Chapter Sixteen
Rory held the knife in his hand. He flipped it around by the handle a couple of times before bringing it down with a mighty and precise blow that sliced through the chunk of flesh with ease. The day had gone by uneventfully but it was the happiest day he’d spent at work since … forever.
He decided to call it an early day. He gave Shelly the rest of the afternoon off as well. She’d been leaking from her owlish eyes all day over something or other. He didn’t ask.
With her ushered out the door along with the last customer, Rory turned the open sign to closed and headed up to his apartment. He’d set aside the choicest of cuts for his woman. Pulling out a pan, he let the meat marinade in oils and spices for a bit while he cleaned up.
Peace had settled over Rory by the time he came out of the shower. He’d dressed in a crisp white shirt and a pair of slacks he hadn’t worn in years. Standing in his apartment, he looked around at his place as though seeing it for the first time.
Rhetta was right. The walls did need to be repainted. His furniture was shabby. He couldn’t have his mate and child living like this. When Rhetta came through the door in a bit, he’d hand over his wallet and tell her to make this place into a proper home.
Then again, an apartment was no place to raise a cub. They’d have to go and look for a house soon. His own house. His own cub. His own mate.
It had felt like he’d been moving through molasses these past years. His body had ached every morning when he got up and then again at night when he lay himself down to go to bed. But these last couple of days, Rory had felt alive. He’d felt energized, even when he’d been in actual pain from working his foot too hard.
It was all due to Rhetta. She’d awakened him. But she hadn’t just woke him up, she’d lit a spark in him. Rory had always thought he wanted a docile woman who would follow him obediently.
That had been Rosalind. She was the type that needed to be cared for and coddled. The moment he fell invalid; she’d revoked her love.
Rhetta had seen him at his best this morning. But she’d seen him at his worst when they first met. She’d fought him. She’d fought her feelings for him. She’d fought the very idea of them. It did nothing but make Rory want her more and, in the end, when he finally got her to submit, it would be all the more sweeter.
Life with Rhetta would never be ordinary. She would challenge him every step of the way. He knew she’d make him go longer and harder for every victory. Rory almost danced a jig at the prospect.
He was headed over to turn on the oven to prepare a feast for his mate, the first of many, when he heard a knock at the door.
He frowned. That would not do. The first thing he would do would be to get Rhetta a key. No sense in her having to knock in order to enter her own home, temporary as it may be. Rory flung the door open with a huge smile that promptly died.
Standing on the other side of the door was his brother. Rory’s lip curled at the sight of the man who had neglected such a prize as his Rhetta. But Rory’s ire at Jordan would have to wait a moment. Standing right behind his brother was Rosalind.
Rory gulped at the sight of her. He had spent years dreaming about this moment, hoping for it, wishing and praying to the Moon Goddess for Rosalind to show up on his doorstep. When she had broken things off with him, it had all been so final. He’d begged her to take him back. Rory never begged. But he had that night, and she’d looked down at him like he was a ragged dog.
Rosalind looked pretty much the same now. She was still stunning. Her head bowed as she looked up at him through thick lashes in that submissive way. It had always made his cock hard. It did nothing for him now.
Rory returned his gaze to his brother. “What are you doing here, Jordan?”
“Hello, Andrew,” Jordan said stiffly.
Rory knew his brother wasn’t trying to be high and mighty, it was just the way he spoke. The problem was, Rory hated being called Andrew.
“I’ve come to make peace between us,” Jordan continued.
Though Jordan stood stiffly, his feet shifted. His heels weren’t touching the ground, as though he might bolt. He’d always been a slight boy. He’d have been considered the runt of the litter if he had been born wolf. It had always brought out Rory’s protective streak toward his younger sibling.
Rory sighed looking down at the little pipsqueak. Did Jordan actually think that his big brother might hurt him? Well, Rory had threatened it. Numerous times. For many years. But he wouldn’t have actually done it.
“You’re right,” Rory said opening the door wider. “It’s time we make peace.”
