Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
The first time Delainey set foot on pack territory, it had been in a mad rush to try to rescue Elise—and by extension, her boyfriend—from a werewolf who thought the solution to forbidden relationships between their kinds was execution.
Delainey thought that went a little far.
Now she was pulling up to a cottage on the edge of pack territory to go to a housewarming party. What the actual fuck?
It was a small cottage made of simple wood with a stone chimney on the outside that made it look almost like something from a storybook. Gravel roads led up to these small houses. And though Elise had told her there were several cottages on this part of the property, Delainey only spotted Nico’s.
Apparently the werewolves that lived out here liked their privacy.
The house was surrounded by woods, which made sense, and it was smaller than she expected.
The porch was on the dinky side. If three people tried to mingle, they’d be standing with shoulders brushing.
But there was a nice new light fixture beside the door, and the roof was in good shape.
When she got inside, she learned there was only one bedroom. The kitchen and living area were all on an open floor plan that made the house seem larger than its square footage suggested.
How big could the place be? Six hundred square feet? Seven? If only the werewolves listed these places on Zillow, she could sneakily find out. Oh, well.
A small couch, barely more than a loveseat, faced the TV over the fireplace. The kitchen did double-duty as an eating area with benches under the counter and brand new appliances. Delainey hoped Nico could cook because Elise was not exactly gourmet chef material.
According to Elise, Nico had been slowly moving into the cottage over the last week.
Elise insisted that she was not moving in with him, but there were little touches of her everywhere.
There were fresh flowers in a small vase on the kitchen counter.
The place smelled vaguely of sage, and Delainey would have bet a hundred dollars that Elise had done a cleansing ritual before Nico finished moving his stuff over.
And was that… yes, it was! Her favorite blanket from the coven house, which had disappeared three days ago, was lying over the couch like it belonged there.
The little thief!
But Delainey couldn’t blame Elise for spending so much time at this little house or at the bigger pack house up the road.
Her parents were still in town and had been dropping in on the coven house more often than not.
On day three of their visit, Elise had clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valor and had been staying in the one place her parents couldn’t follow her: werewolf territory.
Honestly, Delainey couldn’t disagree with the decision. If she were in a similar situation… well, she wouldn’t be, because one, her parents weren’t witches from the most influential coven in the area, and two, she would never be foolish enough to fall in love with a werewolf.
She expected the party to be awkward, but inside, the two groups seemed to be mixing all right.
Briana and Cole were off in a corner observing everything like they were chaperones at a middle school dance.
Briana’s arms were crossed and she’d styled her braids in a crown over her head.
Cole was the second tallest man in the room and stood nearly a head taller than Briana.
He wore a simple dark top and jeans and looked like he could use a drink.
You and me both, Mr. Alpha.
Aya, Hugh, and Javi were all studying the bookshelf along the back wall of the living area. And Serena was laughing at something Nico said.
The traitor.
Had Serena changed her opinion on this whole relationship fiasco and forgotten to tell Delainey? Because they had both been very clear in their objections and had made those objections known through one tiny kidnapping.
Frankly, Nico was lucky that they had decided to kidnap him instead of giving him scabies.
But now Serena was over there laughing at jokes like she was Nico’s best friend. The truce meant they didn’t fight one another. It didn’t mean they had to get along and sing Kumbaya. Frankly, this party was taking things too far.
Serena was dressed up in a fitted dark top with large earrings in her ears. Her hair was freshly dyed, the pink streaks popping against the normal brown. And she was angled toward Nico like they were the best of freaking friends.
Was Serena seeing something that Delainey didn’t?
She took a second glance around the room, trying to look with fresh eyes.
Briana was a little somber. She definitely didn’t look like she expected this to be a fun time, but she had put on a brave face.
And beside her, Cole looked—well, Delainey wasn’t exactly sure how to describe how he looked.
She didn’t know his vibe. Was he always stone-faced?
Was there some sort of nuance that she was missing?
