“Scout—”

I snapped the connection.

There was no planning or finesse in my attack. I ran straight at him, no thought other than revenge. We collided in a chorus of snarls and limbs. We rolled along the ground and came to a halt with me on top of his prone body. I set my sights on the kill spot in his neck and was about to lunge when he moved, raising his head so that I could have better access.

I darted away and backed up against a tree. My entire body was shaking, and I knew that if I was in my human form I would have tears streaming down my face. Charlie slowly lifted himself off the ground and started towards me. I tried to move away, but I was bound by the tree and Jase, who had moved up beside me. Like Jase had done before, Charlie stopped just in front of me and laid down in a posture of complete submission. I repeated my display of acceptance, though this time there was no sense things would work themselves out somehow.

Chapter 14

“Where is our waitress? I need another stack of pancakes.” The table was littered with empty plates. Already I’d scarfed down two omelets, an order of sausage patties, an order of sausage links, two orders of bacon, a short stack of blueberry pancakes, two glasses of chocolate milk, and three glasses of Mello Yello.

“Her name is Jessi, which you should know since we went to school with her for thirteen years and your brother took her to the Fall Dance in eighth grade. And she already thinks you’re on drugs. Maybe we could go through a drive-thru or something if you’re still hungry.”

My binge was equal parts a need for calories and an attempt to assuage my shame. The deer hunting scenario didn’t play out quite as planned. Finding a deer? Not a problem. The entire Land Between the Lakes area is overrun with the vermin. Chasing it down? Easy peasy. I could’ve run all night. But after that…

“She’s too busy to notice what we’re eating,” I said, surveying the room stuffed full of men in ratty t-shirts and baseball caps filling up with a greasy breakfast before heading out for a day fishing.

Talley was stacking plates and picking discarded silverware off the scarred wooden table. “I managed to brush against her arm when she was giving Charlie his third plate of hashbrowns. She thinks we spent the entire night engaged in righteous pot smoking and have the worst case of munchies she’s ever seen.”

“I went to a dance with Jessi Poston?” Jase’s top lip curled as he regarded our waitress. Her hair was brown at its three-inch roots, a dull black the rest of the way down and appeared to be the consistency of dry straw. She had on blue eyeliner and green eyeshadow. To my super-sensitive nose she stank of cigarette smoke and booze. I could even catch a hint of vomit off the stain on the collar of her shirt.

“Well, she wasn’t quite so skanky in the eighth grade.” Talley followed Jase’s gaze with sympathy. “She really started going downhill after her mom got cancer our Sophomore year.”

“Great, now I feel guilty for thinking she’s nasty,” Jase said.

I had no doubt that was Talley’s original goal. She always saw the best in everyone and gave them the benefit of doubt. It pained her that the rest of us were less generous in our opinion of others.

When Jessi came back to leave our bill I made it a point to smile and actually look at her, not just her chipped black polish manicure and asymmetrical butterfly neck tattoo. I was rewarded with a sneer and more than mildly rude inquiry as to whether or not I needed yet another chocolate milk.

Well, at least I had one less thing to feel guilty about.

“I’ve got this,” I said, snatching the small mountain of ordering tickets off the table.

“Seriously? Thanks!” Jase looked as if he just won the lottery. “Although, if you had mentioned it earlier I would have gone with a steak instead of sausage.”

“Let me —”

“No, Charlie. It’s on me. Really, it’s the least I can do after robbing you of your fresh venison buffet last night.”

Jase choked out a laugh while Talley gave my hand a squeeze. “I think your sensitivity to animal rights is admirable,” she said. Jase gave in to a full-on laughing fit, and I could have sworn the corners of Charlie’s lips twitched upwards.

“It’s Walt Disney’s fault,” I said through tight lips. “He brain washed me, and now I’m too busy worrying about poor orphaned Bambi to do my job.”

It was perfect. Once we settled into the hunt we didn’t need to rely on Talley at all. We knew each other as well as we knew ourselves, and our animals were in perfect sync. Then it came time for me, the Pack Leader, to deliver the killing blow. Instead, she looked at me with those hugemongous doe eyes and I couldn’t do it. I just stood there and let her go.

“Talley isn’t wrong, you know,” Charlie said. “To have enough control to override the wolf’s instincts…” The muscles in his jaws jumped. “Not every Shifter can do that.” He threw back the remainder of the sludge Jessi claimed was coffee before giving me something that may have passed for a smile if you didn’t bother looking at his eyes. “Should’ve known you would be pulling super-Dominant stuff on your second Change. You never could stand for me and Jase to be better than you at anything.”

“That’s not true. You’re both much better housewives than me. I mean, you can clean, cook…”

“There are blind three year olds more skilled at using a stove than you. That’s hardly an accomplishment,” Jase countered. “Actually, that’s probably why you couldn’t kill the deer. It was too much meal preparation for you to handle.” His remarks were light-hearted, but I could tell he was somewhere between annoyed and disappointed with me.

“I know. I’m sorry—”

“Stop.” Charlie reached across the table as if to grab my hand before realizing what he was doing. He quickly jerked it back to pick up his now empty cup. “You’re doing a good job, no matter what JoJo the Idiot Brother says.” Jase opened his mouth, but Charlie smacked a hand over it. “Jase says he’s sorry.”

Jase’s eyes said he was considering taking a chunk out of Charlie’s hand.

“Awww…. Jase, it’s okay. I know you’re impaired by a debilitating combination of testosterone and lack of conscious. I forgive you,” I said, falling easily into the familiar banter.

“Jase thanks you for your generosity and further apologizes for having to eat and run, but we both have jobs requiring our presence.”