For the first time in a long time, she could breathe.
She didn’t know what kind of magic Vic possessed, but she liked him.
Chapter Two
Lyric was so pretty. Vic had only seen her wolf before now. Oh, he recognized her eyes. She had run into the woods, so she didn’t have to see Vic’s Alpha, Liam, kill Lyric’s father, Aro.
He didn’t know what kind of pain a person could harbor from something so traumatic, but she seemed tough and well-adjusted.
She was starting to relax. He could tell.
She had blond hair, and those bi-colored green and brown eyes had him trapped in her gaze more times than he wanted to admit.
“What do you like?” he asked.
She was staring at the room with this little absent smile on her full lips. “Me?” she asked.
“Yeah. They have rice Krispy treats, and any cookie you imagine.” He pointed to the sugar cookies with the chocolate dollops on them. “The lady who makes those is a magician.”
“Those look good. I can pay though.”
It went against every instinct in his body to say, “Okay,” but he didn’t want her thinking he was being too forceful with the paying. Truth be told, he wanted to pay for her fun night. Did she know how sad her eyes had looked? Did she know he could smell her anguish from the front door of the bar?
He didn’t know her, but he owed her. Why? Because she betrayed her people and saved Destiny. And not only saved her. Lyric had given her a wolf to go to battle with. She’d cemented Destiny’s place in the Rogue Pack, at Dodger’s side.
Dodger was happy for the first time Vic could remember, and Lyric had helped facilitate that, whether she realized it or not.
He wanted to buy her the cookies, but he didn’t want her to get angry with him and run.
So, “Okay,” was all he said, and he stood back while she paid for six of the thumbprint cookies he’d recommended.
He waved to Denise and led Lyric to a couple of empty chairs at the end of one of the tables in the back. He needed to give her some space from the busy center of the room just in case her green eye ramped up its color again. God, she was gorgeous. He hadn’t been nervous around a woman maybe ever, but she smelled so good, and her smile was so pretty, it consumed him.
Friends. He’d told her they could be friends.Focus.
He resisted the urge to pull her chair out for her and sank down beside her. She was maybe five foot four. He wanted to know all about her time doing the Elders bidding. She was their Turner. Why? How had she fallen into that. How had she survived the broken Maker Bonds to the people she had Turned?
Interesting little wolf-woman.
Too interesting, perhaps.
They had to wait for the next game to start to begin marking off their first bingo card, and at first, she had questions. They were the cute kind about the free space, and what blackout bingo was. The caller had deemed it a blackout game, which meant the winner would have to mark off every space before they could yell, “Bingo.”
Vic couldn’t stop looking over at her. Fuck, Lyric smelled good. Fur and some fruity shampoo and just…female.
He wished he could text Destiny and tell her he found Lyric. She would want to see her immediately. She’d been longing for time with her Maker, and he understood. He’d felt that pull with his Maker, and especially in the beginning when he’d first been Turned.
They didn’t win a single game, but he didn’t care. Other than he wished she could’ve won just so he could see her smile get even bigger.
He didn’t want bingo to end, but they’d showed up late. Lyric had sipped on her cider, and all of the tension had left her by the time the last game was called. There were a few guys looking at her, and he got it. She was a looker. Prettiest girl he’d ever seen in Coeur d’Alene. Still, there was a little part of him that was protective and he had to swallow down a growl. He didn’t want to be one of the asshole males she’d mentioned.
He wanted to play it cool.
“Do you want to trade?” he asked as he walked her out to her car.
She stopped in front of a little black Outback and rested her back against the door, hugging the container of cookies to her chest. “Trade numbers?”
“Sweets,” he said, but yep, he was working his way to the numbers. He just needed to be a patient hunter with a wily wolf like Lyric.
