Chapter 24
One week later, Hillary’s heat had finally subsided. Standing in the bright sun as it filtered through Modess’ open kitchen window, she had to admit, if only to herself, that if Modess hadn’t been there to sate her, she’d have probably gone insane. Granted, it was his fault her heat had hit so hard, but she’d never admit that to him either.
While she was admitting things though, she also thought on how pleasant it had been to be able to spend her days with him. They’d been inseparable for the entire week and the rest of the pack seemed content to leave them to it. Hell, even Wanda had been shockingly absent from her typically frequent visits. It’d been…nice. She’d had Modess all to herself and they’d spent the week fucking and eating and fucking some more. No, it hadn’t been just fucking. It had been more than that, at least it had been to her. Modess had been so tentative and so gentle that while she’d never experienced it before, she knew it had to be what making love felt like. It hadn’t been awkward either. Every time she’d needed him, he’d seemed to sense it, and usually without her asking, he gave her what she needed without making her feel dirty about it. Afterward, he’d hold her and they’d talk about anything and everything. He was particularly interested in her life back at Shadow Wolf. At first, she’d been reluctant to share information. It wasn’t right to divulge pack intel with other Alphas, but Modess didn’t ask like he was ever going to use what she told him. They’d grown close and damn if it wasn’t starting to feel like a real relationship. Yesterday, he’d even pulled his cot back out of the closet and said they could go back to their old sleeping arrangement now that her heat had passed. It had meant a lot because it told her he was willing to go slow. She liked it.
Today, Modess had to go back to handling what he called Alpha duties, but he’d promised to come back for lunch and now, even the prospect of just seeing him had drunken butterflies crashing around her middle.
Humming to herself as she poured cake batter into cupcake tins, movement out the window caught her eye. It was just Evan and a few other boys from the pack, so she went back to her business, but as her mind processed what she saw, her head jerked back up. Watching the boys out the window, her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned in disapproval. Oh, hell no! Bowl of batter set loudly on the counter, Hillary stormed through the kitchen and out the back door where she barked loudly, “HEY!”
All three boys jumped and Evan quickly hid his hands behind his back as Hillary approached.
“What do you boys think you’re doing?”
“N-nothing,” one of them stammered, looking from her to Evan.
“Nothing,” Evan stated more firmly.
Stopping in front of them, Hillary planted her hands on her hips in her best authoritative pose and looked down her nose at Evan before holding out her hand. “Give it here.”
Evan looked from her to his two friends before pulling his hands from behind his back and handed her the can of snuff they’d been passing around, their little lips full of the poison.
Hillary stared at the can disapprovingly and gritted out, “Listen to me.” She bent to get closer to their eye level. “If you boys start chewing now, then it’s going to become a habit. By the time you’re young men it’ll be with you more firmly, and when you’re grown men it’ll be almost impossible to break. You don’t want to do that do yourselves.”
Evan rolled his eyes and Hillary dropped to a knee. “Let me tell you something. One day you boys are gonna find something waaaaay more interesting than this,” she held up the can of chew and smirked. “One day a girl is gonna come along.” At her words the boys perked up and looked at each other before smiling. “And you know what? That girl might be your one, your mate.” Lifting her free hand, she rapped her knuckles on the can’s tin lid. “And I guarantee that if you have this crap in your mouth, she isn’t going to kiss you. Girls. Don’t. Like. This!” Turning, she chucked the can back toward the house. “If you get addicted, the chances are that you are going to have this crap in your mouth for most of the day. You know what that means?”
All three boys shook their heads, listening intently now.
“It means that when your woman sees you and wants you to kiss her, you can’t. It means when she wants to feel the press of your lips or the taste of your tongue on hers, she won’t be able to. And you know why? Because you chose a disgusting, selfish, habit over kissing your mate. She’s gonna resent it and you.” Pushing up off her knees, Hillary looked down at the boys. “Men who enjoy kissing pretty ladies don’t chew.”
One of the boys canted his head, “But…but Modess chews.”
“Yeah,” Evan chucked him in the arm hard enough to make the other boy stumble. “But do you ever see him kissing any pretty ladies?”
The kid rubbed his arm. “Well…no.”
Turning, Hillary headed back to the house, tossing over her shoulder, “Don’t chew boys! Ladies don’t like it. Make your choice now. Be kissers, not chewers!”
Hillary didn’t see it, but a grin claimed her lips as she heard all three boys start spitting profusely.
Evan declared to his friends, “It was gross anyway.”
“Yeah!”
***
Modess had been heading home when he saw Evan, Abe, and Mateo sneaking behind the house. He’d followed and watched from a distance as they pulled out a can of snuff and passed it around. A part of him had been disappointed. He’d been mulling over how to talk the boys out of the disgusting habit without sounding hypocritical when Hillary stormed out the back door. Damn, she was beautiful when she was fired up.
Staying in his hidden position, he listened as Hillary reamed the boys over starting the bad habit, and while he’d been proud of the way she’d handled it, he’d also been embarrassed. His embarrassment turned to outright shame when Mateo had said, “But Modess chews.” If that wasn’t humiliating enough, Evan pointed out that he didn’t kiss ladies, and while the kids had never seen him show any public display of affection of any kind, let alone an intimate gesture, the truth of Hillary’s words stung. There were other members of the pack who chewed, mostly because he did, and he realized now how few kisses he’d seen those males give their mates. When he’d been at Shadow Wolf, he found the open and frequent displays of intimacy between mates startling. Now, Modess realized it was only startling because it was so absent here.
Dropping his head, he pulled the tin of tobacco from his back pocket and stared at it a long moment before fisting it. Hearing spitting and hacking, he looked up to see the boys spitting the tobacco out of their mouths before Evan beamed, “It was gross anyway!”
“Yeah,” Mateo and Abe agreed in unison before Evan shoved Abe and took off running shouting, “Let’s go swim!”
Modess watched the boys disappear into the trees and inhaled deeply. Hillary was not just good, she was good for his pack. Lifting a hand, Modess hooked his pointer finger into his lower lip and pulled the damp mound of tobacco free before dropping it onto the ground. He liked kissing pretty ladies, one in particular, and if quitting the nasty habit meant he could do it whenever he wanted in the short while that Hillary was still with them, then he’d give it up. That woman’s pleasure meant more than his own.