Chapter Ten

Alex gave her eyes a brisk rub and shook herself, trying to wake up a bit. Even the sounds of the high school marching band blasting their hip-hop rendition of “What Child Is This?” couldn’t keep the sleep monster away. At twenty-three, she pondered if she’d already become too old for all-nighters. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone with so little sleep.

Tamatsu, discreetly propping up Noelle at the curb, was no worse for wear. Angels didn’t have to sleep. Noelle was listing somewhat and jolted erect when the cymbalist clashed the bronze discs together a few feet away from her.

“Ooh, that’ll wake a lady up,” Jenny grumbled. She was sitting on the curb, head low, pale blonde hair hanging in uncombed clumps around her face.

“At least the snow melted,” Alex offered, warming her hands around her paper coffee cup.

“Elves aren’t bothered much by snow, dear,” Clarissa said through a yawn.

She must have been truly exhausted. The woman rarely used the e word out in public. Admittedly, there was a paranormal buffer around them, which probably lowered her inhibitions somewhat, but even with two angels, assorted Cougars, and a few witches flanking them on the sidewalk, she wasn’t the kind of lady who’d talk about such things around noninsiders.

Apparently, Alex had become an insider.

She liked that.

But even her glee at finally being nudged into the niche her friends were already in was tempered by the low simmer of annoyance she’d had since delivering Ben his coat. She didn’t know what she’d expected to happen. Things always unfolded so beautifully in movies, but the man had all but vanished. She hadn’t seen him all morning.

Scott was there, though, standing behind Jenny and occasionally bending to pat down her flyaway hair.

It’d be easier if I could just stop caring the way some people do.

She sighed and took a deep sip of coffee. She couldn’t stop caring, though. Her tolerance of the man had quickly bloomed into a frustrating obsession.

He’d picked a damn lock for her and hadn’t made her feel like an asshole for needing him to.

“Hope that’s enough.”

She realized after a few seconds that the voice behind her had come from her missing man—the one she’d been mentally excoriating all morning.

His breath tickled the hairs on the back of her neck, and she felt the safety of his larger-than-life presence then.

Maybe that’s what the shifters feel, that energy.

Afraid to turn around, she rubbed her hand down her neck. She didn’t know what Clarissa had told him. Clarissa hadn’t said anything when she’d returned to the kitchen, so Alex had assumed nothing had come of it.

“I didn’t know if the wet ones would be any good,” he said. A swarthy hand gripping a paper bag appeared over her shoulder. He shook it. It sounded full. Heavy. “I picked them up anyway. Everything out there was wet.”

“What in the world is that?” Curious, she folded her fingers over the folded bag top.

“More of the same stuff from yesterday and a few other things, too. I didn’t know what they were. I figured you’d know or would know how to find out.”

Brow furrowing, she turned to him. Coatless. Messy hair falling into his eyes. Unshaven.

He looked like a wild man—feral and unbothered by the world.

She knew she wasn’t fit to be seen in public in her tousled, wrinkled state, but he looked absolutely perfect.

“You went out to the open space?” she asked. She couldn’t look in the bag and hold her coffee at the same time, but it didn’t really matter what was inside. She hadn’t expected anything, so even one viable seed would be a victory come springtime. Little victories meant the world to her.

“Yep. Almost had it out with your botanist friend.”

Her heart damn near stopped. “What happened?”

“All right, so, I’m out there, minding my own business, looking for them plants, and he comes rampaging up the trail like a got-damn bat out of hell. Scowling like an asshole, glasses all fogged up. No idea how he could even see. Mind you, this was five in the morning and the sun hadn’t even come up yet.”

“His rage was probably guiding him. Like radar.”

“Hey. Sounds as good a reason as any to me.” Ben slung an arm around her shoulder, and she melted under the gentle pressure as though she were just a gooey, Alex-shaped thing held together by yesterday’s clothes. Something about his proximity made her pleasantly warm from the inside out. She could get used to that feeling.

But wouldn’t. It was short-lived, just like harvest season.

“He come right up to me and says, ‘What the heck are you doing?’ I asked him what it looked like I was doing, and he started hemming and hawing like he thought I was gonna lie. Why lie?” Without looking, Ben snatched a baggie of parade candy from the air before it could bonk him on the side of his head. He stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans, stealing a grope while he was there.

Her face burned hot enough to make her ears pop. She glanced behind her. Except for Tamatsu and his angel friend, Tarik, conferring, most of the crowd had dispersed. No one was paying any attention, not even when Ben pulled her against his front and buried his face against her neck. “Mm. You smell like cinnamon.”

