Pursued by a Werewolf (Mystic Isle, Book 4) (21 page)

While Pearl purchased her dress, Avery glanced at the red dress again. Why shouldn’t she treat herself? It wasn’t every day she had something marvelous like new love to celebrate. And she wasn’t going to run out of money anytime soon thanks to Valencia and a little investing sense. So she told her practical side to shove it and tried on the dress.

Half an hour later they were all huddled in the bathroom at the cottage. Ceara helped Pearl put her hair up in a sparkly clip that showed off her pretty face and neck.

“Pink or red?” Coco asked, holding out half a dozen lipsticks.

Though Avery often felt like the tomboy of the group, she’d watched Valencia enough over the years to know about fashion and makeup. “Pink. But a rosy pink.” She studied the selection. None of those colors would look good on her, but… she selected a tube of tinted lip gloss. “This one.”

It was warm but bright and would make Pearl look like the sex goddess Avery knew was hiding in there somewhere.

After Coco finished Pearl’s make-up, they turned her toward the mirror and her jaw literally dropped.

“I’m so…”

“Gorgeous?” Avery supplied.

“Wow.” Pearl touched her hair, then her skin. Her shoulders came down and back and she turned this way and that. “I think I’m ready!”

Coco laughed. “But we’re not.”

They remedied that quickly. Coco donned a frilly royal blue number that accentuated her curves, Ceara chose a sleek black cocktail dress and Avery slipped into her new red, one-shoulder dress.

Grayson joined them on the way to the club. Avery linked her arm through Pearl’s and sent the princess a big smile. “Every guy on the island is going to want to dance with you tonight, I just know it.”

Pearl suddenly looked concerned. “I don’t dance that much.”

“Don’t worry about it. This isn’t Dancing With the Paranormals… just move however feels right. And besides, no one will look sillier than me.”

“You’re so good to me.”

Avery didn’t know how to respond to that, and luckily they arrived at the club doors where two handsome men let them in. A heavy beat thumped through the room. She felt Pearl’s arm tighten in hers and gave her a squeeze.

The charcoal walls and ceiling cloaked them like a soft wool blanket, inviting and cozy in spite of the loud music. Bodies writhed on the dance floor in the center of the room. Tall, short, thin, wide, demon, vamp, and all kinds of shifters. She moved her hips to the thumping beat and let it soak into her, body and soul.

“Let’s go start with a drink,” she shouted over the music.

“Where's your man?” Pearl asked as they made their way through the crush of people.

“Not back yet.” She pushed away her disappointment and stepped up to the bar. Tonight was about Pearl and getting her out of her shell.

Avery ordered a house cocktail for herself and a glass of wine for Pearl. Drinks in hand they skirted the dance floor to the others. Coco and Grayson were plastered against each other but compared to the couples around them, they were hardly indecent. A few feet away a demon couple was getting it on by the look on her face but the woman's flowing skirt kept everything hidden. The song shifted to a slower beat and the sea of bodies began to sway.

Avery finished her drink quickly and urged Pearl to do the same. The second their goblets were empty Avery handed them off to a waiter and reached for Pearl's hand. She found a smidge of open dance space and started moving to the music.

Pearl's movements were rusty and self-conscious. And she kept looking around as if trying to make sure no one was watching her.

“Try this,” Avery said putting her arms over her head and swaying back and forth. “Be limber,” she called over the music.

Pearl tried it and her movements became looser.

Avery glanced around at the crowd and noticed that they'd gathered some attention. The tall, ruggedly handsome man leaning against the far wall drew her notice because while his gaze was directed at them she was almost certain he was watching Pearl.

Smiling, Avery turned and gave her hips a little shimmy. “Try it!”

Over her shoulder she saw Pearl shake her head, sending the golden ringlets flying. She turned back. “Come on. It's easy. Left, right. Left, right.”

Pearl gave a halfhearted shimmy.

“Good. Now with attitude.”

Pearl tried again and then giggled. “Unnatural,” she called.

Avery laughed. She knew that feeling all too well.

“Keep it up. It's good to get outside your comfort zone.”

Pearl gave her a look that said she should follow her own advice. Touché.

