Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
bloom
I pulled into a gas station on the outskirts of Erren—a rural, laid-back city that had me seriously considering moving. The scenery was beautiful, with towering trees scattered around us and not a two-story building in sight.
Maybe I needed to find a way to mate myself to the Erren Alpha instead of the giant snoring next to me.
I parked at one of the pumps, shut off the car, and grabbed Maverick’s wallet. He stirred as I pulled out two credit cards, looking between the two of them and debating which to go with.
Worst case scenario, the card was declined.
I couldn’t see that happening, given my very involved role at his personal investment firm.
“Does it matter which card I use?” I asked, when he cracked one of his eyes open.
“No. I can get it.” He moved a little in his seat, still trying to wake up.
I wanted to get the trip over with, so I got out and started the pump before sitting back down next to him. The gas station was the address he’d put in the map, so I would have to make sure he was awake long enough to put the pack’s location in before we could leave.
“Sorry. Thanks.” Maverick was rubbing his eyes when I sat back down. His chair was upright, and his coloring was back to normal for the most part. “Didn’t think I’d crash that hard.”
“Since when do you apologize?”
“I sent that bastard a scarf.”
“Harper sent him a scarf. And you don’t need to apologize. You’re only exhausted because of the blood you gave me, and I don’t mind driving,” I said. “But for future references, maybe don’t make bets that affect your health?”
“Immortality’s a long time. Shit like that keeps it lively.” He opened the door. “I’ll drive the rest of the way to the pack’s land. Posturing is a big deal out here. An old-school male Alpha wouldn’t let someone else drive them anywhere.”
“How old are you?”
“I stopped counting after the first century. All werewolves do.”
Damn.
I changed the subject. “The standards are different for a female Alpha?”
He stepped out of the SUV and stretched his gigantic legs a little.
“If you’re old-school. It’s cultural, and regional.
Most rural packs have different expectations than most urban wolves.
My pack is a mix of everything, but the majority aren’t like that.
” He closed the door and walked around the front of the SUV.
I slipped out, stepping past him. My side brushed his, and his hand met my lower back lightly, just for a moment.
I took the passenger seat, checking my phone. Harper had wished me luck, and I told her to be careful. Otherwise, I just had a few work messages to respond to. That only took a minute.
When I was done, I glanced over at the pump and frowned. It was done and put back in its place, but Maverick was gone.
Maybe he went inside for a snack or something.
Sure enough, he came back with a full bag a few minutes later. Chips, hot dogs, ice cream—and a cup of coffee that was mostly cream and sugar.
Bless him.
I took the milky caffeine with a genuine thank you and immediately took a long sip.
It wasn’t great. Not even close. But it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.
Maverick handed me a hot dog, then let me pick between two ice cream bars (I went with the taco-shaped one containing vanilla ice cream over the gross-looking cherry bar he obviously wanted) and two bags of chips.
He cracked an energy drink open and tossed the plastic grocery bag on the floor by my feet. I had about three times as much space as I needed, since he was the last person to sit there.
“I remember you calling my vanilla latte poison a few days ago,” I remarked. “Pretty sure those things have a lot more sugar.”
“You’re the one who called it poison. I called it subpar. Which it was, considering your reaction to my blood. Try this.” He held the drink out toward me.
“We’re definitely not to the drink-sharing stage of our—okay” I said the last word around the aluminum lip of his energy drink.
“You shoved your straw into my mouth last week. You already put us in the drink sharing stage.” He tipped the can, pouring a tiny amount of the fizzy, syrupy liquid in my mouth before pulling it away. “Good, right?”
“Not particularly.” I chased it down with coffee and opened my ice cream. “It’s not awful, though. Do you usually drink those? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with one.”
“I save caffeine for special occasions. I don’t like feeling drained when the effect fades.”
“That’s understandable.” Maybe I’d eventually stop drinking coffee.
It seemed unlikely, though. I could’ve weaned myself off it when I was locked in the tower apartment, but I’d forced their terrible coffee down time and time again.
“How is your pack different from the Erren one?” I asked before I took a bite of my ice cream. It didn’t taste fantastic. That was probably the vanilla situation speaking again.
After the world’s best meal on my couch earlier, I didn’t particularly care about the ice cream.
“We’re more charming,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “It was a serious question, Mav.”
“I gave a serious answer.” He opened his ice cream bar too. My nostrils flared, and I made a face at the smell of it. “You smell a hell of a lot better.”
