Page 8 of Take Two (Valleywood: Season Three)

Chapter 8

Declan

I clicked a button, and somewhere in cyberspace, computers shared information and the bill was paid. I was on a high as I downloaded a receipt. Having been in such debt, I kept every receipt and screenshotted the text that said I owed nothing more to that particular company.

“Magic!”

Alan, a Wolf’s Den regular, raised his glass of beer. “Send some my way!”

“I’ll do my best.”

Gods, I could get used to this. Glancing at my trusty zippered folder that contained fewer bills than it had in months, I wondered if I could pay the remaining balances today. If so, I’d celebrate.

Yippee! Other than mating, there was only one way my beast celebrated and that was by running and hunting.

We’ll see .

The bar hummed with customers talking and laughing, while a couple argued about which song to play on the jukebox. People leaned on the counter chatting up someone they were interested in.

There were so many clients that I could no longer conduct my business on the counter, so I was tucked into a corner at a tiny desk. I could have used the shoebox-sized room that was technically my office, but I liked being in the crowd, and besides, that space was full of cases of beer.

Wren and the new guy I’d hired were serving up a storm, and I took this moment to breathe and welcome the sensation which embraced me that I wasn’t about to lose everything.

But I couldn’t take all the credit for this new influx of customers. A few weeks ago Wren had held her phone in front of me. A video played that included scenes from the bar with a voiceover making a punny expression.

“Huh? What am I looking at?” She was a sweetheart, but if she’d created that ad to drum up business for The Wolf’s Den, I had to tell her it wouldn’t work. It was cringeworthy.

“Did you do this, and if so, where did the money come from? It feels expensive,” she asked.

What? That crap? People were drawn to stuff like that? I blocked all ads on social media and muted the TV when they came on. I hadn’t told Wren about my windfall, just said she wasn’t to worry about whether I could pay her.

I held my hands up in surrender mode. “Not me. I’m innocent of that crime.”

But an hour later, new customers arrived, and one mentioned the ad. He filmed the inside of the bar, telling people how cool it was. Over the next week, people streamed in, and every night, the room was packed. I’d had inquiries about booking the place for parties, and there wasn’t a moment where someone wasn’t videoing their friends or the old-fashioned signs I’d found in a secondhand store, or hugging Wren.

It had to be him: Phobos. Not his damned brother, because it was in Deimos’s interest to see me fail. Was Phobos trying to redeem himself? It wouldn’t work. He’d used me, put me in an impossible position with his lies. I tried not to think about how my mate was lost to me. There was no way I was mating with that jackass.

But we’ll be alone until we die . My wolf had urged me to call Phobos, but I refused to allow him to walk all over me and treat me like shit. With his monied background, he’d probably done that to everyone his entire life. I pitied his poor maid, but perhaps she’d run off and that was why his house was like a bomb site.

A burst of laughter from the table closest to me brought me back to the present. The group had ordered champagne. We didn’t get many requests for bubbly, but I’d bought a few bottles ages ago, thinking I’d open one when the bar’s earnings reached a certain point. They never did, though they were close to that magical number now.

Those guys—three men and a woman—reminded me of Deimos, Phobos, and their parents. Not that they were related but the way they moved and held themselves, their self-assuredness, even their scent made me think of my mate and his family.

The phone vibrated in my pocket. My father had taken to calling me at night as well as when he drank his morning coffee.

“What’s all that noise?”

Hello to you too, Father . “Customers. They’re enjoying themselves.”

“Pfft. Selling alcohol isn’t an honest living. You need to connect with the land.”

For a wolf shifter who hunted animals and killed them, I wasn’t fond of dirt, blood, and gore, so being on the land didn’t entice me.

“The bar is doing well, Father.” He should’ve been proud of me.

“Declan, can you lend a hand?”

Wren and Astor, the new barman, needed my help, so I apologized to Father and ended the call. The next hour I was too busy serving drinks and engaging in idle chatter to think about pack life or Phobos.

Until in the midst of the crowded bar I caught a familiar scent. My head shot up as he made his way through the throng. The way he moved and how the crowd parted before him reminded me of a warm knife slicing through butter.

“Declan, I’m—”

I cut him off with, “There’s nothing you can say that will make up for what you did.” That caught the attention of customers on either side of Phobos. He steered me toward my desk in the corner and asked if there was somewhere more private we could speak.

“No.” I turned my back. “Go away. You’re not welcome here.”

Putting his hands on my shoulders, he twisted me to face him. I drew in a sharp breath at being so close to him, his icy breath mingling with my warm one and creating a little patch of fog between us.

“I need help.” His anguished expression tugged at my heart, but I crossed my arms and told my heart to ignore him.

“You mean therapy? I can recommend someone, and a cleaning service.”

“Ouch! I suppose I deserved that.”

“And more.” I pushed past him but made the mistake of heading for my former office, and he followed me.

He inspected the boxes of beer. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”

I rolled my eyes ‘cause he thought he was so damned funny. “There’s little storage here, so we make do. Unlike some people who have oodles of space and fill it with trash and clutter.”

His shoulders sagged. My heart flip-flopped, and my wolf begged me to reconsider. He’s not a bad guy .

My beast’s review was not enough to have me forgive Phobos and mate him.

“I’m inadequate.” He covered both hands with his face.

Shoot. Now we were getting into his sexual prowess or lack of it. I placed a hand on his arm. “Perhaps you should see a doctor. There are so many medical options. I’m sure they can help.”

He removed his hands. “Doctor?”

“Ummm, aren’t there little blue pills?”

“What? I… No. That’s not my problem. I’ve always been able to perform in bed.”

Not what I wanted to hear, but I’d opened the door to that subject, as lawyers called it.

“Great.” This was awkward. His cock was working fine, and so why were we here?

“I’m the mirror opposite of my brother. Where he succeeds, I fail. So I perform ridiculous stunts to try and outwit and outplay him.” He nodded at me. “Hence me pretending you and I were a thing.” He chewed his bottom lip which kindled a small fire in my belly. My body was betraying me today, and I wished I could escape.

“I fail at everything, but my world could collapse and I wouldn’t care as long as you were with me.”

Yikes, he was laying it on thick. “Did you steal that from a greeting card?”

“No. I made it up. Greeting cards? Never heard of them.”

Oh no. No, no, no. The little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, his hands on his hips, the light glinting in his eyes were trying to sway me. And my wolf was jabbering on about giving Phobos another chance.

And there was that need inside me, no matter how awful my mate was, to mate him. That instinct that had guided my kind since time began was pulling me to forgive this man who lived in and created chaos.

He didn’t have a wolf telling him to mate, but was there a niggling sensation inside him that he didn’t understand? He just knew that he had to be close to me.

I pictured my life with Phobos, wondering if I could cope with the turmoil that followed him like a shadow. But I did understand family drama and trauma. Maybe I could cut him some slack.

“Okay, what do you propose?”

“A second chance. A date.”

I drew back in horror as I dredged up the memories of the night at his folks.

“If I agree, it’s just us two. No family allowed.”

He put a hand over his heart. “I can’t wait to be alone with you.”

“And not in your house.”

He made a face “But it’s clean, and I had it redecorated so it’s more warm and less like a museum.

“Museum, huh?” I couldn’t get into a discussion about the characteristics of a museum. “Somewhere casual.”

“Hmmm, a nudist colony?”

“Phobos!” I giggled. “We’d freeze our bits in this weather.”

“Can’t have that.” He opened the door. “I’ll text you, and it’ll be perfect.”

I didn’t move, but as my wolf squeed, I told him this was Phobos’s last chance.

If he fucks up, that’s it. He’s dead to me .