Around midnight, he reached the last entry.It’s the full moon tonight. Wish me luck. Although Aaron says it’s a bit soon, I hope to keep my human mind this time.
Seth put the notebook aside before his own tears joined his mother’s on the pages of her journal. But now, after reading her words, he truly, totally, completely believed.
Chapter 16
DUSTINpicked up his phone again, checking the screen for the millionth time. No message from Seth. He wanted to turn back the clock and handle things differently, in such a way that his evenings ended up with them tucked into bed together. Dustin had been alone for years, but was only now learning the meaning of the word “lonely.”
“We got trouble.” Andy barely paused to knock before storming into the office.
Dustin tore his gaze from his phone. “What? Is someone hurt?”
“Worse. Natalie from the florist is dating one of my guys and isn’t good at keeping secrets. It seems Junior cleaned ’em out of longstemmed red roses. He even paid an ungodly amount to have them delivered to Irene’s.”
“Seth doesn’t strike me as the type to fall for empty gestures.”
“Junior also hooked up satellite out there and shelled out enough cash for a year’s service.”
A sensation like a dousing with cold water poured over Dustin’s head. “He’s being a little blatant, if you ask me.”
Andy crossed his arms over his chest, settling one hip against Dustin’s desk. “Blatant or not, you need to up your game.”
Trying to force down unfounded jealousy, Dustin responded, “Why? Seth is a grown man and perfectly capable of making up his own mind. Besides, he asked me to give him some breathing room.” Dustin sagged over his computer, exhausted from another evening spent as a possum, keeping watch over Seth. Even more exhausting had been forcing himself not to assume human form and hold Seth while he’d cried the night before.
“If Seth turns on the next full moon, he stands a good chance of being the Jack.”
“Well, good for him. I sure don’t want the responsibility.” Squirmy sensations twisted to life in Dustin’s gut. If he didn’t want to be leader, why did it bother him that the role might fall to Seth? He imagined Seth as a chicken, tossed into a pen of hungry foxes, then changed the image to wolves at Andy’s raised-brow assessment.
Andy rounded the desk, bending down to peer into Dustin’s eyes. “If Seth chooses Junior, he’ll become a puppet. You know it and I know it. Even if you don’t care for the guy, think of the passel, or the skulk. Consider Tiffany out front. If Junior takes over, she’ll be run off for being an outsider. Do you want to stand back while your friends, your patients, get tossed out like yesterday’s newspaper? Do you want to tell that sweet girl at the florist shop she has to leave ’cause she doesn’t have the virus?” Andy paused to take a deep breath. “And six months from now, you want to stand idly by while Junior sends your boy packing for not being a full blood, once he decides Seth’s outlived his usefulness?”
Dustin sank back into his chair, stunned. “He wouldn’t! The passel would never allow it.”
“By then, the passel will be made up of only full bloods, and the casino Junior keeps bragging about building will bring in enough money that they’ll do whatever he says. He means to out every last one of you. Go public. And he plans to evict any other shifters besides possums! He has dreams of making full bloods some kind of protected species and turning the town into a reservation, selling the place to the government; that is, if he can get control of the McDaniel lands.”
“Where did you hear this?” Dustin didn’t think the skulk kept up with passel rumors.
“Let’s say I have my sources, and my reasons for wanting to stop his plans. What you and I had aside, you’re a damned fine man and one hell of a Jack. If you need to reach some kind of agreement, crawl on your hands and knees to Seth McDaniel and do it. But I’m begging you. I’m a married man with kids on the way. I want to raise them here, in a relatively safe environment. Right now, my family’s fate rests with you. And if you don’t care about any of those things, do it for Irene.”
And therein lay the problem. Dustin did care. He wanted nothing more than to drive out to Seth’s, beg him to stay, and help him enmesh himself in the fabric of Possum Kingdom. “After your cousin took over the skulk, you and I met in a bar. You bought me a beer, if I recall, and we wound up out back.”
Andy plunked down in a leather chair on the other side of the desk. “Guys hook up all the time. We lasted a little longer than most, and I certainly don’t have any regrets.” The sincerity in his eyes backed up the truth of Andy’s statement.
“Let me ask you something.” Dustin held Andy’s gaze, silently daring him to turn away. “Did you love me?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Did you love me?”
“Of course I did.”
“Others thought you were using me.”
Andy narrowed his eyes and fire flashed just beneath the surface. “If you’re looking for a reason to say ‘poor little me’ you won’t find it here. I never used you and I never will. When the skulk ousted Cousin Tate, I made a decision based on what I thought best for me, the skulk,andyou. It nearly killed me to walk away, but I’m happy and want you to be too. And I will always, always have your back, no matter what.”
Dustin ended their staring contest first. “Thanks. I suppose I needed to hear you say that, because I’m seeing things from your point of view now. My actions affect not only me and Seth, but the passel. I want to make sure I’m pursuing him for the right reasons. But I’m kinda rusty at the whole dating thing, and I’m not one for grand gestures. Junior is capable of giving Seth everything he wants. I’m not. How can I compete?”
“Question. And answer honestly, don’t worry about hurting my feelings or nothing, but how do you feel about the guy?”
“I have no earthly idea. We were friends years ago, and the childhood friendship gets tangled up with how I feel now, as an adult. Throw in a healthy measure of respect for Irene and any of her kinfolk, and you grasp the problem, right?”
