Chapter 2
Cecily Houseman wiped the sweat from her brow and leaned against the counter. This was her baby. Not her literal baby, but the dream she’d had for years, ever since she had used her toy oven to make cookies and decided she wanted to be a baker for the rest of her life. It wasn’t until she graduated from culinary school two years earlier and treated herself to a donut at a specialty shop that she found her true baking love – unique, delicious donuts.
She was pretty sure her parents would have loved the idea. Unfortunately, they passed away the summer she graduated from high school. She missed them terribly, but they’d always encouraged her to follow her dreams, no matter how crazy they seemed to others. She’d inherited their trailer, a two-bedroom in a park in the small town of Tomb.
Which was the freaking eeriest name for a town that she’d ever heard. But it was home, and she was happy. Especially now that she was a day away from opening her donut shop – Cecily’s Donuts.
“It looks great,” Cecily’s best friend, Andrea, said as she walked out of the kitchen. “This place was a dump a month ago. Look how pretty it all looks!”
“And clean,” Cecily added. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Hey, what are best friends for? Plus, you’re giving me a job, too, and I’d do anything to avoid going to work for my dad, since he won’t stop talking about me finding a mate.”
Andrea’s father was on her case to choose a mate and settle down. But Andrea, like Cecily, was happily single and not looking to start popping out babies anytime soon. Cecily, though, was human, so she didn’t have to adhere to any shifter rules or mating customs.
“When’s your next mating get together?”
“A few weeks. I overheard my dad talking to the alpha about me. Just because he and mom mated when they were eighteen, he thinks there’s something wrong with my wolf that I’m twenty-three and still single.”
“What could the alpha do about that? You’re waiting to find your mate.”
“Yeah, but the alpha could decide that I need to pick a male and join with him, regardless of whether my wolf likes him or not.”
Cecily made a face. “That sucks. Who would you pick?”
“No one! There isn’t a male in my pack that I like. My mom told me once that my dad always hoped that Jerris and I would be mates, but that guy is so slimy he glides when he walks.”
Cecily grunted in agreement.
“Plus, he’s hung up on you, anyway.”
“I didn’t need a reminder.”
Andrea shrugged. “Sorry.”
Jerris had decided in high school that Cecily was his mate. He hadn’t cared that she had no interest in him in any form. She’d heard that most shifters stayed within their own kind, except for wolves. For some reason, wolves didn’t mind mating with humans or other types of shifters.
“Would your parents be mad if you mated a human?”
“I don’t know. I think they want me to mate with a wolf so we’ll have purebred children, but if my wolf chose a human for a mate I don’t see how they could do anything but be happy for me.”
“Would your kids shift if you were with a human?”
“Shifter DNA is dominant, so most likely, but there are exceptions to everything. Even purebred wolves can have screwy genes and end up not shifting. Would your parents have cared if your husband turned out to be a shifter?”
Cecily smiled. “No. They just wanted me to find a guy who would treat me well and provide for me.”
“Well, Jerris could provide because his dad is loaded, but he’s a jackass.”
Cecily laughed. “Yeah. It’s hard to think someone is handsome when they have such an awful personality.”
“Well, whoever we end up being mated to, just promise me that I’ll be your kids’ aunt and you’ll be my kids’ aunt, and we’ll raise our kids together.”
“I promise.”
Cecily put the cleaning supplies away and then walked into the kitchen where she washed her hands and pulled out her recipe book to double check her ingredients. She was going to start baking at four a.m., so she could open the front door at six. She was hopeful that since she was the only donut shop in town, that she’d have a line of customers out the door. It might be a little pie-in-the-sky dreaming, but she was optimistic.
Andrea said, “I’ll be here at 5:45 tomorrow. Anything in particular you want me to wear?”
“Do you have a solid black shirt?”
“Yeah.”
“Wear that. I’m tapped out for funds at the moment or I would have paid someone to design a logo and had shirts made.”
“No worries. Everyone in town knows that I’m working for you. How late are you staying?”
She glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight. “Shit. Ten minutes.”
“Good thing your lease included the apartment above the shop,” Andrea said with a grin. “See you in about five hours.”
“You bet.”
* * *
Cecily had managed to get only an hour of sleep before excitement for her opening day drove her to get out of bed, get dressed, and get the heck to work. Her two-bedroom apartment above the shop had two sets of stairs – one exterior and one interior. She unlocked the interior door and took the stairs down to the shop’s kitchen. Flipping on the light, she blinked at the brightness as the overheads lit, illuminating the commercial kitchen.
As she did every time she looked around the shiny appliances, she thanked her parents. Their life insurance had paid for college and many of the appliances. Grabbing her apron, she tied it on and set to work making the first batch of batter as the oil heated up.
She was elbow deep in glazed donuts when there was a knock at the front door, and she glanced at the clock and found it was nearly five.
Washing her hands quickly, she hurried out to the front, turning on the lights in the shop. She expected it would be Andrea, but instead she found Jerris, holding a bouquet of flowers.
“The shop’s not open yet,” Cecily said loudly. Jerris, like most shifters, had excellent hearing.