“What are you doing?”

“Thought that was obvious. I’m cuddling. Taking my payment for them seeds.”

“Um. Maybe the better question is why you’re doing it?” Not that she minded at all. She liked that he wasn’t afraid to attach himself to her in such a public setting. “Wolves cuddle?”

“They cuddle their mates.”

Mates.

“Ben,” she snapped. “We already had this talk.”

“Yeah, and it didn’t end well.”

His lips tickled her flesh in a flirty, enticing caress that had her nipples hardening and anger mounting.

She tried to wriggle away from him, but it was no use. Dogs didn’t give up their toys unless they were playing fetch with them, and he’d already played fetch that morning. “Can’t think straight with you against me.”

“You’ll get used to it, I reckon.”

“How’s that?”

“You won’t be able to help it. I’ll be around a bunch.” He swayed her side to side, nuzzling her hair, his breath warming the side of her face.

Driving her mad with teasing.

“You’ll get sick of seeing me, probably,” he said.

“That’ll be hard to accomplish given the infrequency of your visits.”

“Who said anything about visiting? Staying.”

“What?” Alex finally managed to put some distance between them—enough to see the seriousness in his unsmiling expression. If he were pulling her chain, gassing her up only to crush her as soon as the fun had worn off, he was hiding his intentions well. “But what about—”

“Long story short, you need someone here with you, aidin’ and abettin’.” He pulled her back against him, and stunned, she let him. Things were moving so fast; she’d barely had time to process one thing before the next happened.

Is that what life’s like for a shifter? Everything happening on fast-forward?

If so, she could understand why Belle couldn’t sit still.

And she understood why Belle had been so sure that Steven was perfect for her, even without the benefit of knowing him for months or years. She was practical, and no one else had made as much sense to her as Steven.

Ben seemed to get Alex. As much as anyone could, anyway. She wouldn’t discount how important that was.

“I gotta wrap up some stuff back east, of course,” he said. “Might take a little bit of time, but that’s probably good. Maybe by then, you’ll figure out what you’ll want to do with me, if you still want to do anything with me at all.”

Her brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. She and Ben were speaking the same language, but something was getting lost in translation.

“But, I thought . . . You said Clarissa needed you too much.”

“Still does. I’ll be based here instead of there. I hope that’s okay with you. Stuff happens fast when you’re dealing with one of us.”

 “It’s okay!” came out in a squeak before she could even try to tamp down her giddiness. He was going to bring some verve and noise to her little house, and maybe he could use that peculiar brain of his to help her figure out how the heck she could take Belle’s mother up on her supremely generous offer. “Maybe we could—”

Tamatsu and Tarik bolted around them suddenly, and as they were angels who sometimes moved at speeds faster than the human eye could process, it took a moment for Alex to figure out where the fire was.

They’d joined the back of the parade, following a certain chamber of commerce head in his little golf cart. He stomped on the pedal, face flushed dark as a plum as they closed the distance, casually loping behind him. Before meeting those two, Alex had always thought angels were supposed to be comforting.

“You were saying?” Ben asked, raising an eyebrow when she turned back to him.

“I have no idea what I was saying, but we should definitely follow them for that guy’s sake.” She crooked her thumb toward the end of the parade. “Pretty sure they’re wearing swords.”

“So? Doubt they’ll draw blood. It’s too close to Christmas. They’ll be generous.” He chafed her arms, then guided her out of the path of dispersing onlookers. “Besides, last I checked, brandishing is illegal in Maria. They’ll only hint at violence if they need to.”

“Ben,” she scolded. She needed to at least pretend that he didn’t condone whatever happened.

He shrugged. “Not gonna lie to you, sugar. That’s how they think.”

“Apparently, there’s so much I don’t know.”

“I’ll teach it to you, if you want me to.”

Staring at the ground, she shifted her weight. “Starting when?”

“Tonight. And then some more tomorrow. Maybe every night through New Year’s and bit after. We’ll see how you feel then.”

“Everything’s up to me, then?”

He grunted. “Sweetie says she doesn’t see how anyone could put up with male Wolves. I’d hate to move all the way here for you not to like me.”

“Unless your animal half has a Mr. Hyde personality he’s keeping tamped down, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

“Nah. With Wolves, what you see is generally what you get.”

No guesswork, then?

No more bait and switches from men who wanted to pirate her time and her emotions. She’d always know where he stood with her, and there was emotional safety in predictability.

