Truth or Wolf: A Small Town Shifter Romantic Comedy (Wolf Brothers Book 1)

Chapter 3

Three

The wolf stands on its hind legs, places its forelegs on the scientist’s shoulders, and places its jaws around the scientist’s head. This is just the wolf’s way of being friendly. If you’re an animal who doesn’t know how to talk, a very clear signal is communicated: “See my teeth? Feel them? I could hurt you, I really could. But I won’t. I like you.”

— CARL SAGAN

The day I’d fallen for Alice Aymes had stuck with me.

Even though her presence in Moonlight Valley had been transitory over the years, like a comet that made an appearance only every ten years (or summers), she’d made an impression that no amount of time could dull. I’d always had feelings for Alice, feelings that made me desperate to hold onto her, to convince her to stay here with me.

I’d been seventeen, a whole year older than her. She’d been sitting under a tree, so intent on writing something with a strawberry-scented pen that she hadn’t heard me coming.

The focusing had given her forehead a cute little pucker and tiny curls of her brown hair were busy escaping from a complicated knot. She smelled like body lotion and peonies, sweet and soft.

I never had liked being ignored, so I’d reached down over her shoulder, snagged the pen, and written my name into her…journal. Notebook. Thing.

There’d been no fathoming those grid-covered pages with their overabundance of boxes and circles, checks, and X marks. Lists? Maybe. A collection of lists that was in serious danger of disappearing underneath an avalanche of stickers.

I’d planned on asking her out for a date, maybe after pointing out that now I was atop her list. Number one. Someone she should make time for. Instead of smiling up at me, however, she glared, her dislike for my presence clear.

She’d pressed her lips together. “You just added yourself to my grocery list, Ford Boone.”

I’d squinted. Sure enough, my name had topped a list of salad fixings and paper towels.

“That won’t do.”

I’d twitched the notebook out of her hand, flipped the page, and written myself into a blank space. To make my intentions perfectly clear, I’d added myself as number one on that list—and then numbers two, three, four, and five because I’d been making a point.

Then I’d returned the notebook because even at seventeen, I’d figured out that being a gentleman trumped being a villain. Look at Atticus.

“No,” she’d snapped. Reaching into a strawberry-covered box by her side, she’d peeled a sticker off a sheet and slapped it over my name. Then she’d flipped the page and done the same to my name on her grocery list.

My knees had bumped her shoulder. “I’m gonna have to do it again.”

“No way.” She’d jumped up, hugging her notebook to her chest, and bolted. My wolf had whined with excitement: CHASE HER!

Of course I’d listened and of course I’d gone after her—and of course it hadn’t taken me much more than seconds to catch her. My legs were longer, and I was more determined.

Wrapping an arm around her middle, I’d scooped her up in my arms. It’d felt so good holding her like that that I’d swung her in a circle. I’d never wanted to put her down.

Then don’t. Let’s keep her.

Alice had not shared my wolf’s opinion. “You put me down, Ford Boone! This is not Clan of the Cave Bear!”

I’d had no idea what she was on about. Nevertheless, I hadn’t been able to stop the smile that tugged at my mouth as I did what she’d ordered. “Yeah? You think you can make me?”

She could, of course. I’d never do anything that upset or scared her, so I’d set her down carefully.

That was my first mistake.

Screwing up already, my wolf had opined.

Turned out, he was right.

She’d poked me in the chest with an accusing finger. “You are a Neanderthal, Ford Boone! This is not some movie where you can cart me around like a barbarian without consequences!”

“No?” To prove my point (and also because I’d hold her any way I could), I scooped her up in my arms again and twirled us both in a lazy circle.

Alice had flailed her arms, torn between holding onto me and pushing me away. It had been cute. Eventually, she’d wrapped her arms around her own chest, making a visible effort to regain her dignity. I preferred her undone and honest, open and giving me hell.

“Down!” she’d ordered again.

I put her down. Again.

She would’ve made an excellent alpha wolf, except that she wasn’t a wolf at all. I knew it, my wolf knew it, even Alice knew it, although to be fair it probably had never crossed her mind that people could shift into furry forms.

Girl is missing out.

I’d ignored my inner wolf. “You gonna go out with me?”

“When hell freezes over.” She’d hugged her notebook closer. The laughter on her face said she thought I was teasing, not serious. “We don’t like each other. Plus, you’re way too bossy.”

