“That’s cool. I hope you’re paying her overtime for working the whole weekend of the festival.”

“She’s paid well for her hard work, and she earns it. But let’s get back to your little comment and my concert preferences.” The back of my hand brushed hers, sending a sizzle of awareness along my skin. “You know, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

She grinned. “Ooo, big mystery man.”

I waggled my eyebrows teasingly.

She giggled in a throaty sort of way that made me want to grab her and kiss the fuck out of her.

Finally! That’s a start. Go with this feeling.

I shook my head to shake him off. More and more, Alpha’s little nudges sounded like perfect sense, and that bothered the hell out of me.

“Let’s play Two Truths and a Lie.” She beamed a teasing look at me, not noticing my derailed thoughts.

“Two Truths and a Lie?” I put my hand on the small of her back as a loud muscle car sped by.

“Yeah. I tell you two things that are true and a lie about myself. And you guess which one is true. Then we switch.”

“What do I get if I win?”

She laughed. “Whatever you want.”

Oh, sweet baby of mine. Daddy’s ready.

“Within reason,” she added. “But it could be a tie.”

“Okay.” I glanced around, watching for cars. “You go first.”

Music pumped in the near distance. Another car powered up the street. I wrapped a hand around her hip and pressed her close then released her when they passed. I didn’t mean to be handsy, but I couldn’t stop myself either. My primitive nature seemed to be sweeping forward tonight. And there was no doubt my wolf thought of Evie as mine to protect.

Fuckin’ right.

She took a minute before finally saying, “My favorite memory of my dad is when he wore my mom’s apron and sang Diana Ross’s ‘I Will Survive’ while baking Christmas cookies.” She glanced up at me. “That’s memory number one.” The soft glow of the streetlight shimmered over her profile. “A boy in elementary school punched me in the stomach when I knocked his lunch over.”

Kill. Him. Find him and tear him limb from limb.

Overkill.

That’s the stupidest word in the English language.

“My sister Violet punched him back and bloodied his nose,” she added then skipped a step. “And finally, my sister Violet won a recording contract for a song she wrote in high school, but she turned it down because she thought a singing career wasn’t challenging or fulfilling enough. Okay, which is the lie?”

I thought for a second. “I think the second is the lie.” I hoped so, because thinking of some dickhead hitting her, even in elementary school, made me see red.

“Dammit. Yes! You guessed it.”

“Pretty creative on the lie, though.”

“Actually most of it was true. Benny Davidson was such a bully. But it was Jules who punched him in the nose.”

“Really?” I fisted my hands, trying to cool my overreaction to a long-ago memory of some little twat who pushed my girl around. My girl? What the fuck? I had to get Alpha out of my head. “So she isn’t just all bark and no bite, your sister?” I added.

“Not at all,” she laughed.

Take note. Benny Davidson is officially on my top five kill list.

Oh, yeah? Who else is on there? The guy who had road rage on me last month?

That douchebag is number three.

What about the dude who cut in front of us at Subway last week? He definitely deserves to die for delaying our footlong steak and cheese.

Nah. Giving him a pass.

Who’s number one then?

I’m saving that spot for when someone really pisses me off.

So you’ve only been moderately pissed off by the others so far.

That’s right. But the time is coming when they’ll all pay. As soon as I can shift and you step out of my way.

A shiver trembled through me, the fear and need and craving for my next shift promising danger. Yet another reason to cool my jets on this possessive streak that I was feeling way too hard.

“Your turn,” said Evie. She glanced up at me. “You okay?”

“Of course.” I forced a smile. “Let’s see.” I thought a minute. “Okay. My cousin Nico joined a Lycan motorcycle gang. But he fought the leader for alpha status and lost, so he left the gang.”

“Whoa. That’s a doozy.”

“Memory number two.” I winked. “My Grandpa taught me to make meat pies. I got so good I won three contests, including first place in the San Antonio Amateur Bake-off, Savory Category. Twice.”

“Ohhhh, man.” She shook her pointer finger at me. “You’re good at this.”

“Number three. I once spent a year in the wilds of Alaska, living off the land.”

She smirked up at me. “That last one is a no-brainer. I’m surprised you only spent a year.”

I nudged her so hard she lost her balance. But I grabbed her forearm and pulled her quickly to my side, both of us laughing. I let my hand reluctantly slide away, fingertips grazing her skin.

