Chapter 6 #3
After we filled Flint’s truck bed with my stuff, I took a good look around the place to see if there was anything I’d missed and would need in the near future.
Ethan didn’t say anything, just let me do what I had to get my mind right as I walked from room to room, checking closets and cabinets for last minute additions.
“If you forgot anything, I’ll have Flint come back and pick it up for you,” he assured me then, picking up on my mounting anxiety.
Letting the tension bleed out of my body, my shoulders sagged as I finally decided I had everything I wanted for now. “Okay, I’m ready to go.”
Taking me by the hand, Ethan walked me out of my apartment back to the truck where Flint was loading my last trash bag full of clothes. It might not be designer luggage, but it got the job done in a pinch.
Trotting over to our car, Flint checked, “Is that it?”
“Yeah, we’ll meet you back at the house,” Ethan responded as he opened the passenger side door for me.
Rubbing his perfectly flat belly, Flint posed, “Is anyone hungry? I feel like I could eat a horse.”
I was surprised to realize I was hungry, even though I’d just eaten a pretty large breakfast a few hours ago.
“I’m game,” I admitted, thinking a burger sounded heavenly right now. “There’s a diner down the road that makes the best sandwiches and burgers, if anyone is interested.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” Flint readily agreed, glancing over at Ethan. “How about you, big guy?”
Ethan didn’t look like he much appreciated the nickname Flint had just bestowed upon him. “I could eat.”
“Alright. What’s the name of this place?” Flint asked, digging into his pocket for his phone to presumably find the restaurant directions.
“Miss Maples,” I said. “It’s a few miles down the road. You can’t miss it.”
Ten minutes later, we were sliding into a booth at my favorite hometown diner. When Flint moved to sit beside me, Ethan growled and the younger man gave a rascally grin.
“Oh, did you want to sit next to Millie? Sorry, man. My bad,” he ribbed.
Taking the opposite side of the booth, Flint passed out the menus as Ethan settled snugly beside me.
Both men flipped through the pages of the diner’s offerings, but I didn’t have to.
Though all the food here was great, I knew exactly what I was getting.
A cheeseburger, rare, with bacon and jalapeno cheese and a mountain of double fried cheese fries to the side.
The heart attack special. I’d fantasized about it the entire ride over.
I was already salivating at the thought of the spicy, fat-laden meal as I tried to wait patiently while the men perused their options.
“What’s your order of choice?” Flint asked conversationally, as he continued to read the menu’s many offerings. When I told him, his face lit up like a child’s on Christmas morning. “That sounds fucking awesome! I’m ordering it too.”
“What are you thinking of getting?” I asked Ethan, who was studying the menu like it had the answers to his upcoming chemistry final printed on it.
“Not sure yet,” he replied, his brow furrowing as he considered the vast array of options.
The young waitress, eyeing us from the corner of the room, or more aptly put, eyeing Flint from the corner of the room, came trotting over to take our orders.
It was clear from the way she fixed her hair, and straightened her uniform, that she wanted to look her best for the man sitting opposite me.
I couldn’t blame her. Flint was undeniably hot.
From his buff body and his cocksure attitude, to that sexy green stare, there was no denying it: he was grade-A fantasy fodder for sure.
“Good afternoon,” the young blond excitedly greeted us, her blue eyes darting around the table, and pausing on both my male companions like she was trying to work out the dynamics of our relationship.
“How is everyone today? Do you know what you want to order, or do you need more time with the menu?”
Flint, the ultimate predator, immediately zoned in on the pretty blond, doubtlessly picking up on every one of her aroused tells.
From the way she blushed, right down to how she was clenching her thighs together as she drank in his tall, muscular physique.
I’m not sure he was as into her as she was him, but it was clear he liked the attention.
“This is my first time here, Cindy,” Flint said, after glancing at the name tag situated right above her large breasts. “Do you have any recommendations for something I might like?”
Even though the statement was one that could have been uttered a hundred times a day by as many patrons, the way Flint had said it, you’d think he’d just propositioned the woman to lay flat on the table and let him do unspeakable things to her naked body.
Nervously giggling, the pretty young girl tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear to alleviate some of the built-up tension coursing through her. “I don’t know. What do you like?”
Again, not a particularly dirty question, but to a guy like Flint, it was down-right filthy.
