Diablo Lake: Moonstruck (18 page)

“This is going to get uglier. I just have a feeling.”

She sighed out. “Scarlett is off her rocker. Darrell is stupid, but yearns for some attention from his daddy. He’s got it.”

“Mac is in Diablo Lake. Aimee said she saw him earlier today. There’s some hope with this if he’s still the smartest of the brothers. I can deal with him. Even Dwayne if Mac can keep him in line.”

“If not, you’re going to have to teach them a lesson. I’m sorry about that. But it’s still true. But at least you’ll have Katie Faith at your side. She’s good for you and this family.”

He agreed with all of that.

Chapter Nineteen

Halloween was a pretty big deal in Diablo Lake. Partly because it fell within two weeks of Founder’s Day celebrations everyone in town loved and participated in. Partly because you can’t have a place full of witches and shifters that didn’t love the pageantry of Halloween.

It suited Katie Faith to see everyone excited by the preparations for events to come, culminating in the Founder’s Day dinner dance. She’d decorated the front windows of the Counter the week before with pumpkins as well as setting out displays of nuts and berries. As Samhain approached, she’d add a loaf of dark bread each day for the three days prior.

Three major cultural events that held the community together happened within two weeks so it was collectively referred to as Collins/Hill Days, after the witch and shifter who built what is modern day Diablo Lake.

This would be her first Collins/Hill Days in four years.

Her first Samhain with Jace. That was sort of weird to think about. Would he know what to do? Think she was weird for it? Darrell had never wanted to participate and she hadn’t really cared one way or the other.

With Jace it all mattered.

With this new magic coursing through her it all mattered.

She’d been about to lock her door and head home when Mac Pembry came in, hesitating on her doorstep.

He’d been back in town a week at that point and his presence had coincided with a general easing back of hostility from the Pembry wolves. She didn’t know for certain if he’d been the reason Dwayne had declined to make an official complaint about the fight between Jace and Darrell, but she was pretty sure that was the case.

“Hey, Mac.” She waved at him. “I was just locking up.”

“I was hoping to talk with you a bit,” he said.

“I’ll let you walk with me. I’m headed home now. That work?”

He nodded, stepping back so she could lock up and meet him on the sidewalk.

“Please don’t tell me there’s some sort of drama coming my way from y’all. I’m tired and I have plans to work on my dress for the dance,” she told him as they began to walk.

He laughed, a little embarrassed at the edges. “I can honestly tell you I’m not here to report on any drama coming your way. I wanted to check after your dad’s health. I figured it’d be easier to ask you than call over there and risk upsetting him more.”

“I appreciate that. He and my mom are in Nashville this week. He’s got a bunch of doctor’s appointments and it’s been so stressful here I thought it would be good to send them out of it a while.”

“I’m sorry for that. Darrell had no call to come to your place of business. Not with you there. Not after what he did and how he’s been acting. It won’t happen again. I respect you and your family. I don’t want bad blood.”

“What kind of school did you go to? In London I hear?” she asked because she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to him about wolf business just yet.

“London School of Economics.”

“Ah! Now it makes sense. You’re good at this whole diplomacy bit.”

He stiffened beside her a moment, but they kept walking. “My concern for Avery is genuine. As is my annoyance at my brother for his clumsy, petty slap at Jace through you.”

“There we go. See, I can deal with that.” She stopped, turning to face him. She wanted to see his expressions as they did this. “Y’all are pushing a lot of buttons in this town and I’m not the only one who is tired of it. Your brother is a dullard, but your momma has got to be kept under control. I won’t let you or anyone else use me or my family to hurt Jace. I will react with whatdoyoucallit? Extreme prejudice. You got me?”

He watched her a while, his head cocked to one side.

“I do believe I got you, yes. However, you’re smack dab in the middle of this. Not because you’re the bad guy but because your allegiance is to Jace who’s the Prime of the Dooley wolves. You can’t pretend that away any more than the way you’ve made the front of the mercantile fairly scream a witch lives here.”

“Oh really? Please do, near stranger, tell me what I can and cannot do.” She narrowed her gaze and he broke eye contact. That was better. “I’m not an idiot. I’m well aware that my being with Jace means I’ll be considered part of the Dooley wolves. When the time comes. However, my allegiance is to my family. Always. To the other witches in this town. Don’t presume to tell me what I get to think or feel about that. Ever.”

