Chapter Nineteen
Aimee got up before Mac to make him a big breakfast. He’d been working himself to the point of dropping into bed, totally exhausted as he tried to rein in his parents who’d still been avoiding him.
What. Assholes.
It pissed her off to no end because it made him responsible for the mess Scarlett and Dwayne made but they’d still complain about whatever he did while they were gone.
How dare they order him not to do anything to the wolves who’d broken pack law? They put him in a place that no matter what he did he couldn’t win.
He stumbled out of their bedroom about ten minutes later, drawn by the scent of freshly brewed coffee and biscuits in the oven.
Naturally, she stopped what she was doing to take in the sight of him.
“Morning. Long day today so I figured you might like more food than usual to start off right,” she said as he pulled her to him for a kiss.
The anxiety and worry seemed to cling to his skin, even as his power dominated it.
“You nervous?” he asked.
That night was a town hall debate where she and Dwayne would take questions from the audience and the panel. She’d done all she could to prepare by that point. Spent a lot of time reading up on the basics of the town budget. Came up with some ideas as to how to make some improvements, save some money, spend it on the crumbling infrastructure like giant potholes on Diablo Lake Avenue and the sidewalk around the park with big cracks people kept tripping over.
“At least I’ll know where to find my mom and dad tonight. I’m going to stake out city hall and have this out once and for all. Ducking me for three days. Bullshit.”
She shoved him toward the table. “Get us both some coffee and I’ll deal with everything else.”
Huston came to the back door, knocking to be let in, along with Everett. Thank goodness she’d put on clothes when she got up, and made extra food. Some of Mac’s wolves had begun to show up there at the house on a regular basis for advice or reassurance, so Aimee had learned to put on pants and a bra before doing anything that let Pembrys know they were home and ready to receive visitors.
“Huston and Everett are here,” she called out. “I’m up to my elbows in sausage gravy so you need to answer it.”
“Your momma raised you right,” she told them when they dropped a heavenly smelling brown paper bag containing some sort of hot, doughy delight on the table.
“Why are you here?” Mac asked them and she swatted his adorable butt.
“Stop being grumpy,” Aimee told him.
“We were about to have breakfast,” he told her.
“I’ve noticed most of our meals here at home will have an extra guest or two. There’s plenty and now we have something sweet and warm for dessert.”
“There’s no such thing as dessert after breakfast.”
Aimee made a face and looked around him to his cousins. “Please tell me you all weren’t brought up so sad.”
“No, ma’am. I’m a big proponent of dessert after every meal. Or even every meal being dessert.”
“I like you.” She pointed at Huston. “You got some sense. For a Pembry.” She winked at Mac as she went back to her gravy. “G’wan now. You’re Prime and they need you.”
“We don’t really. It just smelled good and we like to look at you.” Huston kissed her cheek as he passed on his way to get a cup of coffee.
“See, if you make them feel at home, they’ll take you up on it and make themselves at home. I keep telling you that,” Mac said.
“You did not.”
His adorable little pout nearly tipped into a smile. “Well. I thought about it. I was going to during breakfast this very morning.”
Aimee snorted. “You’re going to hell for lying, Macrae.”
Everett laughed. “I’ll have you know these are Nan’s cinnamon-and-sugar doughnuts. She showed up about ten minutes ago to the house. Tossed us this bag and ordered us to share.”
“She told us to make sure Aimee got at least two because the ‘nasty-tasting junk’ you gave her for her headaches seems to be working,” Huston added.
Mac shoved past them all, opening the bag and shoving an entire doughnut in his mouth.
“I guess all the good ones are taken, huh?” she teased Huston.
They settled at the table and began to eat not too long after that. Aimee had a doughnut as a breakfast appetizer and was quite glad of that choice.
“These are amazing. I knew she could bake like nobody’s business, but I had no idea she made doughnuts that God probably has at Sunday after-church mixers.”
Mac snickered. “I’m going to tell her you said that.”
“She already loves Aimee, that’ll only raise her stature to Nan,” Everett said.
Mac nodded. “Yeah, it would.” He turned back to her. “She only makes these for birthdays.”
“And only if she likes you at the time your birthday comes around. Sometimes you’ll just get cake, even if your favorite is doughnuts and she made them for you before. She holds a grudge,” Huston said. “Apparently she likes your girlfriend.”
“Right now,” Mac said.
“Right now is all we’re assured in the world,” Aimee said as she peppered her gravy.
“She’s steely like that too. Probably why you rate doughnuts for no special reason of any sort and definitely not to say hey, good luck debating against my son tonight.” Everett added lots of emphasis so they got that it probably was, indeed saying that very thing.
