Chapter Twenty-One
Hayley couldn’t help her nerves. She’d talked to Jackson earlier, explained the situation with Marius—and with the Spokane Pride—and he’d told her that whatever she needed from him, she had it. No questions. If she wanted help chasing Marius off the Dark Pines territory, he’d do that.
It was eight-thirty. She’d gotten here early, hoping to claim a quiet table in a far corner. But the bar was exceptionally crowded for a Thursday night. Some kind of impromptu talent show which, from the line-up posted on the door, involved about sixteen different solo guitarists. The A-Hole had a pretty decent crowd on a usual night, but tonight, it seemed every solo guitarist in the county had shown up with their extended families. Hayley scrunched between two women at the bar and tried to get Ross’s attention. He nodded at her, a sheen of sweat on his brow as he rushed through taking drinks and collecting cash.
It took him a while to get to her. When he did, he came with a pint of beer. “On the house,” he said. “Thanks for waiting.”
“No problem,” she said, smiling her thanks. A single beer wouldn’t put a dent in her nerves, though, so she slid a twenty across the bar. “I’d like a couple shots of vodka, too.”
He raised his eyebrows but poured the shots and set them in front of her. She raised one in a salute to Ross, then gulped it down. She did the same with the second, wincing at the collective burn the shots made in her throat and mouth. Then she chased it with a sip of beer.
Disgusting, but hopefully it would do the trick.
She turned to face the rest of the crowded room. Pool players whooped and clapped from the far corner, and on the stage nearby, one of the first musicians was setting up. She watched him absently, thinking he looked vaguely familiar. Then again, half the people in this bar were probably familiar in some way—she’d grown up here, probably had gone to school with a few of them. Sipping her beer, she let her gaze scan several groups of people. She saw a large guy she was sure had been two years ahead of her in school. A star forward on the soccer team, if she remembered correctly.
A woman walked up to the stage to talk to the guitarist. He grabbed her and kissed her on the lips. Hayley thought that from the look of it, that woman had not wanted to be kissed.
When the woman turned around, Hayley nearly dropped her beer. Eleanor. That woman had been good friends with Will, Hayley remembered. Hayley tried to wave to Eleanor, but someone stood up at that moment, blocking Eleanor’s line of sight.
Hayley slumped back against the bar, hoping Marius would show up soon. She was definitely buzzed at this point.
And there he was. She must have been more buzzed than she thought, because she hadn’t even sensed him entering the bar. He made his way straight toward her, his body somehow moving through the crowd while his deep brown eyes remained locked on hers.
Marius. She knew she was supposed to be angry with him for something. For keeping a secret from her. But faced with him, with his large presence and those smoldering eyes and the look of adoration on his face, she couldn’t find it in herself to be angry anymore. She’d hurt him, yesterday at the diner. She’d hurt him with her words, and she’d hurt him by leaving. Her anger, yes, he had deserved that. But she shouldn’t have hurt him. Not someone she loved.
Was this it? Could she love him? She’d never been in love before. If love was this…this all-encompassing need to be with someone, and to know that they were happy, then…yeah. She loved him.
And here he stood, in front of her, waiting to see whether she’d hug him or not. She set down her beer.
“Hey, dickbag,” she said, stepping forward and throwing her arms around him.
“Hey, assbrat.”
She laughed. “I think you’re getting better at that.”
“What’s going on here?” he asked. “I thought we were going to talk, but it’s like the circus moved into town and it’s happening in this tiny bar.”
“Some kind of music thing,” she said.
Onstage, the guitarist introduced himself, and several people cheered.
Marius frowned. “Should we get out of here?”
“Yeah.”
He wrapped a hand around hers to lead her through the crush of people. He led her from the bar and out into the cold November air. They stood, facing each other, on the sidewalk outside.
“Walk?” Hayley asked.
“Sure.”
Still holding hands, they began a walk down Main Street. Many of these businesses had been around four years ago when Hayley left Huntwood, but some were new. The vegan supermarket was new, as was a trendy-looking coffee shop at one corner. It was closed now, but she peered in the window while Marius stood at her side.
Instead of continuing down Main, she led him around the corner into a deserted side street. The scents of coffee grounds filled her nose, probably from a dumpster in a nearby alley. Following the scent, she brought Marius with her. Thankfully, he didn’t ask what she was doing; he seemed content to let her lead.
A guy who could challenge her by taking charge, but be just as comfortable with her calling the shots? She didn’t have a ton of dating experience, but from her small pool of past lovers, Marius seemed one in a billion.
She leaned against the wall lining the alley. The brick was cold through her sweatshirt. At the far end of the alley was the dumpster she’d smelled. It was less fragrant than it might have been, thanks to the chilly weather.
“The Spokane alpha doesn’t believe we’re mated,” she said. “He called me this morning.”
“So we convince them at the meeting.” Marius held her hand. It seemed he didn’t want to let it go, and that didn’t bother her in the slightest.
“They’re bringing in an enforcer to mediate the meeting.” She could hear that her own voice shook with tension. “Whatever he says, that’ll be law.”
“They can’t force you to marry someone,” Marius said. He gripped her hand even tighter and tilted his head down toward hers. “You get to choose who you marry.”
“True,” she said. “But in that agreement that my parents made? If I don’t marry Alec Lockman, and I don’t have a mate to prove that I can’t, then the Spokane Pride will have rights to our territory. We’ll get driven away all over again. If we don’t relinquish it? Another war.”
She heard him take one deep breath, and then another. Then he looked directly into her eyes. “What can we do, then?” he asked.
She wanted to cup his cheek in her palm. It looked scratchy with his whiskers. She wanted to feel his cheek against hers, the roughness of it against her smooth cheek, like the rough brick at her back. But she remained still. There was something she needed from him, first.
“I want something from you,” she said.
“You know I’ll give you anything.”
Her voice quiet, she said, “I want you to mark me. As yours.”
Dropping her hand, he took a small step back. The absence of his heat made her shiver. “You want a mate mark?” he asked.
“Yes.” She raised her chin. “It’s the most potent thing to prove our claim.”
“But we haven’t…we haven’t even talked about this. Our feelings. Not really.”
“Marius, this is an emergency.”
“No, it’s not,” he said, his dark eyes flashing. “I’m not marking you out of desperation. Hayley, not all mates bear marks, and I’m pretty sure they’d be able to figure out that we’d done it just to prove them wrong, if they really wanted to.”
She closed her eyes. “Marius, please.”
She heard him pacing, a few steps up the alley, then a few steps back. She opened her eyes to see him running his hands through his hair.
“Hayley, I’d do anything for you. But marking you like that—it goes against everything I feel for you. If you decide we’re really mates and you want a mark then—well, I’ll give it to you, and nothing would make me prouder than you bearing my mark, and me bearing yours. But for the Spokane Pride? Fuck them. Fuck them, Hayley. I can’t cheapen a mark just to keep their enforcer happy.”
What he said made sense, sure. It even made her love him more than she did before. But in his “no,” she heard the world crashing down around them.
She sighed. “Let’s go back to The A-Hole, then. I want to get sloppy drunk.”
He looked at her uncertainly.
“Please?” she said. “I just need to forget for a little bit.”
She wasn’t sure if he’d agree or not, but he held out his arm in an overly formal gesture and waited for her to take it.