Chapter Five
“Running late this morning?” Susan/Phoenix asked as Renee came in through the back door. She was actually half an hour early, but that wasn’t the point at all.
Instead of the retort burning her tongue, she ignored her stepmother and began to set up. Which of course wasn’t what Phoenix wanted so she came over.
“You can’t just come and go as you please, you know. Just because you’re my daughter you can’t get away with this sort of thing.”
Renee looked up after she’d set the first carafes of coffee to brew. “Why are you trying to pick a fight? In the first place, I can just come and go as I please. I don’t work for you, I rent space from you. In the second place, I’m not late, I’m half an hour early, something you’d know if you showed up here before eleven every once in a while. Lastly, you are not my mother. Now, kindly get the fuck out of my face.”
Phoenix paled a bit, not used to Renee defending herself, especially not via the F word. “I’ve told your father we were too permissive with you. You don’t show any respect for all I’ve done for you. Your mother didn’t raise you, I did!”
“What do you want from me? I am grateful. I appreciate all you’ve done. But that doesn’t give you a license to attack me when you get bored. I’ve never done anything to you. I always behaved. I got good grades. Nothing ever seemed to make you happy.”
“You didn’t always behave, did you?” The menace in Susan/Phoenix’s voice shook her, gripped her somewhere deep and she felt lost for a few moments. Until the anger rushed in to replace the fear.
Renee tried to calm the storm of emotion riding her system, especially when the books on a nearby shelf began to shake and the window to her right began to rattle. Times like these, she realized she was more than just a woman who knew the phone would ring. And times like these, she hated that she didn’t understand it, wanted to be normal, to have a normal life.
“Get yourself under control. The devil has you, Renee. You get it from her people, I know. Resist it.”
That was all Renee needed to hear to come back to herself. She sighed and looked back to her stepmother. “Go away. Oh my God! I don’t want to deal with you. You got what you wanted, I’m upset. Happy? Go away! I’m going to have customers soon and I need to get things prepared.”
Her stepmother huffed a breath to let Renee know just how abused she’d been, and stomped off. Probably to call Renee’s father, who wouldn’t stand up for Renee. She knew he cared about her, knew he did what he honestly thought was best in getting a woman to take the place of her dead mother. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the same as a mother who loved her. Susan hadn’t even really been a very good babysitter, though Renee didn’t want to believe the woman hated her or wished her ill. But to Susan, Renee was just in the way.
Rather than wallow, she just got on with things and moved beyond those people and events she couldn’t change. She didn’t remember a whole lot about her mother, but what she did, she cherished, held onto in her heart. That’s what counted.
She had Galen. She had Galen and his parents, both of whom were so very good to her. Loving and kind and made it clear they knew she was good for their son. The rest of his family and the other cats in the jamboree fell all over the place. Some hated her, some loved her, most didn’t care one way or the other.
It was enough, though. It was enough that she was loved and cherished.
And yet, there was an empty space inside her.
Luckily, the day was busier than most, leaving very little time to obsess on her stepmother’s outward aggression. As she worked, Renee figured she had that month’s expenses now taken care of, which always gave her a sense of accomplishment. It seemed to please Phoenix to make cracks about Renee being a kept woman. And while Galen’s salary made hers look like pocket change, she paid her own damned way in the world.
She wondered, idly, while she sliced bananas for a smoothie, where Jack might be that day. And then felt guilty that she’d been thinking of him. She loved Galen, so why was she even thinking about anyone else? It wasn’t as if she planned to do anything, wasn’t even as if she wanted to do anything. It was a crush maybe. Something riding the line between like and crush. That was it.
She really wished she’d had the chance to run all this by Galen. Certainly, his way of spending their time before they both had to rush off to work was far more enjoyable than a discussion would have been. She smiled as a shiver worked up her spine at the memory of his teeth on her shoulder, marking her.
She touched that spot, the first place he’d ever marked her two years before. Each time he did it, it lasted longer. Now that they’d imprinted, the mark would last at least a month before beginning to fade. The mark wasn’t a casual-sex thing, he did it the same way all male jaguar shifters did. He did it to claim her, to imbue her with his scent, the tattoo of his bite. When they were with his family, she wore sleeveless dresses or shirts, to show it off, to let them all know who she was to him.
