Chapter Two
“I don’t appreciate being followed home,” Lisa said.
“I’m not following you. I’m walking beside you.”
Lisa sighed as she glanced over at Pam. The other woman had always been so sweet, but she also knew she was best friends with Shadow.
She stopped just outside her home and spun on her heel to confront Pam. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but will you leave me alone?”
Pam frowned. “Okay, I am confused now. Do you want me to leave you alone and not be offended by that, or is this one of those times when I ignore you and follow you anyway?”
Lisa sighed. “I don’t want to upset you, but I’d rather be alone.”
“You’re upset.”
She stared at Pam, who held her hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine, I get it, you’re upset, but I’m not sure why you want me to leave.”
“It’s easier if you leave, trust me.”
Pam frowned. “Again, I don’t see why.”
“You’re not here to talk bad things about Shadow. You’re here because he sent you to do whatever he wants you to do, and I don’t want to hear it. I just want to be left alone.”
Pam folded her arms across her chest. “You know, in our pack, when someone hurts us, we make them pay.”
Lisa rolled her eyes and spun back on her heel, heading up the small garden and pulling her key from her bag. She had tried to grow some flowers in her front yard, but every time she tried, her efforts were unsuccessful. She absolutely loved roses; however, none of those prickly little bastards grew. Her small garden was the only one in the street that wasn’t an amass of color.
It was summer, so she couldn’t even hide her lack of gardening skills with Halloween or Christmas decorations.
She pushed her weird thoughts out of her mind, flicked the lock on her house, and stepped inside. There was a slight temptation to close the door in Pam’s face, but she didn’t do it. Her parents had not raised a rude woman.
“Come on in,” she said.
She didn’t wait for Pam, but removed her bag and made her way to the kitchen, to grab herself a bottle of water. The coffee shop kept making her feel a little nauseous of late, so she preferred water to many of the hot beverages. Five years of serving coffee was getting to her.
“So, where were we?” Pam asked. “Ah, yes, in the pack we make them pay. Either before the full moon, or at the full moon, we fight. It settles all animosity and problems. The person to draw first blood is the winner.”
“You think I should come to your pack and declare a fight with Shadow?”
Pam’s lips pursed into an O.
“Yeah, he’d draw first blood, and I’d be dead. It’s fine. You know what, I don’t know why Shadow even put you up to this. It’s not like he wanted a human as a mate in the first place.”
Pam frowned.
Lisa sighed. “Do you even know what you’re doing this for?”
“Shadow’s my best friend, and he’s my Alpha. I kind of like him, and he’s been grumpy lately.”
Lisa took a deep breath and told Pam everything. By the time she finished, Pam was standing perfectly still.
“Do you have anything stronger?” Pam pointed at her bottled of water.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, it’s not like it would have much of an effect on me, but still, I feel I need a glass of whiskey or bourbon, or something.”
Lisa clicked her tongue, put her bottle of water down, and then went into her sitting room. She went to the far wall, bent down, and slid up the compartment that contained a few bottles of liquor, including Shadow’s favorite. She wasn’t a big drinker, and most of the bottles of liquor were leftover from her parents. It seemed stupid to throw them out, especially when she didn’t know if she would ever have guests or not.
“Here,” she said, handing the bottle of whiskey to Pam. “You might as well take it back to your pack. I don’t drink it, and it belongs to Shadow.”
Pam took the bottle, opened it, and drank straight from it.
“It’s good,” Pam said.
“Shadow picked it.” She walked back into the kitchen. Picking up her bottle of water, she took a long sip and then glanced over at her fridge. “Do you want anything to eat?”
“If you want, I can order pizza?” Pam asked.
“Nah, I don’t want pizza. I’ve got some food in here that needs using up.” She opened her fridge and pulled out some chicken, several leftover blocks of cheese, a few vegetables, such as cauliflower and broccoli, as well as green beans.
Lisa wrinkled her nose, but she was suddenly so hungry. Vegetables, chicken, cheese, and then it came to her—an overloaded chicken-veggie-mac-and-cheese.
“You want to stay for dinner?” Lisa asked.
“I think I need to stay right now. The very thought of going back and seeing Shadow makes me want to punch him in the face.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Lisa said, although it did sound like a good idea at the same time.
She would never punch Shadow. There was no point, he’d more than likely break her fist because of how strong he was. She was no match for him.
“You’re never going to forgive him?” Pam asked.
Lisa glanced at the other woman and shrugged. “Would you?”
“I’m not like you, I’m not human.”
“But you think I should?” Lisa asked.
Pam wrinkled her nose. “No, it’s … pack is different. They don’t react like that, and also as pack we have a close bond.”
“Ah, so you’re saying that is another good reason to be near No Wolves Road. Us humans don’t matter to you, so you can use and abuse us to your heart’s content?” Lisa asked. “You all know we can’t fight you. All we can do is take what you have to offer.”
“Okay, now that you say it that way, it sounds really bad,” Pam said.
“Don’t you see that is what happens? You guys come into town, and there is no problem with it. You play your games, and in the end we are the only people that get hurt. None of you take us seriously. None of you see us as … mating material. I bet you’re the same way with the men. Do you chase after men and not care if they fall in love with you?”
“Did you fall in love with Shadow?” Pam asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” Lisa said, hating that she might have given her feelings away. “Do you do that?”
Pam shook her head. “No, I don’t. I come into town to get away from the pack. I like hanging out around here.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, you guys believe in personal space, and trust me, back at the pack we don’t get a whole lot of that. Everyone is into your stuff, or in your business. It’s not always fun.” She shrugged.
“But at least you have a family. A bunch of people that get you.” She shrugged. “That has to be nice.”
“There are good and bad things to being in a pack, I promise you.”
