Page 123 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

It was a short drive to the pub. Well, everything was a short drive in the small town of Forest Grove, but in reality, Grove’s End was the furthest you could get without leaving town limits. It sat just on the outer rim, a little down the way from Gerry’s Shake Shack.

It didn’t look like much on the outside: a tall, slender building with the lower level—the pub— painted all in black with silver lettering for the sign hanging above the door.

A tall window gave passersby a glance inside, but keeping it fairly dim made it difficult for mortal eyes to see in without actually entering.

The scent of beer and tang of liquor mixed with the mouth-watering salted grease perfume of fresh cut fries as I parked and made my way inside.

It being a Wednesday and smack dab in between lunch and dinner, there were only the usuals seated at the bar. An older gentleman called Tuck, a younger guy named Darren in his construction boots and safety vest from an early morning shift, and Clay.

I grinned at my mate as I made my way to him. He sensed me before he saw me, and I caught the slight upturning of his lips on his side profile before he turned.

“Well if it isn’t the queen, herself,” he teased, and I leaned down to kiss him, but he yanked me onto his lap instead, making me yelp.

“Hey!” Destiny chastised from behind the bar. “Those stools aren’t built for two.”

I tried to squirm out of his hold but that only made him hold tighter, his big hands gripping my hips like vises, keeping me pinned against his lap.

“Horseshit,” Clay grumbled in reply. “Have you seen some of our customers? If they can hold them, they can sure as hell hold me and this toothpick.”

“Have you seen you?”

She had a point. Clay was huge. The biggest shifter in the Forest Grove pack by far. Even if he weren’t big boned and over six feet tall, the countless pounds of muscle added to his already large frame made him downright monstrous.

Despite myself, I laughed, giving up and letting Clay hold me there. I didn’t actually want to move anyway. I hadn’t seen him since yesterday and already the nearness of him was settling my nerves and reinvigorating me through the mate bond.

His grip loosened, and he slung an arm around my middle, leaning in to breathe in my scent. His stubble pricked the back of my neck, and I shuddered as his warm breath fanned over my collarbone. Bastard knew exactly what he was doing to me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked a moment later as Destiny left to pour another beer for Darren. I didn’t dare turn to face him, lifting a shoulder in a little shrug.

“Nothing,” I replied, covering the waver in my voice by clearing my throat. “Hey, Des, want to grab me a whiskey?”

She raised a brow at my request. I rarely ever drank at the pub. I definitely didn’t during the day. But a whiskey might be just the thing. The Chevelle would be safe parked at Grove’s End overnight since we had someone here twenty-four hours for security, and I could use the run back to pack camp.

“Make it two, then,” Clay added, giving my side a little squeeze that told me without words that he knew something was up but wouldn’t push me.

Not right now anyway. Not with mortal ears four seats down the bar and Destiny hovering.

“So, how’s things here?” I asked both Destiny and Clay, sipping my whiskey and letting the burn of it slinking down my throat sear away the last dregs of my unease.

“Good,” Clay and Des answered at the same time. “Better than we expected so far,” Des added.

“Season doesn’t really start for another couple weeks but we’re full most nights.”

I smiled genuinely at that, throwing Des a wink. “Told you it would be.”

Grove’s End was Jared and Clay’s baby. After I took over for the corrupt former alpha of the Forest Grove pack, Jared took over running his family’s quarry.

He’d always been good with numbers and over the years, we slowly replaced all the employees as they moved on or retired with shifters from the pack.

Business was booming, and when Clay saw that this old building had been listed for sale, the two of them agreed this would be a smart move.

I couldn’t even put into words how glad I was to see it thriving.

The first year had been rough, like any new business just starting out they ran into pitfall after pitfall.

Barriers to getting a food and liquor license.

Mold in the ceiling. A burst water pipe a month into the grand opening.

Not to mention that the normal people in town tended to shy away from the place based purely on their natural instincts.

They may not be able to physically see the wolves within the owners and employees of the pub, but they could sense it. We were predators. They were prey.

A few months of one-dollar happy hour and two- dollar beers made them set aside their misgivings though.

Now we charged full price and they still came.

