Beneath a Blood Moon (28 page)

“Mhmm. Sleepy.”

“You’ll have to wait to go back to sleep until after dinner, Sara. You really do need to eat. It’ll help you burn off the wolfsbane faster.”

“It’s not so bad now.” I yawned, leaning towards him.

With a soft laugh, my mate kissed my brow. “You can cuddle with me on the couch after dinner. How does that sound? We shouldn’t be rude to our hosts.”

“We could cuddle in that big tub in the bathroom instead,” I pointed out.

“I love your enthusiasm, but we just finished a very, very nice shower, and we still need to visit with Rob and Marcy.”

I sighed and wrapped my arms around his neck. “You’re not mad at me?”

“I’m not mad at you. I’m a stupid idiot for assuming an independent woman like you would just roll over and submit to having a pair of bodyguards. I should have known you would go flip your boss off, and I should have been there to look all menacing while you did it.” He hugged me and kissed where my neck and shoulder met. “I will just have to learn to anticipate what my wild little hellcat will do and make sure I keep one step ahead. Don’t worry, I appreciate a good challenge.”

My curiosity got the better of me. “Was Mary a challenge?”

Sanders sighed. “I loved her, make no mistake, Sara, but she was anything but a challenge. She was sweet. She cared about people. She was brave, but in a different way. All nurses are brave. They have to be. You’re different. Desmond terrified Mary. He liked her well enough, but she never enjoyed being in the same room with him. She found him oppressive. Hell, half the time, she found
Wendy
oppressive, and Wendy is about as threatening as a newborn kitten. Every day, I wondered when she would finally get tired of me, of what I was, and just leave. We were mates, but she was never bound to me like I was bound to her. She was always just too afraid of what I was, and her fear grew with the years.”

The grief in his voice hurt, and I ran my hand over his cheek to slide my fingers through his hair. “I shouldn’t have asked, I’m sorry.”

“Of course you should have. You deserve to know. You surprise me. Each day you do something that catches me off guard. One minute, you’re frightened of Wendy. The next, you’re ready to claw Desmond’s eyes out. And damn, woman, you can dance.”

“You like when I dance, do you?” I murmured, pleased.

“Every time I saw you, I wanted to kill every other man in the room for looking at you. You’re a wicked little temptress.”

I smiled and kissed his cheek. “For you.”

“If you keep sweet talking me like that, you’ll make us miss dinner.”

Desmond cleared his throat from the doorway. “You two will simply have to wait. I was sacrificed to interrupt you lovebirds. Sara, you really need to eat. Marcy’s eager to meet you, and with the help of her mate, she has cooked up a feast she claims should defeat all of us. I told her she hasn’t met you and your appetite yet. My honor is at stake.”

My mate laughed, stood, and before I could hop to my feet, he picked me up.

“I can walk,” I protested. “I made it all the way up the stairs without any help.”

“Nonsense. Why walk when I can carry you?”

Chapter Fourteen

Rob’s mate, Marcy, was a short Italian woman with a bright smile. She was old enough to be my grandmother, which startled me so much I gawked at her with my mouth hanging open. Sanders set me on my feet and presented me to the woman. If she noticed my rudeness, she simply didn’t care. With a pleased cry, she caught me in a hug, squeezing me so tight my ribs creaked and she forced a squeak out of me.

She wasn’t a Fenerec, but my nose informed me she wasn’t quite human, either. My wolf didn’t know what to make of the woman.

“Marcy, this is Sara,” my mate announced, shifting his weight back and forth as though he were an excited puppy seeking approval. His scent sweetened with his pleasure, and I wondered who Marcy was and why her opinion meant so much to my mate.

Marcy prowled around me, inspecting me from every angle. My eyes widened at her scrutiny, and unsettled by the intensity of her stare, I stepped closer to Sanders and grabbed hold of his hand.

Desmond chuckled. “She’s remarkably shy for a stripper.”

