Home > Don't Cheat Me (Nora Jacobs #2)(10)

Don't Cheat Me (Nora Jacobs #2)(10)
Author: Jackie May

“You too.”

“You’re still going to come to the social, right?”

“Sure. Sounds like a hell of a party. I’m not so sure Wulf will want to come now, though.”

Maya grins, but this time she’s looking at Wulf. She slings her arm over his shoulder and says to me, “He’ll have to. It’s mandatory for the pack. They’ll introduce him officially as our new beta. There’s a little ceremony for it and everything.”

“No!” Wulf groans again. “No ceremony. I’m not joining the pack. I have no desire to be anyone’s beta.” He casts Alpha Toth a serious gaze and adds, “Or anyone’s alpha. Which is what my wolf would demand, if I rejoined.”

The crowd gasps, and Alpha Toth stiffens. “Is that a challenge?” he growls. I’m surprised he’s so angry. I got the impression he really liked Wulf.

“No! It’s not a damn challenge. I hate werewolf politics. GAH.” Wolf fists his hair with both hands as he groans at the sky. “You see?” he says to me. “This is why I never come back. I’m a lone wolf, Nora. I’d be a crappy leader, only my wolf is too dominant to be anything but.” He gives Alpha Toth what is meant to be a pleading expression. “I’m sorry. I have to decline the position of beta. I mean no disrespect, but I can’t join your pack. I only came today because Nora needs training.”

Alpha Toth looks at me, then back at Wulf, before sighing helplessly. “I’m sorry, friend. Your cause is noble, but we can’t have a lone wolf in pack territory. It’ll cause too many problems within the pack. Thank you for introducing me to Nora, but I’m afraid if you don’t join, you can’t be allowed back.”

My heart sinks. I understand where Alpha Toth is coming from—we’ve been here an hour, and Wulf’s already been in a fight with the pack’s beta—but I’m still disappointed. Wulf, on the other hand, is beaming. “That’s okay,” he says, smiling bigger than I’ve ever seen him. He nods his head toward his brother. “Rook can train her.”

“What?” I shout. “You’re passing me off after one lesson?”

“I won’t, if you don’t want me to,” he says, still grinning, “but the only other place I have to work with you is my place, and we’d be alone there, which I know you don’t want.” I blush, because he’s right, but I didn’t need the whole pack hearing that and assuming things. “Besides,” he continues, “Rook is much better at fighting in human form than me. I’m more of a go-at-it-on-all-fours kind of guy.”

“I noticed,” I say flatly. “Fine. But did you even ask Rook? Are you sure he would even want to help me?”

“Oh, he doesn’t mind. Do you, big brother?”

When he grins at Rook, it’s so devious I almost laugh. I don’t know why, but he did this on purpose. He wanted Rook to teach me from the start. Rook knows it, too, and though he’s both shocked and annoyed, he’s also trying not to laugh. “That’s what you’re up to?” Rook asks, shaking his head. “Thirty years? You don’t come home for thirty years, and when you do, it’s to bring me a girl?”

My mouth falls open. No freaking way. This is about me? And his brother? Like, as in, together?

“Nora’s not just a girl,” Wulf says. He winks at me and adds, “And I’m right, anyway, aren’t I? I mean, you stole her from me like five minutes after I got here, and you still haven’t let her go.”

He means that literally, because Rook’s arm is still around me. I know he was only protecting me during the fight, but now it looks like he’s holding me, or staking a claim on me. My eyes bulge, and I scramble out of Rook’s grip. “You were setting me up?” I shout at Wulf. “Are you freaking kidding me? You brought me here to set me up?”

The crowd laughs, making my cheeks flame again. I glare at Wulf, but he doesn’t look the least bit repentant. In fact, when he shrugs at me, it’s the cockiest I’ve ever seen him. “You’d be good for each other, since you both refuse to date.”

Rook’s head whips in my direction. His brows are raised in a question. “It’s true,” I tell him. “I don’t date.”

“Neither does Rook,” Wulf promises. “So just give the friends thing a try for a while. Let him train you, Nora. Talk. Hang out.” He steps closer to me and lowers his voice to barely a whisper. “You both have traumatic pasts,” he says softly. “Maybe you two can help each other heal.”

I want to kill him, but he’s being so sweet. He’s really just looking out for his brother. And, I have to admit, I’m a lot more intrigued now that I know Rook doesn’t date and that he has some kind of traumatic past.

Wulf smiles when he sees he’s won me over. I sigh and glance at Rook to find him eyeing me just as curiously. “You don’t have to train me, if you don’t want to,” I say. “I’m sorry Wulf put you on the spot like this.” I step back and fold my arms across my chest. I give Wulf a stink-eye and add, “I had no idea he was so meddlesome.”

Every wolf within earshot cracks up laughing.

“That’s a werewolf trait, girl,” Maya calls to me. “We’re all that way. Better get used to it.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I mutter under my breath.

This time, only Rook laughs. I look at him, and he raises a brow at me. “I don’t mind training you. If you think you can handle hanging out here with us meddling wolves three times a week.”

“There’s nothing to meddle in—I truly don’t date—so as long as you keep your paws to yourself, then yes, thank you, I’d love to train with you.”

The crowd laughs again, and Rook grins. He holds his hand out to me. “Deal.” I give it a quick shake and laugh when his only thought is something about needing to kill his damned meddling brother.

“Great,” I say, and then force a smile at my rather large audience. “Well, as awesome as this visit has been, I need to get to work pretty soon. So I think it’s time I take my lone wolf back to the city.”

Sunday night at the club isn’t quite as busy as Saturday was, but it’s still loud, chaotic, and exhausting. I’m glad for it, because it doesn’t give Wulf much time to hound me about Rook. Oh, he finds time when he can, just not as much. “Honey, I’m not saying you have to mate with the guy. Just hang out with him. He needs to not be scared of women anymore, and you, pip-squeak, are the least scary woman on the planet.”

I punch him in the arm for that, as hard as I can. He laughs at my efforts and winks at me before turning his flirty smile on some woman at the bar, showing more cleavage than the Swiss have Alps.

I roll my eyes and pour a small, grumpy dwarf his fourth shot of absinthe. “If you’re so worried about Rook,” I call down the bar to Wulf, “why not just find him a good she-wolf to date?”

“Because all she-wolves are just trying to snag mates.” Wulf shivers in horror. “Rook would never give one the chance to get close.”

“So I’m supposed to go in all undercover-like, disguised as a nonthreatening female who just wants to be friends?”

“And then win his heart without him realizing it? Yeah. Basically.”

“Human! Hey, human! Girl! What’s a guy have to do to get a drink around here?”

I shake my head at Wulf one more time and then smile at the elf man waiting to be served. The condescending asshole—elves are the worst when it comes to respecting my human status—orders his drink, and as he saunters off, that intuition of mine hits me like lightning, nearly making my knees buckle. Tingles shoot down my neck and into my whole body, making me feel alive and alert, and yet paralyzing me at the same time. Dread washes over me so strong that I gasp and grip the counter to keep from falling. Whoever my gift is warning me about is close by, and they mean business. Death is on my doorstep. “Wulf!”

Even though it’s loud and busy, Wulf is at my side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

   
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