Chapter 4 Carys #2
“What?” Not only did his question catch her off guard, but she was also stunned to see a thick cuff of silver around his wrist. She wondered why he’d hurt his wolf like that.
“Your family?”
“Oh, well, I’m an only child, as far as I know. My parents didn’t stay together, and I lost touch with my father until …” she trailed off. Talking about him was hard, even more so knowing she had agreed to help him. “Recently, although there’s no love lost there.”
“Why recently?”
“Oh, um, my mother is very sick. For some stupid reason, I thought he’d care.” That was all she really wanted to say.
“What about you?”
“The club is the only family I have. My parents passed and no siblings for me either. You originally from here?”
“No. You?” It wasn’t a complete lie; the pack wasn’t Vegas.
“No. Who is really from Vegas anyway? I mean, I’ve met some locals, but they’re a rare breed.”
“Vegan supreme. No cheese?” A voice asked as they approached the table. It wasn’t Rachel, thank God. Carys wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have spit in their food.
“Oh, wow, that smells amazing.” Carys breathed in deeply. The pizza did smell tasty, no denying it, but not as good as Monster did. She was intoxicated by his scent. He smelled like a wolf and a man should.
Not for the first time, she wondered if that was the only reason she felt so drawn to him, some deeply ingrained biological imperative. There was no denying that until Monster, she had never felt that kind of pull toward any man, even the one she’d found herself engaged to once upon a time.
She loved Todd until he changed, became controlling and jealous.
The thought made her sad. She wanted to find a man who loved her for her, and she’d like him for him and not because they were hardwired that way.
Her mother promised her that while she’d have a certain attraction to a wolf that might be missing with a man alone, it wouldn’t override her own heart, except in the case of fated mates. Fate had never been kind to her or her mother, so Carys wasn’t holding her breath waiting on that.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Monster lifted her chin with his knuckle.
She opted for a half-truth since her father forbade her from revealing herself or any knowledge of shifters.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about my mother.”
“So, you two are close?” Monster asked as he took a bite of his pizza and shook his head in appreciation.
Carys smiled as memories flooded her.
“Yeah. It was us against the world, and heaven help anyone who made me cry.” She took a bite of her own pizza and moaned.
“Oh,” she said after she had chewed. “One time, when I was fifteen, I was at my boyfriend Tommy’s house when his big brother, James, came in harassing him and trying to be all macho and shit.
So, I punched him in the nose. He got mad and shoved me, not hard, but still.
Tommy got between us, and James just laughed.
He said I was leading Tommy on, and when he finally tired of me, he’d show me what little teases were good for and grabbed his crotch before leaving. ”
For a second she thought about not finishing the story because it made her mom sound unhinged, but if she couldn’t tell Monster about anything else in her life, she could share her mom with him.
“Anyway, I told Mom, and she just smiled a sickly sweet smile, grabbed her handbag and beckoned me to the car. The entire ride over to Tommy’s, she was humming like we were going shopping or something.
When we got there, she knocked on the door.
When Tommy answered, she asked him about his grades and just weird conversational stuff.
Then she asked about James, his birthday, etc.
When she asked if she could talk to James, I thought here it comes, she’s gonna go off, but nope.
She said, Oh James, what a strapping young man you’ve become.
So handsome. Now, to make this even more absurd, James was six feet easy, and about a buck eighty.
Mom, well, I’ve got a few inches on her.
So it was like Simone Biles looking up at Shaq. ”
She chewed another bite of pizza.
“Then she said. When you turn eighteen in two months and eleven days, I’ll be back to beat your ass.
I like the sound of assault better than assault on a minor.
And when I do come back, if I were you, I’d run.
In the meantime, if you see my beautiful daughter, don’t speak to her, don’t look at her, don’t even breathe on her.
And especially don’t touch her, because if you do, I won’t wait until then and it won’t be as pleasant.
Then, I shit you not, she patted his cheek like a kindly old grandmother would and turned around, then got back in the car as if she hadn’t just threatened him. ”
The look on Monster’s face made her laugh. He looked like he was torn between disbelief and respect. Then he burst out laughing. “She sounds like my kind of woman.”
