FireWolf (7 page)

“I won’t.”

“That’s really rude,” she huffed.

“So is making unwanted advances toward someone in a
relationship,” he responded. “Try your wiles on someone your own age.”

“There isn’t anyone. It’s not like there’s tons of us. The
largest group is the guys your age—you and Shamsky and Duke.”

“And Krypto. He’s less than two years younger than us.”

“He’s in college.”

“Maybe you can follow him to school next year.” He could
only hope.

She rolled her eyes.

“Or you can go after a Legion shifter.”

Her expression didn’t change.

“That’s it then. I’m out of here. I’ll have to tell King who
was roaming around. I suggest you don’t break the rules again.”

Daisy grabbed his arm. This time the gesture wasn’t
seductive. “What if he tells my father?”

“I’ll ask him not to, but you’d better promise you’re going
to behave.”

“I don’t have a reason to hang out around here if you’ve
chosen the human.”

“In the future, you might want to reconsider stalking,” he
advised. “Not the best way to get a date.”

She crossed her arms over her breasts and turned away, her
walk jerky now instead of seductive.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he called. “Just some
advice.”

“I’m not crying, I’m mad,” she yelled back.

“Krypto is home on break,” he shouted. “I just saw him last
week.”

She stopped moving and her head turned to her shoulder.
“Really?”

“And he’s single.” Probably willing too, if a girl like
Daisy went after him. For a shifter, Krypto was a nerd.

“Thanks.”

He lifted a hand and moved into the trees. “Any time.” Now
for the important stuff. He shifted and returned to his clothes. He fired off a
text to King then jogged toward Olivia’s house. On second thought, he slowed to
a walk. He could use a little time to consider what he would say to his true
mate. A little time to reconcile himself to the idea that his bachelorhood was
all but over. Why didn’t it bug him more? Maybe the true mate magic worked on
him already.

Still, her house came into view much too quickly and he knew
she waited for him there, to see if he’d found anything. She’d be concerned
too, worried about his safety in the woods, though no worry was necessary. She
needed to know the truth.

He scrubbed his hands over his face and pushed a branch out
of his way so he could admire her house. The green-and-blue paint scheme both
blended her house into the parklike setting and made it stand out from other
nearby houses. Kind of like her. She blended into the background of the town,
yet when you got closer, she stood out with her beauty and vibrant personality.

He squared his shoulders and crossed the street then knocked
on her door.

“Your shirt!” The cry burst from Olivia’s lips when she
appeared. She put her hands to his face, his chest. “Are you hurt?”

He looked down, confused, then saw he’d caught the collar of
his T-shirt on a branch and torn it away from the rest of the fabric. “No, I’m
fine. I didn’t even notice the tear.” He noticed muddy paw prints on his jeans,
as if something had stepped on his clothes where he’d left them. An animal
should have scented the wolf on his clothes and stayed away. He licked his
lips.

She let out a breath. “Did you see anything?”

He froze, realizing he hadn’t prepared what to say. A
coyote? Had he called Wildlife Patrol? No, he needed to tell her the exact
truth. “Can I come in?”

She pulled her headband from her hair and massaged her
scalp. “Sure, but I’m covered in ink. I could clean up, make us some dinner.”

He took one of her hands in his and saw it was smudged with
black ink. “What were you doing?”

“Calligraphy. It’s a side job slash hobby. I have a
commission for wedding invitations for a former governor’s daughter.”

“You have a studio in the house?”

“Yes, in one of the extra bedrooms. You can check it out if
you want while I clean up.”

All the bedrooms were upstairs so Smokie climbed the steps
and peeked in the rooms. The one with the best light was lined with tables on
two sides and a huge storage unit that rested against the wall with no windows.
It was filled with paper, inks and other tools of Olivia’s work. The wall with
the door was covered with framed pen and ink sketches as well as the letter O
in various fancy styles. He peered closer and saw the sketches were all signed
“O. Bilson”. She was a talented artist. The fact that at least three of the
drawings were of wolves made him wonder. Wasn’t that one King? Another could be
Bijou Pompey.

“How did I not know you did this?” he asked when she entered
the room. “You must have your work displayed around town.”

