Chapter 17
The place to buy shoes and a jacket was at the other end of town, a few minutes of driving away.
I was still too agitated to take in much, except that Pleasant Peak was small, so much smaller than the city with its comforting snugness, with enough people around you that you could vanish and not stand out.
Here though? No real chance of anonymity, at least not to the degree I’d known, which…made me wonder why I was thinking about that. It wasn’t like I was staying here. This, I reminded myself, was just a vacation. Not the one I’d planned for, but a vacation nonetheless.
Dom pulled into a parking lot outside the Pleasant Peak Hiker’s Abode. An ominous name if ever there was one. I had to stuff the rest of the brownie into my mouth, which was why Dom managed, once more, to open my door for me. He was casually guzzling down his coffee while giving me a once-over.
“Better?”
“I’m fine,” I told him. I was shook, yeah, but pissed also. More pissed. I could handle Steven, I just didn’t want to. Ever again.
As we walked toward the entrance, Dom put his arm around me once more, and there we were, looking like a couple who hiked with our to-go cups in hand. Couple’s hiking. Now there was a reason for concern.
Inside the store, I spotted a climbing wall at the far end, one of those with the colorful fake rocks sticking out like too-tiny handles and footholds. A salesperson spotted us from behind a backpack display to our right, brightened, and speed walked toward Dom. Jeez. Small towns.
“Dom!” she said, and Dom lifted his arm off my shoulder to give her a hug. “You don’t come by often enough.” She pointedly looked at me.
“There’s always stuff to do at the house. Sophia, this is Marcus. Marcus, Phia’s my little sister-in-law.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said. I was not ready to do this, whatever this was. Meeting family was what it was. Oh my fucking hotpants. The werewolf had ambushed me.
Sophia crossed her arms. She had short brown hair and clear blue eyes. “Wait. Wait. Did you break up with the guys, or is it four of you now instead of three?”
“We didn’t break up, and Marcus is just here for some shoes and a jacket,” Dom said while looking at me with that obvious fondness that made even the divine brownie appear sugar-free in comparison.
Sophia’s eyes narrowed. “You know what? Whatever. I’m getting Owen. He’s doing inventory in the back with your dad.”
Dom sighed. “No need. I think I can manage to fit Marcus with some shoes.”
Sophia snorted. “Not getting your brother for that.” And off she went.
I leaned closer to Dom. “What was that?”
Dom shrugged. “She never got the whole poly thing, never quite got how I dated girls sometimes but then ended up with three guys.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Two guys.”
Dom whistled. “Getting mouthy there, Little Red?”
I shrugged. “You’re forcing me into buying hiking shoes, so…”
He chuckled and led me to the shoes.
“What are you, a ten? Ten and a half?” He looked at my feet.
“What are you? Brudos, or just burdened with the regular kind of foot fetish?”
He blinked at me. “Sorry. Don’t get it.”
I sighed. “True crime reference. Jerome Brudos was a serial killer with a shoe fetish. Ten and a half.”
Dom sighed. “I swear, you and Linc and all the criminal shit. My two high-maintenance guys. Sit there.”
He pointed at a bench right next to the hiking shoes test zone, which was a sizable part of the floor that had been converted into a bed of gravel about three feet long, followed by three feet of rough and uneven wooden planks, followed by unevenly textured concrete.
I sat, mostly because I was tired. “I will have you know, I’m not high maintenance.”
Dom flashed me a grin. “High maintenance, you?” He chuckled. “Who’d ever think such a thing?”
I snorted and took a swig of my tea. “Werewolves.”
“That we are.”
I finished my chai latte and watched as Dom looked around the rows of shoes and picked out three pairs. He brought them back to me and put the shoeboxes on the ground, where he squatted in front of me.
I raised my brows. “For real?”
“Yup. This is how it’s done around here, Little Red.
This’s my dad’s store, and I’ve been selling hiking shoes and everything else for the great outdoors since I was a teenager.
I still help out when they need an extra pair of hands.
” He lifted my right foot by the ankle, undid my laces, and pulled off the shoe.
I blushed. Apparently, a guy fitting me with hiking shoes did it for me. Fucking hotpants, I was broken.
“That does not explain the flannel,” I grumbled, my throat dry despite the chai.
“Mmh. Flannel’s hot, Little Red.” He looked up at me from tying the laces of the right hiking shoe. “Or it is when I wear it. Don’t you think so?” He looked up at me with his green eyes, his rose gold eyebrows wiggling playfully.
