Memories of his mate’s face followed him into his dreams. Gold flashes in Quain’s eyes revealed his shifter heritage, and Peter regretted not asking about his inner animal. Quain’s status as a seer had distracted him. He ached without the presence of his otherhalf.
After his forced mutation, Peter’s survival instincts had pushed away any plans of settling down with anyone. Now free of power-hungry psychos, things were looking muchbetter.
Loud clapping pulled his attention away from his self-congratulations. Grinning, he rolled down the window to shout at his friend. “Hey,Steven.”
Since joining the Moon Pack, he had become good friends with wolf shifter Steven Dell and his tiger shifter mate, Dare. The couple had a strange relationship, but they were happy together, so who was he to judge? Besides, Dare made Peter laugh. He found little enough amusement in life that he appreciated anyone who could increaseit.
“That crazy preacher is still screaming on the corner.” Steven jabbed his thumb over his shoulder toward the open baydoor.
“I know.” Peter rolled his eyes as Steven pointed out the only downside to the garage’s excellent location on a busy intersection. Good for business, but too appealing to religious wackos trying to shout down infidels. They used the street corner to preach their beliefs in loud self-righteous tones. Most of the time, Peter simply turned up the garage radio and drowned out their noise, but one in particular screeched his rhetoric from Wednesday to Friday every week in a loud booming voice. Peter’s head always ached by the end of the day. He respected other people’s religion, but he didn’t appreciate anyone screaming at him about his imminent trip to hell. “I wish I could have him arrested for disturbing the peace, but he has that whole obnoxious freedom-of-speech thing working forhim.”
Steven laughed. “Pesky rights and everything.” He nodded his head toward the car. “You finally got itworking.”
Peter turned off the engine. Even with the bay doors open, he didn’t want fumes filling his garage. “I got the last part this morning. She might need a bit more fine tuning, but she’s running great.” He couldn’t stop a small bit of pride from shining through. The opportunity to indulge in his love of cars had been a long timecoming.
“She sounds great! What color are you going to paint her? I’m guessing Bondo gray isn’t your final choice.” Steven gave the patched vehicle a waryeye.
“I’m thinking of going with her original red. I want to keep her as authentic looking as possible.” Peter stepped out of the car to speak with his friend. His inner wolf gave a happy bark at the sight of a packmember.
“Now that you’ve almost finished this project, maybe you can do me a favor and help Dare shop for his new car?” Steveasked.
Peter frowned. “Why does he need a new car? His SUV isn’t that old.” As of his last oil change, Dare’s vehicle had only four thousand miles onit.
Steven rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting Peter’s eyes. “I might have used it for a mutant raid, and someone possibly could have dropped a body from a few stories up onto thehood.”
Peter winced. “And did your mate possibly threaten your life?” It was all he could do to hold back his laughter. Dare’s notoriously laid-back personality didn’t extend to his vehicles. The possessive kitty had loved thatSUV.
“Possibly.” Steven’s sheepish expression had Peter throwing back his head andlaughing.
“You’re an idiot. Why didn’t you take your owncar?”
“It had a flat tire and I hadn’t replaced it yet,” Stevenwhined.
“A new tire would’ve been a hell of a lot cheaper than a new car. You should’ve brought it to me.” He didn’t really have it in him to do more than mock scold. It took too much effort to hide his amusement. Steven seemed to search out the worst ways to rile his sweet lover. A more mismatched pair, he had never met. If they hadn’t been mates, he wondered if they would’ve gotten together atall.
“Perhaps. Or maybe I wanted to get Dare a new car and didn’t want to listen to him argue about it.” Steven’s smug smile set Peter laughingagain.
“My lips are sealed.” Peter shook his head at his friend’santics.
They spent the next few hours in Peter’s office, talking about new vehicles and mates over bottles of beer. The slight smudge of loneliness Peter had refused to acknowledge vanished. Joining the Moon Pack had been the best choice ever. Silver and Anthony were awe-inspiring, powerful leaders and more than capable of protecting the pack against any enemies. It helped that one of the pack leaders was the ultimate alpha wolf and the other a god. Peter didn’t know what kind of god, but he wouldn’t cross Anthony foranything.
Steven slapped Peter on the shoulder. “Well, I’ve gotta go. If you don’t mind, I’ll have Dare call you to arrange a day for car shopping. It might be better if I’m not there to help him pick. Just make sure he chooses something brand new and safe. I don’t care about the price as long as it doesn’t go into the sixfigures.”
Peter raised his eyebrows at that. “Win the lottery lately?” As far as he knew, Steven didn’t have a fortune stashedaway.
“I’ve been saving for a while.” Steven grinned. “I was going to buy him a new car as a birthday gift, but I was worried he would complain about my ‘extravagance.’” He used his fingers to make air quotes over the lastword.
“Aren’t you the sneaky wolf,” Peterteased.
“I have to be. You’ve met my curiouskitty.”
Peter ignored the painful twist in his chest at the thought of a mate of his own. Would his mate care what kind of car he drove? In the future, would he be plotting to buy Quain expensive gifts he couldn’t turn down? He had been surprised enough to learn he had a mate. If bonding had a genetic component, then having his DNA twisted into a tangled strand should have destroyed any chance of happiness. Quain had been an unexpected but welcomesurprise.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help Dare.” He smiled at Steven’s relievedexpression.
“And make sure it has excellent crash-test ratings.” Stevenscowled.
“You are such a mamma wolf watching out for your tiger.” Peter grinned at his friend’sblush.