What she felt when he marked her that way wasn’t something she could easily put into words. It was a wedding ring, a declaration of his connection and commitment, it was sexy and caveman all at once, wrapped up in caring. It made her feel cherished and cosseted. Possessed but not owned.
She could think about the deliciousness that was Jack Meyers all she wanted, but she knew that’s all it would ever be. Flirting and thinking. Never doing. Never, because she had everything she wanted and would not jeopardize it. Even if she had the very strong feeling he was connected to something bigger. What or why, she didn’t know.
As if her thoughts had conjured him, she looked up and caught the light glinting off the blond hair. Their gazes met and he smiled, sending heat to her toes and a fresh wave of guilt rolling through her.
“Good afternoon, Renee.” He approached and she saw the similarities between him and Galen right off. Both had that predatory walk. They appeared laid-back on the surface, but the eyes took in everything, the muscles coiled just so, enough to spring into action when and if needed.
She fought her blush at the not so very idle thought of what those muscles would look like naked.
“Afternoon, Jack. Your smoothie is coming right up. How about apple, mango, banana today?”
“Do I have to? How about some coffee instead?”
“You are such a baby. Fine, get scurvy. See if I care when your teeth fall out and your muscles won’t work. You won’t be nearly as pretty that way.”
He laughed, surprised. “Pretty huh? You noticed.” His look was smug and she rolled her eyes as she scooped the fruit into the blender.
“You sell coffee, how can you be anti-coffee?”
“I’m not anti-coffee. I love coffee, have it every day in fact. But I’m looking at you and I bet you’ve been up since before dawn and I also bet you’ve had at least three cups by now. So I’m saying have some fruit.” She poured the smoothie into a cup and pushed it his way.
He sipped so cautiously she wanted to laugh. “You’re a werewolf, how can you be afraid of fruit?” She kept her voice low.
“You never did tell me how you knew that.”
“I saw your other self.” She shrugged, noticing Phoenix watching from the other end of the store.
“It’d be a lot easier if you’d come out to lunch with me so we could speak privately.”
“That’s not going to happen. I told you. I’m taken.”
“I have so much to say to you. So much I need to explain.” He leaned in, earnest look on his face. “But you’ve got observers. Your boss keeps watching.”
“That’s not my boss,” she said, annoyed. “That’s my father’s wife. She owns the shop, but not me or this cart.”
His hand tightened on the counter’s edge. “Are you not welcome here?”
In the light, his wolf shimmered briefly and she drew a deep breath. Not from fear, but from fascination. He was beautiful. And fearsome.
“It’s family, family is always complicated.”
He moved his hand, just barely touching hers with a fingertip before drawing away. “I don’t like to think about anyone harming you or making you sad.”
She swallowed, hard. “Why?” Her whisper held her angst at how much it meant to her that he’d say it, her confusion and no small amount of fear. Not of him, but of what he might mean to her.
And then something else, something warm and soft, rushed through her system. She looked to the door and saw Galen standing there, looking so handsome and slightly angry, she wanted to fan herself.
Instead she watched, unable not to, as he stalked over, his eyes never leaving hers.
Galen let out most of his tension when he saw her, when he took in how she responded to his entrance. This was not a guilty face, this was the woman who loved him, who made him blueberry pancakes with that flax crap she didn’t think he knew she added. The woman whose body welcomed him anytime he wanted or needed it. This was his woman.
But the man standing at her cart, that was another story altogether. That man looked at Renee with not just hungry eyes, but with eyes that said mate. That simply would not do.
He stalked right behind her counter and pulled her into his arms where she willingly went, her body fitting to his, just as it had that morning, just as it always had. Her head tilted back to look into his face, her expression pleased but surprised.
He kissed her and she hugged him tight.
“Hi there, to what do I owe this visit?” She smiled, the dimple just below the apple of her cheek standing out, drawing his finger to slide through the dent.
