“You’re such a lucky asshole,” Jordy says, now on his sixth tamale, and I smirk.
“Consider yourself lucky I put up with you or you’d miss out on all of this.”
Isa laughs. “It is really good.”
“Better than my albóndigas?” I ask and she blushes.
“I don’t know. That’s a hard one. I’m not sure I could choose.”
“Rafael’s ma’s tamales. Hands down. She only makes them like twice a year. I would kill for these.”
I ignore him, leaning toward Isa and capturing her lips with my own in a quick kiss. When I pull back her eyes are wide and uncertain as her fingers come up to touch her mouth.
“What was that for?”
I shrug. “Because I wanted to.”
Jordy, having missed the exchange, talks on about how amazing my mom’s food is and how I’m a greedy bastard who doesn’t share often enough. Some of it is a joke, but there’s a thread of painful honesty there, too. Jordy’s mom bailed when he was seven, leaving behind her husband and four children. Something virtually unheard of among shifters. Wolves don’t abandon their pups. But she did. He has two older brothers and a little sister. And let’s just say his dad isn’t the domestic type.
But Jordy’s always been welcome here and my mom loves feeding the fucker. As we eat, Isa relaxes, her smiles coming more easily as Jordy and I bitch and moan about patrols. Every now and then she sends me questioning looks. I know she’s waiting for me to ask her what happened back at school, but I want her to be comfortable first. I’m also waiting for Desmond to show up. I have a feeling I’m going to need all the help I can get to pry what I need from Isa’s mouth.
When we finish eating, I draw Isa back outside to the garage and pull her down beside me as Jordy takes a seat on the opposite couch, his expression now serious. The sun is setting and a cool breeze floats through the open space, bringing with it the scent of the surrounding Apache pines.
“How is your rib?” I ask, lifting the hem of her shirt and finding tight binding around her middle. Good.
Isa shoves her shirt back down, a frown on her face. “It’s nothing. Already healing.”
I accept the lie, knowing if I push her it’ll only aggravate her more.
As soon as Des’s black Escalade pulls into the driveway, Jordy shifts over to make room for him. Des steps out in black slacks and a black button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He heads toward us and Jordy whistles at him.
Des doesn’t react aside from flipping him off. Seeing Des dressed up isn’t all that unusual. His family is the sort to dress for dinner and use fine china, so I appreciate that he came here straight afterward and didn’t take the unnecessary time to change. His parents were changed, not born. And they cling to their human lives with finely tipped claws. I’ve never understood it. But they like going out of their way to do things the human way. As if that will absolve them of being shifters. Des doesn’t have the same hang-ups having been born a wolf, but we all do what we have to in order to live up to our parents’ expectations of us.
He sits back on the sofa and gives me a look that says, now what?
Isa catches it and turns to look at me. “What’s going on?” Her tone is wary.
I run my fingers through my hair and sigh. “We need to know who attacked you today.”
She starts to stand but I pull her back down beside me. “No more running. Someone hurt you and we want to know who.”
“Why do you care?” she hisses. “I’m not Pack.”
Is she kidding me right now? “I care because you’re my—”
“I’m not your anything.”
Clenching my jaw, I cup her face and force her to meet my gaze. “We’ve gone over this. You’re mine. My girl. Got it?” She swallows hard but doesn’t respond. “Anyone who fucks with you is asking to be fucked with by me.”
“Us,” Des corrects.
“Why?”
I open my mouth to speak but she cuts me off. “And yeah, I get it. You’re a possessive asshole. I’m yours until you decide I’m not. I know. But we’ve gone over this, too,”—she indicates the space between us, a small frown on her face—“and we both agreed this is for fun. We’re passing the time. You don’t need to go all alpha protector on me. I can take care of myself. If you get involved it will only create more problems.”
Silence.
No one says a thing as I glare into her dark brown eyes, pretending it doesn’t bother me one bit to hear her say that whatever we have between us doesn’t fucking matter. Like she said, we’re just passing the time. I’m not catching feelings for some girl I barely know and clearly she’s not catching any for me. Good.
My wolf howls in protest but I ignore it.
I release my grip on her jaw before I leave a bruise and give an exaggerated eye roll. “Stop reading into this, vanilla. If I can’t protect what’s mine, then how can I expect anyone to take me seriously. I have a reputation to uphold and a future Alpha is no coward.”
Jordy opens his mouth to say something but I send him a murderous look, shutting him up.
Isa’s brows furrow as she considers my words with a sigh. “I can handle this on my own.”
“Right. Because you’ve done such a great job already.”
“Will you just drop it?”
All three of us shake our heads.
“We’re going to find out one way or another. Why are you so adamant to face this alone?” Desmond presses.
“Because I can. It’s my problem.