Mac just stared at Everett, shaking his head. “You need to work on your subtlety.”
Aimee couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Imagine what the world will be like when we get her together with TeeFaye and Nadine, huh?”
“I’m not sure space and time could handle the three of them in one place. Maybe we shouldn’t cross the streams on that,” Mac said.
“As long as it’s not aimed at you, it could be fun to watch.”
She eyed Everett carefully. “I bet.”
* * *
They finished breakfast up and when Everett and Huston told Aimee to go on and get to work and that they’d clean up after breakfast, Mac knew they had some official business to relate and didn’t want to do it in front of an outsider.
She didn’t need the added stress of whatever it was they were going to tell him anyway.
“Okay, she’s in the shower. Spill.” Mac tipped his chin at Huston.
“Sam called Nan and told her he wants to talk to you about something privately.”
Mac’s youngest brother, Samuel, had a checkered past and had only just gotten out of jail the year before. But for the first time since Mac had left home, Sam was truly trying to change his life.
He worked in the freight warehouse the Pembry family owned and by all accounts, showed up on time, worked hard, was respectful and had a good attitude.
They weren’t exactly close; in fact he’d only seen his brother twice in the months that he’d been back home. But he’d been cheering his brother on in this effort to turn his life around, including buying him the clothes he worked in, which his brother had been repaying slowly but regularly.
“Why Nan and why didn’t she just call me herself instead of sending you two over here with doughnuts?” That old woman was up to something. Multiple somethings.
“Yeah, well if you want to know that, I’ll let you do the asking. Because I like having her make doughnuts for my birthday,” Everett said with a shrug. “Call her to set up a meet with him. This clandestine crap means he’s got some dirt he wants to make sure your dad and brother don’t know he’s telling you.”
Mac knew she had bigger and more complicated plans for whatever she was up to, but he also knew she was smart and a well-respected elder who had his best interests, and the best interests of the pack, at heart.
And though he had reluctance at letting his grandmother act like she was making some sort of secret spy drop, he’d do what she and Sammy asked because it was most likely important, as Everett had just pointed out.
Once Aimee got out the door to work, he showered, got dressed and then called his grandmother, who told him to get his butt over to her house within the hour because it was already after nine in the morning, and why wasn’t he at work anyway?
* * *
He drove out to his grandparents’ place. It sat out at the edge of the forest, up on a rise. A den his grandfather felt could be defended and that served as the heart of the pack. Pembry wolves were encouraged to spend time there. They hosted many seasonal events—bonfires in the autumn, summer picnics. The land all around the house meant an abundance of hunting both two and four legged, as well as plenty of fish to be caught in the nearby stream or at the far edge of the lake.
Growing up, Mac and the other kids in the pack had slept in the giant bunkhouse that still stood to this day. Mainly it was older wolves now who spent the night out there on a regular basis. His grandfather had died and when Dwayne had won the challenge to be Patron, he’d chosen to live in town, shifting the social heart of the pack along with him.
Except wolves didn’t really hang out in his parents’ large yard or in the house unless it was a special pack event. Sure, Darrell and his buddies did, mainly to mooch food off their mother. Mac found himself taking runs as his wolf on his aunt and uncle’s land far more often than his parents’.
There needed to be a reestablishment of the heart of the Pembry pack. Be it here once more, or in town. Their wolves needed that camaraderie and connection. Needed a place to come and go, just to be around one another in whichever form they chose. They’d let go of some of the important rituals to keep them close.
And it showed.
With that niggling the back of his mind, he paused to breathe in the crisp air, full of home and family.
His grandfather had been dead for just over thirty years and the scent of his magic still permeated the air. It made Mac relax a little every single time he came out here.
Rebecca Pembry opened her front door and he marveled that her hair was perfectly done. Her lipstick matched the flowers on the flirty scarf tied jauntily—and perched perfectly—on her shoulders.
He hugged her once he climbed up to her. “Morning, Nan. What are you up to?”
She patted her hair and then waited a few beats.
“Oh! New hair. I like it. Suits you.” He had no idea what exactly she’d done to change it, but “new hair” would encompass a lot of things and he’d complimented her like he was supposed to and they could get down to business.
“Thank you, honey. Come on through to the kitchen. I was just making a pot of coffee. Your brother is here already.”
He followed her down the hall to the back of the house and the kitchen that took up half the entire first floor, including a huge table that could easily seat at least ten.
Sam stood when Mac entered, his eyes going down to Mac’s toes. Immediately submissive.
