The Werewolf Meets His Match (Nocturne Falls Book 2) (8 page)

She had to call home. Had to talk to Charlie. Had to remind herself why she was doing this.

Or she was going to turn tail and run.

Something was up with Ivy. Something was unsettling her. Hank didn’t need his sheriff instincts or military training to figure that out. Maybe it was just because she was in a strange town, about to marry a strange man from the family who’d been feuding with her family since before either of them was born.

That was enough to upset anyone. Hell, it upset him for a second or two, but women attached emotion to everything. To him this marriage was a business transaction. One he hadn’t given much thought to, although he’d known it was a possibility since he’d understood his place as the pack leader’s firstborn. Clearly an oversight on his part. This marriage was going to last the rest of his life. He would have to find a way to make it work.

And he knew enough to know that making it work meant keeping Ivy happy. Happy wife, happy life was a saying for a reason.

But whatever was going on with her now was her business. She’d come to terms with the marriage in her own time. If she didn’t, she’d be miserable for the rest of her life no matter what he did. With that in mind, he let her be. Suspects he could interrogate all day long. But a woman like Ivy was a complicated creature beyond his ken. Actually, most women were. His mother, aunt and sister included.

He pulled into the driveway and hit the button to raise the garage door. After parking, he got out and opened Ivy’s door for her, then popped the trunk and grabbed two big handfuls of bags. No rat poison in any of them that he could see, so that was a good sign.

He went through the garage, leaving the house door open for her. As he set the bags on the kitchen counter, the knowledge that he’d have to leave her in the house alone became apparent.

What other choice did he have? Bring her to the station? And have her do what? Sit in his office for the rest of the day like she was a child to be watched? Make her fair game for one of Birdie’s interrogations? Neither one of them wanted that.

He sighed. This would be their first experiment in trust.

He almost bumped into her on his way out for a second load of groceries.

“Sorry.” She quickly got out of his way.

“No, you go.” He moved to the side, watching her go past. For a woman with so much outward confidence, she had a wariness about her that was baffling. Was that Clemens’ doing? Had he demanded a level of deferential treatment that had shaped her whole life? Hank set the bags on the counter and waited until she came back. “Why don’t you start unpacking and I’ll bring the rest in?”

“Okay.” She tucked a strand of blue-black hair behind one ear adorned with a silver hoop, then went to work unloading the goods.

It only took him one more trip to bring the rest of the bags in. The counters were full. “You need anything else? I have to get back to the station.”

She shut the fridge. “I think I’m good. I have plenty to keep me busy until you come home for dinner. You will be coming home for dinner, won’t you?”

He didn’t usually, but he also didn’t usually have a woman waiting for him. Actually, he never had a woman waiting for him. “Do you want me to?”

Her brows bent. “Of course. It
is
your house. And how else are we going to get to know each other? Besides, I’m making dinner.”

“Right. Seven then.” That would give him time to swing by Howler’s and check on Bridget. Make sure she wasn’t freaking out over this marriage thing.

“Seven. Good.”

“I’ll call if something comes up.”

Her mouth bunched to one side. “I was wondering…”

He waited.

“I could really use a run. This close to the full moon and all.” She shrugged. “You know how it is.”

He did know. The wildness had been scratching at his skin, especially with an available female in such close proximity, and there was no better way to release that wildness than a run. Well, there was a better way, but he wasn’t going there with Ivy. Yet. “A run sounds great. After dinner.”

She smiled, turning her already pretty face into something amazing. “Okay, good.”

“See you later then.” For a split second, he thought he should kiss her goodbye, but that’s what couples did when they were comfortable with each other and that wasn’t a word either one of them could apply to this relationship. If this could even be called a relationship. Arrangement might be all it ever was. He hoped that wasn’t the case, but it was a possibility, especially in this kind of situation. With a small shake of his head, he went back to the car and got in. He sat for a minute, not going anywhere.

There was a woman in his kitchen unpacking groceries, who was clearly planning on cooking him a meal. A woman who was not his sister.

A woman who would be his wife in three days.

His life had done a one-eighty and he was essentially powerless to stop it.

The strangest part was, he wasn’t sure he wanted to. After all, this was what being next in line for alpha meant. Responsibility. Tradition. Sacrifice.

He went to put his keys in the ignition and realized he must have left them on the kitchen counter. He went back inside.

Ivy wasn’t in the kitchen, but he heard her voice coming from the living room. She sounded stressed. He peered around the corner. She was on the phone, pacing in front of the fireplace.

“Yes, I’m here. In his house. I know I was supposed to text, but that’s not how things went.”

He shouldn’t be eavesdropping. She was probably just checking in, letting someone know she had arrived. He started for the kitchen and his keys.

“Let me talk to Charlie.”