“Oh, my tastes are very eclectic, Cindy. I’m not sure you’d be into them,” he retorted with a sly grin, leaning forward and giving the blonde the full weight of his jewel-toned stare.
Ethan, having had enough of this sexually charged exchange, said, “We’ll take three orders of the cheeseburger platters, rare, all with bacon and jalapeno cheese. We’ll also have three orders of the double fried cheese fries. Thank you.”
Cindy could barely tear her eyes away from Flint’s as she tried to scribble down our order on her tiny pad. “Got it. Anything else?” She asked breathlessly, staring hopefully at Flint as she sucked on her lower lip in anticipation of his response.
“That’ll be it,” the big tease replied disappointingly. “For now, at least.”
The promise of more later nearly drove the woman’s hormones, and libido, through the roof. I didn’t have to be a ware to pick up on that. It was written all over her face.
“Sounds good,” she stuttered, nearly walking directly into another waitress as she turned to go, still caught in a fog of lust over the charismatic ware at our table.
However, as I suspected, Flint acted like he’d forgotten the poor woman the minute she was out of sight. Ware whore.
“I’m going to need the backstory,” he demanded like a middle-school girl, as soon as Cindy was out of earshot.
“Flint!” Ethan cautioned, as he put a protective arm around the back of my shoulders. “Now’s not the time.”
“It’s okay,” I soothed, loving how considerate my mate was of me. “We can talk about it. I think I might need to talk about it just to understand this whole sordid situation for myself.”
Flint actually seemed sympathetic to my plight. “I can’t imagine learning something like that about myself out of the blue one day. It must have blown your mind.”
He wasn’t kidding. “Yeah, it was intense,” I agreed. “Especially how I found out.”
I quietly explained about being attacked in the alley outside of Maverick’s by Garrett. How Ethan had shown up at just the right moment to save the day. Because we were in public, I didn’t explicitly state how things ended, but Flint got the gist just fine.
“I wish I’d been there,” he stated heatedly, bloodlust brimming behind his glittering green eyes. “I’d have liked to get a few good shots in on that son of a bitch for myself.”
I didn’t doubt what he said. From Flint’s dark expression, I could only imagine what he and Ethan would have done with the man if they’d only had more time.
“So, you’ve never shifted before?” Flint queried subtly then. “Ethan, do you have an idea why that is?”
Ethan hugged me closer to reassure me there was nothing wrong with that.
“From what I’ve heard over the years, separation of the pack can cause a delayed response in some.
Maybe it’s nature’s way of keeping our secret.
Maybe it’s hormonal. Either way, it happens quite often,” he assured me, as he placed a warm kiss on the top of my head.
“Do you think Jenny might know more about her failure to shift?” Flint asked then.
Ethan frowned. “Don’t go there, Flint. Not right now. It’s all too fresh.”
Loathe as I was to admit it, I was thinking along the same lines as Flint. My mother, as much as I was furious with her, might have the information I needed about my past to help explain my current situation.
“Do you think my mother might know what the problem is?” I asked my mate in a hopeful voice.
Ethan glared at his brother for bringing the subject up but softened his expression when he turned his attention back to me. “I don’t know, Princess. It’s possible.”
“It might be worth it. To talk to her. See what she knows,” I reasoned.
Though I hadn’t thought I was ready to do that until this moment, it might make more sense to do so sooner rather than later.
“You told me that my father was going to confess to me in Alaska that my mother was alive. Surely, he would have taken me to see her, if he hadn’t been…
,” I paused as I cleared my throat of the thickness gathering there, “attacked. There’s no way he would have told me something like that and not expected me to demand to see her.
My father knew me far too well for that. ”
The waitress arrived with our drinks then, noting how serious the mood had turned. “Your food shouldn’t be much longer,” she stated, glancing wistfully in Flint’s direction, like she wished he was on the menu instead of the burgers.
When everyone simply nodded, she walked away with less pep in her step. I actually felt bad for her.
“It wouldn’t be safe to contact Jenny right now,” Ethan explained in very low tones.
“The last thing we want to do is alert the Tupilaq pack that you exist. We can’t forget that your mother went to a lot of trouble to hide your birth from those people.
If your own mother didn’t trust them with that information, why should we? ”