“Not really. I’ve done some local weddings, of course.
Invitations, place settings. But I don’t sell my drawings.”

“You like to draw wildlife,” he noted.

“It’s a thing I do,” she said, shoving her hands into the
pockets of her cutoffs.

Very short cutoffs, he saw. She had spectacular legs and
certainly couldn’t get away with wearing a skirt this short, so he was happy to
see jeans at last. “You still swim?”

She nodded. “A friend of mine has an indoor pool. I go there
a couple times a week.”

“Nice.”

She smiled. “What do you want for dinner, Smokie?”

“We could go out,” he said doubtfully.

“You can’t think I’m going to poison you. Owen’s my cousin.
He was talking about something from when we were kids.”

“You fed me before and I didn’t croak, but you weren’t
expecting to cook for me now.”

“How about we compromise? I have a good frozen pizza and
salad fixings. You could open a bottle of wine.”

“Deal.” He followed her back downstairs, and checked her
small wine rack. He found a bottle of fruity red wine that he’d had before and
liked then placed it in her refrigerator so it would chill. After he’d done
that, he leaned against Olivia’s kitchen counter and watched her doctor a
frozen cheese pizza with mushrooms, onions, green peppers and more cheese.

“No meat, I’m afraid.”

“No problem,” he said, hungry after his trek through the
forest but feeling the telltale signs of a churning gut. Nerves, he supposed.
He’d never shared his shapeshifter status with a human before.

She slid her round pizza pan into the oven and pulled out a
plastic box of peppery arugula out the fridge. She sliced in carrots and a
tomato before bringing out olive oil, vinegar and herbs.

“You should invite Owen over for dinner. He might be
pleasantly surprised.” He’d never known anyone to make their own salad dressing
before.

Olivia snorted. “A box of pizza and a salad would not impress
Mister Grill Expert.”

“He does make a mean burger,” Smokie admitted.

“That’s the least of it. I’m not a red meat fan but even I
like his ribs.”

“I like my meat raw, usually,” Smokie blurted.

Olivia’s fingers stilled on the kitchen timer she’d been setting.
“Huh? Like steak tartare?”

“No, not from a restaurant. Fresh killed.”

She took her hand off the timer. “You’re veering into TMI
territory, Smokie. What are you trying to tell me?”

“You can tell I’m trying to tell you something?” He rubbed
his palms against his jeans.

“Wasn’t born yesterday.” Her lips tightened, as if she’d
wished she hadn’t said something that reminded him of their age difference.

But it didn’t really matter. A true mate was a true mate,
after all. “I’m part of a clan group, called the Brotherhood of the
Óêõëß
—dog.”

“What’s that?”

“Have you ever seen an emblem around town? Or my tattoo, for
that matter. The snarling dog’s face?”

“Sure. Besides on your arm, I just saw it at the end of the
school year. I brought in some invitations I’d done for a retirement party and
sneaked into the science exhibit. An exhibition about wolves had an emblem like
that on each of the poster boards.”

“It was probably made by one of the Brotherhood children. We
have a special affinity for wolves.”

“So do I, actually.”

At his raised eyebrows, she continued. “Did Owen ever tell
you? There’s an old family legend that we’re descended from werewolves on one
side. Funny, huh?”

Smokie felt his eyelids freeze at very wide open. “Really?”

She shrugged. “Every time I see a wolf I just have to draw
it.”

“I thought I recognized the subjects of a couple of your
drawings.”

“Are you a wolf tracker? I see them sometimes when I’m
hiking with Owen and his sister. But until this past week I’d never suspected
one might be lurking around my house.”

“Yeah, about that.”

Olivia wiped her hands on a kitchen towel. “Did you see
one?”

“Yes, a wolf was hanging around, not a coyote. Looking for
me, actually.”

“You’ve lost me.”

Smokie cleared his throat. Time for the big reveal.
“Remember when we went to the Greek restaurant?”

“What does that have to do with wolf sightings?”

“Bear with me.” He gripped the edge of the counter over the
dishwasher. “This Brotherhood of mine, we have a seer. You know Barkley. That’s
him. Anyway, he sees auras and he looked at ours at the restaurant. He didn’t
say anything then, but after that fire, before the EMTs took him, he said we
were true mates.”