“You’re absolutely lovely,” Marcy said, and ignoring Desmond’s presence completely, the woman grabbed my other hand and tugged me across the living room. “I see you’ve finally gotten your head out of your ass. She suits you far better than Mary ever did.”

My mate herded me along, giving my hand an encouraging squeeze.

The living room opened into a large dining room dominated by a table capable of easily seating ten. My mate held out a chair for me, and I slid onto it, staring up at him with wide eyes.

All of his attention was focused on Rob’s mate, and he scowled at her. “Do we have to do this today, Marcy?”

“Yes,” was the curt reply. “We can do it now or I’ll simply nag you all night long until I have my way.”

Once again, my mouth dropped open and I was powerless to stop gawking.

Desmond sat across from me, and to my surprise, Marcy claimed the seat beside me. Smiling at me, she gave my hand a pat. “Don’t look so alarmed, dear.”

“Marcy, please,” my mate begged.

I had no idea what he was trying to make the woman do—or not do—but I could sense his worry and unease.

Desmond nudged my shin under the table, and when I turned my attention to him, he winked at me. “Don’t worry,” he mouthed at me in silence.

“Don’t you ‘Marcy, please’ me, Matthew. It has been
how
long since you met this angel, and you have not brought her to meet us?”

Rob cleared his throat. “I’ll bring dinner out, Marcy. It wouldn’t do to let your hard work get cold while you scold him.”

Grinning from ear to ear, Vegas’s Alpha retreated; as he pushed through a swinging door, I heard him whistle a merry tune.

“Well, Matthew?” Marcy demanded.

“They met right before the full moon,” Desmond said, his smile warm and affectionate. “She really is lovely, isn’t she?”

“However did you find her, Charles? Surely he wasn’t capable of discovering such a beauty on his own.”

I sucked in a breath, twisting to face my mate.

All he did was groan and flop onto the table, stretching his arms out in Wendy’s direction in a pleading bid for help. “Make them stop, Wendy. Please.”

Wendy arched a brow, huffed, and grinned at Marcy. “He did actually find her all on his own, although you will not approve of his methods—or my mate’s.”

“Strip club, if my ears did not deceive me,” Marcy murmured. “Hell, I was about to start hiring prostitutes.”

“Marcy!” my mate choked out.

“It’s true,” Rob announced, sweeping through the door with two large bowls of salad, which he set on the table. “I was considering letting her, too.”

“Rob!” Sanders covered his head with his arms. “Don’t make me get up and kick—”

When Marcy cleared her throat, my mate whimpered.

My mate didn’t surrender to anyone easily, not even to Desmond. Narrowing my eyes, I considered the woman seated beside me. Who was she to hold so much power over my mate? My wolf roused, and I was aware of her listening through my ears and watching through my eyes. Her lethargy remained, and I stifled a yawn as her weariness bled into me.

“Eat, Sara. Marcy will enjoy having someone who doesn’t view salad as an aberration sharing dinner with her for a change,” Desmond said, sliding one of the salad bowls to me. “Vegetarians”

“Nonsense, Charles. If I ate the same things you Fenerec do, I would have been in the grave years ago. I’m looking forward to a few more years of driving Rob crazy.” Marcy loaded her plate with salad from the other bowl. There was something sad about her smile, and I got the feeling she wanted to say something but decided against it.

It took Rob five trips to bring out the first wave of bowls and dishes. Three pastas accompanied by different sauces, and even at the buffet, I hadn’t seen quite so much meat in one place at a single time. Every time I reached for salad, Sanders slipped a piece of meat or scoop of pasta onto my plate.

“Will you stop that?” I demanded, slapping the back of his hand with my spoon. “I can feed myself.”

“I like feeding you,” he replied, and with an unrepentant grin, he deposited a meatball on my plate. “Let me tell you a secret, Sara.”

“What secret?” I asked suspiciously.

