Chapter 8
Restless was the word of the day for Trick on Monday. He and Cass had texted off and on all day while she’d been at the coffee shop and he’d been at the house, and then he’d gone into the tavern early because he was full of nervous energy and needed something to do.
Cleaning the glass doors leading out to the deck before they opened for the night should have helped. Usually, keeping his hands busy settled his wolf and gave him something to focus on. But not tonight.
Every few minutes he checked his phone like an idiot.
As the afternoon turned into the evening, and patrons began showing up, the busyness helped him focus somewhat on his job, but he couldn’t help but wonder what Cass was up to.
And then he felt her.
Not in a way he could explain to anyone who wasn’t a wolf, but he’d known the moment she came into the parking lot that she was there. He hadn’t scented her or heard her car, he’d just felt her.
He pushed open the door and saw her get out of her car.
And suddenly everything that had been tight and anxious inside him unfurled like a flag.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, stepping out and letting the door shut behind him.
She walked up to him, stopping with just inches between them, and stared up at him. “Take me out on a date.”
He blinked. “Okay.”
She let out a breathless chuckle. “I mean, hello handsome. And also, we haven’t gone on a date. You’ve come by the coffee shop, we’ve texted, and hung out during the band audition. But you haven’t asked me on a real date. And I don’t mean here at the tavern, I mean somewhere else.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you think I didn’t want to date you. I was just–”
She put up her hand. “Giving me space, and I appreciate that. Don’t apologize. But I’m done needing space, and if you want to, I’d like to go on a date with you.”
“Hell yes.” He took her hand, opened the door and pulled her inside. She laughed and squeezed his hand when he stopped at the bar. “Hey, Dare.”
“Yeah?” His brother was filling a mug with beer.
“I’m going to take off for the night, if you don’t mind?”
Dare looked at him for a moment, then looked at Cass and nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got the door, no worries. Have a good night.”
“Thanks.”
Trick led Cass through the tavern and out the back, heading to his house and truck. He opened the door for Cass and she climbed in.
Once he got behind the wheel and pulled away from the house, she said, “So.”
When she didn’t keep speaking, he said, “So what?”
“So I’m your truemate.”
He glanced at her. “You are.”
“And that’s why I feel so connected to you so fast.”
“There’s a supernatural element to things, yes.”
“Are you supposed to ask me to be your mate? Or am I doing it, because I had to ask you about going on a date?”
When he looked at her again, she was grinning.
“You’re making me feel like an ass.”
She leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, linking their fingers. “I’m teasing. But you should definitely ask me important things. Because I’m floundering a bit in this, since it’s all new to me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Tonight, let’s just get to know each other. No expectations, nothing but you and me and a date that I should have asked you on before.”
“To be fair I might have said no earlier.”
“What changed?”
She was quiet for a moment, then she said in a low voice, “I can’t picture my life without you in it.”
Over dinner at a casual Italian restaurant, they talked about their lives. The easy things like favorite comfort shows, debating the various movie theaters and their popcorn and snack offerings, and even how they spent their spare time, both in their own kind of happy little rut.
When the topic changed to more serious things, she told him about her mom and dad, the childhood that had been framed by unhappy parents staying together out of obligation long after the romance had fizzled.
Her sister Lauren, who had an ex and a sour look on love, but an adorable niece named Lucy who wanted to one day meet a dragon.
And how abandoned she’d felt when Juliette went all in with Sigh.
“I didn’t really understand it, even after I met you and I couldn’t stop thinking about you.
Then Lauren got in my head. I was so mean to you on Friday, and I’m sorry.
You’re not my dad, and you’re not my ex brother-in-law, you’re you, and I really like you.
” She told him about talking to her mom, which had prompted her to text him Saturday, and that’s when he’d felt that things had changed between them.
When she asked about his own home life, he fiddled with a breadstick as the past rose up like a wave.
“Our parents were not truemates and only got together to have children. Our mother was from another pack, and our father was very dedicated to the alpha and high ranked in the pack. Our mother didn’t want to raise us, she left us to our father, and eventually she mated someone in her own pack who didn’t want a reminder of her past and that was all the contact we had with her. ”
Their dad wasn’t particularly loving, but they’d been raised by his mom, and she’d been amazing.
“When Mimi died, I was nineteen, and I think the alpha was waiting for her to pass away, because just a week after that, he mandated that all unmated males needed to mate and start having children to grow the pack. We wanted to wait for our truemates, so we said no.”
Their dad had tried to reason with them, then threatened them that the alpha would not be denied.
He had a plan to grow the pack and they were either with him or against him.
The alpha brought in females from other packs and arranged a mating between Dare and the daughter of another pack alpha, and when he flat out refused, he was exiled.
They weren’t about to let their brother be on his own, so he and Sigh had accepted exile too.
“King Lake was originally a shifter town, but most of them moved on years ago and left it abandoned. The dragons came first and started their security company up on the ridge. The bears came about five years ago and based their Five Pines Construction Company here. Then three years ago, we showed up, fixed up an old restaurant into The Amber Howl, and took over the empty homes behind it.”
She pushed aside their empty plates and reached for his hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’m sorry for what happened to you and your brothers, but I’m glad you’re in King Lake. Isn’t it wild? We were separated by a bridge, but it took my best friend going to The Howl for a burger for me to meet you.”
“Fate’s got an interesting sense of humor.”
“Fate is a bitch,” she said, lowering her voice. “Because it makes us wait. I’m glad I’m here now too, though. You’re the best guy I’ve ever known.”
His heart swelled. He looked across the table into her pretty hazel eyes, shining with the first bloom of early love and affection, her cheeks pink and her lips curved into a sweet smile.
He’d never fallen for a female before. Never said I love you to one.
He knew now he was saving all of that for Cassidy.
“Ready to get out of here?” he asked.
“You bet.”
With their hands clasped on his thigh, they drove back to his place. He opened her door for her, and they stood under the moonlight.
She stepped closer.
He inhaled, picking up the sweet scent of her.
She tilted her chin up and he met her lips with his own.
The kiss was soft at first, the sort of kiss a male and female would share on a first date.
But while this was their actual first date, the feelings swirling inside him were anything but first-date worthy.
Her fingers curled into his shirt, and she made a small sound in the back of her throat. He pressed his hand to her lower back, drawing her close, and the kiss went hotter, deeper.
Far sweeter.
She was everything he’d ever wanted, wrapped up in a beautiful female with warm eyes, soft skin, and the most kissable lips.
“Cass,” he said, his voice rough.
“Yeah?” she asked, resting her head on his chest.
“Stay with me tonight.”
She eased back a little to meet his gaze and smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He was so damn happy that his wolf howled in his head.
They walked into the house, and when he shut the door, they just stared at each other for a long moment.
Then he drew her close.
Everything in his world narrowed down to her, and all the things he wanted to say but wasn’t quite ready to hovered just under the surface.
How much he liked her.
How much he enjoyed her company.
How she felt like home to him.
She melted against him.
And he melted too.
The rest of the night belonged to them.