He grinned then, totally disarming her. “I’m not the only one who needed to get away from Diablo Lake for a few years. There’s nothing wrong with diplomacy, you know.”

She nodded and they continued on their way. “I asked because you were good at it. It was a real compliment.”

“Oh. Thanks. So maybe we got off on a weird footing today and we can have a do-over?” he asked.

“Welcome back to Diablo Lake, Mac.”

He laughed. “Thanks. You too. I’ve waited a while before talking to Jace. I wanted to let him get used to me being around. Would you please let him know I’ll be giving him a call this coming week? Believe it or not, Katie Faith, I don’t want any contention between packs. It’s a waste of power and energy.” He shrugged.

That she believed with all her heart. And hoped he was as sincere as she thought he was. “I will. And I’ll tell my dad you were asking after him.”

They parted ways at the end of the block when she crossed one way and he headed the other.

Jace was outside the mercantile, loading big bags of animal feed into the back of a customer’s truck as she approached.

She paused to take in the glory of the way he moved. So strong and confident in himself. Wearing his typical serious face, he was intent on his work until he stopped, sniffed the breeze and turned to lock his gaze on her.

“Sweet Baby Jesus,” she whispered. He was so damned gorgeous she didn’t know what to do with herself. She knew she was blushing like mad, but he looked at her, and then began to stalk over, like she was something he wanted to eat up in one bite.

“Hey there, Katie Faith,” he murmured.

“Hey there, Officer. Whatcha up to?”

“Proving you right about bringing more people in off the street because the front of the place looked better. We’ve sold more pumpkins over the last week than we did all season long.”

It made her so happy to hear that. To know she’d done something positive for him and his family.

“I love being proven right.”

“I’d never have guessed. Now tell me why you smell like a Pembry.”

She told him about her conversation with Mac as he frowned.

“You’re going to have such a big wrinkle between your eyes from all that frowning by the time you’re sixty. Jeez,” she told him at the end of the tale.

“Why did he come to you? I don’t like it.” He crossed his arms over his chest and got all bulgy. She may have lost consciousness a second or two and she really wanted to jump on him.

“Maybe he came to me so you could get all your frowning and flexing done in advance. Or just maybe he thought I’d be a good person to approach you.”

“Must be it.” He snorted at her.
Snorted.

“Suddenly I’m really thinking I’d rather not ride you like a stallion and leave you sweating and unable to move. I’m thinking I’m going to bed tonight
alone
,” she said as she began to walk away.

Panic washed over his face as he followed in her wake, trying to look casual so no one knew he’d pissed her off and was running after her.

“What are you mad for?”

She jogged up the back stairs and then to her door. “You know what I’m mad for. You snorted at me.”

“I snort at you all the time. You say ridiculous stuff on a regular basis.”

She couldn’t really argue with that. But that didn’t mean she was going to let him blow her off or underestimate her.

“Wolves aren’t the only power in this town and don’t you forget it.”

“I haven’t. I’m suspicious of his motives in coming to you, is all. I don’t do anything without a reason and I figure he’s much the same. Always was smarter than the others. He makes you part of this and it puts you at risk. I don’t like it.”

His pouty frown was even cuter than his alpha frown. “For what it’s worth, I think he was sincere about trying to ease the tension between Dooleys and Pembrys,” she said, wanting to reassure him. “You can talk to me about stuff, you know. I’m not dumb. I won’t betray a confidence and I might have something to offer.”

He heaved a sigh but didn’t say anything else and she finally lost her composure. He’d been holding back about the fight and she knew whatever had happened was eating him up. If he thought to protect her while he managed something terrible on his own she’d kick his butt.

“When are you going to tell me what the hell happened at the fight between you and Darrell?”

He jerked as if she’d hit him. “What do you mean? I told you what happened.”

“No. You gave me a basic overview. He was insulting and goaded you into a fight. You kicked his ass. His daddy had to come save him. Blah blah. I know that stuff. I’d gotten phone calls about it before you got home that night. This was different. Things between you and Darrell are personal but not about me.
Tell me
what’s going on.”

He stood so still, muscles appearing to lock into place as he fought some sort of internal battle.