“I think you two would get along like peas and carrots. After she threatened you not to do me dirty.”
They ate some more when Monster piped up. “What happened when he turned eighteen? Did she go back and kick his ass? Please tell me she did, and you have pictures.”
“No, she never got the chance. A few weeks before that, he cornered me in their kitchen. He caged me against the refrigerator and groped me. I wasn’t going to tell Mom because I knew she was serious, and she wouldn’t have waited.
But Mom always knew me, and she coaxed it out of me.
The next day, James was in the hospital with two partially severed fingers and one missing the tip entirely.
He had this classic car he loved, never shut up about.
Anyway, it had those old-school door handles that lift up, and someone superglued razor blades under the driver’s side. ” Carys took another bite.
“When he went to open his door …” Carys clicked her tongue. “Mom never copped to it. Instead, she acted shocked and sent him a get-well card at the hospital. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it was her.”
Monster’s laugh was booming and contagious. His face lit up in unexpected ways. His eyes even shimmered with tears of mirth.
“She is definitely my type of woman. Of course, I knew she was exceptional the minute I met her feisty daughter. Oh, don’t tell Ghoul that story, he’ll fucking marry her.”
Carys stared at him in awe as he took a long pull from his beer. There was something mesmerizing about watching his Adam's apple bob up and down in his neck as he swallowed. She crossed her legs in an attempt to stop the reaction she was starting to feel there.
Damn, she scolded herself, get a grip, you horn ball. It’s a neck, not a dick.
“Shit, I can’t wait to meet her,” Monster proclaimed.
That did it. That was the bucket of ice water right to the clit she needed.
Reality came crashing down around her. She was already thinking of Monster like a boyfriend or some shit, and that was the furthest thing from the truth. Not only did he have NO REPEAT RIDES written all over him in permanent marker. He didn’t react to her as he would to a mate.
Plus, he literally had a patch about loyalty on his vest, or cut, as she’d learned it was called.
Either way, there was a shelf life to whatever want that it was. A night or three at most. Monster would hate her once he found out who she was. No matter how it all played out, her dad had already ruined the best thing that never happened to her, and he’d only been in her life a few months.
“You gonna finish that?” Monster pointed to the second untouched piece of pizza on her plate, and she shook her head. He reached his masculine, ringed hand over and grabbed the slice, folding it as he brought it to his lips.
It was such a weird thing to do on a first date.
It was more the thing between a couple who’d been together a long time.
It set off that longing that she’d tried to keep suppressed.
Carys had always dreamed of that kind of connection with someone.
Now she was getting a taste of what she’d longed for, but it was a lie.
They were not a couple and never could be.
It hit like a wave washing over her and tossing her under the water.
No matter what her dad did or didn’t do, how Monster felt about her, how drawn to him she was, her mother was dying.
No amount of research or money or elevated care was going to save her.
Her only hope was to follow through with her dad’s plan as best she could so he would give her the cure that the Domino pack had developed.
Carys looked up at Monster, who was smiling at her while pulling bills from his wallet.
“What do you say we move this date to my bed?” He slapped some bills on the table. “Besides, I owe you an orgasm, remember?”
At the low, rumbling quality of his voice, a shiver coursed through her.
This was it.
She was pushing everything else out of her mind, if only for the night. She didn’t have a vindictive father, a dying mother, or none of that. She was just Carys. A woman with a healthy sexual appetite and a hot as sin biker who was willing to satisfy it. The end. Roll credits. Finito.
Once that was out of her mind, she took a deep breath and gave him what she hoped was a sexy smile in return.
“I’ve been waiting all night for you to ask.”
Monster stood and extended a hand. She took it and they exited the restaurant. Once at her car, he kissed her deeply, biting her lip before pulling back. “Follow me, Pixie.”
Eagerly, she got into her car and strapped in. Doing what she was told.
To her relief, he took her to their clubhouse and not the place he shared with Kansas.
If she had been there, her father would see it as a failure if she didn’t find something.
A clubhouse would have everything locked away from prying eyes, giving her the perfect reason why she has nothing to offer him.