6. Henri
Chapter 6
Henri
Nathan is squeezing my hand so tightly I’m worried he’ll break my fingers. There’s a sickly thick rage coming off him in droves. I knew I should have messaged him to let him know what was going on. It’s fair to let him know when my plans change.
We get to the car across the parking lot, and Nathan speaks in long, hissing tones under his breath while holding the car door open for me. “I can’t believe you were out shopping with that asshole.”
I know better than to argue with him until he calms down. If I don’t wait, it will only cause a scene. One that Deacon could see and escalate.
The door slams closed almost with my fingers in it. Nathan rounds to his side and yanks his door open, then slams it behind him when he gets in. The car rocks a little bit, and he turns my head to face him, fingers digging into my cheek.
“You don’t talk to other guys.” Nathan glares at me. “Especially. Not. Wolves.”
My wolf rises inside me, pushing forward in the fight or flight response. He’s so angry. I hold her down. He hates it when he can see her, any reminder that there’s something different between us.
“He’s my boss, Nathan.” I reassure him, fawning to try and get him to calm down. “He really does want us to go to lunch on him. It’s nothing but business.”
“Yeah.” Nathan roughly lets me go, the flat tone in his voice not giving me any indication to how he’s feeling or what he’s thinking.
Nathan drives in silence from the mall where we were shopping to Hare’s Hearth. I don’t dare open the conversation up. If I ask about his day when he’s this mad, he’ll say I’m taking him away from work because he was worried about me. It’s logical and understandable.
We pull into the general parking lot nearest Hare’s Hearth, and Nathan finds a spot.
“You know no one will love you as much as I love you,” he says coolly before getting out of the car.
Those words strike a chord in the hollow of my heart. Without Nathan, I’m alone, and he’s loved me all these years.
I take a fortifying breath and climb out of the passenger side, walking to where he waits by the trunk for me.
“Especially not one of those wolves. You said so yourself. You’re more human than they are.” Nathan leaves me with that information, stepping away from me.
He doesn’t slow down, and I struggle to keep up with my shorter strides as he walks across the street.
I walk behind him, barely catching up just before the door to the restaurant closes.
I may be more human than Deacon, but I’m still less human than Nathan. I don’t belong in either of their worlds.
“Table for two,” Nathan commands the host at the stand.
“Reservation?” The host’s accent holds a sharp undertone that reminds me of Finn’s .
“We don’t have one,” Nathan says with a sneer.
“I’m sorry. We don’t have any tables available until tomorrow afternoon.” The host gives a curt nod.
Nathan pulls out one of the hundred dollar bills that Deacon gave us and tries to slip it to the host.
The host looks at it and raises his eyebrow. “We don’t require deposits for reservations.”
Nathan stumbles, clearly upset, and the tips of his ears go red.
I step up to the stand and flash the host a glimpse of my wolf through my eyes. “I’m Henri Greene. There should be a table reserved for the Aldens.”
“Now. Why didn’t you say so?” The host glares at Nathan before looking back at me with a Cheshire grin, and their eyes change from the green they once were to the hearty warm gold of a wolf. “That’ll be this way.”
We’re led to the back of the restaurant, where it’s quieter and booths of dark wood and soft seats are more private and a step above the regular dining level than the floor. Nathan slides into one side, the side facing away from the rest of the restaurant because ‘no one can sneak up on him,’ and I take my seat across from him.
“I’ll send your server over right away. But can I start you with a pint?” The host speaks to me. Not Nathan.
I shake my head. “No, just water for me.”
“Yeah, you serve anything other than imported shit?” Nathan runs his hand across the table like he expects there to be crumbs.
The strength it takes to not visibly cringe is something I have in spades after years of dating Nathan, but this time it falters. The host nods at me in some sort of understanding of my embarrassment.
He side-eyes Nathan and speaks with a really fake Southern American accent. “I’ll see if we can’t rustle up something out of a can.”
Nathan, if he recognizes it as an insult, says nothing. Without menus and sitting in the quieter section of the restaurant, it feels awkward.
“Well, I can see why you’d want to come here.” Nathan scowls, his glare leveled on me. He seethes at a lower volume, “That wolf was practically all over you, and I’m right fuckin’ here with you. No respect at all for humans.”
“What?” The word comes out too fast for me to stop it. “Nathan, all I did was show him my eyes. It’s just how we prove that we’re pack.”
“Mm.”
He looks away from me, and I’m so frustrated with it all. I wish I had talked him out of coming here. Nathan wanted to do something nice, but I’m starting to forget the times when his thoughtful gestures felt genuine.
