Promise the Moon (Lorimar Pack Book 1) Page 17

  “He’s up and about, as you can see.” I bit my lip to hold in a snicker as he palmed my forehead with enough force my head snapped back. “Yowch.”

  Mouth set in a grim line, Zed showed no remorse. “You earned that, and you know it.”

  “You struck your beta, and I have a witness.” I inched toward Enzo and accepted the coffee with a blissful sigh. “I could have you tarred and feathered. Or something. For insubordination.”

  “I’ll buy you one of those Keurig things,” Zed offered.

  I pivoted on my heel and stuck my nose up in the air. “Who says I accept bribes?”

  A gleam lit in his eyes. “Are you saying no?”

  I considered him. “No?”

  “Maybe is the same as yes,” he informed me, “which means you’re willing to take bribes. That proves you’re corrupt, which means if you punish me, then I’ll be forced to go to the alphas about your amoral activities.”

  “I admire you.” I was awed. “I can’t think until my fourth or fifth cup of coffee, and there you are, blackmailing me like a pro.” I mimed wiping a tear. “You make me so proud.”

  “I can come back later.” Enzo slipped into the hall. “I should— Later.”

  I dissolved into laughter once the witch’s door shut behind him. “You’d think he’d be used to seeing warg peens.”

  “Mine in particular.” Zed swiped one of Moore’s faded newspapers, sat down and made a tent over his lap. “God knows he’s probed every orifice I’ve got. He should have walked in and shaken hands with it. They ought to be old friends by now.”

  The reminder was calculated, and I didn’t mind it too much. “I know what he is, who he is. You don’t have to fret over me. I’ve got it under control.”

  “Is that so?” He reached out and tapped my mug. “He brewed this, brought it to you, and you didn’t even sniff it before you turned it bottoms up.” He stared through the door, across the hall. “He’s a witch. He could be putting anything in there, and you wouldn’t know it until you sprouted a second head or grew a third nipple.”

  Lips on the edge of the mug, I sucked coffee up the back of my nose when I laughed. “I’ll take your concerns under advisement, and you’ll be the first to know if I sprout another boob.”

  “I don’t know why.”

  “Why I would tell you?” I set the mug on the end of the table. “To horrify you, of course.”

  “No.” He waved that conversation aside. “Why the fae in the pasture didn’t keep me.”

  “Oh.” I shifted mental gears to get us back on track. “Maybe it’s because you were a wolf?”

  His head lifted. “I didn’t think about that.”

  “Most deserters can tell I’m a warg and not a natural wolf.” The duka sure had no trouble with it. “The first victim was a fae male, the second a human female. A male warg would keep the pattern going. Another male victim. Another new species. Maybe this one couldn’t determine your sex.”

  “Thanks.” His glower cranked up a few notches. “Always with the compliments.”

  Why would a fae taking a sampling of the locals turn down a warg who fit our working profile, as flimsy as it was?

  Sensing my distress, my wolf offered a barrage of images for me to sift through, bare flickers of her recollections that made no sense. All the mishmash did was confirm the area where we found Zed was the same chipmunk-infested stretch of pasture where we stumbled across…whatever had forced my brain through a sieve.

  “What’s wrong?” He gripped my wrist. “Did you remember something?”

  “No.” I pulled away and massaged my temples. “The wolf is giving me impressions, but they’re jumbled too. She doesn’t remember much, but that she has any memory at all suggests the fae has trouble managing that aspect of our nature.”

  “Do you think that’s why it chose a human after Mr. O’Malley?”

  “It’s possible.” I honestly had no idea. “If it had trouble managing the fae it had already taken, I can see it going after something weaker the next time.” It did make me wonder. “Why did it attack you and not me?”

  “Your wolf is more dominant.” He considered me. “Your resistance is probably higher than mine. That, or your wolf figured out the danger faster.”

  Or maybe whatever had been out in that field wasn’t interested in hurting me.

  That was a terrifying thought.

