Chapter Eight

 

“Don’t be nervous,” Cliff said as he guided Taylor into the formal dining room. Cliff had been gone all afternoon dealing with various company matters, and she’d sat in his room and sulked until he came to fetch her at dinner time.

Taylor looked at the table, which could easily have seated thirty. It was a glossy length of rich mahogany, laid with cut glass, snowy linen napkins, and far too much silverware. Who would have imagined werewolves would be sticklers for dinner table etiquette? Chandeliers dripping with crystal glittered and tinkled above the diners, sending tiny glints of white light dancing across the high ceiling.

There were a dozen people sitting at the table, and several servants hovering discreetly in the background. Taylor only recognized a few of them, and they all stared as she walked in. And they were all werewolves. They would turn into wolves in a couple of weeks. And they were all staring at her as if she were a sideshow curiosity at a circus.

“Why would I be nervous?” she asked.

Instinctively, she started to suck in her stomach.

“Don’t,” Cliff said as they walked to the head of the table. He put his arm around her waist and rested his hand lightly on her hip.

She forced herself not to moan with arousal. “Don’t what?”

He flashed her a winning smile. “Don’t suck in your stomach. I want to enjoy every glorious inch of you.”

She scowled at him as he pulled her chair out for her. “Could you please stop being charming and go back to being a dick? I want to be mad at you.”

He pretended to consider it for a moment, then shook his head. “No, I think I’ll continue to be charming, which in a way means I’m being a dick, because I’m not doing what you asked. Is that good enough for you?”

“Now I’m just confused.”

She plopped down in her chair and glanced around the table. Cliff made the introductions. Austin was there, with his perma-scowl stamped across his face. Everyone else was dressed up, and he was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans and motorcycle boots.

Grant sat next to a stunning blonde, who wore a bright-red cocktail dress that plunged to her navel. He introduced her as Mandy.

There was a beautiful young girl who looked to be in her early teens, who was introduced as their cousin Serafina. She had two younger siblings, Dax and Roger, who were twins and looked to be around seven or eight. James and his wife – no, mate – Anita was there. So were Truman, a man named Richard, and a few other people whose names Taylor forgot because her mind was so blown by the whole werewolf thing that she was having a hard time concentrating on much of anything.

As one of the servants poured wine into a gilded glass, Dax leaped up, walked over to Taylor, and poked her in the arm.

“Why is your name Taylor? My uncle Jerrold said that you’re a total freak.” He squinted up at her through narrowed eyes. “You don’t look like a freak. What’s freaky about you?” He sounded disappointed.

Serafina gasped in horror, and Cliff looked as if he were about to smack Dax.

“Dax!” Serafina snarled at him.

“What?” Dax looked upset. “Uncle Jerrold said. What did I do wrong?”

“It’s all right,” Taylor said quickly. “Actually, I am a freak. Look, I can bend my fingers way back.” She demonstrated.

“Hmm. Double-jointed, eh?” Cliff murmured. “So, exactly how flexible are you?”

“Shut it.” Taylor tried to kick him under the table, but he moved his leg out of the way. “There are numerous reasons why you’ll never find out.”

“That is so cool!” Dax said admiringly. He tried to bend his fingers back but couldn’t do it. Then he looked up at her expectantly “What else can you do?”

“I can pull a quarter out of your ear.” Taylor was afraid that Dax would already know that old party trick, but apparently he didn’t.

“You can’t! Can you?” He sounded very hopeful.

She kneeled down next to him, reached behind his ear, and quickly produced the promised quarter.

Roger ran up to her. “Do me, do me! But it has to be a hundred dollar bill!”

“Roger!” Serafina looked utterly mortified and near tears. “I’m sorry, Uncle Cliff. Please don’t send them away to military school.”

“Why would I do that?” Cliff asked. “If the occasion calls for it, I’m more than capable of delivering a good old-fashioned butt whipping right here.”

Both Roger and Dax froze where they stood and glanced at him warily.

“But the occasion doesn’t call for it, right?” Roger said.

“Jury’s still out.” Cliff fixed him with a warning look.

“What’s an occasion?” Dax asked his brother, who shrugged and held up his hands.

“Something bad,” he said. “Or why else would it call for a butt-whipping?”

“You swear you won’t send them away?” Serafina persisted. “Uncle Jerrold said you were thinking of sending them away to military school because they’re so badly behaved.”

Cliff snorted. “Uncle Jerrold lied to you, because that conversation never happened. And I’d never discuss any of my plans with him anyway. You should know better.”

Serafina looked relieved. “That’s true,” she said. “I should have known.”

“That’ll happen over my dead body,” Austin growled, eyes alight with anger. Then he relaxed and winked at Serafina. “If it gets too much for you here, you can always come join my pack,” he assured her.

