Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Kathy narrowed her eyes. “I’ll go with Cassidy.” She went to hand Willow to Ally, but the Beta female shook her head.
“You’re not going in there, Kathy,” said Ally. “You were a total witch to me when I first came here. I won’t sit back and watch you do the same to Harley. She has enough shit going on.”
“Which is a good reason for her not to be here,” Kathy hissed. “We have our own problems.”
“And yet, I’m not feeling a need to back down on this one.”
Leaving the two females to quibble, Jesse led Cassidy into the lodge. He found Harley in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher. It was such a simple and domestic sight, yet also satisfying. He liked that she touched his things, leaving her scent everywhere. It soothed him and his wolf slightly.
Sensing she wasn’t alone, Harley turned. The lines of stress in her face softened as she noticed Cassidy. “Well, hello there.”
Cassidy peered up at Jesse. “See, I told you she was pretty.” Then she skipped over to Harley. “I’m Cassidy. You don’t have to tell me your name. I heard everyone talking about you. Kathy wants to know what kind of mother would name her daughter after a bike. Kent likes it, though. He’s mated to Caleb, and they have the prettiest lodge. Nick says I can have my own lodge when I’m bigger. Are you really a margay? There was a margay shifter in the shelter, and she was double . . . double . . .”
“Double jointed?” supplied Harley.
“Yes. Are you?”
“I am.”
“So your cat can twist her ankles all weird?”
“You mean can she twist them a hundred-eighty degrees, yes.” Her cat preened.
“Can you show me sometime?”
“Sure.” Harley smiled. “It’s the least I can do for you. Thank you for telling Jesse about your vision. You’re now officially my favorite person for life.”
Giggling, Cassidy gave her a simple “that’s okay” shrug—as if it was every day that she stopped people from exploding into tiny pieces. Harley’s cat liked the little pup.
Cassidy, who was clearly a chatty child, then went on to tell Harley dozens of stories about things that had happened on Mercury Pack territory. Eventually Shaya came for the pup, rolling her eyes as Cassidy continued to chat until the very moment she left the lodge.
Harley looked at Jesse. “She’s . . . friendly.”
“She is,” he agreed.
“What’s her story?”
“Her entire pack died when she was just a baby. They made a suicide pact, but we’re not sure why. At least her mom gave her up to Social Services before killing herself. It would have been better if she’d made it clear that Cassidy was a shifter. Then she wouldn’t have been adopted by a human family. An overly religious family that gave her up, afraid of her visions.”
Harley’s heart hurt for the kid. “That’s pretty sad.”
“Yeah.” He slowly moved to Harley’s side and leaned against the counter, watching her resume loading the dishwater. “You were frowning when I walked in. What were you thinking about?”
“I was just thinking I need to call Tess at some point. I haven’t spoken to her in a while. She worries.”
“Does she know about the hate mail?”
“No. Tess would have freaked. I didn’t want to scare her.”
And Harley hadn’t been taking the whole thing seriously enough. Jesse cupped one globe of her ass. “You need to start taking better care of this; it’s mine and I want it safe.” He lightly tapped her ass to punctuate his point, and her eyes flared.
“You have no ‘caution’ lights in your head at all, do you?”
He smiled, perversely liking her exasperation. That was nothing new.
“You know what your problem is, Dalton?” She slammed the dishwasher door so hard the plates rattled. “You’re not equipped to deal with dominant females.”
She was right, actually. As fate had paired Jesse with a submissive wolf, being in a relationship with someone like Harley wouldn’t come naturally to him, but she was who he wanted.
“You go on and on about how I’m yours and you’re keeping me blah, blah, motherfucking blah. How can you possibly be so certain that you want me to be yours?”
“How could I not want a girl who’s weirdly freaked out by the sight of wax statues and is absolutely convinced that The Matrix could be real?” he quipped.
“It could be; the signs are there.” She narrowed her eyes. “How did you know about my aversion to wax statues?”
“Because I know you, Harley. And you know me.” He pushed away from the counter. “Come on.”
“What? Why? Where are we going?”
“Exploring.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Taking her hand, Jesse led her out of the patio doors and into the sunshine. Anyone else might have been mesmerized by the view of the forest and mountains. His female was too busy gaping in awe at the thick tree right next to the lodge. “You’ll climb that the first chance you get, won’t you?”