Lisa thought about Shadow. She had tried not to fall in love with him, but she had, which is why his cold, cruel words had hurt so damn much.
****
Shadow lay on a hammock, rocking side to side, enjoying the late evening and reading the latest thriller he’d gotten at No Wolves Road Library. Growing up, he’d never been one for reading, but as he got older, it had become a fun, relaxing way to pass the time. He was waiting for Pam to return.
He’d left No Wolves Road, and it had grated on his nerves that he’d not gone to see Lisa. This pissed him off. When was she going to get over herself? So he said some bad shit to a bunch of guys. She wasn’t supposed to hear it.
He closed the book and looked up at the sky as it was starting to get dark. Lisa should know he didn’t mean everything he said. He couldn’t recall everything he had said. The conversation had moved so fast.
The strange truth was, he missed her. This was fucked up to him, because he still didn’t have any intention of staying with her forever. She was not a wolf, so long-term was not an option. Only strong females could be his mate, and seeing as she was human, it wasn’t going to happen.
“Fucker!”
He heard the insult seconds before the hammock was suddenly tipped over and he somehow ended up face-first on the ground. He spun to see Pam, one knee bent, glaring at him.
“What the fuck?” he asked.
“Seriously, you had me believing the problems between the two of you had to do with her not liking your wolf, or the fact you wouldn’t bring her to the pack.”
“I didn’t tell you anything.”
“You certainly didn’t tell me the truth, and while we’re at this whole talking and communicating stage, you also made sure no one else could tell me the truth either, didn’t you?”
He got to his feet and faced a very pissed-off Pam.
“She told you what happened.”
“Yeah, she did. She filled in a great deal of the blanks.” Pam shook her head. “You said that shit about her?”
“Look, it was a bunch of guys, and we were just talking—”
“It doesn’t matter if it was the damn Devil, Shadow. I thought you were better than half the pack men that go to that town.” Pam threw her hands up in the air and growled. “How long do you think it’s going to be before they get fed up with being used and discarded?”
Shadow got to his feet and glared at her. “That is not my problem.”
Pam laughed. “Oh, no, it’s not your problem right now, but in the future it might be, when there is a town dividing the packs within this vicinity. And what’s more, they’re hunting us down like fucking dogs!”
“You’ve seen way too many horror movies.”
“And you’ve not seen enough. It might not happen. They might be happy with being used and left behind. None of them are good enough to be anything more than toys to us. One day, that is going to change.”
“Did you talk to Lisa?” he asked.
He had no control over what other men or women did, nor what other packs did. No Wolves Road was a safe place. There were rules in place to protect the humans just as much as the wolves. He didn’t see a problem with any of it.
“No, I didn’t. This mess, you fix by yourself,” Pam said, and she turned on her heel. “Or better yet,” she stopped and spun back to face him. “Why don’t you think about why you want to fix it? Why bother continuing with Lisa? She already knows the truth, and you’ve been dating for six months. Surely you’re bored now, and it is time to move on.”
“I don’t know if you’re trying to be cute or not.”
Pam shook her head. “I don’t get you. I don’t get any of you.”
And with that, Pam left him alone.
He glanced back at the hammock, but it didn’t appeal to him anymore. His book had also lost its appeal. He shoved the book inside his jacket. Lisa had been the first person to take him to the No Wolves Road Library.
She had caught him stealing her books. By stealing, he’d been taking them, reading, and returning. She didn’t have a large enough selection, so she got him a library card, showed him all the books, and since then, he’d been taking a book out a week. This current read was taking him a lot longer, but he knew why.
He got this book out two weeks ago, when shit had hit the fan between him and Lisa. Rubbing the back of his head, he blew out a breath and then started walking. He had every intention of going to his house, but then he found himself walking back into No Wolves Road, heading toward Lisa’s home.
He wanted to be close to her. To inhale that scent of chocolate and vanilla. He took a deep breath then another, and sure enough, her scent was there. Subtle, but there. If he’d not been a wolf, he wouldn’t have been able to detect it. He wanted to go to her.
In his mind flashed a few memories he’d shared with her. One of them had been the two of them, naked, in her living room. The fire was on, because Lisa felt the cold. He had gotten a tub of chocolate-and-vanilla ice cream, and had been drizzling it on her body and licking each droplet up. After he’d thoroughly licked every inch of her body, he’d made love to her. By the time he was finished, she had been begging him for a release, and he’d granted it to her when he’d been good and ready. She’d been so exhausted, she collapsed on the floor and he’d held her throughout the night, refusing to let her go. He didn’t want her to get cold.
Those were the memories he had with Lisa. So many of them. He’d spent a great deal of time with her the last six months.
They hadn’t always been having sex. Taking her virginity had come as a pleasant and very welcome surprise to him. No other man had touched her. In a way, she had belonged to him in that moment. She still belonged to him.
Her front door opened and Lisa stepped out. She was wrapped in a robe, and her naked legs appeared out of the bottom. She wore a pair of fluffy slippers, and she made her way toward him.
“What are you doing here?” Lisa asked.
“I came to see you.”
“Why?”
“Look, I know I messed up, but you and I had a good thing going.”
She began to laugh. “Wow, you just don’t give up, do you?”
He took a deep breath. “What?”
“So, I should forgive you and say fine, you made a mistake and you didn’t mean to say the things you did? You’re not after forever, are you?” Lisa asked. “You’re only after your kind of fun until you get bored.”
There was no good way to get out of this.
Lisa shook her head. “I want forever, Shadow. That is all I ever wanted. I want to find a man, fall in love, have children, build a life with him. I’m not after a couple of weeks or months of a good time. Now that I know what you’re after, I know this is never going to work. So, please, if you had any respect for me at all, leave me alone.”
He watched her leave.