Cat's Howl: A Macconwood Pack Novel (The Macconwood Pack Series Book 2) (6 page)

And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to leave the room. Just
being in her presence improved his mood. He wished he knew what to say to her
to break the silence. 

He didn’t have to wait long. Cat interrupted his inner
musings with a long blown out breath. She never was a patient one.

“Sooooooo. Hello there. Uh, hi. Earth to Tate. What the heck
are you doing?”

“Sorry?,” Tate was so busy watching her expressions change
with one emotion to the next that he forgot to answer.

“Okay, let me start slowly. How about some food?”

“What?”
Brilliant, dude. You are a wiz at convo.

“Food. F-O-O-D. You now, you eat it when your stomach is
growling like yours is now? Geez, and here you are, Mr.WolfGuard, and I gotta
explain what food is!”

Cat nodded towards the fridge with exaggerated movements and
mimed putting food in her mouth and rubbing her stomach. Tate couldn’t help
himself, he laughed aloud.

She could be so damned sarcastic! Not to mention adorable. At
any rate she jolted him from his morbid musings and he was grateful.

That was one of the things he liked about her. She didn’t
mess around like other women did. No games or acts. She was real.

 “Um, yeah, thanks. Sounds good. No worries though, I’ll get
it.”

“Damn straight, you’ll get it. I wasn’t offering to make
your dish or anything. What the heck do I look like anyway?”

“Oh, easy there. Besides there was a time when you would
have.”

“Yeah, well, that was a long time ago. My father’s not here
to make me act the maid.”

“You were never the maid type to me, Cat.”

His answer was punctuated with a long stare. From the tip of
her golden head to the bottom of her size nine’s. He smiled as he watched her try
not to squirm.

“Stop looking at my big feet.”

“They’re not big. Look at mine. Size thirteen,” Tate held
out his booted foot and smirked as Cat raised her eyebrows in exaggerated
horror.
Wise-ass.

She blushed as his perusal lingered on her legs and something
stirred inside of him. Could she still be so green? So unused to a man’s stare?
He couldn’t believe that. She was a damned knockout.

He knew beautiful women. He had dated them.
Plenty of
them
truth be told, but he was amazed by his reaction to her.

This was Cat. Rafe’s baby sister. He had no business
sniffing around her and he knew it. But he couldn’t help himself. His Wolf was
growling in his mind and Tate felt his hunger. Heck, he reveled in it.

These days he had hard time even looking at women, but she,
well, she was different. She moved to leave the kitchen and his stomach lurched
at the thought of being stuck in there with his own company.

“Wait,” the word escaped Tate’s mouth before he could stop
it.

“Huh? What is it?”

“Please. If you could just sit here, with me. We don’t have
to talk. I just don’t want to be by myself.
Please
,” Tate’s shoulders were
tense. His pain was clear in his voice.

He never would have revealed so much about his feelings to
any one else. It was a new experience for him. Unexpected and scary as hell.

He bit his tongue waiting for her to respond. It seemed to
take forever. His heart pounded in his chest and he gripped his fork so tightly
he bent it.

Cat turned to the sink and poured two glasses of water before
adding ice. She took a seat across from him and handed him one of the glasses.
His dish of pasta was cold, but he preferred it that way.

He released the breath he was holding when she grabbed a
pink lady apple from the fruit ball and bit. They sat together and ate in mutually
agreed upon silence.

It was the best dinner Tate had had in a very long while.     
             

“Oh geez, this sucks,” Charley grunted with the effort it
took to try and keep up with Cat in the gym room or as the gang nicknamed it, the
“Torture Chamber.”

Maccon Manor truly did have everything and the Torture
Chamber was proof. Cat’s father would have never allowed them to build this
while he was alive.
Gyms were for normals.

This was like having a private YMCA. It was a good thing too.
Werewolves were hard on equipment. Besides it wasn’t easy trying to expel all
that supernatural energy in a public gym. What with the pesky business of
having to keep what they were secret and all.

The Torture Chamber eliminated the need for that. It was
equipped with an indoor track, Olympic sized swimming pool with all natural
salt filtration system, free weights, three separate power racks, special made
cast iron eights and kettle bells from twenty to four hundred pounds, a rock
wall, monster truck sized tires to pull or lift, a row of punching bags, and top
of the line fitness machines.

