Chapter Two
Lyric was so pretty. Vic had only seen her wolf before now. Oh, he recognized her eyes. She had run into the woods, so she didn’t have to see Vic’s Alpha, Liam, kill Lyric’s father, Aro.
He didn’t know what kind of pain a person could harbor from something so traumatic, but she seemed tough and well-adjusted.
She was starting to relax. He could tell.
She had blond hair, and those bi-colored green and brown eyes had him trapped in her gaze more times than he wanted to admit.
“What do you like?” he asked.
She was staring at the room with this little absent smile on her full lips. “Me?” she asked.
“Yeah. They have rice Krispy treats, and any cookie you imagine.” He pointed to the sugar cookies with the chocolate dollops on them. “The lady who makes those is a magician.”
“Those look good. I can pay though.”
It went against every instinct in his body to say, “Okay,” but he didn’t want her thinking he was being too forceful with the paying. Truth be told, he wanted to pay for her fun night. Did she know how sad her eyes had looked? Did she know he could smell her anguish from the front door of the bar?
He didn’t know her, but he owed her. Why? Because she betrayed her people and saved Destiny. And not only saved her. Lyric had given her a wolf to go to battle with. She’d cemented Destiny’s place in the Rogue Pack, at Dodger’s side.
Dodger was happy for the first time Vic could remember, and Lyric had helped facilitate that, whether she realized it or not.
He wanted to buy her the cookies, but he didn’t want her to get angry with him and run.
So, “Okay,” was all he said, and he stood back while she paid for six of the thumbprint cookies he’d recommended.
He waved to Denise and led Lyric to a couple of empty chairs at the end of one of the tables in the back.
He needed to give her some space from the busy center of the room just in case her green eye ramped up its color again.
God, she was gorgeous. He hadn’t been nervous around a woman maybe ever, but she smelled so good, and her smile was so pretty, it consumed him.
Friends. He’d told her they could be friends. Focus.
He resisted the urge to pull her chair out for her and sank down beside her.
She was maybe five foot four. He wanted to know all about her time doing the Elders bidding.
She was their Turner. Why? How had she fallen into that.
How had she survived the broken Maker Bonds to the people she had Turned?
Interesting little wolf-woman.
Too interesting, perhaps.
They had to wait for the next game to start to begin marking off their first bingo card, and at first, she had questions.
They were the cute kind about the free space, and what blackout bingo was.
The caller had deemed it a blackout game, which meant the winner would have to mark off every space before they could yell, “Bingo.”
Vic couldn’t stop looking over at her. Fuck, Lyric smelled good. Fur and some fruity shampoo and just…female.
He wished he could text Destiny and tell her he found Lyric. She would want to see her immediately. She’d been longing for time with her Maker, and he understood. He’d felt that pull with his Maker, and especially in the beginning when he’d first been Turned.
They didn’t win a single game, but he didn’t care. Other than he wished she could’ve won just so he could see her smile get even bigger.
He didn’t want bingo to end, but they’d showed up late.
Lyric had sipped on her cider, and all of the tension had left her by the time the last game was called.
There were a few guys looking at her, and he got it.
She was a looker. Prettiest girl he’d ever seen in Coeur d’Alene.
Still, there was a little part of him that was protective and he had to swallow down a growl.
He didn’t want to be one of the asshole males she’d mentioned.
He wanted to play it cool.
“Do you want to trade?” he asked as he walked her out to her car.
She stopped in front of a little black Outback and rested her back against the door, hugging the container of cookies to her chest. “Trade numbers?”
“Sweets,” he said, but yep, he was working his way to the numbers. He just needed to be a patient hunter with a wily wolf like Lyric.
“Oh, sure,” she said, ducking her gaze to the ground.
He’d seen it though—the pink in her cheeks before she’d hidden from him.
He bit back a smile. She was so freaking pretty.
He took her container and set them both on the hood of her car and swapped one of her cookies for three of his brownies.
“That’s too much,” she murmured.
“Trust me, when you try one of Denise’s brownies, you will want more.”
“Okay,” she said softly, and when he looked over at her, her left eye was blazing green.
“You don’t have to be scared of me, you know,” he said softly. “Or any of the Rogue Pack. We only speak kindly of you. Destiny loves you.”
She shifted her weight and canted her head. “She’s not angry?”
Vic shook his head. “You should meet up with her. Do you want a break from the suck? Destiny is one of those good-souled people to be around. She’s medicine.”
Lyric stole her pretty gaze away from him again and looked at the ground. “I could use some medicine. I’ll think about it.”
Vic inhaled a steady breath and took a shot. “Can we trade numbers now too?”
“As friends?” she asked.
“Sure. As whatever you want. I had fun tonight.”
“You’ll give it to Destiny before I’m ready.”
“What if I promise to keep it to myself?”
She lifted that pretty gaze. God, she was beautiful. He wished he could blurt that out, but they were strangers, and Lyric had the ability to disappear into thin air. She’d done as much after the war.
“We aren’t supposed to be friends.”
“I don’t care about that. You shouldn’t either.”
“I’m stuck caring,” she said low.
“Get unstuck.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Vic sighed. “So, no?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
He forced a smile and offered his hand for a shake. “Tonight was one of my favorite nights I can remember,” he said. Oh, even he could hear the truth in his voice.
She slipped her smaller hand into his and shook it. “For me too.” Truth.
He didn’t want to let her hand go. He didn’t want to say goodbye.
He wanted to kiss her and get her addicted to him.
He wanted to steal her phone and text himself from it just so he could have a connection with her.
So he could text her how much fun he had later tonight before he went to bed.
So he could text her good morning tomorrow and ask her more about herself.
But…Lyric wasn’t ready.
He released her hand and stepped back, taking his container of brownies with him. “It was good to meet you, Lyric the Turner.”
“Likewise, Vicious the Bingo Player.”
He belted out a laugh that echoed through the parking lot. Funny girl.
He swallowed down the urge to stall and keep her here longer as she got into her car and started it and then drove away.
He really didn’t want to say goodbye, but goodbye he said by waving her off.
He saw the flash of her pretty glowing eye in the rearview mirror before she turned onto the main road to go back to her Pack.
Vic hung his head for a few seconds, letting it hurt.
He hadn’t really come here to chase women tonight. He’d come here to feel like a part of something outside of his confusion over the Rogue Pack, and he’d stumbled onto a sad wolf-girl who had remembered how to smile tonight.
It had to be enough.
He nodded and made his way toward his truck.
One night with Lyric had to be enough.