“Never upset an Italian woman. She will prepare a wonderful feast and make certain your least favorite foods are on the table—and expect you to eat your fair share, like it or not.”

I stared at the variety of food scattered across the table, wondering how anyone could possibly dislike any of it. “But it’s delicious. Everything is. How could anyone not like it?”

Marcy smiled. “Thank you, Sara. It’s just a little something I cooked up earlier.”

“Pasta,” my mate complained, poking at his plate with his fork. “This isn’t healthy.”

Wendy laughed. “There are plenty of meatballs, Sanders. Stop whining, it’s rude.”

“If you don’t eat your pasta, you don’t get any of the second course,” Marcy replied, stabbing a meatball and depositing it on my mate’s plate. “Stop feeding Sara your dinner.”

“I’m merely ensuring she eats a sufficient amount.” He returned the meatball to Marcy’s plate after stealing a bite of it. I smiled a bit at the careful way he phrased his reply, aware of his worry he’d force me to do something against my will while I was still drugged with wolfsbane.

I slapped his hand with my spoon again. “Sanders!” I grabbed the assaulted meatball with my fork and set it on my mate’s plate. “You touched it, so you have to eat it. I’m so sorry, Marcy. I have no idea what has gotten into him today. He’s never this rude!”

“He’s always this rude,” Rob informed me with a wink. “If he weren’t, I’d be really worried.”

“Sanders!” I faced my mate. “How could you?”

“You don’t understand,” he spluttered, holding his hands up in surrender. He opened his mouth to say something, and on an impulse, I spun pasta around my fork and shoved it in his mouth.

“Eat or choke,” I growled.

With a resigned sigh, my mate obeyed. “That’s cheating. Why would you—”

I fed him another forkful of pasta. “Isn’t it delicious? It’s delicious, isn’t it?”

“You’re ruthless,” my mate complained, capturing my wrist in his hand. He smiled at me, relieving me of my fork. “A ruthless cheater, that’s what you are.”

“You need to eat, too,” I replied. When I opened my mouth to sing my praises of salad, he forced a piece of meatball into my mouth.

My wolf approved, her hunger for meat strengthening.

“I was right,” Marcy declared, rising from her seat. “You are
far
better for him than that other woman.”

I blushed, torn between pleasure and horror over the casual way Marcy dismissed the woman Sanders had loved so much. Shaking his head, Sanders fed me another piece of meatball, probably to keep me quiet.

“Bring back some real food, bitch,” my mate called after Marcy.

I choked, and wheezing, I grabbed my glass of water. “Sanders!”

Rob headed into the other room, his eyes twinkling when he grinned. “I think I have to side with my mate on this one. I’ll see if Marcy has even a shred of sympathy for you, Sanders; don’t count on it, though. You know her.”

Wendy and Desmond stared at their plates, and judging from their scents, they were trying very hard to contain their mirth.

There was something I was missing, some little fact eluding me that would explain everything. Who was Marcy, and how did she bring out such a different side of my mate?

It was a side of him I wanted to see more of, playful and aggressive without malice.
Fun
.

When Marcy and Rob returned, they carried two huge pans of sliced meat. Sitting straighter, my mate watched them with wide eyes.

Judging from the way he swallowed to hide the fact he was drooling at the sight of the food, Marcy had taken mercy on him. I had no idea what type of meat it was, but it smelled incredible.

“Being the gracious hostess I am, I’ll even allow you to have some, Matthew,” Marcy announced. Smiling at my mate, the woman served me, leaving a heaping pile of food on my plate. “Don’t be shy, Sara. There are several more pans of this in the kitchen. If we run out, I’ll be very surprised.”

I freed my hand, snatched my fork, and found the meat so tender it broke apart when I stabbed it. My eyes widened; the meat was juicy, a little sweet, and a little savory. My wolf’s need for more overwhelmed me, and I lost the ability to focus on anything other than eating as much as my stomach could hold.