She was in his space then, seed bag and empty coffee cup crushed between their bodies, and her weight on the tips of her toes.

Obviously guessing what she sought, he wrapped a bracing arm around her, keeping her balanced as she sought his lips. Warming her through and through with his quiet chuckles as he smiled against her mouth.

“Quit laughing at me and kiss me,” she demanded.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She may have been awkward, but Ben wasn’t. He gripped her like she’d walked too close to a ledge, kissed her like he needed to memorize her taste, greedy and forceful, and her legs went limp.

She pulled back for air, head swimming, face blazing, smile goofy, and dangling limply from his arms.

“That all right?” he asked.

Alex breathed out an incredulous titter. “Keep kissing me like that and we’ll probably get cited for indecency.”

“Sounds like a life goal. Never had one of them tickets before.” He tucked her seed bag into her coat and wrapped his arm around her back, holding her close.

“You’re going to turn me into a scandal.”

He raised a brow. “You care?”

“Eh.” She shrugged and tossed her empty coffee cup into the trash as they traversed the sidewalk.

She probably should have cared more what people thought, but concerning herself with other people’s hang-ups didn’t seem like an efficient use of energy. Still, there was some value in slowing down a hair—just until she knew for sure what they were doing. She wasn’t quite ready to get her hopes up.

Stealing a glance up at him, she drew in a bracing breath. “So . . . this is happening? You’re really staying?”

“Yep.”

No hesitation. No indecisiveness. He even nodded sharply as if to accentuate the point.

“Oh.” Her lungs unclenched so she could breathe again. She hadn’t even noticed she wasn’t.

“The way things’ll work out, I guess, will be that Clarissa’ll have a Wolf on this end whenever she visits, and I get to avoid the next damn pack spat. Every season, some new shit with them. Rather be here with you.” He gave her a little squeeze, leaned in close, and whispered in a low, sultry tone, “I like the way you think, by the way.”

She put her hand over her heart and moaned as though she’d found a surprise fruitcake on her counter. The words may as well have been foreplay for the way her blood surged. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”

“I told you I’d keep telling you. I like the way you smell after I tell you that.”

“What do I smell like?” she whispered.

“Like you want to be kept.”

Oh.

She could only blink at him and hope that someday soon, she wouldn’t be as mortified at the fact he was reading her smells for instructions the way people read road signs.

Chuckling again, he steered her into the coffee shop. “Hey, can I get a coffee?” he asked the bored barista. He unhanded Alex long enough to hold his hands about eight inches apart demonstrably. “One about that big.”

“Is that for me?” Alex asked. “If so, thank you. I haven’t slept.”

“Make that two,” he amended.

“I can’t believe you’re really going to move here for me,” Alex whispered.

The barista got to work grabbing cups. While she poured servings of the dark brew, Ben leaned in and whispered, “Not just for you, shug. Half for me. Wolf needs his mate.”

And mate needs her Wolf.

She set the bag of seeds atop an unoccupied table and gratefully accepted a coffee.

They sat quietly for a while, staring coyly at each other between sips. There were so many things she could say—so many things she needed to ask—but none seemed urgent. Nothing seemed as important as them sitting and just being.

Just for a little while.

Until she was certain he was for real and that he was going to fill the cavernous hole in her life.

He gave the tip of her nose a tender tweak. “Forgot to tell you the rest of my story.”

“What story?”

“The botanist.”

“Oh!” She straightened up, curious. “Tell me.”

“He said it looked like I was desecrating nature. I told him me and nature get along fine and smiled at him.” He demonstrated, unsheathing his fangs.

“Ben.” Alex could feel her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

He put his fangs away and sipped his coffee, staring through the window at pedestrians passing on the sidewalk.

“You can’t do that,” she whispered.

“Was I bad?”

“Yes. You were very bad. Apparently, I can’t leave you unsupervised.”

He shrugged and took another sip. “Typical Wolf. Caveat emptor, or whatever. Take me or leave me, sugar. I come with a quality moonshine recipe and bad manners. I’m at your service.”

She took a deep breath, let it out, and closed her eyes.

No way was she going to leave him. He simply needed to be housebroken. Or Maria-broken, rather. She’d handle him, and she’d have fun handling him, once she found the manual that was supposed to come with him. Maybe Belle knew where she could get one.

“I’ll have to keep my eyes on you at all times.” She opened hers then for emphasis.

He smiled behind his coffee cup. “I don’t think I’ll mind that one little bit.”