Christmas for the Wolves & a Wolf for Valentine's Day (Grey Wolf Pack) (13 page)

“Yeah, we always do it in the shower and on the couch too. Although we sometimes mix things up and try the kitchen table or the washing machine,” said Kayleigh without a hint of awkwardness.

Manny struggled for words. “Well I, ummm, we’ve never had any complaints…”

Kayleigh hopped off the bed. “I don’t want to brag, Manny, but we actually did break a bed at a hotel in Texas. The hotel manager was a real tool about it.”

Manny cleared his throat. “Oh yeah? Well, it was hardly your fault, was it? Clearly it was a shoddy bed.”

“Exactly! Thank you, Manny.” Kayleigh looked at her friends. “This guy is golden. Manny, my friend, Carly here needs a big, well-made bed.”

In truth, Manny just thought Kayleigh was teasing but the whiff of a sales commission was enough to perk him right up. He oozed straight into the oily salesman role. “Oh, of course, madam, how can I help?”

Carly climbed off the bed and slipped her shoes on. “Well, I need a really wide bed, and it needs to be really long, and it will need to have a reinforced frame too.”

Manny quirked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. “Well, we have the deluxe king size which is six and a half feet in length and…”

“No, that’s not big enough.”

Manny smiled indulgently. “Or there’s our special king, known as the jumbo, which is six feet ten inches in length…”

“No, that’s still too small.”

Manny looked at her doubtfully. “Really?”

Melanie frowned. “If she says it’s too small, then it’s too small.”

Manny gave her a patronizing smile. “Señorita, I will…”

“Señorita? Listen up, hombre, my friend’s boyfriend is a seven-foot tall bear shifter who’s built like a tank. Believe me, she needs a big bed.”

Manny cocked his head at Carly, trying to imagine the small she-wolf with a seven-foot bear. He shook his head. “I may have just the thing.”

*

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Hans looked at his bear shifter friend doubtfully.

“Yeah, course.” Cain lit a match and threw it onto the wood. The flames whooshed into the air, and the two men jumped back in surprise.

Hans slapped at his face. “Jesus! My eyebrows are on fucking fire! How much lighter fluid did you use?”

“Don’t look at me, Don was in charge of that!”

At that moment, the laid-back Texan wolf strolled onto the porch sipping a beer. “Tell Carly to get some real beer in, can’t stand this light crap.”

“Never mind the fucking beer! I almost lost my fucking eyebrows in that fire!” Hans waved his arms around.

Don shrugged. “They’d grow back. Who knows? Might be an improvement.”

Hans could never be described as handsome, although his mate Melanie insisted he was, but he wasn’t ugly.
However, the loss of eyebrows combined with the scar he already had down one side of his face might give him a serial killer quality.

Don chuckled and gave an enraged Hans a twinkling smile. Don, on the other hand, was a very handsome man, not too rugged but not too pretty.
It bugged the hell out of his mate Kayleigh just how many women hit on him.

Don tried to stop laughing and threw a beer to Hans. “Here, have some crap beer.” He looked at Cain. “You know, I don’t see why we had to burn it, the thing looked brand new. You coulda just sold it.”

Cain watched the flames with some satisfaction. As the bed burned, it felt like he was burning away all memory of Carly’s relationship with Bryce. His beast threw back his head and howled gleefully.

He’d pretended to be okay about the bed, and Carly had gone along with him, even though she knew he was still put out. He’d made sure she was too tired to make it to bed last night, then as soon as she went shopping with her friends, he had Don and Hans over to chop up the damn bed and build a fire.

“No, it needed to be burnt.”

Cain stilled as he heard a car approach then relaxed as he recognized the sound. It was Carly’s little love bug.

While his bear was still thrilled at the bed burning, the man was a little anxious about Carly’s reaction.

He heard the squeals of Kayleigh as she threw herself at Don, and the soft murmurings of Hans and Melanie as they embraced. His own body hummed as he felt his sweet, little mate approach.

Carly smoothed her hands around his waist. “Hey, I missed you.”

Cain twisted in her arms and clutched her to his chest. “Me too, beautiful.”

She craned her neck up, hazel eyes sparkling. “What are you burning?”

Cain hesitated. “Nothing important.”

Carly furrowed her brow, and disentangling herself from her mate, she took a closer look at the fire. “Oh my… you’re burning the bed, aren’t you?!”

The two other couples stilled and listened, surprised at the annoyance in Carly’s voice.

A flicker of uncertainty passed through him, but he forced himself to be resolute. He had done the right thing. “There was no way in hell I was going to sleep in that thing.”

Carly spluttered. “But… but… what are we supposed to sleep on now?”

Cain put his hands on her shoulders. “Don gave us his old sleeping bags…”

Don yelped as Kayleigh slapped his arm. “You encouraged him to do this?”

“I swear darlin,’ he told me Carly knew he was burnin’ the bed.”

“Sleeping bags?” Carly looked at him in disbelief. “You really expect me to sleep on the floor?”

Cain smirked. “Come on, beautiful, you’re part wolf. You’ve slept out in the open before. Besides, it’s just for a few nights. A buddy of mine is moving in with his girlfriend, so he needs to get rid of his old bed. All I gotta do is pick it up, and we’ve got it for free.”

Carly shook her head.
Why couldn’t he have waited just one more day?!
Their new bed was turning up tomorrow. She had planned to get rid of the old one and replace it. It was going to be her Valentine’s Day present for her mate; it was going to prove to him just how much he meant to her.
Damnit, she’d maxed out a credit card buying that freaking huge bed, and now the impatient ass had ruined it!

