’ve got me wrong, big guy.”

“Riiiiiight,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “You learned that lesson the hard way with Tyler, didnya? Wrapped it up good after that.”

Wrapped it up… oh .

“One was plenty,” Cody agreed. “I’m definitely done.”

He’s definitely done.

My stomach dropped out. Cody didn’t say the words with that placating tone used with a drunk guy to shut him up. He said them like he meant them. Like there was no doubt in his mind. Like he was definitely done with having kids.

Oh, God.

Dad had mentioned it during our fight, but he’d thrown out so many ways Cody wasn’t good for me that I glossed over it. I’d been working on whether Cody really wanted me. When he said forever, I assumed it meant… everything. But he hadn’t meant everything if he didn’t want more kids.

God, he’d already raised one.

When I pictured having kids, it wasn’t being a stepmom to my own close high school friend. It was like a bad TV movie.

I wanted a house full of noise and laughter and a slew of kids. Babies, not a nineteen-year old.

There was now a tarnish on the luster of our relationship. God, it was because I was so inexperienced! Why hadn’t I thought all of this through? Why did I think Cody saying all the right things meant everything would actually be all right ?

Because you’re nineteen and have never been with a guy before. Not even a starter-guy like Matt or Ethan. I jumped all-in, didn’t I?

The band struck up a song. “Hey, Hank–why don’t you go see if one of those women cares to dance?” Cody suggested.

Hank slid off the bar stool and downed his beer. He was a little wobbly on his feet but would probably dance better half-drunk anyway. “Okay. I think I will.”

“You got this, buddy.” Boyd thumped him on the back, sending him away with a grin. Audrey slid up against his side, and he wrapped a muscled arm around her waist. “Riley, you seem like a real sweetheart. I’m glad things are going to work out between you two,” Boyd said, as if there had been some doubt about it.

Cody’s gaze was on me. He winked.

Alarm bells were going off at Boyd’s words, but I wasn’t sure why. I swallowed. “What do you mean, work out ?”

Boyd missed my disquiet–too boisterous after cajoling the drunk customers. He laughed. “Rob said if anyone could make a woman fall for him in one week, it’d be Cody!”

I reeled back, suddenly dizzy.

What was he talking about ?

“One week?” I croaked. It was way too hot in here. I sought Cody’s gaze. “What does he mean, one week?”

Boyd realized his mistake, and his smile fell alway. Audrey’s forehead wrinkled in concern.

Cody glanced at both of them, which was the clincher for me. They all knew something I didn’t. “No…it’s nothing, sugar,” he said in a way that made me believe the exact opposite.

My stomach, already queasy, churned. Tears burned behind my eyes. I remembered what Audrey had said–Boyd mated her after she’d found out about his secret.

Oh my God! Was that all this was? Rob told him to make me fall in love, so I wouldn’t tell anyone about what I’d seen out on the trail? Maybe he didn’t think Tyler had the chops to make a woman fall in love, so the task fell to Cody.

A more experienced seducer of women. A player.

I felt sick.

“What was the week?” I demanded. “One week to claim me?” Damn the wobble in my voice!

Both Boyd and Cody darted glances around, as if worried someone heard me say “claim.”

“No.” Cody shook his head. “It wasn’t that. Listen, sugar. Let’s go somewhere private to talk. ”

Now he just wanted to get me out of here before I revealed their precious secret.

I took a step back. “No! I don’t want to go anywhere with you. If you have something to say, you can say it here, in front of everyone.”

“Okay, listen.” Cody stepped up close to the bar and lowered his head to speak in a low voice. “It’s like I told you before. Rob wanted me to wipe your memory. That’s why I took you from your Nana’s house in the first place. I made a bargain with him–I asked for a week.”

“A bargain,” I whispered because the wind had been knocked out of me.

I stumbled further away, almost tripping over a stool, to get away from his intoxicating pull. Out of his magnetizing influence. He seemed to think his explanation made it better, but it didn’t.

One week. It was a game. A bargain.

I’d been manipulated. Played. I felt so damn cheap right now.

My dad was right. Cody was just like my mom. A player. But it was so much worse. He wasn’t just out to take my virginity or to fool around. He was using my attraction to him to buy my silence.

It was sick.

I felt sick .

“So, what? Was everyone making bets on whether Cody the man-whore could land a virgin or something?” The tears started to spill.

Boyd looked pissed. Audrey looked concerned enough to set her hand on my arm.

“What?” Cody’s brows slammed down. “No. Absolutely not.” He came around the bar, like he wanted to touch me. I couldn’t let that happen.

I held up a hand. “Stay there.”

For once, Cody did what I asked, pausing at the end of the bar with a tortured look on his face.

“It worked. I fell for you, and it only took… four days. Maybe it’s a new personal best.”

“Sugar,” he growled.

“Don’t sugar me. God, do you call all the girls that, so you don’t have to remember any names?” I laughed, but it was so fucking bitter.

“Riley, calm down and think. I wouldn’t–”

I raised both hands as if stopping a freight train from barreling down on me.

“Oh boy, don’t tell a girl to calm down,” Audrey murmured to herself.

“You wouldn’t… what?” I asked Cody. “Stick around now that I said that I loved you? Give me kids? Yeah, I know. You’re definitely done , right?”

His lips firmed and made a straight line. Yeah, he wasn’t talking now.

“You were playing me.” I shook my head, ran a hand over my face. “Why else would you be with me knowing… knowing you won’t give me all things someone my age would want unless it was just a game? A bargain.”

“It wasn’t a play. You know what you are to me.” He looked around again, like he couldn’t say the word mate out loud.

I scoffed. “I don’t believe that. Why now? We’ve met before. I grew up in this town, and you never showed an ounce of interest until I saw a wolf fight a mountain lion on the trail.”

“I didn’t know until now.”

I gave him a condemning look. “No more lines. I’m done.” God, it hurt. But what made it even worse was that Dad had been right. About everything. I’d played at being a grown up. I was hurt and humiliated. Now Dad would be even more of a helicopter parent, butting into my love life because I was such a dumbass.

I headed to the door, weaving through the tables and the people who were having a good time, not freaking out because the guy who said he loved her a little while ago only said it because it ended a fucking bargain. I love you was his finish line.

“Riley, wait!” Cody followed and caught my elbow, but when I shook him off he let go. “Please. Let’s talk about this.”

I shook my head, fresh tears streaking my face. “I’m not your conquest. There’s nothing to talk about. Tell Rob not to worry, I’ll forget all about you.”