The single sound told her he saw through what she was saying, and she picked up her keys to avoid further questions. “Have a fun evening, and god, don’t let her put fucking ketchup on the Wellington.”
- - -?- --
Tuesday’s grandmother was waiting on the front porch when Tuesday pulled up early on Sunday, two coffees already on the table between the chairs, and the scent of sweet potato pie wafting through the front door. Tuesday’s stomach growled.
She settled into the chair beside her grandmother and took a sip of her coffee, remembering Knife knowing how to make hers because of her grandmother.
“Your energy is different.” Her grandmother might’ve said it as a statement, but they both knew it was a question.
“I read a fantastic book last night and then slept seven hours straight.”
Her grandmother took a sip of her coffee. “Knife seems like a good man.”
Tuesday stilled for a half-second and then took another sip of coffee while she regrouped. Of course her grandmother had recognized his scent on her. She missed nothing. “Agreed.”
“Straightforward. Knows what he is and what he isn’t.” She looked out at the yard. “Doesn’t pretend to be something else.”
“No,” Tuesday agreed. “He doesn’t.”
A comfortable silence settled between them again, but she knew her grandmother would have more to say.
“Bikers have rules against being close to pack wolves,” her grandmother said. “They have too many secrets to risk it.”
She frowned. “Supernatural rules? I know some shifters have complicated rules about interspecies dating, but at least we’re both wolves.”
And yeah, they were both part of different powerful organizations, but everyone would understand two wolf-souls who spoke to each other, if it led to it. For now though, she didn’t intend to let it go past friends-who-fuck. She didn’t need the complications of a biker who possibly saw various laws assuggestionsrather than absolutes.
“I’m afraid that isn’t part of the equation, baby.” Her grandmother’s voice was gentle but precise. “Any secret you carry, Kenny can access. Not because he would — Kenny is a good alpha, and he respects privacy when he can, but for something important to the pack, he’d have to, whether he wanted to or not.”
Right. The magic of the blood bond gives the alpha access to override your willpower, to completely control both human and wolf.
As a child, the alpha can use his blood bond with the parents to reach the child, but that ability doesn’t survive long past moving out of your parents’ home. Older teens have to decide whether to oath to the pack or become lone wolves, and she’d never once considered not taking the oath.
“The MC survives on secrets and discretion,” her grandmother continued. “They follow their own laws, but not necessarily society’s. They can’t risk a brother sharing things with a girlfriend who is bound to an alpha who can control her with impunity.”
She paused. “It isn’t about not trusting you. It’s about the fact someone can override your willpower and order you to tell their secrets.”
The sweet potato pie smell drifted out again, warm and familiar, and Tuesday stared at her coffee.
This changedeverything.
Because her wolf was more than interested in this man, and she’d known it from the start. She’d told herself it was just a fun fling, but she’d left some space to possibly change her mind and let it turn into more.
But this meant itcouldn’tturn into more.
She sighed. “He knew how I liked my coffee. How many people do you blab my dark secrets to?”
Her grandmother gave a soft laugh. “He’s a nice young man, so of course I told him about my granddaughter. What else am I going to talk to him about? I’d sound like an old woman talking about the good old days.” She shrugged. “The two of you are part of the same generation, so it made conversation easy.”
With barely a pause, her grandmother said, “Your wolf likes him.”
Tuesday nodded. “Yeah. She does. I’d decided we don’t need to complicate our lives with a biker, but…” She shrugged. “I thought the possibility was there, if I changed my mind.”
“Knowing this, will you see him again?” The question was simple, direct, and absolutely devastating.
Tuesday was quiet for long enough, a cardinal landed on the porch railing and flew away again before she answered.
“We have plans for Monday. It would be rude to cancel.”
