Werewolf Dreams (4 page)

Ava looked at her father in horrified embarrassment, but her father was speechless. Cyrus, who had been standing behind his father stepped forward and leaned up and whispered in his father’s ear. A moment later, Tobias stared at Ava in surprised consternation and then looked at Harry with a question in his eye.

“She’s your
daughter
?” he asked, sounding astounded.

Harry laughed and nodded his head.
“Yes Tobias, I have a daughter, just like you have a son. It happens,” he said and put his arm around Ava’s shoulders.

Tobias massaged his chin and stared at Ava. “Sorry, I just assumed Harry. Well, where is the gorgeous creature
who helped you create this beauty. If she’s half as lovely as Ava, then all the men in town will want to kill you,” he said, glancing around the room as if she were hiding somewhere.

Ava smiled sickly and inched backwards, wishing for a dark corner to hide in. Harry kept his arm firmly around her shoulders though, keeping her in place.

“Tobias, Anjeanette and I divorced almost fifteen years ago. She’s since remarried and has three little boys with her husband. They live in Seattle where they run a tea shop,” he said, smiling slightly as his friend’s face fell in what looked like pity.

“Oh, well then.
Sorry to hear it Harry. But that just makes your visit all the more interesting then. I have a few ladies I can introduce you to while you’re here.”

Ava looked up at her father’s horrified expression and just barely held in a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand and pretending to cough.
Her father had a very active social life, but he’d never been serious with any one particular woman before. She couldn’t imagine him falling in love with a simple girl from his home town.

“Yeah, well, thanks Tobias. If you don’t mind though, Ava’s had a long day. Do you mind if we get settled in and unpacked? Then you and I can sit down together and discuss things in private,” Harry said, all business now.

Tobias frowned slightly and nodded his head. “Of course Harry. Cyrus, will you help carry their bags up to their room? I need to go tell your mother she needs to add a few people to the guest list tonight,” he said, turning to leave the room.

Ava frowned in dismay and looked up at her father. Harry glanced down at her and winced. “Tobias, I thought we would just visit with you and your family and my family. I wasn’t planning on socializing while we’re here. I want to keep the investigation quiet and throwing a party and letting everyone know what I’m doing down at the lake will just cause a lot of complications,” he said severely.

Tobias cleared his throat loudly and looked guilty as he looked down at his feet. “Oh well, then you probably don’t want to hear that we’ve invited about forty people to a welcome home party for you tonight. Don’t worry about a thing though Harry. We’ll just come up with a different reason for your visit.”

Ava sighed dreading the evening already. She hated large social gatherings. She always felt so out of place and awkward around strangers. She was bubbly and lighthearted and fun with her close friends, but put
her in a setting with more than three people she didn’t know and she turned into a miserable shadow.

“What reason would I have for coming back with my daughter? I cut ties with this town a long time ago,” Harry said sounding irritated
as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

Tobias held up his hands. “Now just give me a second Harry. You were always the smart one. This might take me a minute.”

Cyrus smiled at Ava and stepped forward. “Why don’t we tell people that Harry brought Ava back home so that she can pick her mate?”

Harry’s eyes burned with anger as he stared at Cyrus and shook his head. “
Never
,” he said, his voice laced with fury.

Tobias clapped his hand on his son’s shoulder proudly and grinned at Ava. “It’s perfect Cyrus! You take after your mother with that brain of yours. She’s at the age for picking a mate
Harry, it’ll be perfect. At the end of summer when you go back to the States, we’ll just tell everyone that she couldn’t decide. Unless of course she has,” he said in a loud laughing voice as he smiled at her.

Harry shook his head
firmly back and forth. “And sometimes young ladies don’t have a choice about their mates, do they Tobias?
The answer is no
. We’ll come up with a different reason,” he stated, ending the conversation.

Ava frowned and looked up at her father, feeling strange as if she were standing on unstable ground.
“Dad? What the heck are they talking about?
Mates?
Isn’t that kind of an old fashioned word for husband or something?”

Tobias looked at her as if she’d grown a second head. “Everyone has a mate Ava. We all mate for life. That’s the way we’re made. Hasn’t your dad taught you
anything?
” he said looking in surprise at Harry.

Harry stared back at Tobias angrily. “We need to talk Tobias.
In private.
Now
,” he snapped out angrily, stepping in front of Ava as if to protect her.

Tobias looked at him in surprise and nodded his head.
“Fine, fine then. Cyrus, escort Ava to her room while Harry and I have a chat,” he said.

Cyrus nodded his head with a small smile and picked up Ava’s bag and backpack in one hand. “Follow me,” he said courteously.

Ava looked at her father nervously, but he nodded brusquely at her and so she followed Cyrus out of the room and up the large staircase.

Cyrus led her to a large room on the second floor at the back of the house. As Cyrus put her bags down she walked to the large window overlooking the back yard and smiled at the flower beds of Zinnias, Black Eyed Susan’s and roses of every color imaginable. “It’s beautiful,” she said quietly as she felt Cyrus come stand behind her.

“My mother is passionate about flowers. It drives my father crazy because she’s always putting him to work, but he loves it too.”

Ava nodded and then felt a feeling of awareness move over her. He was standing too close to her. She could feel him almost as if he were sending out waves of heat toward her. She could even feel him breathing. She slowly turned around and came face to face with him.
Cyrus’s nose was flared and he was looking at her in an arrested way that had her stepping back. It was then she became aware of spicy, warm scent coming from Cyrus. Instinctively she wanted to step forward and follow the scent to its source, but that would be kind of weird to go up to a complete stranger and reach up and smell their neck. Just the idea of it, made her blush in embarrassment. Time to push this guy back a little.

