She swallowed. “Yes?”
“Why are you hiding in there?”
“What?”
Michael blinked twice and grabbed his head, his eyes turning back to his brown depths.
“What’s going on?”
She stuttered. “I’m not sure. You were talking to me but it was your wolf.”
“Was I?” He shook his head. “He hasn’t done that to me since I was a teenager.
What did the old boy want?”
“I’m not sure. It was confusing. Except he did point out that you haven’t been fed.”
“Oh.” He laughed, a snicker, more than a hearty laugh. “That’s right. We can eat after I handle this and before I take care of Zack.”
Todd turned around from the passenger seat up front. “Oh! Is Scarlett going to cook?”
Michael narrowed his eyes. “She’s not anyone’s slave anymore.”
Before she could stop herself, she put her hand on Michael’s arm. “No, it’s okay. I love to cook.”
Her mate cocked his head to the side. “Really?”
She smiled. This she could speak on easily. “I love it.”
Todd nodded his head, still facing them. “She’s the best cook in New Orleans.”
Her cheeks heated up. “Stop it. You don’t have to say that. He’s not going to beat you up again. You’ve apologized.”
“That’s not necessarily true, sweetheart. I might beat Todd up again.”
Michael’s eyes sparkled when he spoke and she realized he teased her. It was the first time anyone had ever done that. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. The sensation was … odd.
Todd wasn’t done. “Seriously, Michael, when we’re done with this, can we go back to Cole’s and let Scarlett cook everyone dinner?”
She loved the idea. For some people cooking a meal was a task or something they dreaded, for her it was peace and order. And then if people actually liked what you made well then it was an accomplishment.
“I’d love to.”
She gasped, realizing she hadn’t asked Michael’s permission. Maybe he’d wanted to do something else, maybe he hated the idea. She looked down at the car floor.
“If Scarlett loves the idea then that is what we’ll do.”
She jerked her head up. “What would you like for lunch, Todd?”
It would be a late lunch, so she’d make it big. The three shifters started arguing about what they wanted to eat and she sat back to enjoy the show.
Michael took her hand. “Is that what you do for a job? You know, the career you have to have to pay for everyone else?”
“That bar you were in yesterday? Floozies? I work there.” She shrugged. “It’s simple work, bar food, a little red beans and rice. Kind of dull actually. My dream is…”
She stopped. The last thing she wanted to do was to start rambling off about nonsense to Michael. Not when they were making such progress to get to know one another. Not, she finally admitted to herself, when they were on their way to the pack wielder.
Even if she wasn’t supposed to say or think things about the pack wielder ending her mate relationship anymore…
But he was nodding and his expression was so honest and open, with his eyes wide and his grin infectious. “Your dream? Go on, tell me.”
“Well, it’s not unique, everyone in New Orleans wants to own a restaurant. It’s like a condition for living here or something.”
Michael rubbed his nose. “I can’t get you a restaurant here but I can get you one.”
She gaped at him. “You can?”
“When we get back home. Actually, it’s perfect. Well, perfect if you don’t mind cooking for thirty or forty really hungry shifters who will worship the ground you walk on. Oh and also whatever human guests show up at the hotel from time to time. They’re mostly gone now. It’s not safe to have them while we’re under constant attack.”
She clapped her hands together. “I’m kind of confused by some of that, but if you mean that in Maine I can have a restaurant then you made my day, my week, oh, Michael, my whole life.”
Without another thought, she squirmed around as she undid her seatbelt and threw her arms around him. Michael laughed and held her close. It was then she realized all the conversation in the car had ceased. Michael must have sensed it too as he gently let her go and looked at their three car mates.
“What’s wrong, boys?”
Todd smiled, this time with discernable sadness in his eyes. “Nothing, Michael.
We’re here.”
Barge pulled the car into it a spot and they all got out. Even as they did, Scarlett couldn’t help but dwell on the change of mood in the car. For a moment, she held eye contact with Todd, refusing to look away. She knew exactly what he was thinking. They didn’t want Michael to go. Things were getting better and if he left, what would they do?
Finally, she looked down, not because she was feeling submissive or scared. No, because there wasn’t a thing she could do for Todd, Barge, Seamus, or any of the pack and it wasn’t because she resented them or held bitterness, which likely she did even if she didn’t want to dwell on it. There wasn’t a solution.
Was there?
As the array of cars they’d travelled with arrived and parked, Michael stared up at the building in front of them. The sign said “Mandy’s Candies”.
She grinned. “Doesn’t look like a pack shop does it?”
“I don’t know what a pack shop looks like. Back home, we all live together on an island so the very fact that you all live apart, visit each other, and come to a shop to visit someone called a wielder is new to me.” He looked down at her and her stomach flip-flopped. “Is the wielder Mandy?”
“No, I’m not sure who Mandy is. It’s kind of just the name of the shop. The wielder is Joe.”
Michael nodded. “Good to know.” He walked ahead a few steps before turning around to Todd again. “You’re in charge of her safety again.”
Todd’s eyes brightened up. “Yes, Michael.”
Her mate sauntered into the store, letting the door close behind him with a thud.
Scarlett took a deep steadying breath. This was the first time she’d seen him move like that. Michael always seemed so focused, so determined in his stride. Just now he’d moved as if he were lazy and there was something about that deceptive sway that made her more nervous than any of her his earlier fights.
Barge walked next to her and stood still. “Scarlett?”
She looked at him. “Yes?”
“I think Michael’s going to kill the wielder.”
She gulped. “How do you know?”
“There was just something about him right now that was different. Even when he took us down on the street, he acted less controlled. Right now, he seems more like an animal than a man.”
She didn’t want him killing the wielder. Zack, maybe, but not the wielder. Fisting her hands at her side, she ran into the shop with Todd and Barge on her heels.
“Michael,” she called out as she walked through the entranceway. No one stood in the front of the store. Glass candy containers lined the wall; the displays that showed kids happily eating various sugary creations were all in place. There were no telltale signs of struggle and yet she knew it wasn’t good that the place was empty. Michael hadn’t entered and just had a fast conversation.
Sniffing the air, she followed his scent. Rounding the corner, she took the stairs leading to the basement of the store two at a time. Almost no buildings in New Orleans had lower floors because of the water level but this one did. She’d never known why, but it was where the wielder gave them their vitamin shots.
She heard Michael’s growls before she made it down the stairs. “Michael!” She called his name again and he looked up.
He had Joe by the neck dangling him in the air. Surrounding them were the ten female shifters who made up the pack. Five of them were latent, five could shift. They all stared at Michael, big eyed.