Chapter 11 #2
“Definitely,” Tonya added.
“So tell her the truth,” Becca continued.
“I have,” he growled. “I am.” He’d been honest with her from the very beginning and was set to answer all the rest of her questions tonight.
“Not that truth,” Becca said. And when he frowned, Tonya put up her hands like bear claws and growled. Becca giggled as she continued. “We told her about shifters.” She pressed her hand flat on Mark’s chest. “She needs this truth. The heart stuff.”
His heart? He didn’t have one anymore. Not for a few years now since he realized there was no hope left for him.
“Don’t you look away from me,” Becca snapped in her sharpest stern-mother voice. “There’s still time.”
Was there? He looked at Julie, who was watching everything with wide eyes. Watching, but not expressing. He had no idea what she was thinking and that made man and bear twitchy. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he said to her.
Julie bit into her lower lip. “I don’t know what to ask.”
“So work it out!” ordered Becca. For a petite human, she was stepping fully into the role of Ms. Max.
Then she flashed them a beaming smile before stepping carefully out the front door.
“And now we’re leaving,” she called, grabbing hold of Tonya as they headed toward Carl’s truck.
For his part, Carl was shaking his head even as he turned back to Mark.
“You okay here?”
“Quit being a mother hen.”
“Quit shoving your head up your ass.” Then Carl turned to Julie. “He’s grumpy half the time, and too arrogant all of it. But he’s a good man when he comes out of that cave of a house. Please give him a chance.”
Jesus. Now he had his alpha trying to help his love life. Could anything be more humiliating? “If you don’t leave this instant, I’m going to fuck up your Internet so bad—”
“Gotta go!” Carl said with a quick wave. “I’ll come by in the morning.”
“Come late. Like in a month.” Mark nearly shoved the man out the door.
“Roger that,” Carl said with a grin.
Neither of them had been in the military or police, but they’d both been using the term since they were eight and pretending to be part of a SWAT team. It was familiar and carried the echo of childhood games. And especially now with the end so near, it made Carl smile.
“Roger that,” he echoed. Outside, Becca started singing a mangled version of “Jack the Knife” in a belting soprano.
Inside, Mark balanced awkwardly on the balls of his feet.
It was a predatory stance that meant his grizzly was already stalking Julie.
Which was a really bad idea since he had no clue how to read her mood.
“They’re nice people,” Julie finally said, her gaze going to the window. “Once Tonya relaxes, she’s nothing like her officer persona.”
“Really? She’s had a stick up her ass since middle school.”
“Really,” Julie said, her lips curving in a soft smile that made him want to kiss her for the rest of his life. “She’s a lot softer on the inside than she lets on. Not surprising she’s had to be tough. She’s a woman police officer.”
“And beta to Carl.”
“Right. Which means she can’t let her guard down anywhere.”
Mark prowled across the room. He wanted to sit beside her on the couch, but instead, perched gingerly on the edge of her father’s recliner. “She let it down with you.” He doubted she knew the miracle that was.
“That’s ’cause we don’t count,” Julie said, dismissing his compliment even before he got a chance to say it. “We’re not part of the pack and we’re certainly not police.”
“Becca’s Mrs. Max. She and Carl haven’t gotten married yet, but everyone knows they’re mates. That makes her part of the pack. And you…” His voice trailed away. “What did you do to get her to sing?”
Julie shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. I just talked to her.” Then she quieted before looking oddly at him. “I listened.”
“And she sang?”
“Yeah. I could tell that she wanted me to get comfortable with the whole bear thing. And I wanted to know the real her. So…” She gestured at an empty glass. “I made her margarita triple strength, dared her to drink it, and then started sharing stuff about my childhood.”
He blinked. “Like what?”
“Doesn’t matter. Embarrassing stuff. She had to reciprocate, so she sang.”
Of course she did. Just like Mark had sung as well.
Not literally, but certainly he’d spilled his guts to Julie more than he had to anyone else.
They’d reconnected barely more than twenty-four hours ago, and yet by this morning, he’d confessed so much about his feelings for her.
About his adolescent needs and the way their one night as teenagers still haunted him.
He’d told her all that simply because she’d listened. And because she was Julie.
And while he mulled over that, Julie held up her phone with a grin.
“Plus, I never told her I was recording it.”
Holy shit! “She’ll probably shoot your phone when she finds out.”
Julie grinned. “I won’t tell. I like to keep my blackmail material secret until I really need it.”
“Very wise,” he said. Then he fell silent, as did she.
Ticks of the clock grew louder as he looked at her. Just this morning, so many things had felt possible. Now, he was stuck across the room from her, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do.
And while he dithered, Julie exhaled loudly, folded her arms across her chest, and pinned him with a heavy glare.
“So now that you’ve effectively killed my buzz, I figure it’s time I kill yours.”
Oh, shit. “Um, what?”
“You’re going to tell me exactly what those things were this morning and what the hell they want with my father.”
Oh, goody. Because it wasn’t enough that she got introduced to the shifter world today. Now she insisted on finding out that there were honest-to-goodness sicko bastards in the magical realm, too.