“Really?” she glanced hopefully at Cliff.

Cliff shot his brother a look of annoyance. “We’ll talk about Austin’s so-called ‘pack’ later. You’re safe here.”

“Are they, though? Even if they don’t toe the line like good little robots?” Austin met Cliff’s gaze challengingly, and tension crackled in the air.

“Ahem!” Taylor said loudly, and she pulled a quarter from behind Dax’s ear. “Let’s see if I can get you a little more money.” She stuck the quarter behind his ear again. She pulled out two dimes and a nickel. “Nope,” she said, shaking her head solemnly.

Dax and Roger shrieked with laughter.

“I’m glad I didn’t bite you,” Roger said.

“Why would you bite her?” Cliff’s tone went dangerously low.

“Cliff, he’s a child,” Taylor whispered. “Settle down there, cowboy.”

“Uncle Jerrold said her blood is made of chocolate. He said I had to bite her really hard in the neck to get to it.”

“Well, gee, I’m glad you didn’t bite me too,” Taylor said lightly, as Cliff’s face went dark with anger.

Roger made a dismissive hand gesture. “I knew he was lying. Your blood doesn’t even smell like chocolate. I’ve got a really good sense of smell. That’s my superpower.” And he and his brother returned to their seats next to Serafina, who whapped them both on the head. “We’ll talk about your bad manners later,” she threatened them.

Taylor took a sip of her wine, and as she glanced around the table, she realized that Grant was staring at her with open admiration. Oddly enough, Mandy didn’t look the least bit put out by his behavior.

“Taylor, I’ve never seen you looking so beautiful,” Grant said. “If you get bored with Cliff – and trust me, you will – you know where to find me.”

Cliff growled and stiffened in his seat. Taylor put her hand on his knee.

“Why, Grant,” she said with a fake simper. “You are too kind. And I’ve never seen you so...” She dropped the simper and gave him an icy look. “Blatantly obvious.”

He arched an eyebrow inquiringly.

“You’ve been in the office before, and you didn’t flirt with me. But suddenly I’m hotter than a bushel of Jalapeno peppers? The only reason you’d be so interested in me, especially with your beautiful date right by your side, is to needle Cliff. Let me guess. Middle brother, always had to fight for attention?”

Cliff threw his head back and laughed. Austin cracked a rare smile.

Grant turned his irritation on Austin. “So where are you working again? Male model for Homeless R Us?”

Austin smirked at him. “Do you plan on staying with this date all through dinner, or will you be,” he glanced at Serafina and moderated his language, ““dating someone else on the dinner table by dessert?”

“Hey!” Cliff snapped at him. “Language. Cubs.”

“I knew what you meant,” Serafina said loftily to Austin. “I’m not twelve.”

Just then, they heard loud voices at the doorway. A group of people marched in, and Taylor felt the atmosphere suddenly grow chilly even though the temperature hadn’t changed.

There were seven very old people, four male and three female. They were divided into two groups, Taylor noticed. No, three. Two groups of three clustered together, and an older man standing apart from them. Following them in was a man who looked to be in his fifties, accompanied by a pretty woman with blonde hair pulled back into a chignon, wearing a black lace jacket over a black silk dress. The woman looked at the ground and avoided everyone’s gaze. The man’s face was heavily scarred, but he would still have been handsome if he didn’t have a sneer curling his lip and contempt radiating from every pore in his body.

Cliff introduced them to Taylor. He started with the older people, whom he referred to as the pack’s Elders. The three of them who stood closest to the scarred man were Minnie, Phineas and Oswald. The three of them who looked friendly to Cliff were Herbert, Maurice and Juliette. And the man standing off by himself was Oswald.

The scarred man was Jerrold, and the blonde was his wife Leota; Cliff had told Taylor that Jerrold was competing with him in hopes of becoming pack Alpha, and that had something to do with the Alpha Trials, but he hadn’t had much of a chance to discuss it with her.

Serafina glared at Jerrold. “You lied to me, and you tried to get my brothers into trouble. You’re a liar, not a leader,” she snapped.

Jerrold met her gaze. “You are a juvenile who needs someone to take you in hand and discipline you appropriately. I’ll see to it when I’m Alpha.”

There was a hint of lechery in his eyes that made Taylor furious and nauseated at the same time. At the mention of “‘discipline”,’ the blonde shivered and hugged herself. Taylor thought she could see bruising on her arms underneath the lace jacket.

Austin shot to his feet, lip curling back in a snarl. “I don’t care if you win the Alpha position or not – you lay one fucking finger on her, you pervert, and I’ll end you.”

