Dancer's Heart (8 page)

“I know!” Nila said. “Next time Lucian is in
town, I’ll make sure that he comes over for dinner instead of just
stopping by their office. You can join us, and Mal will keep his
opinions to himself, trust me.”

“That’s a great idea!” Brynn said.

Mia looked unsure. “What if he doesn’t want
me? What if I’ve been longing for him all this time and it’s not
meant to be?”

“It would be better to know now and able to
move on, than spend another year wanting something you don’t have,”
Nila pointed out.

“When you know, you know,” Dani said. “I knew
the second I looked into Adam’s eyes that he was mine. Hell, I knew
before that. I could
feel
him in the woods, and I couldn’t
stop myself from finding him. If Lucian is yours, then your wolf
will let you know. Take a chance. The worst thing that could happen
is that you find out he’s not meant to be yours.”

Mia turned as white as a sheet.

Dani hurried on to say, “I mean, that at
least if you know he’s not yours, then you can find the one who
is.”

“That’s a good point,” Brynn said. She lifted
her glass of iced tea and held it high. “Welcome to the pack,
Dani.”

Dani clinked glasses with the girls and took
a sip before turning her attention to the basket. Brynn continued
to unload the chocolate goodies from its depths. “Wilde Creek’s my
home now. Thanks for making me feel so welcome.”

“That’s what we do,” Brynn said, winking.

* * * * *

Dani called Adam when the girls left two
hours later and discovered he was out chopping wood with
Jeremiah.

“Do you need some help?” she asked.

“You’re sweet to offer, but no, Jer and I
have it handled. You could text Honey. She’s checking in on the
widowed females.”

“Cool. Be safe. Don’t chop off your leg or
any other part of your body I’ve become attached to.”

He laughed. “I’ll be careful. Have fun,
sweetheart.”

She ended the call with Adam and dialed
Honey. A few minutes later, Honey arrived in her car to pick her
up.

“Jer said some of the females showed up to
welcome you to the pack. Did you have fun?”

“Yeah, they’re sweet.”

“It’s definitely better than the pack I grew
up in,” Honey said.

“What was your pack
like?”

Honey grimaced and tucked a lock of hair
behind her ear. “Very strict. More so than even what we’d call an
‘old-school’ pack. My mom died when I was little and my paternal
grandmother raised me in my father’s house. I knew something was
going on with my father, and even my grandmother seemed cautious.
Then she died in her sleep, and he started acting strangely. I
overheard some odd conversations that made me suspicious, so I ran
away. I thought I was pretty slick and that he wouldn’t know where
I was, but it turned out that he’d put a tracker on my car. I
stranded myself in Wilde Creek and followed Jer’s scent to his
house. Acksel called my father on my behalf, and my father
threatened the pack if I wasn’t returned.”

“Why did he want you back so badly?”

“I wasn’t really his daughter. My mother had
an affair. I don’t even know who my real father is, but the man who
raised me killed them both. He planned to trade me to another alpha
for a new mate. When I didn’t go home, he kidnapped me and Jer. Jer
saved us and the Wilde Creek pack came to help. Even though we’re
both omegas, I’ve never felt anything but absolutely a part of the
pack. They welcomed me and stood up for us when the man who raised
me demanded I come home. I know the bears are different than the
wolves, but this pack is a family and I’m proud to be part of them.
You and Adam are mates, so that makes us sisters in the pack.”

Dani smiled. “That’s sweet. I always wanted a
sister, and now I have Kammie and you.”

“The high-ranked males are used to things
being a certain way – the omegas work for them, because they do
important things like keeping the pack and town safe. Kammie got a
raw deal because wolves tend to think of physical weakness as a
sign of inner weakness.”

“Her scars don’t keep her from shifting,
though. They don’t affect her like Adam’s do.”

Honey stopped the car in the driveway of her
home. She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face Dani.
“Sometimes being an omega is more about perceived flaws and
weaknesses than actual ones.”

“You mean because my shift is a prey animal?
I worry about what the pack will think about my shifted form.”

