Page 58 of Big Bad Wolf

His father had died a few months ago, shortly after Rafe left. His favorite human invention turned on him. The lung cancer was swift and brutal in its attack. Werewolves were stronger than humans but not stronger than that.

He knew his brother wasn’t quite the asshole their father once was. But would Knox let him come back? Would Rafe even want to? After everything that had happened between him and his brothers?

He didn’t allow himself to think about it.

He couldn’t. Not if he wanted to keep his sanity.

“But—”

“No, Ruby. It’s not possible. Let it go.”

He didn’t want to think about Knox. Or his pack. He preferred to remember his brother as the asshole who’d tried to tear his throat out. It was easier that way.

“You should get in there.” He nodded toward the bar, cutting off any further protests or questions. He didn’t need Ruby to sit here and look at him with that sympathetic look on her face, like she understood what it felt like to be alone. Even if she did.

“Right,” she said, hopping down from the truck. “Thanks for the lift.”

She slammed the door behind her.

Maybe one of these days they’d have an interaction that he didn’t completely fuck up.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ruby tried to lose herself in the monotony of her work. Smile, pour drink, smile, take order, keep smiling, pour another drink, ignore Sal’s chatter. But the thought of Rafe’s gaze on her while she touched herself would not leave. If she was being honest, she’d be surprised if it ever left. She’d be a little perverted old lady still daydreaming about the hottest moment of her entire life. Because it definitely had been. And then he’d fled the scene like he’d been caught gawking at a car wreck.

She shook her head, wisps of hair escaping from her updo, trying to get Rafe out of her mind. For whatever reason, he didn’t think they should … fool around. And Ruby wasn’t in the habit of begging. Even though she really, really wanted to beg for more of what Rafe gave her this morning. More of his rough stubble on her face. More of his hands on her ass. More of his lips and his teeth and his big…

She glanced up to find Macy looking at her with a concerned furrow in her brow. Ruby gave her a tight smile and arranged the drinks evenly on her tray like it was the most important thing in the world.

“You okay?” Macy asked.

“Yep. Fine.”

Macy’s purple braids skated across her shoulders as she lined up the drinks. “You sure? You look like you’re doing math in your head.”

Ruby sputtered a laugh. “Nope. No math. Everything’s fine.”

“That girl is not doing math,” Sierra cut in. “She’s thinking about sex.”

“I am not!”

Sierra ran a manicured finger around the rim of her martini glass. Sierra was the only person in this place that drank martinis. They stocked olives just for her.

“Deny it all you want. I can tell. Flushed cheeks, dilated pupils…”

“Oh my God! Stop looking at me!”

Sierra chuckled. “Okay, whatever you say.”

“You haven’t seen that Wyatt guy around anymore, have you?” Macy asked, mercifully changing the subject. The look on her face said she would personally kick his ass if needed, which Ruby found comforting.

“No. Haven’t seen him.” Of course, she couldn’t say that Rafe had sniffed him loitering in her backyard because that was an insane thing to say. Even if it was true.

“Okay, good. We put his picture up.” Macy pointed to the wall of shame above the register. A blurry polaroid of Wyatt had joined the three others that had been there for years. One was Macy’s ex who still came in all the time, ignoring Macy’s jabs and the photo. One was a hiker who had come in a few years ago with an injured squirrel in his backpack. Or he thought it was injured until the squirrel escaped and ran rampant around the bar. And he hadn’t even left a good tip. And the third was Paula, Ruby’s third-grade teacher who’d gotten so caught up in a multilevel marketing scheme that she’d tried to get the whole town in her “down line.” Macy told her she was welcome to come back whenever she agreed to not speak a word about supplements.

She hadn’t been back in years.

“Thanks, Mace.” Ruby appreciated the gesture, but everyone else on that board had committed only the silliest of crimes. Wyatt had done so much worse.