The floor was poured concrete polished to a shine and
covered in five-inch thick rubber mats, also custom made.

The Manor was connected to the gym through a covered hallway
much like you would see in a college annex. There were security coded keys and
thumbprint recognition screens for the Manor residents, but Pack members were
welcome to use it provided they had clearance.

Cat simply loved it.

“Hey!
You
asked
me
to help you lose a few
pounds, come on, just a few more minutes,” Cat didn’t have the heart to tell
her new sister that she was only jogging at about a quarter of her normal
speed.

“Yeah, but you’re brutal! We’ve been at this for like an
hour, Cat! Ooh, I think I need a break. I feel queasy.”

“Alright, alright, let’s just walk to cool down. Don’t
forget to sip some water.”

“Deal.”

“Soooo-”

“So what, Charley?”

“Soooo, what happened between you and Tate last night?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you guys were in the kitchen until midnight.”

“Yeah, I was cleaning and he was eating.”

“Come on Cat, tell me!”

“Tell you what? Oh my God, did Rafe tell you about prom?”

“Um, sort of?,” Charley slowed down the treadmill and stared
at Cat concerned.

“It’s okay, Charley, I’m not mad. I just wish he would
forget it.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up the past. But-”

“But what?,” Cat tried to keep her voice even. It’s not that
she was angry, far from it. It was just that last night had left her more than
a little confused.

“But seriously, it took you that long to load the
dishwasher?”

“Not exactly. Okay, look it would have been rude for me to
leave him in there all by himself, so I stayed.”

“
And
?”

“
And
I ate an apple.”

“After you ate three bowls of pasta and a huge salad? You had
room for an apple?
Freaking Werewolves, ughhh,
” Charley let out and exaggerated
sigh and shook her head as she patted her neck dry with a small white towel.

Irony welled up inside of her, but she just laughed. If only
Charley knew!  Cat often wished she could be soft and curvy, full of dips and
fleshy valleys.

Wishing never seemed to work and no matter how much she ate
Cat remained thin and toned. She shook her head and quickened her pace.

“Do you know what I would look like if I ate half as much as
you? I’d weigh like a million freakin’ pounds!,” Charley exclaimed with mock
outrage.

“Oh please, you look perfect! Besides my brother can’t seem
to get enough of you judging from that huge hickey on your neck,” Cat laughed aloud
when Charley grabbed at her neck with a sweaty hand, her brown eyes huge in her
face. Cat smelled her embarrassment, but laughed it off as Charley blushed
furiously.

She managed to keep a lid on the sudden jolt of envy that
she felt. Just barely. Would she ever be happy like that?

“What? Wait till I get Rafe! I told him no love bites where
people can see! As if the other one isn’t bad enough,” she mumbled as she took
her curly brown hair out of it’s pony tail and attempted to cover her neck.

“You mean you have more hickeys bigger than that one? Where?”

“Oh, please, Cat! Like you don’t know!”

Cat just wiggled her eyebrows up and down and continued to jog.
If only Charley knew how inexperienced she really was. It was almost
humiliating to think she was twenty-five years old and the most she had done
with a guy was nothing to write home about.

What could Cat say about it anyway? Her Wolf had decided
long ago who her mate was, but he rejected her. She had heard stories growing
up about Wolves whose lives ended tragically because of unrequited love. Cat
would never consider that.

She was a modern woman and Wolf. She didn’t need a mate. At
least that’s what she told herself.  

She listened to her sister-in-law’s chatter about her insecurities.
Apparently body size was a big deal to normals, but Cat could tell she was truly
happy.

She could hear it in Charley’s voice. She saw it in the way the
shorter woman held herself, and the way she smiled all the time. That was good.
Cat was glad for her. And for Rafe.

Of course the way they got together wasn’t ideal, but there
was that old saying about desperate times. It all seemed to work out in the
end.

Charley was adjusting very well to life in the Pack. And Rafe,
well, he seemed to be owning his position as Alpha. He was a great leader, but ever
since he married he became something more.

He had heart. He truly cared about the well being of the
Wolves he was responsible for. As he did, for his mate. Cat new instinctively
that Rafe would not only kill for her, but he would die for her also.

It was that kind of willingness to sacrifice himself for his
true love that left Cat in awe. She had never seen a love like that. But if
anyone deserved to be happy, it was her brother. And if the Pack could benefit
from it too, then that was just the icing on the cake.