“Alice, you’re the one telling me what to do. Guess that makes you the bossy pants in this relationship.”

Disapproval had rolled off her. “You think being bossy is enough. Being bossy and having a plan works better.”

She’s got you there.

She had. I’d told her what to do, what I wanted, and it sure hadn’t worked for me. I’d chalked this up to not having a whole lot of practice in the fine art of asking.

Asking made you vulnerable, plus I was a werewolf. We were all about the telling.

Hell, yeah.

I’d considered asking her how she would have gone about getting a date with me, but she was already walking away.

It was then that I’d made mistake number two.

I hadn’t chased her.

I’d let her walk away, straight out of my life.

It had seemed smart. She hadn’t liked me much (or at all), plus she’d been head over heels for my brother. Atticus hadn’t wanted to date her, either. He didn’t feel the tug that I did when I saw her.

Still, tonight, after riding to Alice’s rescue in the deer blind and then catching and kissing her after she fell out of said deer blind, I kept returning to our teenage encounters. Trying to figure out what had changed—or not—between us.

Ordinarily, the lake would have been a good place for quiet contemplation and self-reflection. Right now, however, it was loud. My brothers had built a giant waterslide out of foam pool noodles, tarps, and random odds and ends from our barn. It was an engineering masterpiece, and tonight was its inaugural run.

The event should have been downright exciting, but I was in a bad mood after losing Alice yet again to Atticus, and in a contest he wasn’t even actively participating in.

As a result, I was stress-eating barbecue-flavored potato chips from a family-sized bag. It was that or drink, and I was not a drinker. Not after growing up with Darrell Boone for a daddy. My cup wasn’t even half full—I’d drunk all the Cheerwine an hour ago.

Usually I’d shift into my wolf and go for a run to clear my head; I loved racing through the Tennessee woods while one-hundred-percent animal. Right now, though, shifting would only remind me of all the reasons I wasn’t the right man for Alice Aymes, so I stayed in my human skin.

Ranger showed up with a cooler of his state-famous barbecue before I finished my pity party. The delicious aroma was almost enough to tease me out of my mood. Ranger grilled competitively, and he’d alerted us that he was trying out a new recipe tonight. Mostly I think he wanted to see if he could trick our guests into believing his tofu was chicken.

I was contemplating fetching a plate when I heard a commotion on the hillside between our house and the lake. There was lots of hollering coming from the girls we’d invited over. Only a few of them were shifters, but they screamed right along with whoever was shrieking her way down my hill.

It was annoying. We were apex predators, so unless there was a polar bear or a Siberian tiger shooting toward us, there was no need to fuss.

Deelie Sue was the worst offender, but I’d have bet every dollar in my wallet that she was playing to the crowd because that was what Deelie Sue did and it worked a treat. First she made you like her, then she sold you a vehicle you didn’t know you lusted after.

Two years after she’d started at the local used car emporium, she’d bought the place and rebranded it as Wheels of Good Fortune, selling both used and new vehicles. She made excellent money, although she kept that truth on the down low.

People looked at her and saw a smoking-hot blonde who’d been a Miss Tennessee Teen and then Miss Tennessee. Every Moonlight Valley boy plus a few girls had a picture of her sprawled on the hood of a car in a star-spangled bikini. The bikini itself was framed and hung behind her desk.

Underestimating Deelie Sue was costly, but people looked at Deelie Sue in that bikini and decided she was dumb as a brick. Sexy, but dumb. Only later, after she’d sold them an overpriced car they didn’t need did they wonder what had happened.

Giving up on my barbecued tofu fantasies, I strode over to Deelie Sue and wrapped her up in a bear hug.

“Knock it off,” I whispered into her ear.

She leaned away, her tiara-winning boobs about popping out of her bikini top. She wore a pair of Daisy Duke shorts and suntan oil even though it was dark. Moisturizing was her religion.

“You boys know how to party,” she said. I was betting she’d be passing out business cards before long, making new friends and working the room. Beach. Whatever.

Deelie Sue curled up against my chest, laughing. She’d joined me on the Cheerwine wagon as she’d driven a new sports car to the party and she was too practical to risk both her driver’s license and her expensive vehicle by engaging in some drunk driving.

