22. Soren
SOREN
TWO DAYS LATER
Iland on the roof of Stanley’s Diner as her headlights swing into the lot. For two nights, I have kept my mate home, and this errand is the first one she would not let me talk her out of. One of the wolves drove her car up the mountain last night, and she has been itching to drive it since.
She parks and hops out, crossing the lot with her head already tipping back to find me. I drop from the roofline and land on the sidewalk right as she reaches it. I cannot resist. I pull her up into my arms, her feet clean off the sidewalk.
“I really wish you could fit in my car,” she says into my chest. “But I couldn’t handle flying today.”
I nod and press my forehead to hers. A full night of filling my mate will do that. She will be carrying our first hatchling soon, and flying will be the least of it.
I set her down, and she heads for the door. She stops at the window, and her face goes flat. A waitress she doesn’t know is working her tables, and the Help Wanted sign is still taped in the glass beside the door. She grunts at it. “Andy couldn’t even wait a week.”
I rest a hand on her shoulder. “He has a business to run.”
She flicks a hand at the sign. “Well, I was gonna ask if I could work part time. As something to do.”
I frown, and I bend all the way down so she can see it.
“Don’t give me that look.” She pokes my cheek with one finger. “If I sit in that cabin all day and night, I’ll just turn into your fuck doll.”
I smile.
She runs a hand over my chest and cuts her eyes around the lot. “Mm. See, that’s exactly the energy I’m talking about.”
I was relentless last night. I am not apologetic about it.
She keeps scanning the rooflines, and I know who she is looking for.
My brother has come to the land once since she moved in, long enough to raise the frame of his own cabin and leave again.
The noise of our mating drives him off. So does watching what he does not yet have. He keeps to his patrols instead.
A woman crosses the lot with her shopping and squints up at me, and I know her at once. She is the one who lectured me at my first public sunset. She stops and takes me in, top to bottom. Then she smiles. “Better. Much better.”
I tip my head to her with respect.
She points her chin at Treasure. “You’re taking good care of your big guy. Good job.”
“It’s a whole job, but I manage.” Treasure leans into my side and takes all of the credit.
The woman moves on, and my mate wraps both hands around one of my claws. “After I tell Andy I’m not coming back, I want you to meet my friend Lena. She owns the craft store.” She squeezes. “Best for last.”
I nod and follow her inside.
The bell jingles, and I duck through the door. Lamar looks up from the grill. He does not look back down fast enough. Burnt pride rides under the grill grease, and it is coming off the cook.
“TREASURE!” Devon comes out of the kitchen so fast the door keeps swinging, and she laughs as he wraps her in a hug. Then he holds a hand up to me. The boy is no longer worried about my claws. I press my palm flat to his without letting a claw touch him.
“This is Soren,” Treasure announces to the new waitress and the room at large, patting my arm. “My mate.”
The customers in the booths glance up at me and go back to their food.
“A room full of humans, and not one of them stopped chewing,” I tell her.
“We’re home now,” she says. “It’s supposed to be this way.”
Andy comes out of the back with his chest already puffed out, proud of himself about something. “You could have just called.”
I stare at him.
He clears his throat and chooses his next words with care. “What I mean is, I already took care of it. I knew you were quitting soon, so I went ahead and hired your replacement.” He waves a hand at the waitress breaking down the far table. “Say hi to Jenna.”
She is the one Andy interviewed while I stood stone outside the glass. I bow my head to her, and she gives a shy little wave with a rag still in it.
The bell jingles again, and Tyson steps in from the night. He makes it halfway to the counter and quits moving mid-stride. Then he turns to Jenna and forgets the rest of the room. Jenna glances up and catches him staring. She gets very busy with her table.
Andy looks at Jenna. Then at Tyson. Then at the ceiling.
“Shit!” He stomps back toward his office.
Treasure tugs my arm. “What was that about?”
“She is fated,” I tell her. Across the room, the wolf gets hold of himself. “Any shifter can tell when a human carries the markers. Their animal feels the pull, and most shy away until they are ready for it.”
“Wait.” She grabs my forearm. “Can you tell?”
“No. My senses do not read the markers. I am a watcher. It is why you read differently to my eyes than any human I have ever seen.” I look down at her. “But the day I caught your scent, my body knew what my eyes could not prove.”