“I know. Open up, I came to help.”
Wariness set her teeth on edge. Just why the hell was he there? “No thanks.”
His smile dropped. “You should really let me in, Cecily. I can make this shop a success. All you have to do is agree to be mine.”
The wariness burned off in a heartbeat as anger took its place. “You need to leave, or I’ll call your father. I’ve told you a hundred times that we’re not mates, and I absolutely don’t want your help. At all.”
His eyes narrowed, and the stems of the flowers cracked as he clenched his hand. “You don’t want to piss me off. I can make life very difficult for you.”
She reached for her phone, her hands trembling as she opened her contacts and looked for the number for the alpha’s house.
“Don’t threaten me,” she said, staring right at Jerris.
His gaze darted to her phone and then back to her face. “Fine. I was just trying to be nice. If you’re going to be a bitch, then you can deal with the fallout.” He dropped the flowers and stomped his boot down, twisting his leg to grind them into the concrete. “I think you’ll be calling me for help before the day’s over.”
“Don’t count on it.”
He barked out a laugh that made her skin crawl, and then he turned and walked away into the darkness. She stared until her eyes watered, wondering why he wouldn’t leave her alone. How many years had she had to deal with him? The man couldn’t take a hint. She looked down at her cell and the alpha’s contact information. All she had to do was press the call button and she’d reach Dale Irvine, alpha wolf. But Jerris walked away. He didn’t try to get inside, which because of his enhanced strength through his shifter genes, she knew very well he could. A glass door wouldn’t keep him out if he really wanted to get in. Deciding to talk to Andrea first, she closed the phone app and tucked her cell back in her pocket. For good measure she looked toward the street again, trying to make out any darker shadows, but she couldn’t see anything. He could still be out there, just out of sight, watching her. Waiting.
She shivered and purposely switched her thoughts to happier ones. Jerris was an ass, but he’d never been violent. She had no reason to believe he’d suddenly do something vicious.
Cecily returned to the kitchen and her donuts, gathering the ingredients to make her favorite sour cream cake ones with vanilla glaze. By the time she heard the key turn in the front door signaling Andrea’s arrival, she’d prepared five different donuts, a batch of apple fritters, and started the coffee.
“It smells freaking amazing in here,” Andrea gushed as she walked in. “Wow, you’ve been busy!”
Cecily gave her a hug. “I couldn’t sleep so I started early.”
“This is it, babe. Your dream come true. How freaking excited are you? It’s not even my dream and I’m thrilled.”
“It’s amazing. I can’t believe it’s finally here.” She followed Andrea out into the diner and glanced at the front door. “The weirdest thing happened this morning.”
“Oh? Weird good or weird bad?”
She frowned. “When is weird good?”
“Like that time we were at the boardwalk and we got a yogurt bowl and it looked like baby vomit, but it tasted amazing?”
“Ugh, yeah. You’d think they’d have tried harder to make it look appetizing. But no, weird bad.” Cecily explained about Jerris showing up and acting mildly threatening.
Andrea growled. “He’s such a dick! But he didn’t try to get in? Not even rattling the door?”
Cecily shook her head. “No.”
“I wondered about those ruined flowers outside. I put them in the trash bin.”
“Good. I didn’t want them, and I didn’t want to open the door while it was still dark out and I was alone in here.”
“You should still call Alpha Irvine.”
“I don’t want to cause trouble.” She chewed her bottom lip.
“Hello! Jerris is the one acting out, not you. This isn’t just him coming around to ask you out, this is him saying that you’ll be sorry if you don’t work with him. It’s too creepy for words.”
“If you’re sure?”
“Positive. He needs to know that his son is treating you poorly. When his mate was alive, she and your mom were good friends, and he promised your folks he’d watch out for you.”
“Okay. After we’re done for the day, though. I think we’ll be slammed. At least, I freaking hope so.”
At six on the dot, Cecily turned on the glowing neon sign that said open, and looked out into the empty parking lot. Pretty soon people from town would venture in to try her donuts and drink coffee.
But by the time she turned off the sign at one p.m., they’d had all of seven customers, and it didn’t escape Cecily’s notice that none of them were wolves. She twisted the deadbolt on the front door and turned to face the glass counter with all the donuts she’d worked so hard to make that morning.
She didn’t want to cry, but damn her eyes stung.
“That. Bastard.” Andrea said, her voice a low snarl.
“We don’t know for sure,” Cecily started to say, but stopped the sentence before she finished it. She absolutely did know for sure that Jerris was behind it. His threat made sense now – he’d offered to help and when she turned him down, he told the pack to stay away. He had enough clout as the alpha’s son to make a decision like that and the pack would follow. The town was mostly wolf, which explained why she’d had only a few human customers.
“Call Alpha Irvine and ask him for help. When you told him that you wanted to open the shop, he helped get you a break on the lease because he knew the building owner. He wouldn’t let you invest all that time and money and then let his son piss all over things.”
“You’re right,” she said, grabbing her phone and opening her contacts. “Hi, Alpha Irvine, sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you had a moment to talk? Something happened today, and I need your help.”