I whirled to find Travis standing in the doorway, staring at me with nothing but boxer shorts on. “Hey, Pumpkin. I didn’t know you were here.”
A woman peeked her head around him. “Hi,” she said in a small voice. Travis stepped to the side, and a tiny slip of a woman stepped into the kitchen. She wore a long, flowing mustard color skirt that had a flowery pattern to it and a creamy peasant blouse. Her golden blonde hair may as well have had a flower crown woven through it. It didn't though, instead she wore a headband that was turquoise with a pink pattern on it that had threads of gold woven in at some places making it sparkle whenever she turned her head.
At least she was dressed, unlike my son.
“Mom, this is Jacqueline.” He smiled at the girl and the sun shined in his eyes.Uh-oh.He was head over heels. And she looked like she was about the furthest thing from who I’d pick for him. He was such a straight-laced kid and Jacqueline was… boho. That was a good word for it. She looked like she was into crystals and tarot and all that without actually knowing any of it might be real. I could imagine her saying that she wanted to go be one with the forest or something. Not that it was a bad thing, just not what I expected for my nerdy boy. But then, she was in the engineering program, too… maybe they had more in common than I thought.
Deva jumped forward and held out her hand as I stared at my son and his friend in shock. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Deva, one of Emma’s friends. It's so nice to meet you both.” She dropped her voice but could barely keep the laughter from it as she added, “Maybe you want to run and put some clothes on?”
Travis’s cheeks colored as he blinked rapidly, then jumped and ran out of the room. The familiar thump of his feet hitting the stairs at top speed made me smile and knocked me out of my musing. He'd run upstairs like that for most of his life, after school, after soccer, after his first girlfriend broke up with him, after me and Rick started fighting. My mood soured at the thought of my ex, but I wasn't going to let it ruin my first time meeting Jacqueline.
“So,” I said brightly. “You’re dating my son?”
Jacqueline looked at me with bright, worried eyes, as though she was expecting a full interrogation of some kind. It made me wonder what her previous boyfriends had been like, or if she was hiding something that she didn't want me to find out about. Or maybe her previous boyfriends’ mothers had been unpleasant.
I shook my head a little to shake away the thought. Not everyone was suspicious and mysterious. This wasn’t Mystic Hollow, after all.
Chapter Three
Daniel
The wolf pack was in trouble.Again.
“So, you paying the damages?” Sam rolled a toothpick between his teeth as he waited for me to answer, although I could see it in his face that he was already expecting me to reach for my checkbook, like I had a thousand times before. “I figure it’s about five hundred for me to replace that table and the two chairs.”
I glanced over at the members of the pack, sitting sullenly in cuffs. My hand went to my back pocket, ready to pull out my wallet. But for some reason, I hesitated. Was I doing these kids any good by always bailing them out? Ever since Thomasdied, I’d been helping them out of trouble every time they managed to get themselves in these situations. I’d seen Nathan, Thomas’s son and the new head of their pack, hurting the same way I was hurting. But instead of keeping busy and trying to help this town the way I had, Nathan just seemed to be leading himself and the rest of his pack to complete destruction.
Yes, I’d thought by this point things would be getting better. But judging by the boys’ torn, dirty clothes and faces full of bruises, things weren’t getting better. And maybe it was my fault. As a bear, I couldn’t lead their pack or tell them what to do, but I could stop enabling them. Something I should have done a long time ago, a decade ago when he died. I didn’t know if it was seeing Emma that had brought this desire for change inside of me, but regardless of the cause, I couldn’t go down this road any longer.
It wasn’t healthy. Not for me. Or for them.
“No.” I drew my hand away from my money as the alpha, Nathan, looked up at me in shock. “Not this time.”
Even Sheriff Samuel’s eyebrows went up. But I looked away from his surprised expression to the boys. I could see it in Nathan’s face. In all his twenty-something years, he’d never been in a situation that this old bear, or his father, didn’t step up and bail him out of. I hoped, even if he hated me after this, he one day realized that I did him a favor.
God, I hope I was doing them all a favor.
His father would’ve been disappointed in me for being so soft with them. Yeah, he hadn’t ever let Nathan get hurt, but he also didn’t coddle him the way I had. He was preparing him every day of his life to become the next alpha. He taught him right and wrong. He helped him to grow up healthy and strong. And then… then he was gone and the solid foundation he’d built crumbled.
It wasn’t all my fault. But I hadn’t helped. And as Nathan’s gray eyes met mine and narrowed in utter hatred, I felt my stomach twist. I loved this kid like he was my own, but if he had to hate me to learn to be better, then I’d accept this.
I looked at Sheriff Samuel, willing myself not to feel like a traitor. “Put them in lockup. They need to learn a lesson because this shit isn’t getting any better.”
The other wolves shuffled around and glared at me, and a feeling of betrayal and a whole lot of anger rolled off of them. It made me feel bad to see these lost kids probably feeling like they were losing another father figure. But if I was going to try my best to help them, then I needed to learn the difference between helping them and enabling them. By the end of this, they’d either improve, stay the same, or get worse, but at least Itriedto make things better.
“If they can come up with the money to pay the damages, I can probably get them off with just community service,” the sheriff said, adjusting the brim of his big cowboy hat, his mouth drawn into a thin line. No doubt he was thinking about how he was going to keep this rough pack of kids in our small jail until things got sorted out.
His gaze met mine, and he huffed, his belly protruding even further as he realized what I already knew. They didn’t have the money. They couldn’t put two and two together long enough to make any money. The lot of them were aimless. Not hunting the way the pack had done in the past, providing meat and fur to sell in the local shops, nor using the other resources on their lands to keep the pack coffers full.
It was kind of depressing. It wasn’t that long ago that the wolves were comfortably wealthy, run like a well-oiled machine, and were something to be proud of. Damn it. They’d fallen so far, and where was I? Just putting one foot in front of the other, trying to ignore my broken heart? A fat lot of help that had done this pack.
Nathan’s glare hit me again, and I swear he wanted to tear my head off. Wolves were known for being hot-headed, but most shifters knew when to bow their head and take their licks. Losing his dad so young had made Nathan angry. Bitter. And not at all the kind of man who sat up tall, accepted the consequences of his actions, and tried to better himself.
Maybe a little tough love would help the kid. Bailing him out certainly hadn’t been doing it.
Without another word or even a backward glance, I walked out of the bar and got into my truck. Turning the key in the ignition, her loud engine roared to life, and I buckled up, hands shaking ever so slightly. Nathan’s face kept flashing in my mind, but I put my pickup in drive and headed out of that dark parking lot.
I needed some time to myself. To clear my head. And not run back there, waving my wallet.