Cole pushed off the wall and went into the kitchen.
He retrieved two cans of something from the ice bath in the sink and offered one to Briana, who accepted gratefully.
Delainey was probably reading too much into that.
They were being polite strangers. That was all this party was: a bunch of polite strangers wishing they were anywhere but here.
Aya was studying something on the bookshelf, while Javi was standing at her shoulder and peppering her with questions.
Javi was the shortest of the betas, but that still didn’t make him short.
He was around six feet tall, with close-cropped black hair and copper skin.
Anxious energy seemed to hum under his skin, and he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet while he annoyed Aya.
Someone probably needed to play fetch with him to get him to calm down.
Hugh looked at him and rolled his eyes from time to time, but Aya wasn’t paying attention to either of them. Her straight, black hair was tucked tightly behind her ears, and she’d pulled out her reading glasses to get a better look at whatever fascinated her.
Looking around, Delainey realized Elise was standing right next to Nico, which meant Serena could have been laughing at Elise’s joke rather than being a traitor and laughing with Nico.
Everyone was on their best behavior.
Delainey checked her watch. She’d been here for fifteen minutes, and she had to put in at least an hour and a half to be a good friend… unless someone else was kind enough to leave before she did.
She could make it. It was fine. She just had to survive a little bit longer.
And then there was Reece.
Much like her, he wasn’t standing by anyone else.
He was leaning against the far wall, arms crossed, shoulders broad.
His hair was so dark it was almost hard to tell it was red, but the overhead light illuminated those undertones until there was no doubt.
The waviness to it had to be natural because he did not look like a man who spent much time concerned about hair care.
And it was long enough that it would be so satisfying to run her fingers through it, which she was not going to do.
God damn it. Why was her brain going crazy?
He looked like he would rather eat glass than stay at this party for one second longer than he had to.
She hated how much she related to that feeling.
She should have let her eyes skate over him like she had with all the others. But they snagged and they caught. And she looked her fill.
He wore a dark henley with the sleeves pushed to his elbows, exposing forearms that were corded with muscle and dusted with fine reddish hair that she shouldn’t be paying any attention to.
His jeans were faded at the knees, and his boots had dried mud on them.
He had a jaw like he’d been carved out of something stubborn, and freckles scattered across his cheekbones that had no business being so cute on a man that large.
He was the biggest of the betas. Tall too.
He could lift her up like it was nothing and carry her around like the queen she was—not that she would ever let him.
Delainey didn’t normally go for tall guys.
She didn’t like feeling short. But even in the midst of battle, Reece hadn’t made her feel small.
She’d felt like a warrior standing beside him, his equal.
Not that she savored that memory all that often.
His eyes were always dark and intense, except when they glowed with the wolf that lived within him. That reminder should have been enough to turn her gaze anywhere else.
So why couldn’t she look away?
Reece tilted his head, and their eyes met. And that was enough to make Delainey jerk her gaze away from him.
Damn it. She hadn’t wanted to be caught staring, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to do. She looked at her watch again.
It had been exactly four minutes since the last time check.
Okay, she needed to do something other than stand awkwardly in the corner and let the party happen around her. She got a beer from the sink, fishing it out of the ice water and wiping the wet can on her jeans, and approached Briana and Cole. That seemed the safest bet.
The three of them chatted about the weather and the construction on the highway between pack territory and the city for over ten minutes before the conversation petered out and Cole drifted away.
“Should we be encouraging this?” Delainey asked Briana.
Briana shrugged. “Elise is a grown woman. She gets to make her own choices.”
Delainey traced the edge of her beer can. “So who’s going to be brave enough to tell that to her parents?”
Briana shook her head. “Yeah, we’re gonna have to figure that out soon, because I don’t like the idea of them messing around with our business.”
“I feel like it’s all going to explode in our faces,” Delainey said, lowering her voice and leaning closer.
“Something like that. I had hoped that all that drama with Austin LaSalle was the last of it,” Briana admitted.