  “I brought breakfast.” Isaac entered the room with three plastic bags hung on one arm and a tray full of drinks in the other. “I figured you’d need the calories after last night.”

  A growl revved in Zed’s chest that he didn’t try and disguise. “Isaac is here?”

  “You missed that memo, huh?”

  “Probably because you never sent it.”

  “Here.” Isaac shoved two boxes, each marked with a Waffle Iron logo, into Zed’s hands. It was a good thing too, or else Zed might have glared him to death. “Top box is all meat. The bottom box is everything else.” He set one of the Styrofoam cups on the table beside him. “I got you orange juice.”

  The heady scent of fried meats filled the air, and my stomach rumbled. Zed cradled his food to his chest and eyed me warily.

  “This is yours.” Isaac pressed a box into my hands. “It’s half and half. Bacon and sausage.” He offered me a cup. “This is also for you.”

  “Coffee?” I asked with all the hope of a child on Christmas morning.

  “Not coffee.” He peeled back the tab on the lid. “It’s a decaf chai latte.”

  “Decaf?” I wrinkled my nose. “Were they out of the good stuff?”

  “You’re in detox.” He squared off with me. “You never drank coffee before, but you’re slamming it back two-fisted now. That much caffeine is not good for you. You need to eat better and delegate more.”

  “This is going to be fun.” Zed bit into a strip of bacon. “Maybe I won’t disembowel him for hurting you after all. Not today anyway.”

  “At the risk of sounding juvenile, you’re not the boss of me.” I dug out a sausage link and snapped it in half with my teeth. Isaac raised an eyebrow. “I can drink coffee if I want.”

  “You’re running on fumes.” Isaac didn’t budge in his stance. “You’re not taking care of yourself.”

  “You make it sound like that’s your problem,” Zed said conversationally.

  “Dell is my problem.” Isaac cut him a hard look. “Yours too. As long as she’s acting as alpha by proxy for this pack, her health and wellbeing ought to be Lorimar’s prime concern.”

  The fleeting instant where I thought he might be taking an interest in my health for me flickered and passed.

  “I have my hands full here.” I moved on to gnawing on a slice of ham. “I’m doing the best I can.”

  “No one is dismissing your accomplishments.” He glared at the cup in my hand until I took a sip. It was warm and creamy and…I couldn’t do it. Chai was Cam’s thing. Not mine. “You’re working your ass off, but you didn’t get training to be beta before this became a solo gig. No one is pointing fingers or casting blame. It happened, and here we are. All I’m saying is—let us make this easier on you. Let us help.”

  This was an intervention? He bribed us with breakfast meats so he could slap me down? I balked so hard, I didn’t react when he took the chai from my hand and replaced it with a different cup from the tray, this one filled with orange juice.

  “I spoke with Cord last night.” Isaac must have sensed his death nearing, because he stepped out of range of my claws. “I wanted to find out if there was precedent for naming a third position to the pack hierarchy.”

  “Is this punishment because I sent you home alone last night?” I had to ask if he was that petty.

  The bacon in Zed’s fist snapped in half as he growled out, “What?”

  “I offered to walk her home. She declined,” Isaac informed him without taking his eyes off me. “And no, Dell, this is not a punishment. This is me, looking out for you.”

  “This is als
o nothing official,” Zed reassured me. “No one outside the pack can make decisions that directly affect the pack. Cord would never go over your head, Dell.” He speared Isaac with a glare. “This is purely hypothetical.”

  His soothing words calmed my inner wolf. A little. Enough she didn’t burst from my skin.

  “Fine,” I gritted from between clenched teeth. “What did he have to say?”

  “That gammas are rare. Healthy packs don’t require a triad to keep them stable. The alpha—or alpha pair—manages it with help from their beta.” He waited to see that I sipped the juice before taking a drag on the chai I had turned down. Part of me was fascinated, surprised that he would risk getting my cooties. “Lorimar is stable, or was stable. Now it’s teetering without another leg to support it.”

  I bared my teeth, a snarl curling my upper lip. “What are you implying?”