He stopped walking, the sound of another man’s name cutting through him. Of course there was another man. A woman like Ivy wouldn’t be unattached.

Ivy sighed. “You have to let me talk to him at some point. He must miss me. At least tell him I love him.”

Hank had never given it a thought, but it made so much sense. No wonder she’d tensed when he’d touched her. When he’d kissed her. And it explained why she seemed so torn about the whole thing.

Her father was forcing her to marry Hank for the sake of the pack, Ivy’s wants and needs and emotions be damned.

There was no way this would end well. Ivy would come to resent him, always seeing him as the man who’d cost her her happiness. It made Hank a little sad for both of them, and with that realization, he left.

He’d heard all he needed to hear.

Ivy hung up and sat on the couch, letting her head hang down as she dealt with the emotions running through her. She wanted to cry and scream and break things, but none of that was going to change anything. Besides, she needed to focus her energy on making this situation work so that she and Charlie would never have to go through this again.

There were two options. Marry Hank, satisfy her father’s demands, then take Charlie and run. And pray that her father didn’t care enough about either one of them to bother looking.

Or
maybe
she could get Hank to fall for her, to really love her. Then, after he learned the truth, he might take pity on them and let them stay.

At the very least, he might not make them go back to Tennessee. Back to Clemens Kincaid.

That’s all she really wanted for her and Charlie. Freedom from the tyranny of her father. But getting that freedom was going to come at Hank’s expense, no matter which route she chose.

She closed her eyes and inhaled, then blew out the breath slowly and opened her eyes again. She could at least give life with Hank a shot. He seemed like a decent man. Maybe he’d understand.

Maybe.

And if he didn’t, running was still an option.

Her mind made up, she stood, tucked her phone in her pocket and went back to the kitchen to lose herself in the chores of putting the rest of the groceries away and baking a cake.

The oven had just come up to temperature when Hank charged through the front door, nearly scaring the daylights out of her. She jumped, jerking the mixer out of the bowl and splattering chocolate cake batter over herself and half the kitchen. He’d barely been gone an hour. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

He looked stern. Not that that was so unusual. “We need to talk.”

“Apparently.” She put the mixer down, leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. She couldn’t imagine what was wrong, but a small twitch of concern settled in her belly. “What’s got you all worked up?”

“You. This…arrangement.”

And there it was. She nodded. “Just hit you, did it? Blew your mind with a moment of, Oh crap, I’m marrying a Kincaid?” She sighed. “I feel ya. I really do.”

“No.” He huffed out a breath, big bad wolf style. “I know you’re in love with another man. I can’t marry a woman who’s going to resent me and make my life miserable for something I can’t help, so we need to work this out
now
.”

She stared at him, wondering how he’d come to that conclusion. “Um…what?”

“Are you saying you’re not in love with someone else?”

“I’m saying there’s no other man, and I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He growled, his eyes sparking gold. “Do
not
lie to me. I hate lies. I heard you on the phone. Heard you asking for Charlie.”

“Calm down, Merrow.” She frowned, but her stomach rolled with a greater anxiety. The secret she’d been sworn to keep was on the verge of surfacing and it was very clearly too soon. Duty or not, Hank probably didn’t like her enough at this point to forgive her for the whole thing. “For someone who hates lies, you sure have no problem eavesdropping, huh?”

That took the vinegar out of him. “Just tell me the truth. What am I getting into?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath. She could tell him the truth without revealing everything. It was the only way to hang on to her hope for a better life. The only way she might avoid her father’s wrath and a lifetime of looking over her shoulder. She tensed in anticipation of his reaction. “Charlie is my son.”

Hank’s shoulders dropped and his face went slack, the frustration draining away. “You have a kid? Where is he?”

“At my parents.” Anger had begun to simmer down deep. A little of it was because Hank was judging her for something he’d only overheard, but the bulk of her anger remained directed at her father for using Charlie as a pawn. And for being such a crappy human being.

A few beats passed before he spoke. “Why didn’t you say something? That’s an important detail, don’t you think?”

Her anger hit a boiling point but Clemens wasn’t there for her to lash out at, so Hank got the brunt of it. “My son is more than a
detail
and I didn’t tell you yet because we’ve barely learned each other’s first names. Maybe I was going to tell you at dinner.” She wasn’t. “Ever consider that?”

“No,” he muttered.

He didn’t deserve her ire, but she couldn’t stop herself. There was too much built up emotion in her and it needed an outlet. “I get that you think your job makes you above the law but eavesdropping is a pretty crappy way to start out a new relationship.”

So was withholding information, but what choice did she have? “Maybe it’s stupid to think this can work. We don’t know each other at all. I’m not sure we can even like each other. I need some air.”

“Ivy.”