This sucked. Their little couple plot had worked, but way too well. Marriage? Claiming marks? Living together? That was not at all what they’d bargained for.
This wasn’t a crew invite after all.
Smart and savvy dragon that he was, Dark Kane was calling their bluff.
Chapter Five
When a knock sounded on the door, Emma struggled into her green silk spaghetti-strap shirt as fast as she could. She threw open the door. A tiny twang of disappointment settled in her gut that it was Winter and not Dustin.
“Geez, don’t look so happy to see me,” said the black-haired woman with the laughing, smoky eyes.
“Sorry,” Emma said, adjusting her left hearing aid.
“You ready?”
“I think so. Is this okay to wear tonight? With that jacket?” She pointed to the coat draped on the bed.
“Hell yeah, you look hot.” Winter was good about enunciating in case Emma couldn’t catch all her words. She always had been. The panther shifter was sensitive in ways the boys sometimes weren’t.
“Are you mad at me?” Winter asked.
“What? Of course not.”
“Yeah, but it’s been radio silence since Logan and I got our invites into the crew. Even when I text you, you don’t respond most of the time.”
Now she felt like a real crap friend. Emma hugged Winter’s shoulders and rested her chin on one. “I didn’t know how to feel. You and Logan felt separate from the rest of the D-Team.”
“But now it doesn’t have to be like that. You’re going to be part of the crew too.”
So that’s why Winter had asked her to go out for drinks. Rowan must’ve spilled the beans. “It’s not so simple. There are…conditions.”
“Like what?”
Emma laid back on the bed and heaved a sigh. The ceiling fan swung around in lazy circles above her, slow enough she could track the movement and not get dizzy. “Dustin and I can only be crew if we are a couple.”
Winter laughed really loud and settled on the bed beside her. “You and Dustin?”
“It’s a long story. Everything just got so messed up, and Dustin is my friend, maybe more, I don’t know, but not that much. Not enough to commit to for a place in the crew. I tried to talk to him about it, but he’s freaking out, won’t even talk to me, and I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m sorry, I’m still kind of reeling over the fact you are having boy problems with Dustin.”
Emma rocked up and muttered, “I need a drink.” She shrugged into her jacket and checked her skinny jeans and heals one last time. She’d worn her hair down and curled tonight and had done her make-up. Why? Hell if she knew. Dustin had dropped her off at her room and disappeared for the entire day. She’d texted him once to no reply. It stung, and she made a mental note to reply whenever Winter texted, no matter what.
“Emma, are you okay?” Winter asked. Her delicate eyebrows were drawn down with concern, and a sudden urge washed over Emma to smooth them out. Winter shouldn’t be worrying. She was newly mated, newly claimed by Logan, newly inducted into the Blackwing Crew. She should be riding a high, not upset over the stupid situation Emma and Dustin had created for themselves.
“I’m fine. I’ll be even better after a shot of tequila.”
“Thata girl,” Winter said, grinning. She led the way outside, but when Emma laid eyes on Dustin, she skidded to a stop so fast she nearly rolled an ankle.
His hair hung in his face as he stared down at the ground, but at her sharp inhalation of breath, he jerked his gaze to hers. He was standing against his car, hands in the pockets of his dark jeans, a navy V-neck sweater clinging tightly to the curves of his muscular chest and arms. And there was that fake smile back on his lips. “Daaaaamn ladies, lookin’ downright fuckable tonight.”
“You’re the worst at compliments,” Logan said from the open window of his truck. “Say that to Winter again, I dare you.”
Beast climbed into the back seat of Logan’s truck and muttered, “I hate all of you. Let’s go.”
Dustin’s empty smile stretched wider. “You heard the Beast. Let’s do this.” He gave Logan the finger and climbed behind the wheel of his car.
Emma hesitated. Was Dustin still freaking out? Was she supposed to ride in the back of Logan’s truck with Beast, or in Dustin’s car?