I was saved from having to come up with something smart to say back by a guy my age, or maybe one or two years younger walking toward us.
“Hey, Dom.” The family resemblance was there; Owen’s hair was a shade lighter, making him more of a strawberry blond.
He had deep brown eyes instead of Dom’s bright green ones and lacked the width in the shoulders, the sinewy strength that looked so natural and effortless in Dom.
“Phia said you brought in a new boyfriend or something.” He looked right at me.
“I brought in Marcus.” Dom nodded at me. “He needs hiking shoes and a jacket, because I doubt I can make him wear Linc’s for the rest of time. He’s our mate, not a boyfriend.”
Owen got agitated, put a finger to his lips, and shushed his brother. “You know Phia doesn’t know about wolves.”
Dom groaned and rolled his eyes. “Your wife is not eavesdropping, Owen. I’d know. You know she doesn’t want to get too close to all the gay weirdness.”
Dom didn’t say it as if he were even offended, simply annoyed, like he was complaining his sister-in-law didn’t like olives. I thought that was very…forgiving.
“You married someone and never told them you can turn into a giant, fluffy furball at will?” I asked.
Owen had barely acknowledged me, so politeness wasn’t required.
I also thought that the guys telling me as soon as I was conscious enough to sort of get it was a very up-front move in comparison.
They were good guys. And werewolves. Good werewolf guys. Nobody’s perfect.
“Aw, that’s our boy,” Dom crooned and patted my calf as he pulled my other shoe off.
Owen’s face flushed scarlet. “I’m not a…a werewolf. And I’d appreciate you keeping your furry side to yourself,” he told me.
My eyebrows went up. “Don’t have one.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t have a furry side. Since I’m not a werewolf.” Who’d have thought I’d ever put that on my résumé.
Owen gaped, and Dom tied the laces of the other hiking shoe, then stood. “Yeah. Just think how fucking shocked we all were. Stand up for me, Marcus.”
I got to my feet.
“But look at him,” Dom went on, pulling me close with an arm around my waist. “Our pretty mate’s been taking it all in stride.” He ran the knuckles of his fingers along my cheek and brushed the top of my head with his chin, minding the area at the back that was still sensitive.
Owen huffed. “Very subtle, asshole.”
Dom shrugged. “Just telling you how it is.”
Owen ran a hand through his hair. “Well, whatever. Look, I have inventory, and Dad’s on the phone with a vendor.
Just say hi to him before you leave, okay?
” He turned to get back to his work in the back of the store, then stopped and spun to look at Dom and me again.
“Welcome to the family, I guess,” he said to me.
He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say more, but then he just walked off.
“So that’s my brother and his lawfully wedded better half.” Dom’s arm slid off my waist slowly. “How’re the shoes?” He squatted again to feel my toes through the fabric.
“Feel okay.” They were nice, comfy shoes in fact. “How isn’t he a werewolf?”
“Walk the track a few times.” Dom pointed at the textured path set into the floor.
“Our dad’s human,” Dom went on when I did as he’d told me to.
“Mom and he just fell for one another. I got the good looks and the tail, and Owen got the neuroses. He also makes a damn fine mac ’n’ cheese, though I don’t know how much of that’s hereditary. ”
I stared at Dom, but Dom was looking at my feet. “Wait. The green eyes. And the blue eyes. Is that a thing?”
Dom looked up at me, his mouth forming a silent oh. “Look at you, Little Red. Brains and looks. Guess you’ll make all the betas jealous and all the alphas envious that you’re ours. We’ll have to lock you up so they don’t try to steal you away.”
He said all of that in a voice that was the verbal equivalent of a seriously smoldering look. It did things to me. I stumbled and almost face-planted on the gravel, but Dom was faster than gravity’s pull. He caught me with an arm across my chest, holding my weight effortlessly.
“Easy there, Marcus. Don’t make me see you hurt again.”
I pulled myself up, or rather let Dom put me back in an upright position. “I-I’m fine. Thank you.”
“Any time. You’re right. Brown eyes are very rare in a wolf.
Kind of the opposite of how it is for humans.
” Dom’s mouth was kissing distance from my own.
“Most people don’t ever notice it—most humans, that is—even when they know.
Dad never did, not until Mom told him Owen was gonna be more like him. ”
“I see.” I had the feeling he wanted to tell me something else, but I wasn’t quite getting what it was.
“I like these for you, but we’re trying the other two pairs just in case.” He pushed me back onto the bench.
I didn’t get to tie a single pair, and I wasn’t even surprised anymore.