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When did you do that?He was the best cook of the three of us by far, to the point only our shifter metabolisms, and lots of extra runs in the forest, kept us from gaining tons of weight, but I hadn’t seen him making anything.
“I did it at the main kitchens to surprise you. You in?”
It was impossible to stay in a funk with the two of them beaming down at me, so I pushed Dean as far to the back of my mind as I could and hopped from my chair.I love surprises. What’s in there?I tucked my whiteboard under my arm and reached for the cooler, but he held it out of reach above my head. Way above my head. I was average height, but Creek made me feel much more petite.
“No you don’t. If I let you see, you’ll want to eat it right now. We’ve picked out a spot where we can have our picnic and frolic like wolves in springtime.”
“We are wolves in springtime,” Shane helpfully pointed out. “So, it seems appropriate.”
Appropriate. They planned a perfect afternoon, and that was his description. I threw myself into his arms and hugged him then did the same to Creek who squeezed me with one arm while still keeping the cooler out of reach.
He knew me well.
I grabbed a blanket and followed my mates off through the woods, confident they’d taken care of the rest. I knew the forest on our lands far better than they did, but they were enthusiastic newbies to the neighborhood. We were about fifteen minutes out when I recognized the direction we were going. And a little while later, when we spread out our blanket on a patch of grassy meadow near the crystal caves, my instincts were proven right.
It was perfect. The tree branches extended over where we sat, dappling the sunshine, and my wolf was doing flips inside me, so even though I was dying to get a hold of whatever was for lunch, I stripped down, as did the guys, and we tore off through the forest in a rousing game of catch and, unfortunately for a couple of small mammals, an appetizer or two. We lay panting on the blanket, nuzzling one another for a bit after that, and I’d never known my wolf to be so happy. Despite the temptation in the cooler, we dozed, in one of the puppy piles we all loved, then woke and shifted back and finally delved into the lunch.
It was so worth the wait. He’d made little cheese crackers and a white bean spread with herbs and garlic to eat with them. Deviled eggs. A crisp green portable salad—broad lettuce leaves rolled around chopped vegetables from the gardens—radishes, carrots, spring onions—dressed in his signature vinaigrette. Sliced ham and summer sausage. Strawberries and a few early cherries from the pack trees.
Everything came from the pack lands and was fresh and delicious. Well not everything. The little box of chocolate truffles came from town and earned Creek a hearty handshake and backslap from Shane and a big kiss from me.
After lunch, we decided some exercise was a good idea, so we dressed and hiked up into the caverns to enjoy the beautiful crystal formations.
I had the best mates ever!
Chapter Fourteen
Shane
I waited for Jillian to leave, claiming that I needed to grab something. I did need to grab something. I needed to convince Creek to come with me and talk to that dickhead Dean.
Calling him Dickhead probably wasn’t the best way to approach him, but I would work out the details on the walk over to his pity party site.
“Hey, Creek,” I called out when I got closer to the cabin.
“Yo,” he joked. Over the time since he had moved in, he and I had formed a friendship that included making inside jokes about sayingyo. He was hilarious once you broke through that shy exterior. He had made Jillian laugh so hard one night that she snorted. It was nice to hear a noise coming from her.
“I was thinking you might help me with something.”
He looked up from where he was pulling his laundry from the line. “What’s that?”
“Going to talk to Dean.”
He whirled toward me, shirt in his hand. “You think that’s a good idea?”
I blew out a long breath and kicked at the dirt. “Can’t hurt at this point. He’s hurting our mate, and I want to talk to him now before my disappointment and anger fully progresses into rage and I put my fist into his jaw.”
Until the words came out of my mouth, I didn’t realize how upset I was at this guy. Didn’t he realize he was killing her with every second he chose to be alone? Didn’t he realize how much she was suffering at his hand, the hand of her mate? That was our main objective as her mates, not to hurt her.
Someone clearly needed to clue him in, and I didn’t know of any two more qualified than her other mates.
“Never took you as a violent one.”
I shrugged. “That’s why we need to intercept before it evolves to that. My wolf can’t take our mate being so damned sad. Even when she’s laughing and happy, there’s a twinge of despair in her eyes.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
We made it over to where Dean was holing up, for lack of a better word. We found him standing there, hands on his hips, looking at the pile of wood as though it would spring up, phase into a person, and tell him what to do.