Zev Maccon was not the best role model as a father or as an
Alpha. To him they were both about strength and dominance. He governed the Pack
and his family with strict rules an an overbearing presence.

Some of his practices were downright archaic. Especially
anything involving women and children. Rafe had gotten rid of just about all of
them.

There were some Wolves who didn’t like it. They didn’t
approve of all of the changes, but Cat thought that was just too bad for them.

The future of the Macconwood Pack depended on Rafe’s ability
to bring them into the twenty-first century. Cat was fully onboard.

She smiled as Charley narrowed her eyes and sped up her
pace. She chugged from her bottle of chilled spring water, eyeing Cat’s monitor
the whole time.

Her sister-in-law had spunk. That was good! Cat was equally
proud of her perseverance and impressed with the way she tried to keep up with
her. Especially with those tiny legs of hers.

Cat always felt like some kind of giant compared to girls
like Charley. She was just under six foot tall. If she was being brutally
honest with herself she’d admit she used to think she looked like a boy.

Especially when she was a kid. It took forever for her to
develop breasts and even when she did they weren’t exactly the most eye catching
thing about her.

Most male Werewolves were taller than she was, so that
wasn’t really the issue. It was just that they tended to be attracted to
normals.

She guessed it was because of their animalistic nature. A
normal was someone to protect, to pamper, to defend. Cat wasn’t exactly the
type to be coddled.

In turn she didn’t really have a type. Okay, well maybe she
did, but aside from him there was nothing specific that she looked for in a
man.

She dated a few guys here and there. Mostly when she was in
college. Only two of them were Werewolves, but neither were anything serious.
She had offered her heart once, just once, and he had turned her down.

There would be no second time for her. Nope. Besides she was
totally focused on her career and on getting her brother to see her as more
than just his kid sister.

She wanted to be a Wolf Guard. It was just the sort of thing
Rafe was always trying to promote within the Pack. Some said he had a feminist
agenda, but in reality his agenda was equality. Yes, Wolf Pack’s had a pecking
order, but under Zev’s rules women were beneath even the least dominant of
males.

Cat was a dominant Wolf. She knew that her father had been
unjust in his assessment of female Wolves. Just like she knew he used brutal
tactics to keep her in line.

But if Rafe really wanted to make changes in the Pack, he
should begin inside his own home. Cat took out her annoyance on the treadmill
and it wasn’t until she heard her name being called that she realized where she
was again.

“Cat? Cat? CAT!”

“Huh?”

“Geez, you’re really focused when you work out, aren’t you?
Anyway, sooooo, you never came by Rafe’s office last night,” Charley looked at
her with probing eyes. Cat knew she’d never leave it alone so she answered
honestly.

“Yeah, sorry, it slipped my mind. Okay, let’s go over to the
mats and stretch a little. You can use the yoga ball.”

“I love the yoga ball! Yay!,” they both giggled as Charley
clumsily sat on the giant inflatable ball and bounced before sliding off in a
fit of giggles. Cat gently pinned her to the mat and the two of them mock
wrestled until they ended up in a fit of laughter that left them both unable to
speak.

Just then Cat’s giant of a brother walked into the gym. His
face lost its wide grin when he saw his bride in a heap on the floor, gasping
for breath next to his sister. He shoved Cat out of the way and reached for his
mate. The Wolf peering out of his eyes was just as enraged as the man.

“What the heck did you do to her?! Carlotta? Oh my God,
baby, sit up!”

“Chill dude, she’s laughing,” Cat slapped her brother on the
arm and rolled her eyes when he growled. Freaking Alpha males always showing
their dominance.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you the man!,” still she bared her
throat to him and averted her gaze. Rafe was not playing.

“Rafe, baby, I’m okay, really! We were just being silly,”
she reached up and stroked his face. The tenderness in that small movement was
too much for Cat, so she turned around.

She felt like a voyeur watching them. However innocent the
touch, it was full of something intimate. It was sacred and private. She had no
right to that moment. It was theirs, made just for the two of them.

Cat sighed. If only that sort of thing was in the cards for
her.

“But since you’re here, don’t you think you should tell
her?,” Charley had her arms around her husband and was perched in his lap
stroking his face when she asked the question.

Cat could tell from his body language alone that conversing
with his sister was the last thing on his mind right then.

“Um, yeah, okay. Uh, Cat? You got a minute?”