Her blood had hummed when he’d kissed her in the bar, but she forced herself to ignore it. His body obviously didn’t react the same way, so her blood had to be wrong. Maybe she just wanted it to be, so she imagined it.
Before she knew it, the hummus was all gone, and Monster was licking his fingers before wiping them on his napkin.
Damn, the man must exude an aphrodisiac from his pores because she had never been so turned on just by another’s presence as she was with Monster.
Monster reached across the table, grabbing her hand and interlacing her fingers. “Tell me about your family?”
“What?” Not only did his question catch her off guard, but she was also stunned to see a thick cuff of silver around his wrist. She wondered why he’d hurt his wolf like that.
“Your family?”
“Oh, well, I’m an only child, as far as I know. My parents didn’t stay together, and I lost touch with my father until …” she trailed off. Talking about him was hard, even more so knowing she had agreed to help him. “Recently, although there’s no love lost there.”
“Why recently?”
“Oh, um, my mother is very sick. For some stupid reason, I thought he’d care.” That was all she really wanted to say.
“What about you?”
“The club is the only family I have. My parents passed and no siblings for me either. You originally from here?”
“No. You?” It wasn’t a complete lie; the pack wasn’t Vegas.
“No. Who is really from Vegas anyway? I mean, I’ve met some locals, but they’re a rare breed.”
“Vegan supreme. No cheese?” A voice asked as they approached the table. It wasn’t Rachel, thank God. Carys wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have spit in their food.
“Oh, wow, that smells amazing.” Carys breathed in deeply. The pizza did smell tasty, no denying it, but not as good as Monster did. She was intoxicated by his scent. He smelled like a wolf and a man should.
Not for the first time, she wondered if that was the only reason she felt so drawn to him, some deeply ingrained biological imperative. There was no denying that until Monster, she had never felt that kind of pull toward any man, even the one she’d found herself engaged to once upon a time.
She loved Todd until he changed, became controlling and jealous.
The thought made her sad. She wanted to find a man who loved her for her, and she’d like him for him and not because they were hardwired that way.
Her mother promised her that while she’d have a certain attraction to a wolf that might be missing with a man alone, it wouldn’t override her own heart, except in the case of fated mates. Fate had never been kind to her or her mother, so Carys wasn’t holding her breath waiting on that.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Monster lifted her chin with his knuckle.
She opted for a half-truth since her father forbade her from revealing herself or any knowledge of shifters.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about my mother.”
“So, you two are close?” Monster asked as he took a bite of his pizza and shook his head in appreciation.
Carys smiled as memories flooded her.
“Yeah. It was us against the world, and heaven help anyone who made me cry.” She took a bite of her own pizza and moaned. “Oh,” she said after she had chewed. “One time, when I was fifteen, I was at my boyfriend Tommy’s house when his big brother, James, came in harassing him and trying to be all macho and shit. So, I punched him in the nose. He got mad and shoved me, not hard, but still. Tommy got between us, and James just laughed. He said I was leading Tommy on, and when he finally tired of me, he’d show me what little teases were good for and grabbed his crotch before leaving.”
For a second she thought about not finishing the story because it made her mom sound unhinged, but if she couldn’t tell Monster about anything else in her life, she could share her mom with him.
“Anyway, I told Mom, and she just smiled a sickly sweet smile, grabbed her handbag and beckoned me to the car. The entire ride over to Tommy’s, she was humming like we were going shopping or something. When we got there, she knocked on the door. When Tommy answered, she asked him about his grades and just weird conversational stuff. Then she asked about James, his birthday, etc. When she asked if she could talk to James, I thought here it comes, she’s gonna go off, but nope. She said, Oh James, what a strapping young man you’ve become. So handsome. Now, to make this even more absurd, James was six feet easy, and about a buck eighty. Mom, well, I’ve got a few inches on her. So it was like Simone Biles looking up at Shaq.”
She chewed another bite of pizza.
“Then she said. When you turn eighteen in two months and eleven days, I’ll be back to beat your ass. I like the sound of assault better than assault on a minor. And when I do come back, if I were you, I’d run. In the meantime, if you see my beautiful daughter, don’t speak to her, don’t look at her, don’t even breathe on her. And especially don’t touch her, because if you do, I won’t wait until then and it won’t be as pleasant. Then, I shit you not, she patted his cheek like a kindly old grandmother would and turned around, then got back in the car as if she hadn’t just threatened him.”
The look on Monster’s face made her laugh. He looked like he was torn between disbelief and respect. Then he burst out laughing. “She sounds like my kind of woman.”
