Mated to the Grumpy Alpha

Chapter 3

Declan

"Dustin says you said mate to the bird lady in a feed store."

Pam had not taken her coat off. She stood in my doorway with one hand pressed to her back while Rob came in behind her with the bags.

"Dustin says a lot," I said.

"He says she said excuse me."

"Mommy!" Dustin hit her at knee height. She kissed his head and looked at me over it. "Is she human?"

"Yes."

"Dec." Her eyes had gone wet, and she was three months along. "The elders have a lot to say about humans. You know what they say."

"I know what they say."

"I lost Dad on that border. I'm not losing you to the Moon's idea of a joke."

Rob set the duffel down. The Tamarack Alpha had to turn sideways to fit through my door.

"Pam," he said. "Let the man breathe."

"I'm forty minutes up the highway, so I'm not letting anyone breathe. Bring her to dinner when you've stopped glaring."

"I don't glare."

"He glares at Betsy," Dustin said.

Rob caught my eye. "The Moon doesn't make mistakes," he said low. "It makes inconvenient choices."

My palms had hummed since morning.

* * *

My phone rang before their taillights cleared the drive. Silas Brandt's name came up and I put it on speaker.

"Declan, it's Silas." His voice was warm and unhurried. "I'm afraid we must move dinner. Something has come up at the Council table."

"At the table he sets himself," Jonah said from my sofa.

"I would rather you spent Clause Nine's six weeks on a Luna you can stand than one the Council hands you. A chosen Luna keeps the line safe. A fated bond makes an Alpha stronger than this Council has seen in sixty years."

"Then I don't see the problem," I told the phone.

"The problem is what it costs the woman. A human mostly doesn't survive carrying an Alpha's pup, and if she does the pup comes out weak."

"He's reading that off a card," Jonah muttered.

"Dale Pruitt's grandson couldn't shift back for nine hours last week. Think about that before you say another word to that girl. Vivienne will bake on Sunday."

"Sunday," I said to a dead line.

He called her that girl, Axel said. You never told him about her.

Corrie Pruitt posted a video.

Without her name on it.

"There is mustard," Jonah said from inside my fridge. "Dustin ate the last of the cereal."

"He ate the box. The Landing Grill. You're driving."

* * *

The Landing Grill had a line out the door and a hostess who looked ready to cry.

"Friday," she said. "I have one four-top and someone's already at it. She's by herself."

Past her, the girl at the table had a paperback propped against the ketchup and a finger under the line she was reading.

Look who it is, Axel said with satisfaction.

Don't, I told him.

"She won't mind," the hostess said.

"I mind a little," Ciara said without looking up. She turned a page.

"We'll be polite." Jonah had a chair out before anyone could stop him. "Dec's polite once he's eaten. Ask anyone."

She looked up. She had changed into a sweater with a hole in one cuff, and her hair was damp at the ends.

"You're following me."

"I'm hungry."

"There are three other restaurants."

"Two are closed," Jonah said. "The third has Corrie Pruitt at the bar."

Ciara winced. "Fine. Sit. Block the window."

The waitress took our orders. I asked for the steak and the burger and the ribs.

"Is someone joining you?" Ciara asked.

"No."

"He eats his feelings," Jonah told her. "It's been a day."

She slid the bread basket across the table with one finger and kept reading. I had eaten three rolls before I noticed who had moved it.

"Thank you," I said.

"It's bread. You look as if you skipped lunch."

"It's the first thing anyone has handed me today without a clause attached."

"A clause?" She raised the book an inch. "Never mind. I don't want to know."

"He keeps a list," Jonah told her. "Nobody has seen the end of it."

"I've lived here since I was twelve," Ciara said. "I've never once seen you in this place."

Fifteen years in one valley and not a whiff of her, Axel said. Someone made sure of that.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

"A mystery. It's the vet."

"It's always the vet," Jonah said.

"My boss told me to ask you something," Ciara said.

"Go ahead."

"What do you want?"

Say her name, Axel said.

I'm not saying that.

"A table," I said.

"Eight seconds."

"I had nine," Jonah said.

"Eight what?"

"Dr. Bhatt told me to time how long you take to answer."

"I was choosing between the steak and the ribs."

She folded her hands on the book. "I don't like that number."

Her phone lay face up beside her water glass and it lit. I read the name upside down before I could stop myself.

Theo: Ma has the apron on. Peppers or no peppers, because her blood pressure depends on it.

She smiled at it and typed with her thumb. My knife went through the steak and hit the plate hard enough to make the fork jump.

She looked up and caught me, then turned the phone face down and eyed my plate. Ciara didn't say anything about me looking at her screen.

"What did that steak ever do to you?"

I looked down. It was in pieces, and one of them had landed on the tablecloth.

"It was tough," I said.

Tell her it was a Marchetti, Axel said with delight.

She frowned. Without warning, she reached across, forked a piece off my plate and put it in her mouth.

Her eyes closed. "Mm." It came out low and soft, and I forgot my own name.

Jonah put down his fork. "I'm going to look at the ceiling," he said. "Tell me when it's over."

Mine, Axel said from the floor of my skull. Table now.

I told him we were in a restaurant. He suggested we leave it.

Sweat ran down my back. I held the edge of the table until the wood creaked, because every part of me wanted to carry her out over my shoulder.

"That's not tough." She opened her eyes. "That's the best thing I've eaten all week."

She can eat us all week, Axel said in a happy hum. I won't complain.

Stop it, I told him.

"Field research, by the way." She pointed the fork at me. "Amrit wants notes on men from the Ridge. So far I have that you lie about steak."

"What else?"

"You don't defend your food." She pushed the plate back. "Eat. Before I take more."

My own phone buzzed against my knee.

It's Vivienne. Dad cancelled dinner because Ansel left at six for the south road, so check on the clinic girl.

I read it twice. Axel went rigid inside me.

"Problem?" Ciara asked.

"No." It came out too fast. "Just a reminder for some... safety."

Whatever she saw in my face made her push back her chair.

"I'm going home to Alder Lane." She laid two bills on the check. "The Corolla's in the shop, so I'm walking."

"It's half a mile."

"How do you know that?"

"I measure things."

"Okay. I have to go."

"I'll drive you."

"You'll sit there and eat." She picked up her book. "Good night."

She almost smiled and then she was gone, and the door swung shut behind her.

She told you to sit, Axel said. She did not say a word about following, and Ansel is on that road.

Jonah took a rib off my plate without asking. "Did you just let her walk home?"

"I'm giving her ten minutes so she doesn't see me."

"That's the most disturbing sentence I've heard all week," Jonah said.

I lasted twelve. Then the weight hit my chest, a second heartbeat laid over my own and running at twice my speed.

Axel came up through me with his claws out. Hers.

I was out the door before the chair hit the floor.