Dustin dragged wolf bright eyes to her and nodded his head toward his passenger seat. Okay then. She offered Winter a little wave and made her way to Dustin’s car. When she was buckled, he pulled out of the parking lot behind Logan’s truck, but took a right where Logan had taken a left.
“I thought we were going to the bar.”
“Let them go to the bar first and have a few drinks before we get there. Then they won’t care about swindling every detail from us about what happened today.”
Okay, that was actually really clever. “You aren’t as dumb as you look.”
“Thank you. What are you hungry for?” he asked conversationally.
“I’ll eat when we go to Drat’s.”
“Your stomach growled, and for some stupid reason all I can think about right now is feeding you like a freaking mommy bird with a helpless freaking baby.”
Emma scrunched up her nose. “No thanks to all of that.”
“You shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach.”
“Okay, Mom.”
“This is a gross conversation. We made out today. A lot. Just pick a place to eat so we can talk and get all of this out of the way.”
She sighed and watched the neon lights of the main drag drift by. “I don’t know, Dustin. I’m so over fast rood right now. I think I’ve gained six pounds since we moved out here because motel living means hamburgers at least once a day. I don’t feel like fast food.”
“You don’t like fast food?”
“Not right now. I’ve been eating it for weeks. It’s too much grease.”
“Well, grease gives it flavor.”
“I don’t have your werewolf metabolism or iron stomach. My pants are fitting too tight.”
“A, I like your pants fitting too tight, and two, you have clearly gained all the weight in your tits. Win, win. Are you really trying to watch your figure?”
“Kind of. I don’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe.”
Dustin growled and pulled into a gas station parking lot. The inside was clearly closed, but he parked in the darkest corner of the lot where the streetlight was burned out. “Tonight is my last night here.”
“What?”
“I packed all my shit already, but this is for the best. Trust me.”
“Trust you?”
“Yeah.”
“I trusted you earlier today with your stupid plan to bring Kane Gray Dog, and I trusted you when you said they were only recruiting couples. And then you left me to reel on my own instead of talking to me about what happened. And so you know, I was planning on leaving, too. Not tomorrow, but soon. The heat is too much for me, too. I’m not a relationship kind of girl.”
“Lie. You just lied. I could hear it.”
“Where will you go? Back to the Valdoro Pack?”
Dustin huffed a laugh and stared out his window. “I can’t join the crew, and I can’t go back to my pack.”
“So…where?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out when I get there.”
“Why so soon? Kane’s terms didn’t give a timeline.”
“Because I can’t be your boyfriend or mate or husband or whatever we’re supposed to be.”
“I know that. You would be the worst boyfriend.”
Dustin arced his gaze to her and scoffed, but she was ready with a smile. The corners of his lips lifted and he played along. “Literally, the worst boyfriend.”
“I think I heard you snore last night.”
“Yeah, probably, since I was dying and all, you judgy judgerton. And you had really cold feet when I spooned you.”
“Wait. You spooned me?”
“Fuck yeah, you w
ere naked.”
“Dammit, Dustin, I was naked because you took my clothes off!”
“See? This angers you for reasons I still don’t understand. The literal worst boyfriend.”
Emma snorted and laughed. “I mean, you’re a werewolf. Do you even pair up?”
“Hell no, not if we can help it.”
“And I’m destined to be a vamp someday. I’m in it for the eternal life.”
“I can give you an excellent experience with my penis, but I cannot grant you eternal life.”
“You drink whisky, I drink tequila...”
“Oh, we have nothing in common.”
Emma shrugged and pitched her voice higher. “So we made out a little…”
Dustin sucked air between his teeth in a hiss. “A lottle, but friends do that sometimes. Right?”
“Well, not like we did, but we can go back. We’ll just make fun of each other like we used to, and I’ll call you names a lot, and you can just keep doing all the annoying shit you do and stop complimenting me.”
“Done. Giving compliments makes my balls shrivel up. Like tonight, your hair?” He shook his head but was cracking an even bigger smile. “Okay, it looks sexy as hell, and I want to play with it, but by play with it, I mean pull it while I’m fucking you senseless, but I swear that’s the last compliment I’ll ever give you again.”
