Chapter 5
MR. JUICY MEETS THE NANA-NATOR
LEVI
I had survived encounters with hunters before. I could do it again. Right?
I swallowed hard. And again. My head felt light on my shoulders. Was my brain getting enough blood? Or was my pounding heart redirecting everything to my limbs so I could make a break for it?
Most people thought all shifters were inherently aggressive and ready to fight.
Wrong. Sure, in my past, I had been. But I liked to think I’d learned my lesson.
There was a reason I didn’t hang out with the town’s hellhounds and wolves on the regular.
I wasn’t interested in that lifestyle anymore.
I was quite happy to let other people chase rogue wolf packs and assholes who kidnapped people and Magic only knew what else.
Yes, I’d kept up my training in my basement gym, but only to keep healthy.
Or so I thought …
But now Van was looking at me to step up, and suddenly all my training felt more like I’d been unknowingly preparing for this moment. I let out a shaky breath. Fuck. I was out of practice for facing off with the enemy. But I could do it.
For Willow Lake.
No problem. Some lessons you never truly forget, right?
It was only one conversation.
Except this didn’t feel like a simple conversation. Entertaining paranormal investigators could turn deadly in an instant, like choosing to step into an arena with a matador. Everyone knew the bull didn’t have a chance.
A few people cast pitying gazes in my direction as I returned my pool cue to the rack on the wall.
I released a long exhale. Not seeing another option, I trudged toward Parker’s table.
Dizziness made each step feel treacherous.
I sucked in a deep breath to calm my racing pulse.
I was a minotaur, for fuck’s sake. A couple of measly humans shouldn’t scare me.
And Parker was there with them. I had to make sure he was okay. That he was safe. What if the hunters were trying to extract information from him? Were they using him? Threatening him?
With renewed purpose, I pressed forward.
I was almost there when a streak of black fur shot right in front of me.
I teetered when my foot caught on a cat-sized Simon.
My arms windmilled. A few feet in front of me, Parker’s eyes widened.
His mouth dropped open. He extended his hands like he would catch me, but he couldn’t.
I crashed down like a giant tree felled by a lumberjack instead of a man tripping over his cat shifter employee.
My face smacked against Parker’s table, flipping it to its side. Its sparkly orange jack-o’-lantern centerpiece went flying as I hit the floor with a thud.
When I blinked open my eyes, the first thing I saw was Simon in his cat form.
His fur was all puffed out and his back was arched as he cowered under Parker’s chair.
His yellow-green eyes were wide, and his little cat mouth released a low hiss.
When he caught my eye, he stopped. He looked ready to let loose a stream of apologies.
His gaze darted to the stunned humans, who were still sitting in their chairs around the space where the table had been.
His mouth snapped closed, and he bolted for the door.
“Sorry, Levi,” Ogden muttered as he hurried after his mate.
I groaned as I rolled onto my back.
Parker dropped to his knees beside me, and I forgot all about Simon and Ogden. Parker’s forehead furrowed as he studied me.
“Are you hurt?” His fingers gently brushed my cheek where it was throbbing from hitting the table. “Do you feel queasy? Dizzy? Anything like that?”
I considered his questions before answering. “I’m okay.”
I was a shifter. Our kind always healed faster than mages or humans. I’d hurt my pride more than anything else. But I did like having his attention focused on me.
“And did I see that right? Did you trip over a cat? What’s it doing in here?
” He shook his head, and the pub lights glinted along his gorgeous red hair, making it shine like burnished copper.
“I know Jake has a fat calico cat that roams around here, and it seems well-behaved enough, but he’s got to stop letting every stray in town walk through the doors. ”
“It was my mistake. Should have watched where I was going,” I muttered.
Because I loved the way his fingers skimmed along my skin, I couldn’t make myself move.
Not yet. My gaze caught on his. He had the most beautiful blue eyes.
They were the color of the ocean. Not some weak, pale blue, but vibrant and powerful and deep.
Everything around us faded away as I stared into his eyes.
My pounding heart calmed. My sweaty body cooled.
My fears ebbed. My lips twitched into a smile, even though my cheek was still throbbing.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Hi.” His lips rounded in a little smile as he cupped my cheek. His stunning eyes caught on mine. The tempo of my pulse picked up again for an entirely new reason. I wanted more. More smiles. More time to stare into his eyes. More of him.
