Page 60 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Briar

Make the call , I thought, staring at my phone for the millionth time today. Make the first call. I knew if I just started calling clients, then I’d break down this barrier in my mind that did not want to admit defeat.

But I didn’t wanna.

In the beginning of the business when it was just me, there’d been stuff ups, some of them major.

I learned, sought to repair and renew consumer confidence, and then moved forward.

While it didn’t make logical sense, in my heart I thought I was beyond this.

There were too many failsafes, rules, and procedures for me to ever disappoint customers on this scale again.

Of course, fate had to make me her bitch and humble me.

Well, there was no point sitting there, waiting for humble pie to taste better. I just needed…

A coffee.

After I’d had a coffee. I’d make one in our kitchenette and after I’d drunk it, I’d start making calls.

This was like the stages of grief and I was in the thick of bargaining, but hey, if that’s what it took to get through this.

Consumed by that thought, I never expected to hear another voice saying exactly what I was feeling.

“Fuck…!”

Seb had made me promise to keep a baseball bat in the warehouse so I at least had something to protect myself when I worked late.

The industrial area where our building was situated was like a ghost town after six, but I picked the bat up now.

Creeping forward, glancing down aisles of boxes, I expected many things, but Jace hunched over a table, his fingers covered in what looked like gold paint was not it.

“Oh gods…” Cracked ceramics, thin lines of gold, that gorgeous line of Japanese ceramics we stocked for a while. Each thought was there and replaced by another in milliseconds. “What did you do?”

The bat was up on my shoulder and both Jace’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t move to stop me. He just sat there, looking like a kid caught stealing cookies from the biscuit jar.

When I realised what he’d been doing.

The bat fell to the floor with a clatter as I drew closer. Hands shaking, I picked up the nearest bowl, tracing the lines of gold along the surface, marking the damage that had been done to it and somehow becoming more beautiful as a result.

“You…?” My throat was closing up as if I was having an allergic reaction to the stink of epoxy. “You did this?”

“Um… do you like it?” Jace smiled nervously, and that was weird on an alpha. “If you do, then yeah. If you hate it, Mads did it.”

“It’s…” How the hell did I put this into words without sounding completely pathetic? “It’s…”

“Definitely blaming Mads for this one.”

Jace looked impossibly tired, going to shove the piece in front of him away, when my hand shot out. Unable to span his wrist, I gripped him as tightly as I could. Treating something so beautiful in a cavalier way went against something deep in my core.

“If you let me get this out, I was going to say it’s beautiful.”

“It is?” Jace looked from me to the ceramics and back again. “Really? Because I was only half joking about the praise kink thing. Like I really, really need you to like this, Briar.”

When I laughed, there were tears in my eyes, and that had his face falling. I brushed them away and said, “I really, really like it.”

Would Tom? Would the clients? My mind wanted to race ahead, plotting and planning, but with effort, I let a long breath out and then came back to the room.

“When…?” My hands went up in the air. “How…?”

“Seb talked about a line of them you had. The kintarushi thingo?” Jace said.

“ Kintsugi ?” I sagged against the table, this bone-deep tension bleeding away.

Half the reason I was avoiding dealing with this issue was because I knew throwing out all of Tom’s hard work would be like each shard was lodging itself deep in my flesh.

“And how did you become proficient in an ancient Japanese art form?”

“So…” He pushed a couple of boring white coffee mugs my way and I could see his early attempts. “I might’ve broken a couple of the cups in the kitchen, accidentally on purpose.” With a shrug he shot me a smile. “Didn’t want to practise on Tom’s pieces.”

“Smash every bit of crockery in the kitchen with my blessing.” Carefully, I cradled the closest one in my hands.

The sensations, of smooth glaze, the subtle undulations created by Tom’s hands as he drew the form up from a lump of clay and now the faint indentation of the gold repairs.

It felt good, right in my grip, making it hard for me to put back down.

“Like seriously. This…” When I turned to face Jace, his eyes were purest silver right now, as if his wolf wanted to witness this too.

“This is incredible. I could just kiss you right now.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

The growl was back in his voice as his eyes dropped down. Focussed entirely on my mouth, a hidden force had me setting the pot down because my hands needed him, not the bowl right now.

That harsh bone structure, those full lips, they parted to let out a shuddering breath as my thumbs brushed across his cheeks.

Strength and vulnerability, he didn’t know how much more attractive that was than the cocky bullshit he pulled back in the forest. I kissed him because he needed it as much as I did, something that slammed into me as soon as my mouth touched his.

It’d never felt so right with a beta. With no heat to obscure my observation, it hit me hard. We were perfectly matched, duelling for control in a fight we were both going to win.

“Fuck, Briar…”

He plucked me off my stool, putting me between him and the table, my legs straddling his, when someone cleared their throat.

Guiltily, we both turned to see Gideon appear, a small smile on his face.

