Chapter 12
Saturday morning, he woke her by going right back in her ass after practically destroying it with his fist the night before.
Werewolves have some odd quirks about what heals and what does not. She’d been a virgin for her first change, but her pussy didn’t heal back to normal after her first time.
Assholes, however, do heal back to normal, so every time you change, it’s like you’re an anal virgin all over again.
And she’d changed twice since he’d fisted her ass earlier in the week.
She didn’t want to scream where everyone could hear her, and he damned well knew it. The sadist.
He drove her to her apartment before he had to be at work at eleven, and since her car was still in the garage at her apartment, she made a run to the grocery store for graham crackers, fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese.
She hated having to buy the tomatoes and graham crackers, but sometimes one has to make concessions for last-minute meals you can’t plan out in advance. She much preferred drying her own tomatoes, and making her own graham crackers, but there simply wasn’t time for that today.
And it was good to be back in the Maserati. Plus, this would solve the problem of how to get it to his house without an extra trip. She could drive it to the compound, and then drive it to his house Sunday night.
Once back at her apartment, she worked the dough for the pasta and then built the pesto while it rested. Fresh basil, good olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, and real parmesan.
Her food processor didn’t take long to turn the graham crackers to powder, and she lined the bottom of her casserole dishes with them before adding melted butter, mixing well, and pressing it down.
Next came mixing the chess pie custard ingredients — eggs, butter, sugar, cornmeal, a splash of apple cider vinegar, vanilla. She poured the custard into her casserole dishes and slid them into the oven.
While they baked, she rolled the pasta and cut it, cooked it in salted water, cooled it, and tossed it with the pesto. Fresh mozzarella torn by hand. Pine nuts toasted dry in a pan. The sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped.
She filled three large dishes with the pasta. Tasted it. Added a little more pesto and cracked black pepper. Tasted again.
Good. Better than good, actually.
She pulled the chess pies and let them cool on the counter while she cleaned her kitchen, and finally loaded everything.
Her car’s mid-engine configuration makes it handle like a dream, but it means the car has a small trunk in the back and a tiny one in the front.
But she’d figured out how to layer the casserole dishes with cardboard in between, so they all fit into the trunk without needing to move to the frunk, which some idiot had decided one should call the front trunk.
Knife had been scheduled to work until six, so she aimed to arrive shortly after. She texted to let him know when she was leaving, and he and a few of his brothers came to get the food and take it to the tables.
The men all circled her car when they came out, though. It was Brain who told Knife, “Show her how to pull it in the garage. Twenty-seven should be open.”
She scented surprise on Knife, but he nodded to Brain and, once the men were walking away with the food, Knife walked to the passenger side and told her, “I’ll show you where to go. Get in.”
He had her drive through the parking area, make a left turn, then another left into a section she had no idea was in the compound.
He used his phone to open the door, and she drove in and just stopped.
There were two stories of cars in here. Hundreds of them, and right off the bat she saw an antique Mustang worth well over 100K if it was factory, and probably two-thirds of that if it was a good restoration.
She also saw two antique Porsches, a retro diesel Mercedes, various muscle cars, and what she thought might be an antique Corvette, but it was hard to be sure from the angle.
“Who owns these cars?”
“They mostly belong to club members. The MG is Angelica’s. Bash helped her restore it when she was fifteen, and that’s a story you’ll enjoy hearing, so you should ask her about it.”
“If the entire garage is full of the kinds of cars I’m looking at, there are millions of dollars parked in here.”
He pointed for her to go left. “Spot twenty-seven will be the second aisle, seventh spot. It’ll be painted on the concrete.
Thing is, you aren’t supposed to see this until you’ve been given access to be in the back without an escort.
Not sure what made Brain decide to trust you, but if you do something with this information — if you share it with any outsider, and that includes talking to the other ol’ladies about it, it’ll be not only my ass on the line, but Brain’s, too. ”
She parked and stared at him. “What would happen if… I mean, I won’t say anything, but what would happen if I did?”
He shook his head. “Bad things. It’s important you don’t.”