“So, having a used bed from one of your horndog friends is better than sleeping in my nearly new bed? You’d rather sleep in a bed that has been used by god knows how many people rather than one that has only had me and Bryce…”

Cain roared furiously as his beast went wild. Their friends were taken aback, but Carly didn’t flinch. Anyone else was fair game, but he wouldn’t hurt her. “I’m not sleeping where other men have slept with you!”

Carly’s scowl softened, and she graced him with a lopsided smile. “Well, if that’s what you want…”

Cain warmed as he bent down for a kiss. Carly placed her fingers over his mouth and gently pushed him away. “Oh no, don’t even bother bringing those lips over here. I’m not kissing you where other women have kissed you.”

“But, Carly, beautiful…”

Carly flipped her hair over her shoulder and started walking to the house. “And I’m guessing, based on your history, there isn’t an un-kissed place left on your body!”

*

Sensing the growing tension, the other couples excused themselves as soon as possible.
Tripping off to enjoy their non-burnt beds, thought Cain sourly.

In spite of Carly’s reaction, he was positive he’d done the right thing. His head told him he was being an ass, but he just didn’t care. His heart told him he would never relax in that bed, knowing it had been privy to the more intimate moments of Carly and her former lover.

He knew Carly had sex before she met him. He certainly didn’t begrudge her that.
God knows he’d certainly spread himself far and wide as far as the female population were concerned!
But he knew her relationship with Bryce had at times been dangerous. Bryce had never hit her, if he had, he’d already be dead, but he had still hurt her mentally. She told Cain she could only forgive Bryce now because she had met her mate, and he had soothed her aching heart.

Cain cursed himself for not finding Carly sooner, for not hunting her down. He knew it wasn’t his fault that this other male had hurt her, but he couldn’t help but feel guilt.
Another reason he hated the bed
. It reminded him of his own misguided sense of failure.

Carly told him there was nothing he could ever do to stop her from loving him and dagnammit, he was going to hold her to that! Although she hadn’t said anything about how long she would stay angry.

Gingerly, Cain mounted the stairs. He could hear movements in their bedroom. He pushed the door open to find Carly in her wolf form. She was rolling around on the ground pulling and tearing at the sleeping bags.
She made it very clear what she thought of them!
When she saw him, she stood up on all fours and snapped her jaws at him.

Carly could hardly be called a mean looking wolf, at least not to him. She was small, fluffy, and her dazzling green amber eyes were too pretty ever to be menacing, but she did have claws…

“Beautiful…” he began.

The little wolf growled melodiously, and swishing her tail, she padded past him into the spare bedroom. Carefully, she used her nose to shut the door.

Cain groaned as his beast whimpered pathetically.
Apparently he was sleeping alone tonight.

*

Cain dozed on the couch. He flipped onto his back. He couldn’t sleep.
He was so used to sleeping next to his little mate that sleeping alone just felt wrong.

He sighed but held his breath as he heard her soft footfalls on the stairs. He held still as his needy body heated and she made her way to him.

His beast growled contentedly as Carly wordlessly crawled over his body and snuggled against him. Cain pulled the blanket around her and kissed her forehead. Her breathing started to slow.

“This doesn’t mean I forgive you,” she murmured.

“I know.”

“I just can’t sleep without you.”

“Me too, beautiful, me too.”

*

14
th
February

Cain cautiously went inside his house. He hadn’t seen his mate since they awoke that morning, and the time apart was killing him, and made his bear snarl in fury and demand he find her.

When they awoke, she had tersely told him good morning, before disappearing to take a shower.
Alone
. Usually, they always showered together, but this time she made it clear she wasn’t in the mood and locked the door. His bear told him to kick it down, but he considered that might make her even angrier.

Later, when she emerged, breathtakingly beautiful as always, he tried to talk to her, but she dismissed him and quickly left to go to work. Normally he would go with her. As yet, he didn’t have a job and instead hung around her cake shop all day. He helped out with any heavy lifting that needed to be done, and made sure none of the male customers tried to do something suicidal - like flirt with his mate.

He got the feeling he wasn’t welcome today.

Instead, he had spent the day trying to find way to make her forgive him. She had said she didn’t really care about celebrating Valentine’s Day, she said all she wanted was a night in with her man, snuggling on the couch, watching her tiny, old TV. He’d been on board with that, but now he figured he should actually do something more for her, to show her how important she was.

He’d drawn a blank. He was hardly the most romantic guy in the world, and spontaneous gestures didn’t come easily to him. In the end, he had gone the traditional Valentine’s route and opted for jewelry. He found the best item he could, based on his somewhat limited budget. He really needed to get a job; his bear was acutely embarrassed by the fact his mate was supporting them.

She didn’t tend to wear jewelry; he didn’t know why, but he knew she didn’t need any sparkly items to enhance her loveliness.
This was different though
. It was a thin necklace with two charms, a bear and a wolf. He’d scoured Alexandria to find the ideal item, and if he did say so himself, it was special.

He just hoped his mate would think so too. He didn’t really expect her just to roll over and forgive him when he gave her jewelry, but he kind of thought it couldn’t hurt. Part of him still didn’t think he had anything actually to be sorry for, and honestly, if he had to do it again, he would still burn the bed. But Carly was upset, and he needed to make her feel better.
Besides, showing his mate how much she meant to him was never a bad thing.

“Carly?” he called, tentatively.

No answer
. Her car was here. He pricked up his ears and heard her soft breathing coming from their bedroom. Hopefully, that was a good sign.

He clutched the jewelry box and slowly climbed the stairs. When he came to their door, he closed his eyes for a moment before pushing his way into the room.

He blinked at the sight before him. The biggest bed he had ever seen dominated the room, and his little mate was laid in the middle, gently snoozing and wearing absolutely nothing at all.