Thankfully, our server comes over quickly. Another wolf, but this one female, which historically makes Nathan less threatened.
“Hello, I’m O’Malley, I’ll be taking care of you this evening.” She sets a golden-colored beer in front of Nathan and water in front of me before pulling a set of simple paper menus from her apron. She gingerly sets them on the table.
They’re not the same larger menus I saw on the tables while walking from the front of the house.
“Fancy.” Nathan looks down his nose at the menu with his chin tilted up.
“This is the family menu today. If something isn’t acceptable, I’d be glad to talk to the kitchen.” O’Malley stands there for a brief second, shifting her eyes between the two of us. “I’ll give you a minute and stop back. ”
Nathan checks out her ass as she walks away, which I ignore. If I criticize him for looking at other women, it’ll just circle back to how I dress or that my boss is a man or any number of things that make Nathan nervous that I’d cheat on him.
He turns back to me. “This gonna be more expensive than the regular menu? Maybe we shouldn’t have come here. Your boss was cheap and only gave us like three hundred.”
“I’m sure it’ll be more than enough.”
I’m not completely sure it will or won’t be, but from the conversation with Cade about taking client meetings here, I know there’s an open tab. It really doesn’t matter how much Deacon gave us because the pack will cover it.
Nathan immediately scrutinizes the menu. “This is all such heavy foods. I don’t know that you should be eating all this. It’s a lot of red meat.”
My wolf presses forward, angry. She’s used to being quiet when Nathan gets upset, but we both struggle with him controlling what we eat. Mostly because he forgets I need things, like red meat, for instance, to survive.
“It’s a special menu. It would be rude to ask for substitutions.” I try to cut this off before it begins. “It’s just one meal anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re right. We can call it a cheat meal.” Nathan nods.
I hate it so much. I feel so bad because if he knew all the food I eat at work, he’d be so angry. Trying not to panic, I push the thoughts from my mind.
Nathan changes the subject in an instant. “I just don’t understand what you’re doing out with him.”
“Deacon is my boss.” I reiterate what I told him last night. It was a difficult conversation, but I needed to tell him right away. “I’m doing a campaign to get him to be more forward facing with the media, and I need him to have a respectable wardrobe. It was strictly business.”
“Hmm.” Nathan seems more convinced than the last time I said these words. “The way he looks at you isn’t appropriate.”
How does he look at me? The urge to question him is strong, but I remain silent.
The dead air between us lasts just long enough for O’Malley to come back, a basket of bread and two soups on her tray. I’m salivating at the smell of fresh bread and the hearty beef stew.
“I’m just saying working for the gym would be a step up compared to working with them.” Nathan spits at the last word.
O’Malley quickly retreats from the table.
“Them?” I ask softly, but I know what he’s saying.
“Wolves.” Nathan scoffs that I questioned it.
“I see.”
Reminding him I’m a wolf will only start a fight. He’s mad that I didn’t tell him when we met. But it’s not exactly something you tell a guy you just met, and then it got more serious. But then we moved to Minnesota, and I finished my degree and got an internship with the Aldens.
Wolves were never supposed to come out to the public. I was never going to come out to Nathan as a wolf, but it felt like only a matter of time for him to put it together. Explaining to Nathan that the Aldens only hire wolves and, therefore, I’m a wolf was excruciating. It was the most angry I’d ever seen him.
Putting myself in his shoes, I completely understand his anger. It’s a big thing to hide from someone.
We don’t have to hide from Deacon. My wolf recalls the pack run, being shifted and running alongside him. I’m a slow runner, but Deacon, even with his long legs, stayed back, jogging alongside me .
“Oh,” Nathan pipes up, bread in his mouth as he talks. “The guys and I have plans for New Year’s. We’re going to go to Vegas for a fight. Leaving the twenty-seventh, be back the third.”
He’ll be gone for almost an entire week. It makes my heart hurt that he doesn’t want to spend it with me, but there’s no point in arguing.
“Sure, I’m happy for you. That sounds like it’ll be a great time.”
“You don’t mind, do you?” Nathan isn’t exactly asking my opinion; he’s looking for a fight.
“No, I don’t mind at all.” I smile, wishing for once he’d want to spend a holiday with me like we used to before. “I wish I could come, is all.”
“You wouldn’t have any fun.” Nathan shakes his head. “It’s gonna be a bunch of time in a bunch of different gyms and then the fights themselves. You’d hate it.”
That’s the final word on the subject.
Rather than argue, I try to make the most of the afternoon off and the meal at the restaurant I really have wanted to go to for years. On the bright side, his absence will make it a hell of a lot easier to coordinate all the New Year’s Eve parties the Aldens have been invited to.