I suspected that not hurting other people and obeying the law were a distant third and fourth in the Deelie Sue-verse, but that was not a problem for tonight.

We could take her for a ride, my wolf opined.

Come to think of it, even though my wolf usually suggested banging anyone and everyone, not being terribly discriminate, he did not sound serious.

We’re getting old.

I snorted. As if.

It’ll be Viagra next. Stories of our glory days. We need to do something we’ll be able to remember when our brain cells are failing us faster than our dick.

Deelie Sue would have been amenable. She liked flirting, and we’d been friends with benefits for years. Plus we were both wolves, which meant we loved being skin to skin. Loved that feeling of connection. Nothing said you’re not alone like having someone else pressed up against you.

Hot damn, YES.

Deelie Sue leaned into me, I leaned back, and then I had an awkward revelation that all this casual leaning might have sent the wrong message. I was not up for sex with Deelie Sue.

I was, in fact, decidedly down.

Old.

Old news, rather. Deelie Sue and I had hooked up a number of times over the last five years. I’d told her that I wasn’t doing that anymore four months ago. As she’d been busy expanding her used car empire to a second site, I hadn’t seen her again until tonight.

I realized I wasn’t interested in seeing her tonight, at least not this close up. Accordingly, I tried to remove her gently from my person.

Deelie Sue burrowed into me closer than a tick on a deer.

This was a problem.

Got faith in you.

The lack of interest exhibited by my penis was concerning. It was usually one-hundred-percent go when it came to sex—particularly hot, creative sex. And truth was, I loved sex and I really, really wanted to have more of it.

But sex without feelings wasn’t enough, which five years of hooking up with Deelie Sue had proved.

Seeing as how she was also a wolf shifter, it would have been downright convenient if my wolf and I could have fallen for her, but as I’d discovered, there was nothing convenient about feelings at all. Still, I’d kept on hoping I’d fall, so I’d kept on seeing her.

Until this summer.

Until I learned from Alessandro Aymes that his third cousin twice removed had returned to town.

Eventually, I managed to pry Deelie Sue off my person and made my way over to Ranger, who was setting out his barbecue on a folding table. It smelled amazing, despite its being one-hundred-percent vegetarian. Soy grilled up shockingly well.

Ranger gave Deelie Sue side-eye. “Are you all back together?”

No, thank you. We’re otherwise engaged, said both my penis and my wolf.

“Nope.” My stomach twisted as if I’d gone airborne off the end of the waterslide. “That was wishful thinking.”

Ranger nodded. “Good, ’cause you two are not supplementary angles.”

Ranger was taking an online geometry class from an Ivy League university and it had colored his thinking. Usually, I had no idea what he was talking about most of the time, but tonight I got it. Deelie Sue and I didn’t fit together, not in any of the ways that mattered.

I was about to share that revelation with him when Atticus popped out of the shadows near the bonfire, a woman tucked up against his side.

My wolf started growling because that was Alice Aymes he had his arm wrapped around. I could feel the telltale amber sheen rolling over my eyes as I got madder and madder.

“Headlights,” Ranger warned beside me.

“What is she doing?” I’d thought that even though she’d picked out my brother as her fantasy mate, it had been merely a fantasy. Instead, a mighty unpleasant fact stared me in the face.

“She’s sleeping in my bed tonight.” Ranger tipped his head toward Alice. “She’s coming home with me.”

My wolf redirected our anger to Ranger. “What do you mean she’s coming home with you?”

Ranger stared at me. I hated when he did this because with his big, mathematical brain he saw straight inside me. He added two and two together and accurately deduced that I was jealous.

Alice was gorgeous. She’d been gorgeous as long as I’d known her, which had been for some time, but tonight something had clicked when I’d spotted her up in the blind.

If not now, then when?I’d thought. If I waited any longer, something could happen, and not the kind of something that had her moving to Nashville while I stayed here. I knew from local gossip that she’d recently earned a business degree and had aspirations to open up some kind of boutique in the city.

It wasn’t that Alice was the most attractive woman I’d ever laid eyes on. (She was.) I didn’t want to be feeling any of these emotions, but she was inescapable, from her melting brown eyes to the distracting spray of freckles that decorated her cheek, her throat, and the slope of her bosom.

And that was only the outside, the gift wrapping on the important part of Alice. Her insides were even more beautiful.

