Comes Now the Wicked Woodsman (12 page)

"I demand to know what you've texted him!"

A smirk marred Braeden's handsome features, the green irises glittering like cut emeralds.

Standing next to him for the first time since right after he had slammed the door on Joshua, I wrapped my hands around his thick bicep and tried to force his arm down. His smirk grew, the amused flare of his nostrils adding to my humiliation.

Yeah, I was a toy poodle nipping at the heels of a wolf. Friggin' hysterical.

I snatched my hands back, my emotions retreating behind the wall I had been steadily building since he screwed me in the barn.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, baby girl," he relented, lowering my phone and offering it to me. "I just fed him a line about being exhausted and sad from all the sorting. But now he's threatening to come out here, so you need to call and talk him down."

Avoiding Braeden's gaze, I thumbed through the messages the two had exchanged the last few days. Cort wanted to know if I was coming back this week, warned that I could get dropped. from classes. Braeden kept giving him what looked like openings to say something deeper.

Was he fishing to find out if Cort liked me?

Putting his big paw over the phone again, Braeden forced me to look up at him.

"We both agree that no one else needs to get drawn into this, correct?"

I nodded, another part of me shriveling up inside as the surge of comfort at seeing Cort's flood of texts faded with Braeden's not so subtle threat that Cort would be hurt if he came to Night Falls.

"So call him," he said, stepping close to me. "Let him hear that you're fine, that you're not sure if you're coming back this semester and how you need some pressure free time to decide."

I snorted at his reference to a pressure free decision -- this whole damn setup defined coercion, the reality of it exaggerated by the way Braeden loomed over me, arms folded across his big chest as his eyes turned to thin slits.

Leaving me my phone and Clover her hammer, he turned to exit the room, calling out over his shoulder.

"After that, Rooster is stopping by to take you out."

Seriously?

Who the hell decided that?

********************

Paisley

My call to Cort went straight to voicemail. I knew it would because we had a lot of the same classes and I was supposed to be sitting in Advanced Forest Measurements and Models right then instead of imprisoned in my best friend's house with my former crush serving as my primary jailor.

I left a message, repeating the dribble Braeden had been texting him while pretending to be me. I told him we would talk soon, that I just needed to figure some things out after gran's death and said what a great friend he was for giving me space.

"That sounded like you were dumping him," Clover said as she forced me to sit at her vanity table and allow her to apply some of the make-up on me that I was always sending her.

She stopped rubbing in foundation when I didn't respond. Stepping back, she studied my face, but I knew she was trying to read my mind -- or my heart.

Putting aside the make-up for a second, she took her phone out, opened up her music app and put on some Marilyn Manson, the music playing over her Bluetooth speaker covering our conversation.

"You would have told me if you were hooking up with this guy, right?"

"I told you about the other two," I answered, shifting uneasily on the small round stool she had plopped my overly generous ass on.

"Yeah, but you weren't serious about them. You weren't worried about jinxing it or gushing over how much you were into them then have it all fall apart a few weeks or months later."

"Neither of us has ever gushed over a guy." Swiveling on the stool, I looked in the mirror, the foundation only half applied. "Is this the planned look?"

"Maybe," she answered, a smile evident in her voice. I found her reflection in the mirror and saw the matching curve of her lips.

Spinning me back around, she resumed making up my face. "I never gushed over a guy because I haven't found one that makes my heart flip out."

She slid a finger under my chin, all work stopping again as she tilted my head up and hooked my gaze. "We both know who makes your heart flip out."

I tugged my chin from her grip. My hands snatched at the foundation bottle and sponge so I could finish the job myself, but Clover danced out of the way.

"I get that he screwed it up somehow." Finished laying down the base, she took up a brow brush and some loose powder that matched my hair color. "But don't cut him out of the running yet. That's all I'm asking. He's been in charge of his life, and mine, since he was fifteen. And it doesn't help that he's an alpha, maybe the president of the Woodsmen when Taron steps down. It makes him think he always knows best."

I closed my eyes, relieved that her working on my brows and eyelids gave me a chance to hide from her searching gaze.

Clover had told me enough about her parents' death, the truth this time, for me to understand that she and Braeden had been on the run for their lives until they landed in Night Falls. They had no money, no family, were hunted by the prides or packs whose territories they traveled through, were unable to use human social services and were too young to get jobs, especially Clover. But Braeden had kept his little sister safe and healthy for over two years on his own.

But however well Clover thought she knew her big brother, she was wrong about one thing. She seemed to think he wanted me for me. But that wasn't it -- it was all the qualities she had just mentioned, the protective role of a big brother and a pack alpha who "always knows best," that had led to him claiming me in the barn.

Sighing, I watched her sort through her blushes.

"If you think I'm supposed to be with Braeden," I asked, hoping for at least a slight change of topic "then why are you dolling me up for Rooster?"

Her mouth quirked as her cheeks colored. "Who said this is for Rooster? Jailor man still has his ass parked in the living room."

I looked at the window no longer covered in plywood.

Clover wagged a finger at me, her other hand fisted on her hip.

"You're not climbing out of that in a skirt!"

I looked at the jeans I had on then back up at my best friend, one brow cocked and ready to fire. I had thoroughly intended to go as dressed, didn't want the make-up on, didn't want to look in any way like I was making an effort because Taron's idea was all kinds of fucked up.