She smiles up at me, and I pull her in closer.
Tyson makes himself walk the rest of the way in. He stops beside us, and Jenna is the only thing in that diner as far as he is concerned. “I know that look,” he says to me. “One whiff of her scent.”
Devon crosses to help Jenna with her heavy buss bin, and a growl rolls out of Tyson before the boy gets two steps.
“Easy, brother,” I say. “He is a friend.”
Tyson groans at himself and takes a stool at the counter. Jenna comes around to take his order. She has no idea tonight is likely her last shift. I chuckle.
Lamar comes out from the back at last, wiping his hands on his apron. He takes note of Tyson and Jenna, then of Treasure. He puts on a smile for the room. “Congratulations to the lucky couple.”
I do not answer him.
“My luck tripled.” Treasure hugs my arm. “I got the big sexy monster.”
Lamar wipes a counter that does not need wiping. “Mm-hmm.”
She tilts her head at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be starting at Shadow Suds soon?”
“Turned the offer down.” He shrugs. “The work’s easier here. And I don’t really have a reason to quit now, do I?”
I have had my fill of this cook.
“Well.” Treasure’s voice goes polite. “Take care, I guess. I’ll see you around town.”
Lamar hands her another empty smile. He watches his mouth while I am standing here, but not well enough. I cannot throw him through the window. The town frowns on that.
I file him under petty and harmless.
At the counter, Jenna bags Tyson’s boxed cake. It sits forgotten between them while they talk.
“Come on.” Treasure takes my hand. “Let’s go meet Lena.”
On our way out, an older man in the corner booth sits over coffee and eggs at the wrong end of the day again. He lifted that mug to me the night I woke in front of the whole diner. He lifts it now, an inch in my direction. I nod back, and he returns to his paper.
Outside, the stores have gone dark and the lot is near empty. A woman locks up the craft store with a large tote bag over her shoulder, and Treasure lights up and waves her over.
“Hey!” Treasure meets her in a hug on the sidewalk.
The woman pulls back grinning, and gives me a long look from claws to wings. “Ohhh. You bagged the gargoyle, huh?” She tips her head back to find my face. “Hi. Welcome to Shadow Wolf Creek.”
I bow my head and let my mate do the talking.
“Sorry about missing our Shadow Bar night,” Treasure says. “Things got a little… eventful.”
“Honestly? That place was never really my style.” Lena shifts her tote bag higher on her shoulder. “But I wouldn’t say no to a dinner invite.”
“I would be honored to cook for my mate’s friend,” I say.
Treasure whips her head up. “YOU cook?”
I lift my chin. “I will learn quickly.”
Wind moves over the lot, and every head goes up. Sable circles and comes down careful beside me. He finds Lena and does not look away. He is grinning. My brother does not grin.
“You must be the brother,” Lena says. “I heard there were two of y’all popping up around town.”
Sable folds one wing across his chest and bows his head over it. “Greetings, madam.”
Most humans step back from Sable. Lena smiles at him. My brother holds his bow longer than manners require, and I understand what I am looking at.
“Well, I’ve gotta get going.” Lena pats Treasure’s arm. “My feet hurt. Long day.” She heads for her car across the lot.
Sable takes one step after her.
I put a hand up against his chest. “Easy, brother. She is not going anywhere.”
“Did I miss something?” Treasure swivels between us.
“She has been reading strange to me,” Sable says. “She reads red. Every other human in this town reads gold. I did not understand it.”
Now I do. “Red is the mate, brother. Lena reads gold to my eyes and red to yours, and Treasure has never read red to you.”
“Never,” Sable says.
Treasure gasps and claps her hands together. “Ahhh! That’s great! Now you can help the other gargoyles who make it to town.”
“There were only twelve of us,” Sable says.
She spreads her hands. “Well, can’t you send something out? Like a dragon’s call?”
Sable groans at the word dragon. “There is no need. The messy one already announces us to the world on that podcast of his. It is probably airing now.”
“Oh!” Treasure digs out her phone.
The diner lights go out behind us. Tyson holds the door for Jenna, and Andy locks up. Treasure taps at her screen. Across the lot, Lamar changes course and jogs up to Lena’s car. He opens her driver’s door for her.
I may be petty, but my brother is far worse, and Lamar just opened the wrong woman’s car door.
