“Don’t you have other tables to wait on?” I asked Frankie.
“We are best friends,” Joe said to Jessie.
“No,” Frankie said. “Slow night.”
“Oh, I was always aware of that,” Jessie said. “Even when we were dating—”
Joe pressed his foot against mine as he growled. I pressed back. I saw a flicker of orange in his eyes.
I said, “Joe.”
He looked at me.
I said, “Stay with me.”
He said, “It’s too loud.”
I took his hand. It curled into mine. I felt the pinpricks of claws.
I said, “Joe.”
He said, “I need.”
I said, “Okay.”
Frankie said, “Joe, I—”
“Walk away,” I said. “Now.”
Jessie said, “Is he okay?”
I said, “He will be. Please, just go back to your dinner.”
Frankie walked away.
Jessie turned around.
I only had eyes for Joe. Always Joe.
His nostrils flared. He said, “You’re bleeding.”
I said, “It doesn’t hurt. You would never hurt me.”
Joe said, “Ox,” and I said, “Let’s go.”
So we left.
WE WALKED through the woods.
He took my hand in his and held it up to his face.
The skin was slightly swollen. A little red. Little flakes of dried blood littered my palm.
I stopped and waited for him to finish whatever he was doing.
He said, “I told you.”
“What?”
“Remember?”
“Yes, but what?”
“That I wanted to see your blood. That I wanted to taste it.”
I said, “Yes, but you’d never hurt me to do so.”
“How do you know?” And there was the flash of those Halloween eyes.
“Because I know you.”
And he stepped closer.
“I can hurt you,” he said.
“I know.”
“I have claws. And teeth.” His chest bumped mine.
“I know. You won’t scare me away, Joe.”
His gaze faltered. “I’m not—”
“Either that or you’re testing me.”
“Ox.”
I said, “No. You wanted this. You gave me your wolf. You came after me.”
“It’s not—”
“It’s not going to work.”
And there was fear there. Real fear. “What won’t?” he croaked.
“Scaring me away. I know what I’m in for. I would have run a long time ago if I couldn’t handle it. My daddy told me I was gonna get shit all my life. And fuck if I didn’t believe him. I don’t. Not anymore. So don’t give me your shit. I won’t take it. I won’t ever take it.”
His breath on my face.
This was Joe. And I was Ox.
His nose touched mine.
My hands found his waist. He shuddered under the touch.
He rumbled deep in his chest.
He said, “Mine.”
My cheek scraped against his.
The wolf growled, “Mine.” It was a great and terrible thing.
So I said, “Yeah. Joe. Yeah. Yes.”
And turned to kiss him.
But before our lips could brush together, a howl rose up, echoing through the trees. Birds took flight. The forest shook with it.
It was Thomas. Of that I had no doubt. Because I knew my Alpha.
But it was a song filled with such rage and despair that I staggered back, the pack bond bursting in my head and heart with red and blue.
And violet. So much violet that I was all but buried in it.
Joe’s eyes flared to life, and he sang out his response. I could hear the fear in it. Pure, cold fear. The song itself was Alpha red and Beta orange. And blue. So blue.
It died in the trees around us.
Everything was quiet as I struggled to breathe.
He said, “We have to hurry,” and his eyes blazed.
So we did.
And everything changed yet again.
word of warning/it’s a right
THERE WERE men at the Bennett house.
Men I’d never seen before.
They stood in front of the house next to black SUVs.
They heard us coming, and for a moment, their eyes glowed orange in the dark, and I wondered if Joe and I could take them. We were outnumbered but we weren’t weak. Thomas had seen to that.
It wasn’t necessary. Thomas came out onto the porch and growled lowly. The men stood down.
Another man came out from behind him.
Osmond. The man who’d come in the winter.
He said, “Be still. All of you.”
The men next to the SUVs turned away from Joe and me, eyes scanning the forest behind us.
Osmond said, “Where is your witch?”
Thomas said, “He’ll be here,” and I wondered what Gordo would have thought about that. Being called Thomas’s witch.
“What happened?” Joe demanded.
“Go inside,” Thomas said. “The pack is waiting.”
Joe looked like he was gathering steam to argue, but Thomas’s eyes flashed red and Joe said nothing. He stalked by his father and went into the house.
I moved to follow.
Thomas touched my shoulder and I paused.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“I know you were on your date.”
I shrugged. “This is important?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Then it’s okay.”
Thomas sighed. “Joe is very lucky.”
Osmond said, “Date? With Joe? Thomas, he’s a human and—”
Thomas had him pinned against the wall before I could even think to react. The Betas behind us growled out in response, but they came no farther. They may have had some loyalty to Osmond, but they knew their place.
Regardless, I moved until I stood with my back to Thomas, glaring at the wolves in front of me. I wouldn’t leave my Alpha unprotected.
“Word of warning,” Thomas said, voice even and cold. I glanced back at him over my shoulder. “You do not get to come into my territory, into my home, and pass judgment on things you know nothing about. My son has chosen. It doesn’t concern you. Speciesism has no place in Green Creek or in my pack.”
“But he’s to be the Alpha. What do you think—” He was cut off when Thomas half shifted, fangs descending, muscles expanding.
“It. Doesn’t. Concern. You,” Thomas said.
Osmond nodded.
“Apologize to Ox.”
Orange eyes.
Thomas growled, “Now.”
“I meant no offense,” Osmond said stiffly, glancing at me. “My apologies, Ox.”
I said nothing as I turned away from the wolves below us.
Thomas stepped away and Osmond slumped against the house. The Betas in the yard did nothing.
Thomas said, “Ox, join them inside if you would.” He never took his eyes off Osmond.
I touched his arm. “Are you sure? I could stay and help you.”
He smiled quietly. “It’ll just be a moment, Ox.”
I went inside.
The others were in the living room. Mark was standing, looking out the window, face pinched.