“Do you always stand this close to girls you’ve just met?” she asked with a frown, crossing her arms over her chest protectively.

Cyrus grinned and shook his head. “
No
, I can promise you I don’t. Of course I haven’t met anyone new in a while so it’s hard to say,” he said and stepped back, giving her more space.

Ava sighed in relief and moved away from the man and toward the pictures on the wall. They were modern pieces full of red and black with angry almost violent brush strokes.

“This is interesting,” she said, staring at the largest picture. “What’s the title?”

Cyrus moved carefully toward her, being sure to stay a polite distance away. “It’s called
The Change
. My mother painted it,” he said and pointed to the name at the bottom of the painting.

Ava wanted to move away from it, but felt pulled into the painting almost. The violent, tormented colors made her feel uncomfortable and anxious. Almost as if she wanted something. She just wasn’t sure what it was.

“What d
o you feel when you look at the painting?” Cyrus asked softly, touching her arm with his finger.

Ava shivered and shook her head. “I don’t know. It makes me feel . . .
deprived
. Whatever that is, I want it,” she said and then shook her head with an embarrassed laugh.

Cyrus moved to stand in front of her blocking the painting. “That’s exactly what I feel when I look at it too,” he said quietly, staring at her as if he were fascinated by what he saw.

Ava swallowed nervously and moved away from Cyrus and the painting. She glanced over her shoulder at him and realized he didn’t look like he was leaving. She closed her eyes in irritation, just wanting to be alone with her thoughts. She needed to figure everything out. And she couldn’t do that with a gorgeous man staring at her. She smiled suddenly. There was only one way to get rid of this guy. She’d put him on the spot. Men hated that. At least her father did.

“So tell me everything Cyrus,” she said sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to her with a bright smile on her face.

Cyrus looked at her suspiciously before moving slowly toward the bed. He sat down next to her and frowned. “What did you want to know?” he asked, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

Ava shrugged and flipped her hair over her shoulder. She played with the ends as she looked up at him. “Well, what your dad said about mates and how people my age choose them.
For
life
. What is that all about?”

Cyrus stared at her mouth pensively for a moment before looking back into her eyes. “It’s simple really,” he said moving closer toward her. “A mate is someone you not only want to be with forever, it’s someone you would die without. It’s someone that gives you a reason to take your next breath. Finding your mate means you’ve finally found your reason for existing. You’ve found your other half. But most of all, it means you never have to be lonely again,” he said softly, staring deeply into her eyes.

Ava realized her mouth had fallen open and she blinked a few times. It was as if he’d hypnotized her. She felt so lethargic as if the only logical thing to do was to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him. She jerked back as she realized she had moved closer to Cyrus and that their mouths were only a few inches apart and that his head was tilting to the side slowly.

Unbeknownst to her father, she had kissed boys before, but she’d never been pulled in like this.
The first boy she had kissed was because she was curious about what the big deal was. But she knew on a primal level that kissing Cyrus would be completely different from the nervous, innocent little pecks she’d experienced before. Her whole body felt like she was on the edge of a cliff and that the only sane thing to do was to jump. She stared in astonishment up into Cyrus’s intense blue eyes and shivered as she consciously focused on controlling the overwhelming urge she had to grab his hair and pull his face to hers.

“Oh
wow
, that did not go how I planned,” she whispered to herself as she moved to rise.

Cyrus grabbed her hand and pulled her back down to the bed beside him. “Was there anything else you wanted to know?” he asked, his voice now sounding gravely and rough.

Ava looked down at his hand still holding hers and nodded. “Yeah, actually. What’s the big deal about my heritage? What is my father trying so hard to not tell me?” she asked, her voice thrumming with worry and anxiety.

Cyrus stared at her sadly for a moment before standing up.
“Now that, I can’t help you with. Or I can, but I’d rather not have your father kill me just now. I find, that for some reason, I have an important reason to keep breathing now
,
” he said, looking down into her face. He reached out a finger and traced her cheek bone before turning and walking out of the room.

Ava let the breath she’d been holding slowly out and hurried to the door, turning the lock and leaning her forehead against the cool wood. Well, she’d gotten him to leave. Why hadn’t she just asked him the question about her heritage first? Why had she asked him about mates? For heaven’s sake she’d come seconds away from kissing a complete stranger. What was happening to her?

She slowly turned around and saw her reflection in the mirror by the dresser. The answer was actually simple. She’d wanted to know and even more obvious, she’d wanted to kiss him.

Ava glanced down at the simple black wrap dress and frowned. It was a simple yet sophisticated dress that she could play up or down depending on the occasion. She just wasn’t sure what to do. Was this welcome home party a high class affair or was it a casual barbeque? She sighed in irritation and knew she was over thinking it. Something that she’d never done before. Most likely because she hadn’t cared that much. But tonight, she cared. She wanted to get it right and she wanted to look her best. And maybe Cyrus had something to do with it, but what normal girl hadn’t spent an hour getting ready to impress a good looking man?

She stared at her reflection in the mirror and reached for the brush. She pulled it through her long wavy dark blond hair and had to admit that she was pleased. After her shower she’d spent a little extra time and it showed. The glossy waves looked glamorous almost. She frowned at her makeup though. She’d gone light, just highlighting her
light golden brown eyes with the barest touch of eyeliner and mascara and whisking on a coat of berry glaze over her full mouth.