Those amber eyes seemed to take everything in for seconds, right before he said, “No need to stop on my account.”

But the moment was gone. When I tried to dismount, Jace’s grip tightened, so I asked my questions on his lap, feeling a hard lump pressing against the core of me.

“How many have you done?” I asked.

“I’m about halfway through them,” he replied, gazing up at me. “And with this kind of incentive.” His grin was back as his hips swivelled, because I may have let out a little moan at that. “I think I could be done in a couple of days.”

“What did you use? The lacquer the Japanese apply is a known poison and many people develop an allergenic reaction to it.”

“No urushi lacquer.” His smile dimmed then. “The girl at the art’s supply store had no idea what that was. The gold powder is pure though. Just mixed it with some ten-minute epoxy glue. It takes longer to cure properly, but it's doing the job.”

“An amazing job.” Jace almost preened as I pushed a lock of his hair behind his ear. “I can’t believe you did all of this for…”

For me, that felt arrogant to say, but that’s where Gideon came in handy. He settled down on the stool adjacent to ours.

“For you? There isn’t a lot we wouldn’t do, Briar. You’re our mate. We thought we knew what was best for you,” Gideon said in that deep voice of his.

“And fucked that up completely.”

Jace’s smile faded.

“But we’re learning what’s important to you now.” Gideon unlocked his phone and pushed it towards me, pressing play on the video that was on screen, and that’s when I heard Emma’s excited chatter come through the speakers.

“The natural stone against the pottery… The colours in the stained glass windows! We can set up plinths all through the space, and the fact it’s an old church will give everything a kind of ceremonial air…”

I saw it, everything she described and more. My mind began to race and when I pulled away, Jace’s hand slid down my back.

“What…?” The moment I saw the Whitlocks, it was like waves were created in the too-still lake of my life.

They’d gotten higher and faster, forcing me to swim with them.

I’d kept my head above water, paddling for my life, as I often did, but now.

Now they were coming too hard, too fast, and I was drowning.

My elbows dropped down to the desk as I stared at the phone then them. “Can someone explain what’s happening?”

“We screwed everything up.” There was a terrible finality about Gideon’s voice. “You were right. Fate decided that we were the alphas for you, so it was on us to make your life exponentially better, not…” His lips pursed but he relaxed them with effort. “Not try to shoehorn you into ours.”

“Mads sees it clearly.” I turned to see Jace scrubbing glue from his hands. “This is our alpha trials. We don’t need to impress the town. Just you. Whatever it takes to help you feel safe, feel supported, like you aren’t in this shit alone? That’s what we’ll do.”

“The launch, this business.” Gideon looked around the warehouse.

“This is what’s important, so I went with Emma to deal with the deposit issue.

There won’t be a launch at the convention centre.

” I felt a pang at that, something he noted with a nod, but then he forged on.

“So I impressed upon the manager that he needed to look after the business relationship he had with you. There were some alternatives and Emma seemed to think this venue would work better. I do too.”

I sank down onto a stool and Jace’s arm was a warm weight around my waist. It helped ground me because right now I felt like I was going to float away.

Relief, sweet relief, but more than that.

Before, I had a product launch I was excited about, but this?

This was something far grander. With a grin, I looked at both of them.

“I think we go for it.”

Jace darted in, pressing a kiss to my forehead and Gideon looked like he’d do the same, when his phone started ringing. We all stared at the screen, seeing a video call from Mads was coming through. My finger moved on automatic, accepting the call and then his face appeared on the screen.

“Gideon?” His face was a little flushed, his eyes shining. “Oh, hey, babe.” Just like that, he was using a pet name, as if we’d been together forever. “Just the girl I want to talk to. Tom!”

“What!”

“Tom…?”

I had questions, so many questions, but right then the potter appeared on screen.

“This one’s a keeper, Briar.” Tom looked like he’d had a couple of beers, and so had everyone else if the noise in the background was anything to go by.

“Don’t let him get away, or the one that did this.

” The reason for Mads’ trip was soon evident as a gold laced pot was presented to the screen.

“Broke my damn heart, the smashed up pieces, but that Jace?—”

“Hey, Tom!” Jace called out.

“If Briar doesn’t want you, mate, you can come and work on the farm. Can round up sheep and fix cracked pots? I’ll have more than enough work to keep you busy.”

“No, can do, Tom.” Jace pulled me close and then pressed a kiss to my burning cheeks. “Not when my girl’s right here.”

“Well, these repairs are fucking brilliant, mate,” Tom said and there was a roar from the pub behind him. “Tell me when the launch is, Briar, and I’ll drive down for it.”

“But you…”

Tom never came to the city. Born here, his scorn for large urban centres was palpable. It was only when Honey threatened to leave him that he’d relent and come with her to do some shopping. He was gone before I could say much more and Mads came back on screen.

“So, whaddya think, omega?” His grin made clear he knew exactly what he was doing, using my designation. “Wanna do a product launch with us?”