Avery sidestepped her way over to Ceara. “Where’s your mate?”

“Still finishing up some pack business.”

It was obvious her friend missed her man. She stood on the sidelines, swaying to the music, drink in hand. But she wasn’t dancing. Wasn’t involved the way Avery knew she would be if Maxim was here.

She turned back to find Pearl dancing with the handsome stranger. He stared at her as if he wanted to eat her up and her concentration was completely on him. Wow. He moved quick.

Avery mentally cheered.

But as she stood there rocking her hips to the beat, watching Pearl run her hands up the stranger’s chest, she realized that she’d lost her dance partner. And if Hunter and Maxim had sent Ceara back to the island, it was probably going to be a while before she saw her wolf again.

She glanced over at the younger vamp and saw the faraway look in her eyes. Little did Ceara know but Avery felt that same sense of loss. He’d only been gone a few hours and yet it felt, somehow, like a lifetime. And perhaps that was true. She had been waiting for him for a very long time. Her heart had known it that first night even as she’d tried to resist the feelings.

But now wasn’t the time to let loneliness claim her. She was surrounded by friends and she was wearing a hot new dress. Holding out a hand to Ceara she called “dance with me!”

Ceara quickly finished off the cocktail and then with a smile she snaked her way onto the dance floor in front of Avery. They laughed as they danced, hopping up and down to the driving beat. When the song slowed, so did they. Avery settled a hand on Ceara’s hip and clasped the other in her own.

“Where is V?” Ceara called over the music.

Avery shook her head and spun her dance partner slowly. They giggled. “She didn’t answer the phone.”

Ceara nodded. V was a law unto herself and they all accepted it, expected it.

“Hunter looked happy.”

Avery wasn’t sure how to reply to that since she felt a little guilty for coming clean to Pearl before she did Hunter. Or her longtime friends. But Ceara just smiled.

And she kept on smiling, knowingly, like she had a secret.

“What?” Avery finally asked a few songs later.

“Nothing,” Ceara shouted over the music. “I’m just happy for you.”

“Me too.” Happier than she’d been in a long time. Whatever the future brought, she felt ready to embrace it.

“You’re in love,” Ceara declared, announcing the fact to the whole room. Not that anyone else probably heard her. Avery wouldn’t have minded. Not anymore.

Avery let her smile do the talking and Ceara pulled her into a tight hug.

It had taken one handsome, cagey wolf to prove what her heart already knew. Days of stolen glances, chaste kisses, and one heart-melting promise from Hunter had set her free.

She couldn’t wait to tell him. Was almost bursting with excitement.

The song ended and a faster one took its place. She let Ceara go and threw herself into the driving beat, both arms waving above her head. Someone bumped her from behind but she quickly righted herself and waved off the apology. It was a crowded dance floor and she’d already had her toe stepped on twice.

“I’m just glad Pearl’s having a good time.”

She and the handsome stranger were still dancing close, not moving with the music. Avery didn’t think she could have squeezed a piece of paper between them.

“She’s really sweet,” Ceara called.

The princess deserved her prince, no doubt about it. At least slow dancing was a start.

“I’m gonna get a drink,” Avery said, her mouth dry.

“I’m going to check in with Maxim.”

Avery watched her friend slither between the crush of bodies as she made her way off the dance floor and out the entrance. Once upon a time she would have rolled her eyes and thought Ceara silly for being so invested in a man. But as she turned and saw Pearl’s smile, she found herself smiling too.

It was nice to have a special someone who was there for you through anything and everything. To have someone to trust, who knew your secrets and your desires. But when that person was absent… a part of you was absent too.

Avery had another cocktail, danced her way through the crowd and kept an eye on Pearl.  In the back of her mind she’d been waiting, hoping, to see the look on Hunter’s face when he saw her new dress. The independent woman in her said it was stupid to try to pretty herself for a man, to dress to please him.

But the old Avery, the Avery she’d once been had loved being part of a couple. Had enjoyed shopping with her guy in mind and waited with baited breath to see the smile of pleasure on his face.