They entered not far from the hallway with his room, which she only knew because he took her through the maze of it so she could drop her duffel off before they went upstairs and out to the party.
Tuesday had seen the small playground near the woods, but so far, she hadn’t seen any kids.
So she was surprised at all the toddlers, preschoolers, and school-aged kids running around, whooping and playing, clearly having a blast.
A bouncy castle was set up near the playground, along with a huge water slide thing, and a whole lot of tiny little kid-sized tables.
Adults were supervising a super-soaker battle with the bigger kids in the woods, while the little ones were having a blast in the kiddie areas with water guns.
The adults were enjoying beverages in other areas, though a lot of them were turned so they could watch the kids.
A whole lot were near the wooded area, too, watching the super-soaker battle.
It appeared the kids needed a little more trigger discipline, because several adults on the sidelines were soaked, and that made Tuesday smile.
Angelica walked to her as Knife headed toward the men.
“Oh good. Since Knife’s here, they’ll be pulling the pig soon. Come with me and I’ll introduce you around.”
She knew the Dragon King and Swan Queen were married, but she’d never actually met them.
They seemed really nice, but she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with them.
Also, it turned out seventeen of the kids present belonged to them.
Her eyes had boggled, and Sophia laughed.
“Yeah, we get that reaction a lot, but swans and dragons both come from eggs, so we have big broods.”
Kirsten was there with her men, and she’d met Nathan, King of the Lions, before — but she’d never met Mordecai, and she really had the feeling the rumors about him being one of the Gods of Old might be true.
She knew Gen and Duke had kids, and found it interesting that Gen was with one of them in the play area while Duke seemed to be supervising the older one in the woods. Also, the fact his shirt was soaked was hilarious.
Kenny arrived with Silas, Boone, and Willow — and Tuesday felt the absence of her pack bond like a missing tooth.
And it only made it worse when Kenny pointedly looked away from her.
But Silas smiled, walked to her, and pulled her into a hug that smelled like pack and woodsmoke, and she just sank into his energy, soaking it in. This wasn’t ex-boyfriend Silas hugging her, it was the beta of her old pack hugging her, and she nearly cried in his arms. She didn’t, but it was close.
“I’m sad you left us,” he said against her hair. “But I trust you thought long and hard before you did.” He pulled back and looked at her face. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“I think I already did,” she told him.
Boone waited until later, when she was standing near the fence watching the kids wind down from yet another squirt gun battle, and he came to stand beside her.
“If you need to come back, I’ll figure out a way to convince Kenny.
I can’t promise results, but I’ll try.” He turned from watching the kids to face her, and she did the same as he added, “I truly hope everything works out for you, but if it doesn’t, I’ll do my best to bring you back into the fold. ”
“Thank you,” she told him. “I miss ya’ll terribly, but I’d make the same decision if I had to do it over again. True love doesn’t come along every day.”
“No, it doesn’t. Value what you have. I’m happy for you.”
She thanked him, he hugged her, and then he was gone.
And she decided she needed a drink. Harmony was mixing herself a Long Island tea at the bar, but Tuesday thought it felt more like a margarita kind of day, and she loaded the rim up with tons of salt before she poured the ingredients, super heavy on the tequila.
Everyone started buzzing about the pig, and she walked with Angelica and Harmony to the smoker area, where it was clear the men were preparing to pull it. A large stainless worktable had been set up just in front of it, with an awning stretched over it and fans blowing to keep flies and bugs away.
The pig came out of the smoker dark-skinned and falling toward itself, the aroma of perfectly cooked pork wafting out until her stomach wasn’t the only one rumbling.
Knife went to work on it, and she was entranced.
She’d watched him work in the butcher shop and in his kitchen. She knew what his hands could do with a knife, but this was different. Theatrics without being dramatic, though steel flashing that fast sure had its own kind of drama. He didn’t just break the pig down, he did it with panache.
His cuts were precise and deliberate despite the theatrics and the speed. He quickly deposited parts into different bins, his hands finding the seams in the meat without a second thought.
And then he put the steel bear claws on to shred what he’d tossed into the bins, his hands working the meat like a pro, and she watched in fascination.