“Got a call, said I needed to come by because you had a visitor.” He cut his gaze to the wolf, who met his look with one of his own. Well now, an alpha werewolf too.
Renee looked around him to Phoenix, who had been the one to call, telling Galen a man had been coming in the shop to flirt with Renee. Phoenix had made it sound like something far more had been going on. He knew that part had been a lie, Renee was too honest to do anything behind his back. But still, something was going on. The energy crackled between them, all the magic they held buffeting, sliding, caressing and arcing.
“Did you now?” Renee’s voice had gone down an octave and a wave of her power spread outward. He reminded himself to get on her again about seeking out training to use her magic. She had so much more power than she realized and one of these days she’d end up hurting herself or someone else if she didn’t learn to channel it correctly.
“Babe, chill. I’m here.” He spoke softly, drawing his fingertips down her neck to the spot where he’d marked her earlier that day. Her breath hitched and he smiled. “She’s a busybody, but you have to admit, this wolf right here didn’t drop by just for a smoothie.”
“I’m Jack Meyers. I think we should all talk.”
The man was good looking if you went for that tall, blond, blue-eyed surfer thing. Which he did. Who wouldn’t? He also clearly had a thing for Renee, which brought Galen’s cat very close to the skin.
“About what, wolf? She’s taken and I’ll rip you to shreds if you try to change that.”
Wolf bled into the other man’s eyes as Galen’s cat showed right back. Renee slapped a hand down on the counter just hard enough to make both men jump, breaking the spell.
“Enough. This is my place of work. I have a customer on his way back here right now so hold it together.” Renee smiled over Jack’s shoulder to an elderly man Galen recognized from the neighborhood.
“Busy today, sweetheart?” the man asked, his hat in his hands as he smiled.
Renee laughed. “Never too busy for you, Mr. Sherman. The usual?”
“Yes please. You know me so well. Today, can you add a little something?”
Renee paused as she steamed milk, looking him up and down. “Hmm. For you, I think today is a cinnamon day. What do you think?” She held up a cinnamon stick and a grater.
She chatted with him and Galen watched the old man fall under her spell. She knew about his life, the details of his family, asked after his daughter’s new baby, how his garden was doing. She cared about him and he saw that. When Galen looked up, he saw Jack understanding her too and something more than outrage spilled through him.
Phoenix began to hover as Renee blew a kiss at Mr. Sherman and he left, grinning.
“I see you came by.” Phoenix spoke around Renee, addressing Galen. He should have called Renee first, but he’d let himself get spooked and rushed over. Phoenix would see that as taking her side and for that, Galen felt badly.
Not one to be cowed, Renee sent her stepmother a look so frightening he took a step back, resting a hand on her hip.
“You and I will talk about this later.” Renee turned her back on the other woman, cutting her off before she could speak. Her look at them wasn’t much better. “And you two. If you start marking things with pee, I’m out of here. I’m pretty open-minded and stuff, but I do have limits. Jack, this is the husband I’ve been telling you about, Galen de La Vega. Galen, this is the wolf I’ve been trying to talk to you about.”
They looked each other up and down, Galen’s heart beating faster at the threat to his mate, to his life. But...also something else. It was hard to think there in the enclosed space, with Renee in between them, the scent of her magic on the air. It mixed with his, with Jack’s and Galen didn’t know what to think, how to deal with it.
Jack exhaled, hard, and Renee looked back and forth between them.
“We can’t talk here.” She took Galen’s hand, bringing it to her lips. “We don’t have to talk anywhere. It’s totally up to you.”
Jack ground his teeth together, impotent rage coursing through him. The other woman had made Renee angry, had upset her. It was simply unacceptable to see her treated so badly.
This other male, Jack sighed, he could see the connection the two of them had. Just as Lia had told him earlier that day. Galen had imprinted on Renee and she clearly accepted that bond, felt it, returned it. Jack knew she was drawn to him, he saw it, heard it in her voice, scented it in the way her body warmed when he came into the shop. There was no mistake, Renee was his mate. Too.