She scoffed. “I can’t imagine it being an
issue. First of all, you’re a mate, and mates are precious to the
males in the pack. Even as an honorary member, you would still be
entitled to the same safeguards and protections as every other
member. It won’t matter to the males what you shift into, and a lot
of that is because you’re a female. Females are automatically
omegas. Now, if you were a male and the wolf was a female? Then
maybe some of the pack would give the female a hard time for having
a mate who’s prey.”

“Because in wolf thinking, the male should be
the strongest?”

She nodded. “Exactly. I’ve seen natural deer
fight back with their hooves and horns, so I’m not sure I think
that just because you’re a prey animal that you’re helpless. But
wolf males tend to think in terms of black and white as far as what
is acceptable and what isn’t. Adam’s scars actually do affect how
he moves in his shifted form. That matters to the males, and to an
extent the females too. Males want to know that the male at their
back is as strong as them, and able to fight if necessary. Females
want to be with the strongest male. Being a truemate trumps all
that ancient bullshit in my mind, though.”

Dani hummed in her throat. “I’m glad Adam’s
not embarrassed by me.”

“He’d be an idiot if he was, and an asshole
to boot.” There was a brief pause and then Honey said, “Jer is a
non
. Or, he was.”

“What’s a ‘non’?”

“A full-blooded wolf who can’t shift. When he
was very emotional, he could sprout fur, but that was about it.
That made him bottom-tier of the wolf pack. Adam’s scars make him
an omega because he can’t run as fast in his shift as others. But
you know what I think?”

“What?”

“I see how he looks at you. If you were in
trouble, nothing would slow him down. I think packs start to see
the laws as the be-all and end-all of life. They forget that
underneath the laws are the people who are affected by them. Is
Kammie less of a wolf because she has scars from childhood abuse?
Is Jer less of a wolf because he’s a strange hybrid
scary-movie-monster wolf? Or Adam because he’s got scars from a
fire? Hell no. This is what Jer and I like to call hierarchy
bullshit.”

Dani chuckled. “The sleuth didn’t have a
hierarchy like that. It was just the king. Everyone did what he
said, and everyone pitched in.”

“It would be cool if the pack was like that,
but I think that in spite of the archaic laws there is something
good about it. I think the laws have a place.”

“They remind us that we’re not human,” Dani
offered.

“Exactly. Now,” she said, clapping her hands
together, “are you ready to clean a kitchen and bundle up some old
newspapers?”

“You bet.”

The two left the warm car and walked down the
street to the home of a widowed she-wolf named Esrami. Honey
knocked loudly several times and then opened the door.

“Ez? Are you decent?” Honey called.

“I’m
never
decent,” a woman
answered.

Dani chuckled. She and Honey draped their
coats over the kitchen chairs as they walked through into the
family room, where a fire blazed brightly in the fireplace and a
woman, gray hair piled high on her head, sat with fabric in her
lap.

Honey bent and hugged the woman. “Esrami,
this is Dani. She’s Adam Cruz’s mate.”

Esrami pulled her reading glasses off and
looked up at Dani. “Well, hello. You’re a reindeer?”

“Wow, you can tell that so quickly?” Dani
asked.

Esrami touched her nose. “Eyesight goes, but
the nose sticks around. It’s nice to meet you.”

Dani shook Esrami’s hand. Honey pulled a
chair over and said, “I’m going to start working on the kitchen.
You talk to Ez. She’s a hoot. I’ll make some hot chocolate.”

“A hot toddy would be better,” Esrami told
her.

“It’s too early to drink,” Honey said.

The old woman harrumphed. “Fine, I’ll wait
until you leave and have two.”

Dani laughed. “What are you working on?”

Esrami blinked jade-green eyes at Dani and
smiled. “I’m making a quilt for Honey and Jeremiah, for their first
pup.”

“I’m not pregnant!” Honey yelled from the
kitchen.

“I didn’t say you were,” she hollered back.
To Dani she said, “It takes me so long to quilt nowadays I have to
start
before
someone is pregnant, or I can’t finish in
time.” She gestured to the quilts hanging on the wall and over the
couch, loveseat, and recliner. “I’ve been quilting since I was a
young pup. My grandmother taught me. My Ralph and I never had any
pups, but my sister had several and I was able to teach my niece
how to quilt. She sent me that one for my last birthday,” she said,
pointing to a pretty pink and mint quilt over the recliner.

