A Rebel Without Claws (Southern Charm #1)

8. ~Celine~

Chapter 8

~Celine~

I sat on the bench in our courtyard, petting Petunia. She was the sweetest tabby cat ever. My mom said their own Zombie Cat, who’d died when I was around five, had been the best cat in the world. I barely remembered the all-black cat who seemed so old and fragile when he died, but I do remember my mom being very sad.

Petunia was currently curled in my lap while I went through some work emails, all from Michael, who took care of my appointments as well as Dr. Theriot’s. I had a few patients who needed to move appointments and one new patient.

While I was replying to Michael, a text notification popped up. Ronan.

My heart flip-flopped in my chest at seeing the notification.

Ronan: I’ll pick you up Saturday night at 6:00. Is that good for you?

Me: Perfect. What do I wear?

Ronan: Anything you want. Or nothing at all. That would be fine by me too.

I laughed, disturbing Petunia, who hopped off my lap since I was paying too much attention to my phone and not her. I quickly sent him my address.

Ronan: Yes, I know where you live. That reminds me, go check your front porch.

How did he get my address? The old fear sparked for a split second before I pushed it away. His uncle could’ve easily given him the address. Or anybody else in the body shop. Almost all of the Blood Moon Pack had been here for one reason or another over the years—parties, Christmas gatherings, Guys Game Night. Just because he found it didn’t mean he was stalking me.

Quickly, I hustled toward the kitchen door, texting him that I was heading to check my porch now. I rounded the kitchen into the living room, texting and walking.

“Stop right there!”

I jumped, froze, and looked up to see Joaquin and Mom sit- ting on the couch with to-go coffees from Silver Moon Café. He came over once a week, bringing coffee and pastries, to chat with our parents. But it was Diego sitting in the wingback close to the fireplace with a half-eaten pecan cookie bar in one hand who’d shouted at me when I entered.

“Who are you texting?” he asked with a scowl before he devoured the other half of his pecan bar in one bite .

“None of your business.”

“It’s a guy, I know it,” he said around a mouthful. “How do you know?”

He huffed. “Because I know what a girl’s face looks like when she’s thinking about or texting a guy she’s into.”

“Leave her alone,” said Joaquin, sipping his coffee. “Give her some privacy.”

Diego snorted indignantly. “You know who it is, don’t you?”

“It was Lauren,” I said.

“Liar,” snapped Diego. “I may not be a psychic, but I know what I know.”

“Stop harassing your sister.” Mom set her coffee mug shaped like the Death Star on the coffee table. She then unclipped her dark auburn hair and retwisted it tighter in the clip on top of her head as she walked toward me.

“Would you like to stay and have coffee with us?”

This was Mom’s way of gently suggesting I stay and chat so she could prod information from me. Normally, I’d be fine with that, but I was still super protective over this very new, fledgling of a relationship I had with Ronan. Besides, she still worried about me when it came to dating.

Diego picked up another pastry—something chocolatey, so it was probably made by Samara. “It’s not that werewolf I saw you talking to at Howler’s, was it?”

“Werewolf?” My mom’s eyes lit up excitedly.

“Will you butt out, Diego?” I shouted past her. “Mom, I’m going to take a hard pass on coffee. Sorry.”

I gave her shoulder a squeeze. If I happened to send her a calming spell when I touched her, well, that was pretty normal for me. I didn’t want her to worry about me. And this time, there truly wasn’t a need to.

“It’s that Ronan guy, isn’t it?” asked Diego.

Then I heard Dad open the back kitchen door. He’d been out back working in his art studio. I hurried over to Diego and twist-pinched his arm.

“Ow!” He jumped back. “Fuck, sis.”

“Don’t you say another damn word,” I hissed in whisper.

“About what?” He stuffed his mouth with the chocolate truffle or whatever it was, grinning like the devil while he chewed.

“Don’t.” I pointed a finger as Dad rounded the corner and stopped right next to Diego, a puzzled expression on his face.

He propped his hands on his hips. “Do you smell another wolf?”

My dad, Mateo Cruz, was the gentlest, most affectionate, and loving father a girl could want. But his wolf, known as Alpha, lived simultaneously in his head. And he was the exact opposite. Unlike most werewolves, whose wolves were silent except that one time of the month, my father lived with Alpha’s intrusive thoughts fairly regularly. And Alpha was . . . well, he was insanely dominant, protective, and possessive when it came to family. Especially when it came to me, the baby girl. Though I wasn’t a baby anymore.

Diego swallowed his mouthful of chocolate and inhaled a deep breath, now mirroring Dad’s position with his hands low on his hips, looking like a younger carbon copy of him. “Yeah. I do.”

“Where is that coming from?” asked Dad.

“Could be the mailman,” Diego replied, taking a big whiff.

“The mailman is a warlock,” said Dad .

Then he sniffed the air again, and I realized with shocking horror that Ronan must’ve delivered a package to my front door himself, not knowing that my father had the best sense of smell of any werewolf in the damn city.

I was already hurrying through the living room when Diego called roughly, “Celine, I still want to talk to you.” At least he didn’t mention Ronan’s name in front of Dad. Small mercy.

“Later, Diego! I’ve got some patient work to tend to,” I lied, fleeing the room like my ass was on fire.

Hurrying, I grabbed my purse and keys on the side table and raced to the front door to find a small brown box on the mat with only my name scrawled across the top. I picked it up and rushed to my car before my family could hassle me any more, and especially before my father could locate the scent of the strange werewolf who’d been on our premises.