  “You. Need. Help.” He sighed like I was the one making him tired. “Back me up here?” he flung at Zed. “You don’t have to like me to agree with me. Not about this.”

  “He’s not wrong.” Zed moved food around the box with his finger. “Things were bad before.” His glare at Isaac was so sharp, I expected the Gemini to start bleeding. “They’re better now.” He set his food aside as if the thought of where I had been a few days ago turned his stomach. “I want what’s best for you, Dell. This… It’s what you need, even if you don’t want to hear it.”

  “They’re right,” a third voice entered the conversation.

  All heads turned toward the witch in the doorway.

  “You too, huh?” I glanced between the three of them. “Great. Lovely. Wonderful.”

  I stood with as much dignity as I could muster, slammed my plate down on the seat of my chair—because Meemaw would paddle me for wasting perfectly good food—and left the guys to stand around and pat each other on the back for ambushing me.

  All these weeks of busting my hump, pinching pennies and spreading our budget to cover food and supplies for those who couldn’t afford them, and this was the thanks I got. Being told I wasn’t good enough, I hadn’t tried hard enough. I wasn’t alpha enough. Well thank God for that. This was as high on the ladder as I ever wanted to climb, and it was far enough off the ground that falling would break me.

  The day was barely started, and I was already over it.

  Laughter erupted to my left, and it drew me up short. Who was that happy this early in the morning? Nathalie and Aisha walked, shoulder to shoulder, along the property line. Their low conversation eluded me, and their smiles cut me to the quick.

  There had been a time not so long ago when that was me and Nathalie or me and Nathalie and Bianca. It turned out Bianca had been the glue holding my friendship with Nathalie together, and without her around, we accepted easy excuses not to spend as much time together.

  Maybe that would all change when Bianca came home. If she came back.

  Currently she was a patient at the Edelweiss Mental Institution in Kermit, Texas with no checkout date in sight. Her mate, Jensen, had been brutally murdered in front of her. She admitted herself to Edelweiss after that. All she had left of Jensen was the child in her belly, and I prayed the bright spark of that new life would be enough to lead her out of the darkness.

  I scratched my nails across my scalp. The baby was due any day now. I ought to call and check on her. Bianca wouldn’t talk to us, but her nurse was good for updates. Yet another area where I had fallen down.

  Head down, legs pumping, I reached the safety of my RV before anyone could stop me to ask what was wrong. The wolf urged me to run. We always felt better after a hunt. But I couldn’t afford to be reckless, and I couldn’t trust her not to go for a second round with those chipmunks. All I needed to top off this day was to get ensnared by the enchantment for a second time. That would prove I was beta material.

  Not.

  The one productive thing left for me to do before my workday started at the clinic was research. I cracked open Dictionary of Faerie as well as Myths Live Next Door and Don’t Touch That, It Bites and set my kitchen timer for an hour. All too soon, the buzzing snapped me out of the book I had been reading. I snapped two other titles shut but kept the third open and marked it with the treaty I still hadn’t blocked out time to read. I’d have to dig in to Myths again after work.

  I dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and steel-toed boots, tied my hair in a loose ponytail and left with a hastily packed lunch tucked under my arm.

  “You’re still angry” was the first thing I heard after my boots hit the planks.

  “Did you sharpen your knife while I was researching?” My lip quivered in Isaac’s general direction. “Should I turn around? Would that make it easier for you to stab me in the back again?”

  “No one stabbed you in the back.” He sighed with infinite patience that made me want to strangle him.

  “You went behind my back to the alpha—”

  “—who is married to my cousin,” he interjected.

  “—and put the idea in his head that I needed a gamma because I can’t do my job.” I fisted my hands at my sides. “If you think those words didn’t draw blood, then you don’t know me at all. This position, this pack, is all I have.” Fur brushed the underside of my skin, the wolf coaxing me to run and leave this human drama behind. “You’re not taking it away from me.”

  Losing this meant everything I had suffered up to this point had been for nothing.

  I was not nothing.