She moved to her kitchen and got a kettle on for a cup of tea. “There’s leftover spaghetti in my fridge if you want to stay for dinner,” she called out. “I’m going to change.”

Jace had been shoving aside talking with her about what had happened ten nights past between him and Darrell.

She hadn’t pushed, which he’d appreciated. But he’d also used it to hide behind as an excuse to just let it lie.

He got the leftovers out and set about heating them up while making a batch of garlic bread and some cucumber and onion salad.

By the time she came out, her hair down, face scrubbed clean of makeup, wearing soft pants and a T-shirt, he’d managed to get her tea steeping and found the words he needed.

She saw his progress on dinner and smiled. “Thank you.”

He nodded, pushing the tea at her.

“I bought beer, it’s in the fridge,” she told him.

“I saw. Thanks for thinking of me.” He sat. “Do you know much about my father? About what happened to him?”

“Not much. I mean, there are rumors. I’m sure you know that.”

“Rumors of what? I want you to be honest and tell me. You don’t need to soften it for me.”

“That he was executed for violating pack law and that it’d been about a woman. I always figured it had to be pretty bad, much more than just an affair. I mean, that code of silence thing is pretty hard core and only for the worst of crimes, right? But you and your brothers weren’t outcast and you’re Prime, so I gather whatever it was didn’t blow back on you.”

“That’s pretty much it. I don’t know the whole story myself. The sentence was handed down in secret. He was executed and his name was struck from our records so all I had was rumors really. The same ones you heard I bet. Before I beat the hell out of Darrell, he brought it up. And so did Scarlett to you.” Jace licked his lips. “I hate that they can talk about it, hell, that Darrell and his momma probably know the details and I don’t. Because my family obeyed the law and theirs isn’t. And they want to use it to hurt me and hurt you and my pack and it’s not something I’m prepared to let continue.”

The outrage coursed through him at the utter unfairness in that.

“I imagine that’s got to suck. The not knowing. And then Darrell maybe knowing instead? I’d punch him too. How can he get away with that?” She was so angry on his behalf and it mattered so much.

She made things better.

He got the feeling the Pembrys would use anything they could to hurt Katie Faith because she was his only real weakness. Though she made their pack stronger, she was someone he’d die for, which was a way to get to him.

“I made an official complaint about it. Of course making that complaint to the father of the offending wolf and the husband of another doesn’t do much for my confidence anything will be done.”

“And in the mean time, they could end your career as a cop.” She frowned. “I know Dwayne declined to file a complaint, but I don’t like threats like that hanging over you.”

That she’d be so angry on his behalf was just another reason he loved her. “Thing is, I’ve been realizing I didn’t really have much of a future in law enforcement anyway. Not as a cop. I’ll be Patron soon enough, which means my loyalties would be divided and I’ll have to resign. I think the people in this town deserve more than that. Until then though, I’ll work as long as I can because my salary allows me to stash money away for our future.”

“You’re saving for our future?” She blinked back tears as her mood softened.

“Hell yes. You think a mug like me can keep a prize like you without a nice house and money in the bank in case we need a new roof? I can’t afford a mansion, but I can keep you well. Our kids will go to college so we’ll need to save up for that. Braces maybe. It’s my responsibility.”

“I don’t need a mansion. I just need you. And I need you to not focus so much on braces for children we don’t even have because it’s making you stressed and grumpy. We’ve got time.”

“Wolves are planners. It’s what we do. I guess I assumed you knew that. Why I didn’t figure Darrell was lazy with you too, I don’t know.” He put his palms over her hands. “You’re my woman. My mate. Of course it pleases me to take care of you. Thinking about our future doesn’t stress me out. Witches like numbers and wolves like plans.”

She laughed a moment. “Fair point. You’re a lot like engineers at times. Which involves numbers too. But in a way you guys seem to take to from the cradle.” She licked her lips. “I love that you want to protect me. Even if I push you when you go too far, you make me feel safe.”

It was exactly what he’d needed to hear.

“Your wolf needs to listen to me and trust me.” She took his face in her hands and he loved her so much it hurt. “No one wants more for you than I do. We’re together in this. So I need you to lighten your load with me sometimes as much as you need to unburden yourself. I’m not fragile. I won’t fall to pieces if you share with me. Okay? I don’t want you dealing with this crap on your own.”