Truth be told, there weren’t many half decent places in this town to get a good pint or a half decent burger, and if there were two things shifters did best, it was burgers and beer.

“You’re coming to the bonfire later, right?” I asked Clay, tipping back the rest of my whiskey with a shudder.

“For a while. It’s my patrol tonight.”

A sinking feeling in my gut had me clenching my teeth, and Clay tugged me closer. “Hey,” he said, grabbing me by the chin to make me look at him. “I can pass it off to someone else if you’d rather I—”

“No,” I stopped him. “No, it’s fine. I’m just—I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Tired, I guess.”

He wasn’t buying it, I could tell by the way his brows pulled together and his keen blue eyes narrowed. If the witch came back again, I’d tell him. For now, there was no reason to bring it up. There was no reason for me to be worried that he’d be running the perimeter of our lands tonight.

There’d be at least one other shifter with him.

They’d be fine.

I leaned in and kissed him before he could say anything else, lingering there long enough for his lips to soften and for him to reach up and tangle his fingers in my hair.

My skin flashed hot from his touch, thighs clenching, before I forced myself to pull away.

It was too easy to get carried away with Clay.

“See you soon?”

“See you soon,” he confirmed, his face returning to the stoic mask he wore for everyone else but me.

I fluffed his hair, trying to bring the smile back, but he only batted my hand away.

He’d kept his inky black hair cropped short for so long that the new look, with it longer on top and shaved down to almost nothing on the sides still made me pause every time I saw him.

It was severe in a very Clay way. It suited him.

I snorted, hopping down from the stool.

“Hey,” Clay barked, snagging me by the arm. “Give me your keys.”

I frowned at him. “I wasn’t going to drive, anyway.”

“Then you won’t mind handing them over.”

Grumbling to myself, I drew them out of my pocket and tossed them to him.

He and I both knew that two fingers of Jack weren’t enough to really impair my driving.

Shifters burned that shit off at least five times faster than mortals.

It’d be out of my system in less than twenty minutes.

But it was one of his many rules, and breaking them had never worked out in my favor.

“Tell Vivian not to wait up if she’s tired,” Destiny called after me, taking my emptied glass from the bar. “Kyle’s on security tonight so I shouldn’t be too late, but you know how she gets when she’s over-tired.”

“Don’t we all?”

I’d known Vivian for most of my life. She was one of my best friends, and at first, it’d been hard to share her with Destiny, but there truly wasn’t anything that could keep a mated pair apart.

Besides, they were so happy that I wouldn’t have dared try.

Even if Destiny could be one of the most filterless, abrasive people I’d ever met when the mood struck her.

“I’ll tell her.”

The half-drunk customers lifted their beers to me as I left, and I offered them both a nod.

I didn’t play a massive role in any of our pack-run businesses, but I was sure that by the way my pack regarded me in public, the general population of Forest Grove probably thought I was some kind of Queenpin.

I chuckled darkly to myself as I made my way down the street toward where the sidewalk ended. If only they knew that I spent the first two—no, really the first three—years in my role as alpha, stumbling through day to day.

I’d had no idea what I was doing, and if I hadn’t had Jared and Clay and the others to guide me, I was one hundred percent sure I would have royally fucked something up by now.

As it was, we were all still here. Still alive.

Wealthier than we’d ever been. More at peace than we’d ever been.

And somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like I was trying to shove my foot into a shoe that didn’t fit.

I made my way wistfully past my Chevelle, cursing myself that I forgot to get my books out of the passenger seat before giving the keys to Clay.

I supposed I could wait another day to read them.

It was better than going back in there now and would only serve to give Clay two opportunities to take the keys from me in front of staff and customers. The bastard.

Taking a quick look around the immediate area, I made sure there wasn’t anyone watching as I slid from the edge of the concrete and into the tree line. My wolf awoke at the scent of damp earth and warm pine, making my skin bristle and a little rumble quake in my chest.

I cracked my neck, moving to our spot further in to be sure I was away from any prying eyes before stripping down to my birthday suit. I crudely folded the clothes and set my boots atop them, shoving the leaves and bramble away from the nook between the tree and midsize boulder to tuck them inside.