"You're wearing this," she said and reached into her closet to extract a knit aqua blue skirt that would have fallen to her knees but would hit me mid-calf. Placing it on the bed, she dug around in the closet some more and came up with a matching sweater and black leather boots.

"This," she said, holding up the outfit, "is going to totally rock your curves."

I nodded, dumbfounded and wondering if she had started planning from the moment Braeden had told her about Taron's plan. I mean, the outfit was in Braeden's favorite color and I'd never seen her wear it. But she hadn't left to go to so much as the resale store.

"And these are totally kick ass," she added with a nod at the boots. "I have a theory about tough guys and chicks in boots that could crush their nuts."

I snorted, half choking on the idea.

"Braeden's gonna be walking around all blue balls while you're gone."

Leaning down, she whispered in my ear. "If you can manage to pick up a little of Rooster's scent, that would be awesome. Just a little, though, I don't want Braeden to maim him."

********************

Paisley

Despite growing up in Night Falls, I had never really thought about the lack of "civilized" places to go on a date. We had a small diner, a truck stop, a resale shop, a hardware store, a feed store, a small grocer, a gas station that also sold snacks, and not much else. Then there was the fact that, regardless of where you went, everyone knew everyone, aside from the humans being ignorant about the fact they were living in a town where they were outnumbered by shifters.

Somehow, Rooster made the date enjoyable without it being weird.

Well, not too weird. He rented one of the Crockers' cabins. Only he must have spent the morning cleaning it and had swapped out the bed for the dining room table at his house and two matching chairs. Fresh flowers filled a crystal vase. The silverware and plates were from his place, too. And even though Edna stayed in the room as a chaperone and served us a delicious beef stew, I was pretty sure he'd done all the cooking, too.

I should have been floored, should have felt my heart flipping out, as Clover liked to phrase it. Two years older than me, he had definitely moved beyond being a boy and becoming a man. He was lean and tall, his freshly shaven jaw perfectly angled. The thick lashes and irises were the same dark roasted coffee color as the mane of curls that tried to hide his face.

Every girl I knew back in Michigan would have had to wring out her panties as he spoke in that soft drawl of his, telling me about the plans he and his brother had for building on their land.

But my body just wouldn't respond.

Was it stupid to think it should? I mean, to think that a relationship had to start with attraction on both sides? Rooster was decent, hard working, enjoyed pretty much everything I enjoyed.

"Thank you," I said as he pulled his truck into Braeden's drive two hours later and shut the engine off.

The sun had already set but twilight still illuminated the sky. I could see the frown on his face as he turned to me.

"No one gets to leave Night Falls with you," he sighed as he rolled down the window on his side to keep the cab from fogging up.

With Edna in the cabin the entire time, this was the first time we were addressing the elephant sitting between us -- I wasn't supposed to be here, wasn't supposed to know about shifters, was supposed to be back in Michigan already.

"Your solution was very nice," I assured him. "It was sweet all the work you put into it."

Twisting on the bench seat of the truck, he slid a little bit closer. He reached for my hands and I let him take them, some part of me hoping lightning would strike and I could stop feeling miserable about Braeden while trying not to feel anything at all.

"You were always the forbidden fruit," he smiled, his voice dropping low. "Beautiful but human."

"I didn't feel that way."

I hadn't felt attractive at all until I went away to college. How could I? Outside of the truck stop, there wasn't any place in Night Falls a man seemed to look twice at me. And having a truck driver want to take you out and show you his rig was far from confidence building.

"Yeah," he squeezed my hands softly. "I can see how it would cut. I wish I'd written down all the stupid lines I wanted to say before you went to college. Not pick up lines, just stuff to fill conversations I never started."

Freeing one hand, I wiped at my eyes, all of Clover's hard work threatening to melt.

"You made up for it tonight," I whispered.

My heart wasn't flipping, just squeezing with hurt for both of us. He really was sweet and handsome and thoughtful.

"Are you in love with Braeden?" he asked, his tone never changing.

I freed my other hand and scratched at my neck, the skin heating across my chest and up my face. "It doesn't matter. I won't pick him."

"It matters to me." Rooster captured my hands again and slid closer. "I think Taron just did this month's worth of courtship so the pack had a cooling off period. Everyone will see you don't want to out us to humans."

"I'd be locked up in a loony bin if I even tried," I snorted. I wanted my hands back as fresh anger bubbled inside my stomach. But Rooster didn't deserve my ire, so I let him keep holding them.

"Doesn't anyone understand that?"

"I guess," he shrugged, his fingers tightening around mine. "That's certainly an argument that can be made to keep you safe."

Silence filled the truck's cab for an uncomfortably long minute before he spoke again.

"I want you to be safe, Paisley. But I don't want a mate who's in love with another man."

I shook my head, unable to look Rooster in the eye as my own started to fill with tears. "You deserve better than me."

Pulling my hands from his, I opened the truck's door and slid out. He moved behind the driver's wheel, his gaze locked in a forward position. I walked around to his side, stood on tiptoe and kissed the side of his cheek through the open window, the apology on my lips left unsaid.

********************

Braeden

Returning from her date with Rooster, Paisley entered the house through the side door into the kitchen. I sat on the couch, the heavy drapes in the living room drawn so that what little light was left from the setting sun was blocked out.

The kitchen was equally dark, but she didn't turn a light on, just felt her way around the small dinette. Overshooting the hall, she came close to stumbling over my outstretched legs. I pulled them in, the slide of my boots over the wooden floor audible.