I lean toward Sable. “Oh, dear brother. We must remain calm.”
Sable glares at me. Then he looks down at the pants he swore he hated, and he says nothing at all.
The podcast comes on through her little speaker, and Messy Jay’s voice fills our stretch of sidewalk.
“—and yes, creek babies, the rumors are TRUE, and this is exactly why tonight is a special LIVE show. Stanley’s put a new waitress on today, and my sources tell me Miss Jenna got herself scent-locked by a certain wolf before her first shift even ended??—”
Across the lot, the same podcast spills from Andy’s truck cab. “MOTHERFUCKER!” Andy bellows, and his truck peels out hard.
“Poor Andy,” Jay says. “My advice, add a fated-mates surcharge to the hiring paperwork. The supernaturals will happily pay it.”
Treasure is already giggling.
The show rolls right over Andy’s taillights. “Now, speaking of supernaturals. We’ve got gargoyles in town, and FINALLY they’re wearing pants. Took a whole town lecture and one good seamstress, but we got there. Welcome to Shadow Wolf Creek, Soren and Sable.”
Sable and I glare at each other. Treasure throws a fist in the air. “Whoop! Yes!”
The jokes stop. “But they haven’t gotten the welcome they’ve earned yet, because someone’s been messing with my community.
The sheriff picked up our robbery man this week.
Dusty little fella. Took a bad fall off a balcony.
Allegedly. But that man was just an errand boy.
We’ve got a witch, creek babies, and I’m afraid she’s messier than me.
Don’t you worry. I’m on it. She keeps playing with my town, I’m gonna burn her edges right off her forehead. ”
Treasure snorts and covers her nose with her hand.
She turns the volume up. “And those gargoyles I just welcomed? GREAT in a fight. We’re gonna handle our little witch problem together, and I’ll keep y’all updated on my findings.
And before I go, did y’all see another poor woman got herself stuck up on that mountain?
Here come them Ironwood bears again. This is Messy Jay reminding you—where there’s smoke, I’m probably the fire. ”
“That man is a whole entire mess.” Treasure wheezes it out and pockets the phone. Then she quits laughing. “Wait. So you’re helping Jay with the investigation?”
“Yes.” I keep my eyes on my brother, who is watching Lamar lean against Lena’s open car door.
“I have not forgiven him for the bait. But he will need the help. And I have grown to love Shadow Wolf Creek. I want you to have a life here.” I set a hand on Sable’s shoulder.
“Which is why you cannot kill him, brother, if we are to stay.”
“She is mine.” Sable points across the lot at the cook.
Treasure nods right along with the murder talk. “I already got a new sister for my clan, and I like her.” I frown down at her. She sticks her tongue out at me.
“Where are his possessions?” Sable rolls his shoulders. “He interferes with mine. I will destroy his.”
Treasure points at the pickup sitting alone under the lot light. “He loves that truck.”
I give her the frown. “Treasure.”
She shrugs at me.
Sable walks.
I push my mate behind me and set my wing between her and the lot.
“Hey!” She smacks my wing. “Let me see my brother be petty!”
She worms out from under my wing as Sable takes hold of the truck’s frame and pulls the whole thing off the ground.
He raises it overhead and slams it down.
The lot light flickers, and car alarms answer from down the street.
Then my brother folds the truck in on itself while the metal screams and the glass pops, until what is left is a ball of pickup no taller than his knee.
Lena’s engine starts. She pulls out of the lot at a very reasonable speed for a woman who just watched that, and Treasure waves after her headlights. “See you this weekend!”
Lamar stands alone in the middle of the lot with his mouth hanging open.
Sable looks at Lamar. Then, gently, he rolls the ball of truck across the asphalt toward him. It grinds past the parking lines and sheds a hubcap. Lamar jumps out of its path and watches it roll on down the lot.
Then he takes off running.
Sable lets the cook run. He spreads his wings and lifts off after Lena’s taillights. I followed a little hatchback home for the same reason. It is how we court.
Treasure giggles herself breathless against my side. I turn. She shrugs again and lifts her arms, and I pick my mate up off the sidewalk.
“Come, my love. I will follow your car home to our cabin.” I press my forehead to hers. “And then I will go collect my brother before he comes fully unhinged.”
“Too late,” she says, and settles into my arms.