Try as she might to become a new woman, no, a different woman, a leopard couldn’t change its spots. She could try to forget the past, the betrayal, the life she’d almost had. She could party and dance and go out with any man who struck her fancy. She could claim she was an independent, practical woman who didn’t need a man to exist.

But the truth was, the truth she’d managed to push deep down for so long, was that she craved belonging to someone. She wanted what her parents had. What Maxim and Ceara had. What Grayson and Coco had found with each other. Even the wedding that Izzy and Shade were about to have.

Somewhere in the last week she’d embraced that old self, welcomed her back and stopped hiding. She felt reborn. It no longer bothered her that Hunter was always on her mind. He’d been in her heart for almost two years and she saw now that that day, that solstice, had been a rebirth for Coco, Ceara
and
herself.

“Avery!”

She heard her voice over the music and turned to see Pearl squeezing through the other dancers.

Avery smiled and waved her over, but Pearl wasn’t alone. The handsome man had his fingers laced through Pearl’s and Avery’s eyebrows crept up at the intimate gesture.

“I-ugh-wanted you to meet Bane.”

Pearl looked up at the man with so many stars in her eyes, Avery had a hard time believing they’d just met. But what was more interesting was the look of complete adoration in his gaze. And the way he tucked Pearl against his side so he could shake Avery’s hand.

“I must thank you,” he said.

“Me?” she glanced back and forth between them.

Pearl nodded and stepped closer. “Bane is my bodyguard. Going after your dream gave me the courage to go after mine.”

Wow.

Pearl smiled that lovely smile of hers as she stepped back into the circle of his arms. She seemed to be standing taller, more confident, and obviously, deliriously, happy.

So that was the tension and sadness she’d detected in the princess. Unrequited love.

Avery reached out and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Me too,” Pearl said, squeezing her back for a good half minute. “Thank you, Avery.”

“You’re so welcome. Please tell me you’re going to forget yoga lessons and go make up for lost time.”

Pearl pulled back, smirking.

“Now that you’re with Hunter, I think my job is over.”

Avery frowned. “Job?”

“I’ll let Hunter explain. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“Go,” Avery shouted over the fast dance beat. “Have fun.”

The new couple exited the club, arms around each other and Avery, despite her puzzlement, couldn’t stop grinning. Go Pearl. Good for her for finally claiming what she wanted.

If only Hunter was around.

It was past time to pursue her werewolf.

But the sun was still set and the club was vibrating with excitement and lust. She shimmied back to the dance floor and waited for Ceara to return.

“I like the way you move,” a masculine voice called from behind her. She spun on the ball of her foot.

“Thanks.”

He was a few inches taller than she was with wavy brown hair and dark eyes. Not bad looking and his goofy dance moves made her smile.

“I’m not much of a dancer,” he admitted doing an odd disco/hip-hop mix.

The music clicked up to a hard driving beat and the crowd of bodies began hopping up and down. He followed suit, waving his arms over his head.

He looked a little like Kermit the Frog doing an excited flail.

She grinned at him. One hand over her head she let her whole body undulate to the music. Closing her eyes, she imagined that Hunter was with her. Watching her, his hands itching to touch her.

A hand slid across her hip and her eyes popped open. She started to back away from the man, Hunter’s words from their first night together echoing in her ears.
I don’t share.

A low growl stopped her.

“Get your hand off my mate.”

She recognized Hunter’s voice immediately and shivered at the ferocity of his tone. But she melted too. Anticipation swept through her with the fury of a tornado.

“Your mate?” the stranger said, backing up a step, his hand falling away from her.

Hunter slid a hand between her shoulder blades and turned her slowly. The dichotomy between his smooth, sure movement and the frantic pace of the room around them made the moment even sweeter. Almost like time was slowing down just for them. She sighed beneath his touch, so elated that he was back that she was willing to forgive him for not telling her an important detail. Make that two important details.

His gaze flicked over the top of her head and he pulled her hair to the side of her neck. She frowned.

“Sorry man! Didn’t know she was taken.” When she turned the stranger melted in with the crowd, his hands held up in surrender.

Before she could ask what that was all about, Hunter wrapped his arms around her. “Miss me?” he asked, close to her ear.