Brandon was there, shirt off, a thin sheen of sweat over his body, smoking a cigarette when I arrived, like he was waiting for me. Buddy bounded over, curly tail wagging, and he gave the dog an absent-minded pat. “C’mon,” he said and got to his feet. I swallowed hard, not sure what was going to come of this, but fairly sure I wasn’t going to enjoy it.
“Stay here, Bud,” I told my dog, then followed him inside.
5
“Who you got there, Doc?” someone called out as I followed Brandon through a labyrinth of industrial shelving.
“Fuck off.”
This just prompted more catcalls as we walked, then a man appeared around the corner of one aisle as we approached. I recognised the height and dark hair. It was the guy Nerida had been playing with in the animal shed, Sonny.
“I thought getting it on the regular was supposed to...” he said, his voice trailing away when he saw it was me, then a long slow smile spread across his face. “You’re the new girl who’s still creating her pack.”
“Fuck off, Sonny,” Brandon said with a growl.
“Nah, bullshit, Doc. Until she’s worked out who’s in and who’s out, she’s fair game,” Sonny replied.
I’d met a lot of ‘Sonny’s’ in my years working in retail. Good-looking and knew it, cocky, pretty sure all it takes is a pushy attitude and a shit-eating grin to get you to throw your panties at them. Probably because enough people did. But now, I realised, was the first time I was facing down a guy like this since my change, and while I might not be bigger, I was definitely stronger. My Tirian’s power throbbing through me told me he was one of the wolves I’d gutted when I’d turned. My eyes strayed to that smooth, well-muscled abdomen peeking through his open shirt, then flicked up to meet his gaze.
“And if I tell you to toddle on back to whatever you were doing like a good little boy, then what?” He tried to hold my gaze, I saw the muscles in his face and his neck twitch with the effort, but he ended up looking away. “If there’s anything I want from you, I’ll let you know, remember?” He stared at the floor, his jaw flexing for a moment, before he nodded stiffly and walked off.
“Now what does a woman—who can redirect a man like Sonny with ease—need from me?”
Brandon’s grey eyes were hooded, his fingers twitching slightly around the cigarette he held by his side.
“If it was just a matter of bossing people about, I’d be fine,” I replied.
“Isn’t it?” His brow arched as he took a drag.
“I dunno, what do you think? You had all of us jumping to your orders this morning.”
He stared back, his eyes burning into mine as I felt a shiver go up my spine, an echo of the pleasure he’d inspired.
“Not when it counts, it seems.” He dropped the smoke, crushing it with his boot before shoving it off to one side with the toe.
“Yeah, I know what you were trying to warn me about. The house... this party... Slade’s mum...”
He snorted at this, and I felt a wave of relief to see that smile, despite it being a mere ghost of what it normally was. “Cheryl’s a lovely lady, but a bit of a perfumed steamroller. Has she tried to dress you up yet?”
“I wasn’t even dressed, just out of the shower.”
He shook his head. “Her heart’s in the right place. Aesthetics are her thing, she loves things to look beautiful. She’s going to be in your ear about decorating your house now that Slade’s got a permanent home. But you’re not here to talk about how to keep good feng shui in your lounge room, are you?” I shook my head. “Come through here. We should have a bit of privacy, for a while anyway.”
He used his key to open a small storeroom filled with big bags of flour and other dry goods. It smelled pleasant in a sweet, dusty, grassy kind of way. He grabbed his shirt from where it hung from the back of his waistband and laid it over the bag on top of a low pile, gesturing with his head that I should take a seat.
“I’m sorry,” I said, then wondered why I’d said that. I frowned. Did I regret what I’d done? As soon as I thought of Slade, I felt that same ‘breath caught in your chest’ ache, my fingers itching to tangle themselves in his hair, my hand going to my lips feeling the ghost of his kisses.
“No, you’re not,” Brandon said, not as an accusation, just a statement of fact.
“No, I’m not. I just would have liked to go into this whole mate process knowing what I was getting myself in for. What have I gotten myself into?”
“Ophelia talked to you?” I nodded. “She would, she loves to try and keep everyone ticking along. She’ll be your best source of information. The plan was we would hold back, let you adjust. You’ve just come through the heat, the change, the black wolf... We felt it was all a bit much at once. So, we would avoid making any overtures, just enjoy things as they were, until you were ready to work with the matriarchs and learn all the stuff you would have as a young girl if you grew up here.”
“And Slade ruined that.”
He shrugged. “Slade is Slade. He says what he thinks and feels. That’s what you love about him, isn’t it?”
I stared at Brandon, saw his eyes burn bright in his face as he appeared to hold back a million emotions. His chin tilted up, unable to look away as he braced himself for my answer.