Chapter Seven
Rhetta slammed the door behind her. The loud crack reverberated the walls and the shock coursed through her body. The vibrations sent her mind back to the previous night when her body had shaken from the center on outward.
She stormed down the stairs of Rory’s apartment, putting as much distance between her and the beast as possible. On her way out, she caught sight of the assistant. The woman gasped in utter disbelief to see Rhetta there. She dropped the cash register to the floor with a loud clang.
Part of Rhetta wanted to raise an eyebrow and cock her hand on her hip. But even more than gloating at the other woman’s misjudgment of her, Rhetta wanted to get out of this place.
And so Rhetta pulled open the entryway to the butchery. The sunlight hit her as people walked down the street. She felt like she was on stage taking a walk of shame. She pulled the lapels of her coat together at her bosom. The streets were fairly full in the light of dawn with humans and wolves intermixing. As Rhetta made her way to her car she was certain all eyes were on her as she did a shameful promenade.
Of course, everyone knew what she had been doing all night long. Her hair was disheveled. Her makeup gone. Her eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. Her lips swollen from overuse. And these were wolves. She was sure the stench of sex permeated her pores announcing to all within a few blocks radius that she had been claimed by someone that was not her fiancé.
But as she approached her car, she noted that no one looked at her. People were involved in their own dealings. The mailman pulled open a mailbox and shoved a package inside. A mother ran after her toddler. A man dressed in a suit and tie peered down at his wristwatch.
Rhetta was nearly home free to her car when a familiar voice stopped her.
“Goodness, child,” the voice creaked. “What happened to you?”
Rhetta turned into the face of Mrs. Cabbage. She was a regular at Jordan’s veterinary clinic. Rhetta had trained three of her dogs. They were mean little beasts.
Rhetta’s honey-brown skin turned beet red as Mrs. Cabbage took her in. She was well and truly caught now. How would she ever explain this to Jordan?
The wedding would be off. His family feud would continue. And all because of Rhetta and her damned bad luck.
Rhetta opened her eyes to face the music.
“Did you break up a dogfight?” Mrs. Cabbage asked.
Rhetta blinked. A dogfight? Was the woman senile? Had she lost her sense of smell? But then Rhetta remembered, Mrs. Cabbage wasn’t Moonkind.
“I hope you decided to put the creature down,” said Mrs. Cabbage. “Whatever beast mauled you shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rhetta had no idea which question she was answering; that she’d been mauled or that the beast should be put down. Probably both. “Now I’m going home to wash up. Have a good day.”
Rhetta ducked into her car, turned on the engine, and began the process of the three-point turn in order to take her in the opposite direction. With the turn complete, she took one final glance in her rearview mirror. She thought she caught sight of a large and hairy werewolf barreling down the street hobbling on a slight limp. But when she blinked, the vision was gone.
Of course, it was gone. Because she was hallucinating. She was crazy.
He wasn’t chasing after her. He’d gotten what he’d wanted. That’s the only way that she could explain last night and how she came to sleep with her fiancé’s brother.
The night’s moon remained visible in the sky. The nearness of the orb still called to Rhetta’s blood. That damned moon. She knew Jordan should’ve waited to propose to her under the right moon.
But he hadn’t. Because he was sensible. He hadn’t cared what the moon had to do with it. He had proposed to her at her favorite restaurant. And had the good sense to before the entrées had arrived in case she’d refused him.
Unlike his brother. Who’d thrown her down and taken her like an animal. After he’d gobbled up his meal.
Rhetta rolled down the car window. She leaned her head out the window and lapped up the fresh air. Soon city turned to farmland and she could breathe deeper, her chest opened, and her nerves began to settle.
Rory had said he loved her. But that was preposterous. He was mad or playing her. Probably both.
Jordan would never profess love after only one night. He was too sensible. Jordan had seen their compatibility. Just like her husband had. Charles had been a dog breeder, just as Jordan was a vet, and Rhetta a dog trainer. Sensible people in the same line of work who appreciated order.
Unlike the beast whom she’d fled this morning. Rory was a butcher who hacked things into pieces. There was bad blood between the brothers for a reason. That and bad luck were the bearings of poor decision-making.