That out of the way, Mac clapped his brother’s shoulder and then pulled him into a hug. His grandmother nodded her approval behind Sam’s back.
“Sorry to bring you all the way out here but I had the morning off and I wanted to talk to you,” Sam said.
“And you didn’t want to risk being seen by someone who’d tell Mom and Dad? Or Darrell? Something like that?” Mac asked, nodding his thanks at the cup of coffee Nan placed near his right hand.
More doughnuts appeared on a plate and the brothers shared a brief, gleeful look before taking one.
“Your girlfriend is a nice person.” Sam stirred sugar into his cup. “When I got out of jail, she came by my place to make sure I was okay. Heck, even before that when I didn’t much care about being a better person she was nice to me. She believed me when I told her I wanted to get my act together. Lots of people, hell most people, don’t believe me. And I know why because I said it before and screwed up.”
Mac listened, knowing his brother had to get this all off his chest and a big part of being a brother, and a Prime or Patron, was listening to your brothers’ troubles.
“Dad and Darrell hired a private investigator to find dirt on Aimee and I think they found something. I overheard Darrell talking to Dad yesterday. It sounded like they were going to toss it at her tonight. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you or even if I should, but in the end, you’re Prime and she’s too kind to get whatever it is thrown at her without any warning.”
His dad knew he and Aimee were together. His mother had been encouraging it! But now they were going to do something that would hurt her, and for what? It hurt that his father had gone to Darrell—a wolf his father knew Mac had been looking for to punish. It hurt that his dad was willing to do something so underhanded it would possibly break up his relationship with Aimee.
Worse, whatever it was—and what could it be really? Aimee was a nice person—wouldn’t be that bad and the revelation of whatever it was would make his dad look abusive. He’d end up getting tossed out of office anyway and leave a huge, steaming mess in the process.
His grandmother spoke. “That girl of yours’ll bring some magic and class along with her into this pack when you two finally get yourselves married.” She gave him a raised brow. “I mean, Macrae, really. You’re living with her in her house and you’re not married. What if she gets pregnant? What then?”
“Nan, I’m going as fast as I can without scaring her. It’ll happen eventually.”
She waved a lily-of-the-valley-scented hand. Her nails were done up a glossy pale pink that managed to survive runs as her wolf. He had no idea why they could other than that she wanted it.
“She goes out of her way for people and I won’t have your father and his wife trying to hurt that child. And you should know her parents most assuredly won’t take kindly to whatever dirt they dig up on her being tossed out in public.”
“Why don’t you like our mom?” he asked Nan.
“Your mother and I have our own business that will stay private. No need to perpetuate this another damned generation. And it’s just a small part of what’s happening. This election business has driven your father over the edge at last. And she’s got her own mess that complicates everything.”
As much as he wanted to challenge her and make her tell him the truth, he knew once she said her piece she wasn’t going to say more on it unless and until she wanted to.
“Just tell me if it has anything to do with Josiah Dooley.”
The flattening of her mouth gave him her answer.
“Did they have an affair?”
Her look of incredulity made Mac feel a tiny bit better at least. “No. Now, I’m not talking about this any further. What are you going to do about your daddy and that brother of yours trying to hurt our witch?”
“Our?” he asked his grandmother.
“Of course our. Macrae!” She thunked him in the head. “Are you listening to me? Aimee is a witch. We all knew that. She’s got more power than most in this town gave her credit for until recently.”
The defense rose to his lips quickly. “It takes a strong person to do so quietly. Easy enough to yell out about whatever you’ve done and want credit for. Aimee does what she does because that’s part of her gift and why she’s so powerful. She’s driven to heal and soothe and help because that’s part of who she is right down to her toes.” Mac couldn’t stop a smile at that.
“And when you and she imprinted and began to grow those roots of relationship, her magic began to settle into the heart of this pack. Especially the part of the pack that is the most closely tied to you. I’m told Katie Faith is much the same with the Dooleys. You’re an alpha, a leader and you’ll be Patron. That means she’s got that in her too. She’s part of our future. A stronger future where the pack is led with discipline instead of petty revenge or greed. She already ministers to people in town like a Patron should. Like your momma never has. Your Aimee has tamed my brother, Jeph, for goodness sake. She delivers food and clothing and medicine, hell even for my headaches. I love your daddy, but he’s selfish and he’s made a mess here. You’re going to have to undo it and I know you’ll have to shed some blood. Don’t hesitate or you’ll lose the pack and maybe her too.”
Mac looked across to his brother. “Okay then, Sammy. Tell me everything you know and let’s see if we can’t put a stop to this before it hurts her.”