Then I remembered I had a new joke for him.
We’d been sharing what he called dad jokes for a while now.
Not in the morning when I got my coffee, but later at the pub.
In the morning, he was too busy filling orders, and I was too…
well, let’s say morning wasn’t my favorite time of day and leave it at that.
But when I made him smile at the end of the workday, that was the best feeling in the world.
Now I made sure to have one ready every day.
“What’s a cow in an earthquake called?” I grinned .
“What?” Parker’s smile deepened.
“A milkshake.”
He snorted. “That’s terrible.”
“Okay, your turn.”
“What did the mommy cow say to the baby cow?”
I waited for the punchline.
“It’s pasture bedtime,” he said. His voice was full of laughter, and it was beautiful. He was beautiful.
“That one was as bad as mine,” I grumbled, even though he’d made me chuckle too.
I reached up to touch his hair, and he leaned forward as if drawn to me too.
Someone cleared their throat. Parker yanked his hand away, shooting a furtive glance to his left. I followed his gaze to the older woman who was studying me intently.
Right. Fuck. The paranormal investigators.
I glanced around.
Right. Fuck. We were in the pub and every single person was staring at me right now. Some people had the audacity to smile, like seeing me with Parker was sweet or some shit.
Why did I lose track of everything else when he was around? And all my carefully thought-out reasons why we could never be together disappeared too. It was ridiculous.
The older woman’s hand was pinching her pointy chin. One of her carefully plucked eyebrows arched high over her icy eyes. She obviously had questions, and I really didn’t want to be the one she cornered to get answers .
“Um, let me help you get up.” Parker scrambled to his feet, then extended his hand to me.
He wasn’t a small man, but I was a lot heavier than he was, so I slid my hand in his and braced my other on his empty chair to push myself up.
Once I was on my feet, we righted the table.
Parker wrung his hands, glancing over at the pool table like he wanted to join me over there like usual.
Instead, he released a soft sigh and sat down with the humans.
“A bit like a bull in a china shop, isn’t he?” the older woman muttered. She didn’t know how true that was. “Is he always this clumsy?”
“I can’t play pool tonight,” Parker said, ignoring her words. But his cheeks darkened and blended with his many freckles, so he must have heard her. “My family came to visit. Unexpectedly .” He emphasized that last word by frowning at the older woman.
She appeared unbothered by his irritation.
“Levi, let me introduce my grandmother, Edith Girard,” Parker continued. “Nana is staying with me for a couple of days.”
“Call me Edie,” Parker’s grandmother said as I shook her hand. The way she said her name was sharp and fast, exposing her teeth. It matched her grip, which reminded me of a rattlesnake bite. It wouldn’t kill me, but it was far from pleasant.
“And I think you may have met my cousin, Finley,” Parker said.
I nodded at the young man, who was across the table. “Hello. Yes, uh, we met. At the motel. Earlier.”
Could I sound any more awkward ?
Finley smiled and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Oh, now that I saw Finley with Parker, I realized why Finley’s smile had seemed familiar. It was a bit like Parker’s. “Hi, again.”
“And these are Fin’s friends, Tammy and Kyle,” Parker said.
Everyone was staring at me. Sweat, my ever-present companion today, trickled down the back of my neck. “So, Finley said he and his friends are paranormal investigators. Is that why you’re here too?” I asked Edie.
How many more people were going to join them? Was there a fucking convention for ghost hunters? As owner of one of the few places for strangers to stay in Willow Lake, I should have been informed.
“No.” The older woman shook her head. “I’m in town to check up on my grandson and see if I can figure out why he isn’t married yet. Are you single, Levi?”
“Nana!” Parker reprimanded her. His cheeks were darker than his freckles now.
Finley snorted. “Good luck trying to rein in the Nana-nator, Pow.”
“Pow?” I asked.
“No way, Fin.” Parker held his finger up to his cousin in warning.
Before Finley could retaliate, or tell me why he called Parker Pow, Jeremy arrived to take their orders.
Jeremy was the seventh son of a seventh son, and until this past summer, he hadn’t known magic existed.
But when he met his fated mate, a werewolf named Adrian, everything had changed.
The Eternal Magic blessed him with magic and everything.
He didn’t work at the pub often, but he helped when the place got busy.
As the most human of the supes here, he’d obviously been chosen to liaise with these strangers.