Jordan needed to know where they stood and exactly who stood beside whom. And if Jordan didn’t like the fact that Rhetta was now Rory’s, too bad. He could go lick his wounds or let his mother do it for him like she did everything else.
Jordan blinked with surprise. Then he made his way into the apartment, followed by Rosalind. Rory had forgotten she was standing there.
“It is the wish of our dear mother—who is recovering nicely by the way—that we make peace.”
“She’s your mother,” said Rory. “Not mine.”
Jordan continued as though he hadn’t heard him, or simply ignored Rory’s words. “She suggested that I extend the olive branch, even though I had apologized all those years ago. There is nothing I can do about your foot. But perhaps there is something I can do about your heart.”
And with that, he brought Rosalind forward like an offering.
Rosalind stumbled a bit. Rory didn’t reach out to catch her. It took a second before she regained her own footing.
“I’ll give you two time alone and then perhaps you and I can talk.” Jordan smiled, pleased with himself. Then he turned and headed for the door.
Before Rory could stop him, so that they could discuss the real matter which was the end of Jordan’s engagement and the beginning of Rory’s life with his true mate, Jordan shut the door leaving Rory and Rosalind alone.
“Hello, Rory,” Rosalind said in that breathy way of hers.
Rory almost leaned in to hear her. Had she always spoke this low? “Roz.”
“Jordan convinced me to come and talk with you. He said you’d been doing pretty bad without me.” She looked around his apartment in judgment.
Why were women doing that of late? Was his taste so abhorrent? It hadn’t bothered him when Rhetta had done the same thing. He was prepared to hand over the shop’s cash register to her and let her do whatever made her happy, whatever made it feel like home for her. Rosalind’s eyes looked as though she wanted to demolish everything in between the four walls.
“I’m doing fine,” Rory said.
Rosalind moved into the room and picked up a knickknack with the barest touch of her fingers and then put it back in its place. “I’d forgotten what a wild beast you were. I miss that. All the boys back home are more man than wolf.”
Rory thought about the wolves back in his stepmother’s town. He hadn’t made a point to get to know most of them. He did remember that many of them were betas. He couldn’t remember a single alpha in the bunch. “If you’re looking to mate an alpha, maybe you should move out to the farmlands of the Senora.”
Rosalind jerked as though he’d slapped her. When her head stopped bobbing, she looked at him with confusion. “I don’t want another male. I want you.”
She rushed to him in a flurry. Rory backed up against the window to avoid her assault. But his foot was aggravating him, and he couldn’t evade her. She flew into his arms, nearly knocking him down.
“Oh, Rory, I’ve made a terrible mistake, and I don’t know how to fix it. My father’s sick. You know I don’t have any brothers and no head for business. There’s no one to take care of me. When Jordan found me and said he thought we all should mend fences, I jumped at the chance. Do you think you could ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you for what?” Rory pushed at her shoulders. He tried to be gentle about it even though he wanted to shove her, to knock her back on her heels as she’d done to him. “Abandoning me in my time of need?”
“I was a child,” she pouted. “I didn’t know how to deal with the accident.”
“The foot’s still mangled, Roz.”
“But you’ve made something of yourself.” Her eyes lit, angling down to the floor. He knew she was indicating his butchery shop beneath their feet. She’d wrapped her arms around his waist and was gripping each of her wrists to hold him to her.
“Are you serious with this? Were you always this …” Rory searched for a single word to describe her self-centered, gold digging, opportunist ways, but something down below on the street caught his attention.
Out the window, the moon was bright. Rory looked down and saw his brother holding a woman’s hand. He immediately recognized his Rhetta.
Rory growled, ready to tear his brother’s head off for touching his woman. He went to move, but couldn’t. Something obstructed his way.
It was Rosalind, still clinging to his torso. Rory looked down at Rosalind’s head and then out the window at Rhetta. They’re eyes locked.
The color drained from Rhetta’s face. Her eyes filled with emptiness. She turned away from the window and took off at a dead run.