He’d argued with himself all day, wavering on whether to come to the shop again. Renee wouldn’t be the only female on the planet who he’d be able to share a mate connection with. It didn’t work that way. If there were only one person they could mate with, their race would die out. But none of that meant as much as the way she’d barreled into his life. There was no escaping the very real sense of fate at play, of his being meant to make these choices. Who was he to argue with fate?
Lia had explained that they could share Renee through a bond. The jaguar via his imprint on her and Jack through his mate bond. But did he want that? It wasn’t usual. Male wolves were exceptionally territorial and possessive about something as easily replaced as a jacket or a house; they were a thousand times worse when it came to their mates.
Still, as he’d paced and growled at anyone who came near him, he couldn’t stop thinking of her. Didn’t want to. He wanted her, wanted to wake up next to her every day. Wanted her scent on their sheets. Wanted to bury his face in that glorious hair.
All his life he’d settled. He’d lost his own family so he’d been fostered by Templeton Mancini and his wife within the National Pack. He’d accepted his lot in life and he’d been happy with it.
But he didn’t want to walk away and wait to see when he’d find another woman he could mate with. He’d found this one by total happenstance, he’d bumped into her without expecting it and that was how it was supposed to be.
He wanted her and he damned well would find a way to have her or at the end, he’d know he did his all-out best to make it happen and would walk away with no regrets. Jack Anderson Meyers was no fucking quitter and he wasn’t going to start now.
In truth, he wanted to rip the cat’s arm off, as craving for her intensified and he couldn’t touch. But there was something else. Something holding him back. He didn’t know why or what, but he had to talk to her alone, away from this place and that woman near the counter trying to overhear everything they said. His wolf approved of how the cat moved his body in between the women, shielding Renee.
And he liked, even as he wanted to howl, the way Renee reassured Galen. That sort of loyalty was rare. He knew she felt the same pull to him as he did to her, but she put her man first. Once he was her man, too, or instead of Galen, whatever, he knew she’d show the same kind of loyalty and constancy.
Constancy. What an old-fashioned word for something he considered more important than just about anything else on the planet.
Renee waited as the two men sized each other up and then looked back to her. Galen brushed a kiss over her lips again before looking back at Jack.
“Are you free tonight? Perhaps you can come to our house for drinks. Nine?”
Jack nodded once and his eyes found hers, warming. She smiled in response, feeling that pull again. But nothing could happen here, nothing could be said here, especially with Phoenix hovering. Any minute now, she expected her father to show up, Renee was sure he’d been summoned.
Galen wrote their address down and Jack took it with a nod. “I’ll see you both tonight.”
Before he turned, he took her hand, kissing her wrist where he had before. Her heart sped. Galen still had an arm around her waist, his body pressed to her side, his muscles tightened and something without words happened when they all three touched. Everything inside her surged and broke over both men. A warm flow of magic came from her gut, surrounding them. She heard nothing but three heartbeats, smelled nothing but Galen and Jack. The taste of honey, the scent of amber, of sunshine and forest all mixing on her tongue as they remained locked for long moments.
It was only the ringing of the chimes over the front door that broke the spell. Her father stood there, shocked and then pained.
“What the blazes is going on?” He didn’t even sound like himself. His voice was a stranger’s voice, a man totally untouched by emotion.
Jack turned, shielding her with his back. Galen put a hand on Jack’s shoulder, uniting the three again with that touch.
Things began to tumble out of control and her head swam. “Jack, we’ll see you tonight. Galen, I’m going home now. I’m done here for today. I want to go home.”
Galen looked to her. “I’ll deal with him. Clean up and I’ll get you home. Jack, go on now or this will explode and the one hurt the most will be Renee,” he said in an undertone.
Jack nodded and left, sending a narrowed glance at Phoenix as he did.
Galen had a hushed, but firm conversation with her father and Phoenix as Renee cleaned up quickly, putting everything away and locking the cart up. She’d done it so many times it was simply routine at this point.
When she walked out, it was without a single word toward her father or Phoenix, Galen’s arm around her, anchoring her to his side, to the world, in every way that counted and she needed.