Mated to the Grumpy Alpha

Chapter 3

CIARA | CORBETT’S LANDING

I THREW MY GRANDMOTHER’S SALT AT A WOLF. I HAD BEEN AIMING THE SKILLET.

I shoved Mustard through the screen door and dropped the skillet on the mat. The salt tin hung on a nail inside the door, where Gran put it the year I turned twelve. I grabbed it and ran back down the steps.

“Declan!” I yelled. “Get out of the way!”

He didn’t get down. The wolf was nearly on him, so I threw a whole fistful past his shoulder and into its face.

It screamed. I had heard plenty of animals in pain, and never one that sounded like that. It rolled across my lawn and came up running, then crashed off into the cedars.

“Sorry!” I yelled after it. I still have no idea why I apologized.

Declan turned around slowly. He looked at the tin in my hand and then at my face, and his eyes were grey again.

“I told you to stay behind the salt.”

“I brought the salt with me. You’re welcome.”

“That isn’t funny, Ciara. He could have taken your arm off.”

“Then he should have stayed out of my yard.” I held the tin up between us. “It’s from the No Frills in Minden. Gran bought it with a coupon.”

“That’s not what it is.”

Headlights swung into the drive before I could ask him what he meant. A truck stopped crooked on my lawn, and Jonah jumped out already talking.

“Was that Ansel? I passed him on the road with his face on fire.” He saw me and lifted both hands. “Hi. It’s Jonah, from yesterday. I’m so sorry about the feed store.”

“So am I. Who is Ansel, and why does he hate my cat?”

Nobody answered me. Declan sat down hard on my bottom step with his elbows on his knees, and his hands were shaking.

“He can’t stand up, is the problem.” Jonah crouched in front of him and looked into his eyes. “How long has it been now, Dec? Thirty hours?”

“Leave it.”

“He hasn’t slept since the feed store.” Jonah stood and turned to me. “Ciara, how do you feel today? I mean in yourself.”

“Embarrassed and hungry. My face is on the internet with a sad song.”

“Any pain? Trouble breathing? Like somebody pulled something out of your chest?”

“No. Should I have?”

He rubbed both hands down his face. “When one of us rejects a mate, it hurts her. Most women can’t get out of bed for a week.”

“I went to work. I took a sock out of a beagle.”

“Yeah. That’s the problem.” He pointed at Declan. “It all hit him instead. He can’t sleep and he can’t shift. On Thursday he’d have put Ansel on the ground in two seconds.”

Gran used to tell me stories about wolves who walked around as men. I had thought they were bedtime stories. You would have too.

“Shift,” I said. “You mean into one of those.”

“Into one of those,” Jonah said. “He’s bigger than Ansel, and a lot better looking.”

“He dumped me in front of Maud Hollis and a sack of birdseed.”

“He thought it would protect you. He’ll tell you why himself, if he ever learns to talk.”

“Jonah.” Declan’s voice was barely there. “She doesn’t owe me anything. Take me home.”

“Agreed,” I said. “Please take him home before he falls off my step.”

“He won’t sleep at home,” Jonah said. “We tried. I sat up with him until four.”

I took the step above Declan so I could look him in the eye. I wanted him to hear every word of this.

“Listen to me, Mr. Levesque. You don’t get to dump a woman in a feed store and then show up in her yard giving orders. You don’t get to grab her by the neck and…”

His head tipped sideways and landed on my knee.

I stopped talking. He had fallen asleep in the middle of losing an argument. His cheek was on my leg and his mouth hung open.

His hands had stopped shaking.

“Don’t move,” Jonah whispered. “Please, Ciara. I’m begging you.”

“He’s drooling on my pajamas.”

“I’ll replace the pajamas. Ten pairs, any color you want.” Jonah sank down onto the grass and stared at his friend. “That’s the first sleep he’s had since Friday. He was falling over at home. He gets near you and he’s out.”

Not my problem, I told myself firmly. I didn’t move.

His hair was soft under my hand when I gave up and touched it. Up close he looked younger with his face slack. The scowl had been the only thing holding him up.

Something howled in the cedars behind my house. It was long and low, longer than any dog could hold a note. Jonah went stiff all over, but Declan didn’t so much as twitch.

“That’s Ansel telling us he’s still out there,” Jonah said. “On a normal night Dec would be halfway into those trees by now.”

“And tonight?”

“Tonight he’s asleep on your knee, and I’ve got a tire iron in the truck.”

“Who broke my salt line?” I asked. “That gap wasn’t there this morning.”

“Somebody who wanted Ansel to walk straight in.” He kept his eyes on the cedars. “I’ll find out who. You have my word.”

“I don’t know you well enough for your word to mean much.”

“Fair enough.” He nodded at the man in my lap. “Can he come back tomorrow night? Just to sleep here. I’ll drive him over and take him home after.”

“One hour,” I said. “On the porch and never in the house. Forty dollars a night in cash, because I’m saving for something.”

“Forty? My motel in Barrie was cheaper than that.”

“Your motel didn’t come with a salt line. What happens if he turns into one of those on my porch?”

“Then he’d be doing better than he has all day.” Jonah pulled out his wallet and handed me two twenties. “Deal. He’ll pay you back himself. He hates owing people.”

I sat on that step for an hour with my leg going numb and my hand in his hair. At ten past twelve Jonah shook him awake.

Declan sat up and looked at my knee. Then he looked at the wet spot on my pajamas.

“How long?” he asked.

“An hour and ten minutes. You went over, and I don’t give refunds.”

“You should have taken the money from me. Not him.”

“Then bring your own cash tomorrow.”

Something moved at the corner of his mouth. It wasn’t a smile, but it was trying.

“You snore,” I told him.

“I don’t.”

“He does,” Jonah said. “Ask anybody on the Ridge. We hear it from the road.”

Declan stood up on his own two feet for the first time all night. He held out his hand to help me up. I took it, because my leg was asleep and I had no pride left.

“Thank you,” he said. His thumb moved once across my knuckles before he let go. “For the salt.”

I went inside and found Gran’s old pickle jar under the sink. I washed it and wrote CLINIC on a strip of masking tape. The twenties went in first.

My phone was on the counter with a missed call from Amrit at eleven forty. Amrit never called after nine. I pressed play.

“Ciara, I’ve seen the video.” His voice sounded old and far away. “I know who that man is. Let him sit on your step if you must.”

I heard him take a long breath.

“But don’t you ever ask him inside that house.”