Without thinking, I drove to Samara’s studio apartment a few miles away. Thankfully, her car was parked on the street outside the building, which was really an older house that had been renovated and divided into four nice apartments. Taking the box with me, I walked up and knocked on her downstairs door.

Samara opened it, wearing a T-shirt and yoga pants. “Hey.” She stepped aside, puzzled. “What’s up?”

“I had to get out of the house fast.”

“Why’s that?”

After she closed the door behind me, I sat on the sofa with the little box in my lap. It was taped shut with packaging tape.

“This. Ronan left me some kind of a gift, and my dad and Diego started sniffing around, literally , wondering who the strange werewolf smell belonged to. ”

Samara leaned forward and took a whiff. As a vampire, her sense of smell was nearly as good as a werewolf’s. Except my dad’s.

She grinned and waggled her brow. “He smells delicious.”

“Stop, Samara.” Still, I shivered. The thought of his scent surrounding me made my pulse race. For once, I wished I was a damn werewolf or vampire with those heightened senses. “Do you have a knife to get this open?”

“Of course.”

She popped into her kitchen and returned, slitting it along the top seam and the sides for me.

I opened the lid to find some packaging paper wrapped around a small item, carefully cocooned in wrapping paper.

“What did he send you?” Samara sat next to me, peering into the box I’d set on her coffee table.

I lifted the object out of the packing. “I don’t know.” When I unwrapped it and realized what it was, I started laughing while holding it in my hands.

“A teacup?” Samara seemed bewildered. “That’s an odd gift.”

He’d painted it with these beautiful pink flowers all around the rim. There was actually a pot of pink flowers painted on the front with the tiniest purple dragon sitting on a leaf, his wings open.

“I can’t believe he did this.”

“What?”

“It’s a personal joke he was teasing me about. He accidentally broke one of my teacups, and he promised to replace it.” Then it hit me as I swept a finger over the tiny dragon with a mischievous look in his blue eyes. “He had to go out pretty early to find the supplies and make this, let it dry, then wrap it and deliver it to my doorstep. ”

“Damn, you’ve already got private jokes with each other. I thought you’d only met twice.”

“Three times actually. He was at Howler’s last night.”

“Dammit. I knew I should’ve gone.”

“You said you had an important paper to work on.”

She gestured toward her desktop in the corner of the living room where the screen showed she was working on something in Microsoft Word.

“Still am.”

Samara was working on her master’s degree. And though she was excellent in school, she still wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do in a career.

“Tough paper?”

“Forget about that.” She took a seat on the sofa, facing me, her legs crossed underneath her. “So tell me what happened at Howler’s.”

My mind went instantly to the end of the night when Ronan left the bar in a hurry after nearly getting in a fight with some guys by the pool table.

“Well, that’s not a happy face. What happened?” asked Samara.

“Actually, it was a great night. Being with him is like . . .” I shook my head, trying to find the words. “I don’t know how to describe it. Just standing next to him and talking, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be, like I was always supposed to be within Ronan’s orbit.”

“Whoa. That’s kinda deep. You are an Aura, though.”

Like that alone explained my romanticizing what it’s like to be with him. Still, I was being honest. I couldn’t understand it myself. Only that I felt more alive, more alert, even happier when he was near me. I just felt . . . more .

“So what’s wrong?” she asked. “Why the long face?”

“Toward the end of the night, he went with two of the guys he works with at the body shop—good guys, Bowie and Zack. They all went to talk to some others I didn’t know in the bar, and it was obvious Ronan nearly got into a fight with one of them.”

“No shit?”

“The worst part was that the band were taking a break, and Diego rushed over, had a few words with Ronan, who then left with Bowie and Zack in a hurry. Thankfully, Diego and the band started back up not long after, and I left early.”

“Did Diego tell you what the altercation was about?”

“The first I saw him since last night was just a little while ago when he and my dad were trying to figure out where the werewolf scent was coming from.” I pointed to the box.

“Ahhh. I see.”

“Diego did yell at me as I was leaving that he wanted to talk to me about Ronan. But I don’t want to hear his overprotective bullshit.”

“You’re going to hear it anyway.”

“Regardless,” I said, heaving a happy sigh, “I’m going on a date with Ronan tomorrow night.”

“Really?” Samara gave me that wicked smile. “Where are you going?”

“No idea. He’s picking me up at six.”

“At your house!”

“Calm down.” I grinned. “My parents and Diego will all be gone. It’s the full moon Saturday.”

Samara frowned, and she didn’t have to ask because I knew what she was thinking .

“Ronan told me he doesn’t shift on the full moon.”

“Like ever? What’s wrong?”

Also concerned about the same thing but knowing it was too personal to ask yet, I told her, “I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that’s why he’s going to a supernatural psychologist.”

We both grew quiet a minute, knowing there must be some- thing deep going on with him for his wolf not to shift. I wasn’t sure if this was a recent issue or if it had been going on for a while. He’d promised to tell me on our date.

“Well, then.” Samara patted me playfully on the knee. “The more important question is, what are you going to wear?”

“I have no idea,” I admitted.

“Something sexy, girl. Don’t hold back. You want to see his jaw drop to the floor when he picks you up.”

I laughed. I usually kept to my comfortable, more modest, attire on dates. But for Ronan, I truly did want to wow him.

“I think you’re right,” I admitted.

“I’m always right. Come on.” She hopped up and walked toward her bedroom, the only room off the large open living space and kitchen. “There’s a great boutique store down the street that will have just the thing.”

“But what about your paper?”

“I was looking for a reason to procrastinate,” she called from the next room.

A minute later, she returned with shoes on, then we set off to buy me something spectacular for my date with Ronan.