Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
“The trouble with magic is that there’s too much it just can’t fix. When things go wrong, glimpsing junkyard faerie and crows that can turn into girls and back again doesn’t help much. The useful magic’s never at hand. The three wishes and the genies in bottles, seven-league boots, invisible cloaks and all. They stay in the stories, while out here in the wide world we have to muddle through as best we can on our own.”
— CHARLES DE LINT
A fter a quick picnic in my truck, I took Sonnet to the corn maze. Mr. Allerbee planted a special cornfield each year and then charged two bucks to run through it. He picked a different shape each year: a gigantic tractor, a pinball machine, and (the year he forgot his wedding anniversary) a teddy bear with an I love Mrs. A message. He was real sweet on his wife even if he was bad with dates. Ranger helped him with the GPS stuff that he used to plant the corn seeds in the desired shapes in spring. Now that it was October, the corn was dry and even spookier at sunset.
People stared at us there, too, but only the ones over the age of five. Eventually, we lost Sonnet’s fans in the maze, although a couple of people were waiting for her by the exit as word had got around.
After three hours of officially dating, I still did not know what to do with myself when people came up to Sonnet. They did not want my autograph or picture, and I was mostly in the way. Sonnet smiled and chatted, charming them all. She was real good at her job.
When we finally left the Allerbee farm, further evasive maneuvers were required because some of the visitors to the corn maze decided to follow us.
I stuck to mostly private roads and some off-road forays. My truck could go places that were off-limits to most people. Usually I would have enjoyed the off-roading, but tonight I was anxious. I assumed Sonnet didn’t want people knowing where she was staying at night. This struck me as safer for her, and her safety was my number one priority.
Which is why we should be staying with her , my wolf grumbled. He also had not enjoyed our uninvited company.
The moon was rising, well on its way to full. The urge to shift into my wolf was a familiar itch beneath my skin.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. She sounded sad and down—she hadn’t said much at all since we’d gotten back into my truck, unlike our easy conversation on the way to Biscuits it would take me maybe two seconds, and then I’d have the fangs to take care of the problem.
No one hurts our girl.
“It’s me,” the guy groaned.
I paused, mid-shift.
“It’s Eric.” The voice filtered through my half-wolf, half-man brain and...shitfuckdamn. This was not an intruder.
“Viking man!” Sonnet threw herself down onto the porch, patting the pieces of Eric that weren’t bruised or underneath my foot.
I growled, stupidly, irrationally irritated that Eric had opened the door and put himself in the way of my fist. Admittedly, I was irritated—and jealous—that he was here at all. The fact that I’d hit first was irrelevant.
Sonnet looked up and her eyes rounded. I cursed again.
I was not myself, not completely. I was, in fact, halfway between man and wolf, and it was not a pretty look.
My face had taken on a lupine cast, the bones longer, my canines larger, and my hair more mane than not. Long claws had sprouted from my fingertips, and the rest of my wolf was a breath away from tearing through my human skin.
I winced. Sonnet now knew I was keeping secrets for sure. This date just got worse and worse.
There goes our good-night kiss.
Eric groaned, oblivious to the bigger issue. I shifted back before he could catch me.
Sonnet glared up at me. She knew I knew she knew that I was not entirely human. We would be having us a conversation real soon, and not just because she’d busted me.
She’s not freaking out , my wolf said. Shouldn’t she be startled? Or scared? Or yelling like a banshee?
Had Wyatt been sharing secrets with her?
Two more men—most decidedly human—appeared in the open doorway, both pointing weapons at me.
“Who are these people?” I muttered, at my limit for the night.
“Hands up,” the closer of the two barked at me. “Now.”
“Like hell I will.”
This was clearly not the appropriate response. The second guy started toward me. What else could he do? He had a gun, and I’d refused to obey. He had to show me he was dominant.
He was about to lose that battle to me when Eric—still on the ground—tugged at the guy’s pant leg.
“Spike! Cliff! Stop your roll. This is Maverick, the professor. The one I briefed you on earlier. He’s just Sonnet’s ride home.”
My gaze lasered into each of the three guys. Pew-pew-PEW. Eric the “colleague” was a security detail. Sonnet was the kind of woman who needed three armed, burly men to keep her safe. Three . Men who had names like Spike .
We’re better.
Something bitter twisted inside me. I was better at fighting and defending, but I would not be inviting myself inside tonight.