“You disappeared out of my life after that.”

“I was frustrated. I didn’t know what to do. But being out
in the woods just now clarified things for me.”

Olivia made a sound. “I’m trying to bear with you, but this
is very confusing.”

“Right. ‘True mates’ means we’re meant to be together, you
and me. True mates can’t even be apart for very long or they die. It’s a huge
deal. The true-mate ceremony is more binding than marriage for my people.”

“So you want to bind to me for the rest of our lives,
because Barkley the firefighter who is really a seer saw our auras?” She
started to smile, as if she thought he was joking, then her expression became
pained when she saw he was serious.

“I’d never have thought it, since you’re human, but it
sounds as if maybe you have shifter blood, which is great. Less of a transition
for you.”

Her words came slowly. “A transition to what?”

“Our world. Knowing about us.”

“Are you going to bite me?”

“No, you can stay human. I have no problem with that.”

“Huh.”

He knew he was losing her, so he summed up. “I’m a
shapeshifter, a werewolf. And you’re my true mate.”

She said nothing, just stood before him, blinking. “Why did
you decide it was okay to tell me now, when it wasn’t before?”

“A girl from my clan hit on me and I got angry because she
knows you’re my true mate. I thought it was so disrespectful of her, but after
all, I hadn’t claimed you. I hadn’t realized how important this was to me until
that.”

“I had a werewolf stalker?” She clasped her glass cruet of
homemade salad dressing and shook it.

He took it from her when she started to shake a little too
vigorously. “Sort of. But I told her to stop it. She was breaking the rules of
our clan anyway, being in wolf form so close to town.”

“I see.”

“So what do you say? There’s a ceremony we can do. Mostly
people plan for it, like a wedding. We can get married too, of course, if you
want.”

Olivia folded her arms across her chest. “I say no way.”

“What?” The word emerged strangled, half-formed.

“I’m not going through some kind of mystical binding
ceremony with you.”

“You aren’t?” Smokie’s mind felt encased in sticky
marshmallow fluff. He set the leaking bottle down on the counter. “But we could
die.”

“You admitted you didn’t really want me until some chick,
excuse me, werewolf chick, hit on you.” Her mouth twisted.

“That just reminded me of my priorities. You know I want
you.” He wanted to grab her, crush his mouth to hers, prove himself, but that
would only prove lust, not love, and who was he to talk about love anyway?

“I know you want to fuck me, Smokie, but that’s not enough.
Come on.”

“But we’re true mates.” His voice was almost pleading.

“So said my ex-husband. He wasn’t all freaky mystical about
it, but nonetheless, I’m not going to commit to someone again just because the
stars are aligned or whatever. I made a promise to myself that I’m only going
to get serious with my best friend, someone who really loves me, next time. I’m
too old to make more mistakes.”

“It wouldn’t be a mistake though. True mates are perfect for
each other, happy.” How could he make her understand? “We’ve been happy
together so far, right?”

The oven made a clicking sound and Smokie smelled slightly
overdone pizza. Olivia swore and opened the oven then grabbed a mitt and pulled
out the tray.

“Enough baloney, Monahan.” She tossed the pizza in the sink.

“It’s not burned,” he protested. “Just a little crispy.”

“I’m not hungry. I’ll see you later, okay?”

He put his hands to his head, ran his fingers through his
hair, forgetting he had dressing on them. Now his head smelled like Italian
herbs. “I’ve told you about us all wrong. I’m sorry.”

She remained at the sink. Her head was down and he wondered
if he’d made her cry. Two crying women in one afternoon. Geez.

“I’ll get out of here, give you time to think. I’m sorry I
can’t make this easier.” Awkwardly, he patted her shoulder then left the house.
He knew leaving was the wrong thing to do but he had no idea what the right
thing would be.

If he didn’t fix things, he had just handed them both a
death sentence.

Chapter Five

Olivia heard the doorbell early the next afternoon and
debated whether to open it. She peered out the open window of her studio down
to the front porch. Smokie. He’d tilted his head upward and she could see his
sad puppy expression.