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, then cleared her throat. “Okay. Let me think. All I know about your cousin is you said he’s an arrogant asshole. So would that kind of personality join a motorcycle gang? Because I’m not sure he’d want to follow anyone.”

I shrugged and made my face as blank as possible.

“But if he also challenged the alpha, that seems to line up more with the overconfident guy you described. However, maybe you’re trying to use reverse psychology on me.”

“Great analytical skills. I didn’t realize this game was so complex.”

“Or,” she dragged out in exaggeration, “you gave me a somewhat plausible lie as the truth and a ridiculous truth as a lie. Depends on which psychological tactics you’re using, really.”

“Me baking award-winning—no, first place award-winning—meat pies is ridiculous? I’m so hurt.” I palmed my chest and gave her a sad face.

“Please.”

“Stop stalling. I want an answer.”

She narrowed her gaze on me suspiciously as we stopped at the four-lane we had to cross to enter City Park. I arched a brow at her and waited.

“Okay. The story about Nico is the truth and that pie story has to be a lie.”

A crazy wave of excitement flushed through my body, like a shot of adrenaline. Why was I so excited that she was wrong?

Because now you get a reward.

“Wrong.” I grinned like a villain. “My cousin did join the gang, but he left after I beat his ass and told him to stop being a fucking idiot, not because he lost a challenge to the alpha.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Not at all.”

“You beat up your cousin? You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would use violence to win an argument.”

Oh, baby. Violence is my beloved friend.

Her smile slipped, as if she’d heard Alpha. I knew she couldn’t. She’d just forgotten I was a werewolf for a minute there.

“Like I told you before, I keep a tight leash on my temper. But Nico wouldn’t understand anything other than brute force at the time.”

“Wait a second. So that means you’re actually a meat pie award-winning baker?!” She was shrieking so loud, I eased forward and playfully covered her mouth with my hand.

It wasn’t meant to be intimate, but my other hand was on the bare nape of her neck. The press of her lips against my palm. The pulse of her heartbeat beneath my fingertips. The closeness of our bodies. God, I felt like I was drowning in sensation from something as innocent as this. I was in so much trouble. Her green eyes dilated, and all I could think of was what it would feel like if I peeled my palm away and replaced it with my mouth.

Alpha said nothing, but his purring growl was enough.

Counting backward from ten, I managed to speak without sounding like I’d swallowed a rusty can. “Believe it, Evie. Like I said, there’s lots you don’t know about me.”

I dropped my hands from her and eased back. She stared a minute, her mouth partly open. Maybe in shock, because there was no denying the charge sparking the air seconds before.

She cleared her throat and glanced at the thinning traffic. “Well, then. I guess you’ll be making me meat pie for dinner soon.”

“I won the game. That means I get the reward, not you.”

“Mateo Francisco Cruz.” Her sass was back. Thankfully. “You do not throw out a detail like that and not allow me to be the judge of your award-winning skills. You’re making me meat pie.”

I grabbed her hand and led her across the street through a break in cars. “If you’re going to beg me, Evie,” I said, shooting her a wink, “I’ll give you my meat pie.”

Chapter 17

~EVIE~

I’m way in over my head. Yeah, I wanted to eat his meat pie, no doubt about that. And I was not imagining things. There was definitely something going on tonight. He’d be all bestie friendly one second, then suddenly look at me like I was one of those double-stacked Gotham burgers the next. But maybe that was all Alpha’s fault?

That made so much more sense. I mean, I wasn’t blind that he was physically attracted to me. I knew that look, though there had been few men who could make me shiver with longing when they gave it to me. But he hadn’t acted on those feelings, and that was for the best.

Definitely for the best. Because friends was better than nothing. And after a few months of mind-melting sex, that’s what we’d be when he cut me loose.

“Here.”

He stopped me close to the entrance gate and pulled out two purple plastic bracelets from his pocket—our tickets for entry. He wrapped one around my wrist, his fingers brushing the tender underside as he snapped it close to my skin, but not too close. Without much effort, he ripped off the excess without hurting me. Mateo seemed so at ease, so calm all the time, that I really did forget he was a werewolf sometimes. But then he’d do small things like that, and I’d remember. Humans, not even witches, could snap that kind of plastic like it was a toothpick.