Rhetta pulled out her cell phone and tried Jordan. It went straight to voicemail. He was probably tending to his contriving mother.
She tried to cut down on the bitterness in her mental tone. Instead, she focused on the fact that that was another reason she was marrying Jordan. He had his priorities and responsibilities in order. Family first.
Rhetta pulled up to her home. She parked at the end of the driveway and made her way around to the back of the house. She was through the gate when a chorus of barks greeted her.
Rhetta held up her hand and her pack of dogs all shut their muzzles and sat down obediently. Hopefully, they hadn’t been loud enough to alert anyone of her approach. She knew she was wrong when she was swept up into an embrace from behind.
“Didn’t I just leave you in bed?”
Rhetta yelped.
Pierce put her down immediately. Her brother-in-law turned her around with a flush on his brown cheeks.
“Rhetta?” His look was incredulous at the same time sheepish. “I’ve never confused you and your sister before. But you smell just like her now.”
Rhetta took a calming breath and straightened her coat. Pierce laughed to himself and rubbed his nose. He cocked his head at her as his gaze ran over her state of dress. She’d been hoping to slip in and change before anyone would notice that she was wearing yesterday’s clothes, but it looked like she’d be found out.
“Did you just come off a run?” Pierce asked.
“No.”
He tilted his head to the other side, his nose twitching as he regarded her with more scrutiny. “Did you fall down?”
Rhetta had always thought her sister’s mate was a bit slow. He was hard to arouse to any passion without her sister in the room. He was very even toned. Unlike most men that Rhetta knew.
Rhetta didn’t have a chance to answer his latest inaccurate guess about her state of dress. From behind Pierce, her mother came into view. Naked as the day she was born and not looking a day over twenty-five moons, Gloria Veracruz sauntered up to the gate.
“What happened?” asked her mother, eyeing her daughter with a frown. “Did you get into a fight?”
Now Rhetta huffed. Was it so inconceivable to think that maybe, just possibly, she’d spent a night of passion with a man? “No, I didn’t come off a run. No, I didn’t fall down. No, I didn’t get into a fight.”
Two pairs of eyes stared back at her, waiting. Great, she’d closed off all other possibilities, but she had no plan to tell them the truth. What now?
“What’s going on?” Viviane came out of the door belly first. She took one look at her twin sister and then grinned. “Looks like somebody got some last night.”
“Really?” Their mother wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t think old Georgie boy had it in him.”
Her mother leaned in and sniffed. She cocked her head to the side as though to let the scent roll around in her mind. Rhetta stepped away from her mother and her strong sense of smell. Her mother hadn’t spent much time around Jordan. She would be unlikely to tell that it wasn’t exactly his scent. Still, Rhetta didn’t care to give her any more ammunition.
“Jordan,” she began with emphasis because her mother would need to get his name correct from this moment on, “is no longer my boyfriend.”
“Oh, good,” said Viviane. “He was all wrong for you.”
“He was such a wimp,” said their mother.
Rhetta glared at the two women who she called family. “He’s not my boyfriend any longer because he’s now my fiancée.” Rhetta held up her hand to show the ring on her finger.
Viviane had the good sense to look cowed. Gloria, on the other hand, pulled down the lapels of the coat Rhetta wore. Having found what she was looking for, she ran her hands over the bite marks on Rhetta’s neck.
“Hmmm,” her mother said. “I didn’t think the boy had it in him.”
Rhetta grabbed the lapels and pulled them up close again. This is one of the reasons she couldn’t wait to get married. Her mother didn’t have any boundaries. Rhetta would have her own home once she and Jordan got married, and she’d have some semblance of privacy and order.
“Do you love him, Rhetta?” asked Viviane.
Rhetta turned to her sister. Pierce had his arm tucked around her round belly and his nose in her hair. Rhetta scratched her chest at the display of affection.
“Jordan and I have a relationship based on compatibility. That’s what I want.”
Viviane nodded as Pierce nuzzled into her neck. Jordan would never do such a thing, not in public. She wasn’t sure if he’d do it in private either. They’d only kissed a couple of times and it had been directly on the lips. But they had been perfectly respectable kisses.
With her announcement out of the way, Rhetta decided to get back to her priorities and responsibilities. “Thank you all for your well-wishes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a shower and get ready for the day.”