Delainey’s mind flashed to that night.
She remembered reaching deep within herself and summoning more fire than she had ever summoned in her entire life, nearly burning her magic reserves down to embers and almost killing herself in the process.
She remembered Reece beside her every step of the way, fighting together like they’d been born to it.
She remembered the way he had pulled her out of danger and probably saved her life.
Her heartbeat kicked up and sweat beaded on her palms.
“I need some air,” Delainey said, and didn’t wait for Briana to respond.
She stepped through the sliding glass door and breathed in the scent of night and the fresh wood smell that came from what looked like a newly built back porch. The porch was about eight feet deep, built from pressure-treated lumber that still had a greenish tint.
A string of unlit patio lights was looped along the railing, and two folding camp chairs sat against the wall of the house. Beyond the porch, the grass ran about twenty feet before it was swallowed up by the trees. Delainey rested her hands on the wooden railing and looked out into the darkness.
There was a buzz of bugs and a distant hooting of owls.
The air was clean and cold, sharp and a little bit chilly, but it was refreshing after the warmth inside.
She breathed deeply and let herself relax, which lasted for about three minutes until the sliding glass door opened again and someone followed her out.
Without looking, she somehow knew it would be Reece.
“They’re going to notice if both of us are gone,” Delainey told him. “This is my hiding place. You go find somewhere else.”
“I think there’s room enough for two,” Reece said, sliding the glass door shut behind him. He had to duck slightly under the porch light fixture.
He set himself up a little further down the railing from her, with several feet of space between them. He planted his hands wide on the railing and faced the woods, his shoulders taking up what felt like half the porch.
“This is torture, right?” Delainey asked.
“It’s fucking insane,” Reece said without turning his head, his voice pitched low enough that it wouldn’t carry. “If those two want to make kissy faces at each other, that’s their business, but I don’t see why we all have to be friends.”
“Exactly!” Delainey didn’t like how easy it was to agree with Reece about the insanity that was Nico and Elise’s relationship, but it was nice to complain with someone who understood.
“It’s going to explode in all of our faces,” said Reece.
Delainey almost added that it was starting to, but she would not share that Elise’s parents were around and causing trouble. Because if she was going to side with anyone on that, it would be Elise, and Elise wanted her boyfriend.
Delainey didn’t want to agree with Elise’s parents on anything.
“And eventually,” Reece mused, “I don’t think Elise could hack it in a werewolf pack.”
Delainey scoffed. “Like you would last a day in a coven.”
Between one breath and the next, Reece shut down. His face turned dark. He glared at her, eyes flashing yellow for a second before he turned away and stalked off without another word.
He vaulted over the porch railing rather than taking the single step down, landing hard in the grass, and walked straight for the tree line with long, rigid strides.
His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and the set of his shoulders had gone from relaxed to locked tight, like something had seized inside him.
Um, what?
Delainey replayed the conversation back in her mind and tried to understand where exactly she had crossed the line and pissed off the giant red werewolf. Every snipe flowed one into the next, and there was nothing particularly mean that she had said.
You wouldn’t last a day in a coven.
What was so bad about that? He was a werewolf. Why would he even want to? Maybe it was a little rude, but he’d been rude about Elise. He deserved that.
Delainey watched his form retreat into the woods, his red hair the last thing visible before the trees closed around him, her mood souring. She felt something at the edge of her senses, almost like magic.
Was someone inside doing a trick?
No, it felt like it was coming from the woods. How?
Delainey took a step towards the stair that led down onto the grass and forced herself to stop.
Clearly, she was imagining things. No one was going to be doing magic on Southern Basin pack territory unless they were in the house behind her.
And if they were, it wasn’t her responsibility to figure out who.
She checked her watch.
She’d made it forty-five minutes. It would be rude to leave. But when she walked inside, everything was bright and loud and hot. And before she could think better of it, she scooped up her coat, waved goodbye to whoever could see her, and left.