She rolled her eyes to the roof of his car and laughed. “That was a compliment? Okay, last one… You’re a really, really good kisser. I mean…out in the woods today?” She arched her eyebrows at him. “A-game.”
“I know, right? Credit where credit is due, though—I had a really good partner. You have those little blowjob lips that are just so suckable.”
Emma clamped her legs tightly closed because talk like this was getting her revved up again. “Your dick is really big. I know I called it a Vienna sausage before, but you were right. It’s way more than a bratwurst.”
“I thought we weren’t complimenting anymore. Okay, your vagina is probably really big.”
“Nope, that’s horrible. That’s not a compliment at all.”
“No?”
“Nope. The worst.”
“Okay, officially friend-zoned again. Those fantastic kisses were just some beginner’s luck, so we can do this for a few more days—just hang out, do the friends thing, back off from everyone expecting some big romantic story from us. Maybe if we break up gently, Kane will forget those stupid conditions and let us in anyway.”
“Perfect. That’s the perfect plan.”
Dustin tapped his palm on the steering wheel and nodded once. “I feel much better now.”
“Great, can we go to the bar now?”
“First, I’m going to buy you hamburgers to make your tits grow, like a good friend.”
Emma giggled as he pulled out of the parking lot. She’d missed this easy rapport with Dustin today. The first day she’d come to interview for the crew, she’d liked him the least of them all. He was a mouthy playboy she hadn’t understood, but over the weeks, he’d turned it around and surprised her with his layers. And since she’d tended to his neck injury, he’d turned into this delicious mystery she wanted to unravel slowly.
Dustin pulled them through the drive-through of a fast food burger joint, ordered way too much, then drove ten minutes down winding mountain roads to an empty parking lot.
“We could’ve eaten in the parking lot of the restaurant,” Emma muttered, digging through one of the bags as her stomach growled again.
Dustin swatted her hand and yanked the bag away. “Patience, and besides, you’re a mess when you eat. It’s like watching a vulture feed. You aren’t eating in my car.”
She shoved his arm and swung the door open. “That was rude.”
“That was honest.” He made gulping sounds and a ridiculous eating face.
Emma giggled and shook her head. “Not funny. I’m cute when I eat. No one has ever complained before.”
“Because you lived with blood suckers. They don’t know what dinner manners are. They probably think you’re normal. Grab that, will ya?” He jerked his head at the trunk of the car that he’d popped open.
There was a thick blanket and a pillow in the back.
“Do you sleep in your trunk often?” she asked innocently as she pulled out the blanket.
“Har har, no. I sleep in the back seat when my pack mates are being assholes.” His voice had gone all serious, though.
“You know what I’ve noticed?” she asked as they walked along a winding pathway right beside the river.
“That I’m ruggedly handsome and hilarious and would provide fantastic genetic material for your future children? I mean, I’d make a horrible baby-daddy, but our pups would be cute as fuck.”
“Uh, no, since we literally just had the friend-zone talk. No, you talk louder for me now. Clearer. I still have to read your lips a lot, but when I first met you, I was confused half the time because you murmured and wouldn’t enunciate.”
“Huh.” Dustin cast her a sideways glance, and his eyes reflected unnaturally in the moonlight. “Really? I feel like I’m talking the same as I always do.”
“Nope, I noticed the difference. Trust me, it’s a big change.” She bumped his arm. “It’s a good change for me. You have a nice voice.”
“Compliment! We should make a compliment jar like a swear jar. Like…every time we say something sickeningly nice to each other, you have to give me a blow job.”
Emma blasted a surprised laugh and hugged the blanket closer to her chest. “You’re ridiculous.”
Dustin got quiet, and as he set up their blanket on a flat field of grass overlooking the water, he got a faraway look and a slight frown to his features. When they were settled and dishing out food, he said something that surprised her down to her bones. It was a soft admission, as if he didn’t know if he wanted her to hear or not. “You have a nice voice, too.”