Jerrold flashed a triumphant smile at the elders. “I told you. He’s mentally unstable and completely out of control. He shouldn’t even be allowed to participate in the trials. What kind of leader would he make?”

“It’s required by charter,” Juliette said, her lip curling with disdain as she spoke to him.

Serafina looked at her uncle with a mixture of defiance and disgust. “A competent leader would know that.”

“I see that you’re incapable of teaching the youngsters in your pack the most basic manners,” Jerrold said loudly to Cliff, while shooting a glance at the older werewolves who were standing near him. “When I am Alpha, I can assure you, I will bring back proper discipline for all pack members, from the youngsters to the adults.”

Serafina coughed into her hand. It sounded like she’d said, “Never gonna happen.”

Before Jerrold could say anything else, Cliff said, “And I hear that you’ve been attempting to manipulate younger pack members to physically assault my future mate.”

The Elders looked startled.

“Outrageous!” Jerrold blustered. “I did no such thing.”

“Calling me a liar?” Cliff’s voice went even colder.

“Oh, you mean the little joke that I made with Roger? Of course I didn’t expect him to take it seriously.”

“It wasn’t a joke,” Roger said indignantly. “You told me to bite Taylor on the neck really hard because her blood would taste like chocolate.”

“Really,” Herbert said severely. “Very juvenile. Hardly befitting of a leader.”

Phineas cleared his throat with a harrumph. “I do not see any place settings for us. Surely Jerrold told you we’d be joining you for dinner?”

“It must have slipped his mind,” Cliff said, glaring daggers at Jerrold.

“Did you forget to tell them, dear?” Jerrold lightly cuffed the blonde on the side of the head.

With anyone else, it could have been a joking love-tap, but her flinch and her look of fear spoke volumes. Taylor stifled a gasp.

Cliff looked at her. “I’ll explain later,” he whispered. “I know it looks bed.”

“You think?” Taylor whispered back furiously.

The woman held perfectly still and stared down at the ground with her hands clasped in front of her. “Sorry,” she whispered.

Taylor thought she heard Jerrold mutter, “You will be.”

She was pretty sure Jerrold had neglected to tell Cliff on purpose, then blamed it on his wife.

Taylor barely restrained herself.

Serafina was looking at them with horror, and Dax and Roger looked as if they were about to cry.

Somehow or other, I will find a way to kick Jerrold’s ass, Taylor thought furiously. I hope I really do become a werewolf, because then I can rip his face off.

“Take our places while we wait for new place settings. It is only right. You are the Elders, and I insist.” Grant flashed his most charming grin and stood up. Everyone else stood up too.

Taylor refrained from rolling her eyes. Grant was such a competitive butt-kisser.

The dinner was almost comically awkward. Jerrold attempted to insult Cliff at every opportunity, and Cliff parried his insults coolly, never once looking rattled. Grant continued to shamelessly butter up all the older people, and Austin sat there sullenly, ignoring them. Every once in a while, he had a wink and a smile for his cousin Serafina, and a couple of times he made her laugh by tearing off pieces of his bread roll and throwing them at her.

“The younger people in this pack are so undisciplined,” Jerrold said.

“Gosh, that’s only the third time you’ve mentioned it during this dinner,” Taylor said. “Looks like you’re suffering from some memory loss. Head injury? Or do werewolves get dementia?”

Austin choked on his beer and coughed out a laugh. He and Serafina exchanged amused glances. Cliff stifled a smile.

Jerrold’s face went red and he clenched his fists. He let out a low warning growl and started to rise from his chair. Everyone froze, forks in the air, food half chewed.

Cliff put his fork down on the table. “Careful,” he said. “You know what will happen if you challenge my intended mate. That’s one of the rare exceptions to the rules.”

“I believe that I’m done here,” Jerrold said. “I’ve made my point.” He glanced at the Elders for emphasis, then stood up. Leota followed him out of the dining room. She’d barely touched her food.

After Jerrold left, the Elders peppered Taylor with questions, which she unfortunately could not answer.

They were very concerned about her having been turned. They asked her all the same questions that Cliff had, but she had no new insights to share.

When they were finished eating, Grant winked at the Elders and said, “Well, that was delightful. I look forward to dining with you again soon.” He gave his brother a mocking bow, and he and Mandy left.

“Yes, I can’t get enough of these family dinners,” Austin said. “I’m sorry I stayed away for so long. Goodnight, Pipsqueak and the Mutts,” he added to Serafina. “That’s the name I’ve decided to give you if you ever form a rock band.” He sauntered out.

As the table was cleared, Cliff stood up and led Taylor outside to the rose gardens behind the house. He waited until the door had shut before he groaned and threw his hands in the air. “That was a disaster.”