I hadn’t intended to escalate things earlier tonight. I’d planned to fix her wolf problem and then maybe get a kiss. Ask her out on a date. Letting her think that I was Atticus, putting my hands on her, that had all been an impulse.

Usually, I was a big planner. I hated surprises, hated the vulnerability of not knowing how someone would respond to me.

But I’d taken a chance on Alice. Her kiss made me burn. There had been so much heat, a frenzied buzzing of desire that got under my skin and had all my body parts standing to attention. If I’d done a roll call, my heart would have been first in line.

When she’d thought I was Atticus, she’d looked up at me with all the trust in the world. Her Atticus was a hero, someone she outright adored. It was amazing.

I wanted her to look at me that way for real, but I’d screwed up big time by not correcting her mistake. I should have stopped her long before the kissing and told her who I was.

I’d planned to have a mature, sensible conversation with her, take care of her wolf problem, and sometime in the not-so-distant future, ask her if she wanted to get a coffee—the fancy kind with a thousand grams of sugar and whipped cream—with me.

Sweeten her up. Make our move.

Uh-huh. That plan was now shot to hell, but I’d gotten my kiss—and I couldn’t regret it.

I agree.

The kiss had been amazing, although I sure hadn’t enjoyed the way it had ended in her outright rejection of me. She’d hated the possibility of kissing me again and even acknowledging I existed. I was not Atticus, she did not want me, and that was before she’d discovered that I was a werewolf.

Poor taste in men, my wolf clucked in my head.

I wasn’t so sure about that. Sure, Atticus was my brother and I’d always give him what-for, but he was a good guy. The ladies liked him, he had courtly manners, and his ability to add, subtract, and do their taxes won them over.

I was rougher, ruder, and not at all nice, hamburger to Atticus’s filet mignon. It was no surprise that she wanted to be a player on Team Atticus, and therefore I should not be thinking about her naked.

I slid another look her way. Atticus had a steadying arm wrapped around her shoulder as she pointedly ignored me.

We should pop him.We can take him.

We’re not assaulting my brother. Shut up.My wolf sulked and retreated. I moseyed up to the bonfire and set about ignoring both Alice and Atticus while giving them sidelong glances.

At some point in the evening, one of our lady guests suggested that we play a game and ride doubles down the waterslide. It was like Spin the Bottle, but without the bottle and with a lap dance instead of a kiss. As game premises went, it was compelling enough that we all tromped up the hill and gathered around the top of the waterslide.

It looked a long way down in the dark. I bet I’d feel like a rocket ship heading into the stars when I hit the bottom.

Deelie Sue nudged my arm. “You wanna be my ride, Ford?”

She’d always liked to go fast, and I’d always liked this about her.

I had never been big on going slow. I’d been known to argue that you should always skip to the good part when you could. Alice, however, made me want to go slow, slow, slow because I did not want my shot at her to be over and done with forever.

Deelie Sue ran over and climbed into the starting chute of the waterslide. It was, in fact, a repurposed cattle chute that had come from the rodeo where they’d used it to shoot angry cows into the arena for roping. We were using it to launch ourselves downhill.

“Come on over here, big boy!” Deelie Sue lounged against the top of the slide like a game show model.

News flash: I did not want to go over there.

My gaze shifted to Alice. She’d made her disinterest clear, and yet I wanted to see her reaction.

Surprisingly, she’d peeled her gaze off Atticus and was now glaring at Deelie Sue as if she wanted to push her down the slide. Suddenly, I had a plan.

“I’m all yours,” I drawled and started over.

Alice’s gaze bounced between me and Deelie Sue. Something flickered in her eyes. Possession, possibly. Jealousy, if I was a lucky wolf. Whatever it was, she hated the idea of me wrapping myself around Deelie Sue like the tortilla on a burrito. Maybe she did care a little about me.

I chewed on that while I toed off my work boots and stripped down to my boxer briefs. Wet jeans were no fun and would make me go slow. My T-shirt came off to the hooting and hollering of the crowd.

Show her what she’s missing!

Most of the crowd seemed to be enjoying my show. The ladies—and a couple of the gents—had plenty to say. It ran along the following lines. Damn, that man is fine and Can we look AND touch? and Sign me up for that pony ride.