“That’s good.”
“The most rural packs are a lot more in-tune with their animal sides. They couldn’t care less about making money or getting along with humans. The Erren pack is rural lite.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’ll make sense when you meet them.”
“I thought I was waiting in the car.”
Maverick lifted an eyebrow in my direction. “You think I’m going to leave my mate in the car while I interview potential murderers?”
“I’m not your mate, Mav.”
“Not officially.” He took a bite of his ice cream. “You’re not going to want to point that out in front of the Erren wolves. Cassidy has tried to claim me a couple times now. She’ll try again if she thinks you’re not interested.”
“How has she tried to claim you? What does that mean?”
“Remember what happened the first time I bit you?”
“It would be pretty hard to forget how you tackled me out of nowhere.”
He grinned. “The wrestle is part of the ritual. Where would the fun be if we just bit each other?”
“Biting is plenty fun on its own. Wrestling is part of mating for you guys?”
He bobbed his head. “When a werewolf wants to claim a mate, they instigate the wrestle in an attempt to bite the person they want. Usually, to secure themselves a good match. You can tell fate’s not driving it when their eyes don’t glow during the wrestle, but it’s still considered a valid claim if someone succeeds. ”
I blinked, trying to process what he’d just said. “She’s tried to tackle and bite you? On more than one occasion?”
“Yeah.”
“The murder suspect?”
“Yup.”
“Did she ever succeed?”
“Of course not. You don’t become the wolf king by losing fights.”
I blinked again. “Did you ever think about mating with her?”
He took a large bite of his ice cream, then pointedly looked out the window rather than answering.
“Maverick.”
“Did you ever think about mating with any of the vampires your mom is trying to match you with?”
I didn’t answer either.
“Immortality is a long time, Sugar. You get lonely. I never pursued or fucked her, but I did talk to Rhone about what would happen if I agreed to take her as my mate and merge our packs. I didn’t expect fate to pair me with a pretty little vampire.”
“Why did you decide not to?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I figured the only way I could get lonelier was if I was mated to someone I barely liked. You can assume love will happen, but there’s no way to really know.”
I nodded.
“Your turn.” He elbowed me in the arm lightly.
“One of the eligible bachelors in town isn’t part of the founding families. There are four families, and a few random vampires. It’s obviously preferable to mate with someone from one of the families, because we’re elitists.”
“Obviously.”
“Well, when I was eighteen, I had a… thing… with one of the randoms. Timber. It was kind of a scandal, because my mom had been trying to convince me to mate with Velour Valenti since I was a kid.”
“Fucking Velour.”
He really had no idea.
I finished my ice cream and tucked the wrapper in the grocery bag that was now functioning as a trash bag. “That’s the story.”
He looked at me skeptically. “You want me to believe you broke things off with Timber just because it was slightly scandalous? When you were eighteen? And that you didn’t plan on mating with him eventually?”
“Well…”
He waited.
I sighed. “Fine. I would say part of me still expects to end up stuck with him, even though I don’t have any feelings for him. I do need to pick a mate eventually, and of the four options, he does seem like the best.”
Maverick continued waiting.
I reluctantly went on. “When we were dating, Timber was over a century old. I was barely an adult. I wasn’t ready to seal a bond.
I had never even lived outside my mom’s house.
When I told him I got a job at a werewolf-owned investment firm, he told me we were over unless I quit.
I refused. We broke up, and it was… messy… for a while.”
“Messy, meaning you were still fucking regularly,” Maverick said flatly.
“Maybe.”
“How long?”
“Two years or so.”
He scoffed. “How did it finally end?”
“It just sort of faded out. We avoid each other now, for the most part.”
“What do you mean, for the most part?”
“I don’t think I should tell you.” I opened my hot dog. I didn’t love hot dogs, but food was food.
Plus, eating was something to do other than continue spilling my sexual history to Maverick.
“I think you should.”
“It doesn’t matter, Mav.”
“Like hell it doesn’t. You’re mine. It matters.”
“I get lonely sometimes too. That’s all.”
“When was the last time you got lonely with Timber?” The growl in his voice was impossible to miss.
“A few months ago.”
“Bloom,” he warned.
“Fine, it was three months ago. Way before I met you. And it was just sex, so I don’t see why it matters to you. It only happens two or three times a year, and we don’t talk outside of it.”