“I apologize,” Eric was saying. “I heard movement out here, but I should have checked the cameras and turned on a light. That’s on me.”
I stared down at him, gritting my teeth, debating whether I had to move my boot off his wrist, and feeling utterly irritated and out of place. Savage too. I was a college professor. A shapeshifting wolf who had almost abandoned a lifetime of secrecy.
Yeah. We would have been in deep shit for that .
I do a lot of things. It’s important to make sure you know this. Is it even possible for this woman to make space for me in her life?
Fishbowl , my wolf said glumly. But if she knows about the wolf, then we can go all in. Love her. Bite her. Welcome her to the family?
Maybe. But it was more than the fishbowl lifestyle. There was something mesmerizing and tantalizing about her. Attractive, yet with so much more beneath the surface. And she hadn’t seemed insincere, feeding me lines about wanting to spend time with me. She felt real. Heartfelt. And then there was her warm, curvy body.
Definitely want to feel that.
I removed my boot from Eric’s wrist.
“No, I apologize.” I leaned down and offered him my hand. “You’re gonna want to ice that shoulder. The wrist too. You two”—I pointed to the two guys who were just now holstering their weapons—“get him some ice from the freezer.”
Eric took my hand with his good wrist, and I pulled him up.
“Thanks, man.”
Seeing as how I was the reason he’d been injured—which was the pattern of my life—I ignored his thanks. Instead, I got out my phone and fired off a quick text to the local doc. He was just about retirement age, but he’d come out if I asked him.
I stared at the screen, ignoring Sonnet’s expression of concern as she patted Eric’s good arm and then applied the ice that her hired goons brought. Backsliding into my old ways and hurting people was not acceptable.
Doc texted me back, and I let Eric know that medical help was on the way.
“I’ll be fine,” he growled. “I’ve had worse.”
“Yeah. I figure you will be.” Sonnet gave an indignant squeak, clearly disagreeing. “But this will make Ms. Ruiz feel better.”
Sometimes you had to do things to make other people happy, and this was one of those times. Eric nodded. Message received.
Sonnet hovered in the doorway, her gaze bouncing back and forth between the two of us, trying to read our signals. She was biting the inside of her cheek again, her fingers twisted into a complicated braid.
I rubbed the back of my neck. It was time to go.
Yeah , my wolf said. We’re done here. This date sucked.
“Do you want to come in?” Sonnet wove around her trio of dudes and stopped in front of me.
I do a lot of things.
It seemed so overwhelming. But I was also proud of her, and amazed. She was smart and talented, and I was glad she’d found success.
Fucking greeting card right there.
“No, thank you,” I said gently. I couldn’t wait to leave.
I had a whole lot of unexpected emotions to sort out. It wasn’t that she was sharing a place with three guys, or that she needed those guys to fend off my rude friends and neighbors. Or even that her celebrity made my neighbors lose their minds; we had no chance at all of having alone time, and I did not do audiences. It wasn’t even that I now really had to have the wolf conversation with her.
Before we’d lost her, my momma had liked to dispense what she called her pearls of wisdom. As a kid, I’d decided this was code for politely pointing out ways in which future me might screw up. As a man, I knew she’d been a wise woman. She’d said that men were not big planners, not when it came to Friday date night and not for the bigger things in life, either. And for those years when I’d run wild and done what I wanted to do, making a name and a place for myself with the Iron Wolves, making our daddy proud, I hadn’t planned, either.
I’d had plenty of plans for how this evening would go. I had a thing for this girl. She felt like a new beginning after five long years of living straight and making level-headed decisions.
But then we’d got out of my truck and gone into Biscuits you didn’t know.”
Hearing that the woman I liked was almost certainly magically hoodwinking me into thinking I had warm feelings for her did not cheer me up any. My mood turned grimmer. But that was fine. It was long overdue payback for my misspent youth.
The karma bus beeped as it backed up over me. My ex-girlfriends cheered. Now you know what it feels like, asshole!
Yet, it could have been worse.
I’d had one date with Sonnet. We were not having sex, engaged, or halfway to Vegas for a quickie wedding.
D , my wolf opined. All of the above would be fucking great.
I’d just stay away from her, wait for these feelings of mine to abate. Like the tide. Or interest rates. I’d be just fine.
You can’t forget your mate , my wolf said.
Sonnet is a part of us.