When I was down to my boxer briefs, I jumped onto the slide, patted my lap, and snuck a peek at Alice.

Her face was Barbie pink, her forehead puckered like she was doing a whole lot of thinking and didn’t like her hypothesis. Her eyes were the best part, though, shooting me a hot look that made me glad the night was losing its heat fast and that the slide was clammy wet beneath my backside.

I got Deelie Sue settled between my legs after a brief argument about whether she should straddle my hips and ride me like a cowgirl. I did not think that would be good for her knees, my secret hopes with Alice, or my personal boundaries, so we agreed that I would wrap myself around her and steer us both, while she would keep her body parts off my goodies.

Someone turned on the hose to lube up the slide, and Deelie Sue squealed at the cold. I gritted my teeth and wrapped an arm around her to keep her safe because, sure enough, my brothers’ hands shoved at my back and then we were flying down the slide, twisting and turning, the woods a breathtaking blur on either side.

When we hit the bottom of the slide, we flew up into the air, Deelie Sue laughing hard, before gravity took over and we came down, down, down into the lake. The shock of all that cold water pushed us apart, but when I surfaced, Deelie Sue was already swimming for the dock. She hadn’t bothered to wait for me.

She pelted up the hill in her wet bikini and I followed almost as fast. It might be summer, but the lake never warmed up much.

“Your turn to pick who you want to ride down with,” Ranger announced when I reached the top. Normally he sounded dour and uncheerful. Now, though, he sounded almost happy. It was confusing. Ranger was not someone who was easy to read. “You pick whoever you want to go with, anyone at all.”

I knew who my first choice was. My eyes met Alice’s, and I readied myself for her rejection. It was a risk, asking her like this.

My wolf perked up. No pain, no gain.

“Alice.” Her name came out like a growl, soft and rough, as if the distance between us didn’t matter at all. “You want to go with me?”

Her eyes narrowed, her pretty lips parting. She was still wearing her cute, if oversized, citizen scientist T-shirt from earlier. I deliberately looked from her to Atticus. I hoped she’d understand that I was demanding she pick between us.

For the record, I would never force her. My brother was a good man, even if he could be an uptight jackass most days of the week. I loved him and I’d respect her choice. I wanted the chance to change her mind. To prove to her that I wasn’t the bad brother.

“You come on now.” She stabbed a finger at the slide commandingly, as if she were inviting me and not the other way round. Alice liked being in charge as much as I did.

I didn’t even try to restrain my smirk. “You got it.”

So many sex jokes, my wolf moaned. Where to begin?

Again I sauntered over to the slide, and again I got on; this time it was better because it was with her. She was adorably flushed as she followed, unable to hide her anger with me or her embarrassment about the state of my boxer briefs.

I patted my thighs. “Strip and climb on.”

Alice gave me a look that said in your dreams, buddy. Or maybe that was someone in the crowd. A wolf could dream about naked sliding, right?

Less dreaming, more reality.

“What you see is what you get.” Alice waved a hand at herself.

“Fine,” I agreed, hiding my enthusiasm for getting Alice in any way, shape, or form. “All aboard.”

Her forehead wrinkled as she assessed my lap, and I was deeply grateful for the cold clamminess of my boxer briefs. Then she toed off her hiking boots, climbed gingerly over the side of the chute and knelt between my thighs. I had a moment to be deeply grateful that she’d shed her boots as her feet came perilously close to unmanning me as she tried to find a spot to sit.

Losing patience, I finally set my hands on her waist and flipped her around, planting her butt on top of my boxer-briefs-covered crotch. I didn’t want her getting torn up any by the slide.

Atticus slapped me on the shoulder. “You two have fun. Here’s to a happy ending.”

On top of me, Alice muttered something about this not being that type of movie.

I stared up at him and he gave me a slow tip of his head. An amber sheen rolled over his eyes and I realized he was excited for me.

I’d been oblivious not to realize it before. Atticus wasn’t interested in Alice, not romantically. Even though she was smart and gorgeous, funny and frighteningly well organized, he wasn’t interested in her because he’d understood my feelings before I did.

It made sense. We were twins.

I grinned at him, and he shoved my shoulder. “Ride ’em, cowboy.”

His wish, our command.

I wrapped my arms around Alice and held on tight. Atticus shoved us down the slide.

I was never letting go of her.