  “Listen to me.” Isaac approached with caution, eyeing me as though I were a rattler coiled to strike. “You are strong, smart and tough. You’re the best woman for the job. No one is disputing that. Stop being so damn stubborn, and hear the words coming out of my mouth.”

  Each step closer made it harder for me to back away. I was furious. I wanted to rip his head off his shoulders. I wanted to punch him in the junk so he understood how I felt.

  And I would never raise a hand to him. I couldn’t. The wolf wouldn’t let me.

  Even now, even after this latest betrayal, she would protect him to her last breath.

  “I didn’t break the chain of command. I didn’t sink cutlery into your back. I posed a hypothetical to a family member, and he answered in the spirit the question was asked.”

  A smidge of my anger evaporated. “Is it true fae can’t lie?”

  Isaac didn’t pop off with an immediate response. “I’m debating how dangerous it is for me to give you an answer.”

  “You’re afraid I’ll abuse the knowledge?” He was smart to be scared. Curiosity killed the warg, right?

  “Fae can twist words until they sound like what you want to hear. It’s a talent of ours.” His lips pursed. “I don’t want to admit we can’t lie and then you get hurt later because of confusion over what someone wanted you to hear versus what they were actually saying. You’re safer trusting that fae can lie.”

  Fair enough. That fit with what I had been reading. “Have you ever lied to me?”

  “No.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “There’s not much wiggle room in a single word.”

  “Anyone who comes home with me knows what she’s getting.” His gaze remained level, steady. “I make sure of that.”

  “Yes,” I had to agree. “You certainly do.”

  The problem was he had so much experience making a woman’s body feel cherished that she got confused about the disconnect between his hands and his heart.

  Isaac glanced aside, and his hands found their way into his pockets.

  “I’m late for work.” I skirted him then hit the path leading to the clinic. “I don’t want to find you lurking on my porch when I get home.”

  “It’s not lurking if it’s being neighborly,” he called. “See you at five?”

  I shook my head and kept moving.

  “Six?”

  I raised my hand in a wave.

  “Is that a yes?” A second later, he called, “I’m taking that as a yes, neighbor.”

  The fact I had to b
ite my bottom lip to keep from smiling was a bad sign. A very bad sign.

  I already had one “friend” who liked to go on undates. I didn’t need a helpful neighbor too.

  Chapter 16

  Zed spent the last hour of my workday camped out in a lawn chair, tinkering with yet another box that spat wires and electrical tape. Tempted as I was to go for a two-by-four caber toss or a hammer throw with a literal hammer, I leashed my temper. I had an example to set for the Stoners, after all.

  Not that I would have dinged a perfectly good tool by whacking Zed upside the head with it. Good tools cost money. I had inherited most of mine, but their care had been engrained in me from a young age.

  Pawpaw had started me out with cheap dollar tools that rusted at the drop of a hat to teach me responsibility. One by one he incorporated quality pieces with nice weights and sturdier handles. I was a goner after that. It had been like moving up from a tricycle to my first ten-speed. There was no going back.

  “The roof is done.” Grub came to stand beside me with a half-empty roll of tar paper tucked under his arm. “This is the last shingle in the pack. You like living dangerously, don’t you?”

  “It’s not that I didn’t want to buy extras. I couldn’t afford to.” I had relied on math and a second opinion to make sure I had enough boxes. That still meant crossing my fingers all the shingles were sound. Any defects would have put us over budget, because local supply was limited. “We’ll get started on the siding tomorrow.”

  “I’ll let the others know.” He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Lyssa shot down the ladder and started folding it closed. Shoe Laces, who had already started cleaning up and putting away tools without being asked, raised his head. His ability to see what needed doing and do it made the quiet warg worth his weight in gold to me. “I can finish up here if you have somewhere else to be.”

  “Thanks.” I lingered in the opening that would soon become a doorway. “I have some calls to make, and I need to run to town. Do we need anything while I’m there?”

  “Another extension cord wouldn’t hurt.” He kicked a coil at his foot. “This one’s wearing thin.”