“What?” she asked, watching his lips carefully. Those lips…so sensual, and she knew what they could do against hers, but now they rained down words that got the butterflies going crazy in her stomach.
“I said you have a nice voice, too. I like it.”
Heat burned her cheeks, and she ducked her gaze as she admitted, “I hate it. I worked really hard in speech therapy to get where I am, but someday I want a normal voice. One I can hear perfectly so I can sound like other people. I want to sing.” The heat spread to her ears on that last admission, so she cupped her hands over them to hide the blush.
Slowly, Dustin leaned forward and pulled her hands away. “Did you just give me something big?”
She nodded, still unable to meet his gaze.
Dustin scooted closer and lifted her chin with his hooked finger, drew her gaze to his lips. She really liked his mouth. The shape of it, the thickness of his lips, the way he licked his bottom one sometimes when he was nervous and didn’t want anyone to know. “You said someday. Is surgery an option?”
Emma shook her head. “I have sensorineural hearing loss. Both of my inner ears are malformed. This is the best I get as a human.”
“As a human,” he repeated. “Is that why you wanted to pledge to Kane’s Crew? Are you going for a shifter bite?”
“No. A bite won’t cure me. I was born with malformed pieces, Dustin. Maybe an animal would improve it, maybe it would make it where I could hear some without my hearing aids, but there is only one thing that will fix me.”
Dustin angled his face, frowned, and dropped his finger from her chin. And then suddenly, his eyebrows jacked up in an ah-ha expression. “You mean you’re going vamp?”
“I’m taking a break from my coven because I wanted to see life outside of it, you know? My parents wanted that for me, too. But since I was a kid, all I’ve wanted is to be Turned and be whole.”
Dustin gritted his teeth and shook his head at the river. “You are whole.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t! You think being a bloodsucker
is a fix, Emma? It’s not a fucking fix. You’re giving up sunlight, food, humanity—”
“Stop!” She shoved him hard. “Stop talking about things you don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to be fixed.”
Emma’s eyes rimmed with tears, and she ripped her gaze away from him so he wouldn’t see how much this hurt. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
“To be different? Fuckin’ false, Emma. You know what percentage of the population of werewolves are submissive? Do you? Almost zero percent. I grew up the cull pup. I grew up being the disappointment, only supporting my brother’s rise to alpha like a fucking servant because he was the important one. I got pitied looks from every wolf I ever met because it must be awful to be me, right?”
“But being submissive isn’t a disability!”
“To you!” Dustin stood and walked to the water’s edge, ran his hands through his hair, then paced back to her. “Even if I could change the parts I hate about myself, I’d never turn vamp to do it. You won’t be you anymore. You won’t. And now you’re pushing for this crew you plan on leaving anyway?”
“Turning vamp isn’t an option for you, wolf, and I don’t have to leave the crew. I would just live on a different schedule.”
“For eternity.”
“Vampires don’t live forever.”
“Chhhh. Fucking technicalities now? A couple thousand years in darkness, close enough. You’ll watch everyone you love die. You’ll watch the crew die of old age, and I’m calling it now—you’re going to find a man you love, who dies on you, and you’ll carry that hurt for two thousand fucking years. Turning vamp isn’t a fix for anything. It’s replacing one problem for a dozen more.”
“One problem,” she repeated, standing. She clenched her hands. “I’m a song-writer, Dustin.”
“What?”
“Yeah, that’s my passion. I write songs. Some of them are big. Some of them you’ve probably heard on the radio. I’m a natural,” she said, the words tasting bitter against her tongue. “A music prodigy, my teachers said, if not for the hearing loss. And I want to write songs for me. Can’t you try to understand? My whole heart is full of music, all the time, and I have this voice I can’t control, can’t stand the sound of, can’t hear well enough to hold a tune. So yeah, if I have to give up sunlight and live the exact way I’ve been raised my whole entire life, which isn’t the awful experience you imagine, then yeah, I’ll give up steak and sleep during the day.”