“That’s so cool. I don’t know how to
sew.”

“Your mom never taught you?”

“Well, my real mom was killed when I was
little, and my adopted mom was a baker and not much for sewing.”
She leaned forward and looked at the fabric in Esrami’s lap. The
small squares were a mixture of pastel colors and patterns,
ensuring it would be perfect for a boy or a girl.

“This is a patchwork quilt. It’s my favorite
kind, because you can do anything you’d like with the pattern.”

“It’s beautiful,” Dani said.

“Would you like to learn?”

“I’d love to!”

The scent of pine cleaner drifted into the
room and Dani chuckled as she stood to go help Honey in the
kitchen. “Maybe not today.”

“Anytime.”

Chapter 7

“I think we should pack Kammie up,” Dani said
as she ended a call with her brother.

“Pack her up what?” Adam asked.

Dani smiled in that way she had that made
everything inside him feel toasty warm. “Her apartment. She wants
to stay in Oakville, and they’re heading back here with my mom to
get her things. I think it would be nice if we packed for her so
they don’t have to worry about it.”

He turned from where he’d been looking at the
backyard and watching the workers from Ferrity Construction mark
the boundaries for the privacy fence. Dani was wearing one of his
t-shirts and a pair of lounge pants with pink hearts. He glanced at
the coffee table, and the drawer where he’d stashed the engagement
ring he’d bought for her a week earlier. He wanted to do something
romantic when he asked Dani to marry him, but he hadn’t been able
to think of anything.

She joined him at the window, wrapping her
arms around his waist, and settling her ear over his heart. He
cuddled her close and kissed the top of her head. “You’re very
sweet.”

“Well, my mom’s already packed my stuff up to
bring with them, so it’s the least I can do to make things a little
easier on them here. Plus, I have a feeling that my brother is not
going to be interested in staying in Wilde Creek very long.”

He inhaled Dani’s sweet scent, a mixture of
sugar and peppermint, and rocked back and forth. “The full moon’s
in two weeks.”

She tipped her face up and smiled. “You know
the full moon doesn’t have any pull on reindeer, right? I can shift
whenever I want to. Though I have a feeling that because of you,
I’m going to enjoy the full moons very much.”

He grinned. “I’ll do my best to make sure you
have a good time.”

She glanced toward the workers. “You know
what I’d really love? A willow tree.”

“Why?”

“The leaves taste good.”

“You can have whatever you want,
sweetheart.”

She tilted her head and gazed at him. “You’re
all I need.” As he lowered his head to kiss her, she whispered,
“And a willow tree.”

* * * * *

The following day, Adam picked up a stack of
DVDs and set them in a box on the coffee table in Kammie’s
apartment. Dani was taking care of the kitchen items. Adam’s nerves
kicked in every time he thought about meeting Dani’s mom. He wanted
her to like him and to be happy that he was Dani’s mate. He didn’t
have the best upbringing, but he’d overcome a lot and was
determined not to make the same mistakes his dad had made. He would
always put Dani first, and when they had kids, he would make sure
that they knew how much he cared for their welfare.

“I hope she doesn’t mind that we broke into
her home,” Dani said from the kitchen.

“It’s not breaking in if we used the key she
hides over the door,” he pointed out, “and I’m sure she won’t mind
not having to pack.”

Dani hummed a tune as she went back to work,
and Adam smiled. She was the happiest person he’d ever met. She
always had a smile for him, always had something sweet to say.

He heard a vehicle pull up outside, and Dani
squeaked in happiness as she raced from the kitchen to open the
front door.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Dani exclaimed as
she hugged a woman tightly.

“Oh, I missed you, sweet girl,” the woman,
who was clearly her mom, said.

“Come and meet my mate, Mom.”

“Welcome back,” Adam said to Kammie.

“What did you do?” Kammie asked, her eyes
wide.

“Don’t be mad,” Dani said, “but I told Adam
that it would be nice for us to help you out and pack. I know
you’re anxious to get back to Oakville. I would have been happy to
send you your things, but Adam said you had to personally talk to
the alphas about leaving so you would’ve needed to come here
anyway.”