Read The Wolf and the Bobcat: Online

Authors: E A Price

Tags: #Occult, #Horror, #Romance, #Fantasy, #Genre Fiction, #Literature & Fiction

The Wolf and the Bobcat: (8 page)

BOOK: The Wolf and the Bobcat:
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He checked off the items on his list and was about to pick up the last item, when he froze. He detected a familiar scent and quickly ducked behind a vegetable rack.
Darcy
.

He chanced a look at the puma shifter; she was inspecting a can of kidney beans.

“I can see you, Casey,” she called.

“We can see you, Casey,” echoed a small, giggling voice.

Darcy laughed and turned to put the can in her cart. In spite of his wolf’s grumbles, Casey decided to man up and face the puma. He came out to find an amused looking Darcy pushing a cart containing a cute, little blonde girl in pigtails, who couldn’t have been more than 4.

“You hiding from me, Casey?”

“Uhhh, no.” Casey gestured to the little girl. “She’s, uhh, she’s not yours, is she?”

Darcy blasted him with a look of annoyance. “No, Casey, do the math, you… you silly Billy.”

He snorted. “Silly Billy?” Not exactly an insult he expected from Darcy;
she was usually very explicit
.

Darcy inclined her head to the girl. “Can’t swear in front of kids, they repeat everything.”

The child wagged a tiny finger at Casey. “Yeah, you silly Billy.”

Darcy laughed. “This is Dinah; she’s my sister-in-law, Dinah this is…umm… my friend, Casey.”

He raised his eyebrow at that but didn’t object. He flashed a grin at Dinah and put out his palm for a high-five. “Hey, gimme five! By the side… up above… down below…” Dinah slapped his hand, and he grabbed onto it. “Ah, you’ve got me! You’ve got me!”

Dinah dissolved into squeals of laughter.

Casey processed what Darcy had just said. “Wait, she’s your…”

“Yep, she’s my mate’s sister.”

Casey couldn’t have looked more surprised, even if someone had walked up to him and slapped him with a wet haddock. “Well, uhh, congratulations, I guess. On being mated, I mean.”

She rolled her shoulders. “Yeah, I got that, thanks.”

They stood in awkward silence for a few seconds, before Casey excused himself. “I better go; my mom’s waiting for these things, my sisters are sick.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, I hope they get better soon.”

Casey nodded before swiftly moving past them, and seeking out the last item on his list – chicken breasts. He felt momentarily sorry for whoever mated with Darcy, but then felt a little bad about that. She did actually seem a lot calmer than she used to be, and six months ago he could never have imagined her taking care of a kid. Maybe being mated was good for her.
Maybe it would be good for him too…

At last he came to the checkout; he blanched a little when he saw Darcy was already there. Well, there was no point in hiding; she already knew he was behind her. He got in line and gave her a half-smile.

Rena, the cashier, made funny faces at Dinah, as she scanned the groceries. “Okay, in total that will be eighty-four dollars and fifty cents.”

Darcy’s face fell. She rooted through her purse. “Dang it! I only have seventy-five.” She bit her bottom lip as she looked over her items. “Let me find some things to put back.”

Rena patiently helped her by naming the prices of the items. Casey noticed Darcy’s cheeks were pink with embarrassment; he pretended he couldn’t hear what was happening, and started playing with his phone.

They finally found enough items to put back; Darcy grabbed her bags, and left with Dinah in tow.

Rena sighed as she started bagging Casey’s things. “Poor Darcy.”

Casey and his wolf huffed. “Why, ‘poor Darcy’?”

Rena looked around, to make sure no one was listening. She was a huge gossip, but at least she wasn’t as bad, or malicious, as the town’s resident busybody, Mrs. Martin. Casey usually didn’t care about gossip; he could care less about spreading it, or whether anyone was talking about him,
but he imagined he wouldn’t be pleased if any details about him trying to find his mate were broadcast.

“I feel bad for her, well, for all her mate’s family. Their mom took off and left Darcy’s mate, Dennis and his sister, Deanna, to look after the three youngest kids and their grandma, who’s in and out of hospital with cancer. I think they struggle for money; Dennis and Deanna are bobcat shifters, and they’re only like 20-years-old, I feel sorry for them having to support their family. I think it helps that Darcy’s there too now, I see her around town a lot with Dinah.”

Casey felt a twinge of guilt about the uncharitable thoughts he had about Darcy. Maybe being mated had changed her.
Perhaps it was time he started to be a little kinder.

At that moment, he came to a decision and asked Rena to pack up all the groceries, toot sweet. He paid, and grabbed the bags. He ran out the store, and was glad that Darcy was still parked outside. He caught her stood next to an ancient looking minivan, strapping Dinah inside.

“Here,” said Casey, thrusting a bag at Darcy.

She frowned, before gingerly taking the bag and looking inside. It was full of the groceries she had to put back. “Casey, I…”

He shuffled his feet awkwardly. “Just take them, okay. What’s a few bucks between friends?”

She stared into the bag, indecision written on her face. Part of her wanted to give it back, and tell him they didn’t need charity. She knew both Dennis and Deanna would do just that; they were stubborn to a fault. But she didn’t think Casey was doing it because he felt sorry for her, she sensed he was actually trying to be nice, and a big part of her was just grateful to him, but also pleasantly surprised.

“Thank you." She hesitated before sucking in a breath. "I’m sorry for the way I treated you, Casey. I used you to get back at Mal, and I shouldn’t have.”

Casey scratched his hand and gave her a half-smile. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have flirted with you when you were dating Mal, and I shouldn’t have used you either.”

Darcy let out a nervous laugh. “This is weird, right? Us being nice to one another?”

“Yeah, totally weird.”

“You know, I don’t know what’s going to happen with Carly, but I hope she gives us both jobs, I think we could learn to get along. I already sent her over some things I made, and I think she was impressed.”

He nodded. “Yeah, me too, but if there’s just one job going, I hope you get it.”

She smirked. “Yeah, I hope so too.”

Casey chuckled. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

He tensed. “We don’t have to hug or anything, do we?”

Darcy leaned forward slightly. “I think my mate would bust a nut if we did.”

“Shit, yeah, I forgot you said you were mated. He’s a bobcat, right?”

She gave him a puzzled look. “How did you know?”

Casey inclined his head to the store. “Rena might have…”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Rena’s lovely, but she does like to flap her mouth a lot.”

Casey poked out his tongue at Dinah through the minivan window. Dinah immediately did the same. “She’s adorable; you should bring her over to play with my youngest sister, Caitlin.”

She beamed. “A play-date would be nice.”

“Well, I’ll talk to my mom.”

“Cool.”

Darcy looked at her watch. “I better get going; I gotta pick up Grams.”

“Awesome, well… catch you later… uhh… alligator, as my sisters like to say.”

She chuckled. “In a while, crocodile.”

Casey waved at Dinah as Darcy drove away. He shook his head. She was so different from the old Darcy. She was still feisty and competitive, but she also had a fun, warm side that Casey hadn’t even guessed at.
Apparently, meeting her mate really had done wonders for her.

He was glad Darcy was happy; god knows she’d been a minx, but she had also suffered, and he knew she hadn’t exactly had a nice childhood.
Maybe it was time he got back to working on his own happy ending.

*

Deanna and Jake walked over to the pack-run pizza parlor, Pizza Moon, to find Hans Lucas banging his fists against a food truck. He was shouting at someone to come out and face him, presumably the owner of the truck who was inside, and staying inside if he had any sense.
Hans was notoriously temperamental.

Hans’ mate, Melanie stood a few feet away; a half-resigned and half-amused look adorned her face. By now, she was used to his angry outbursts, and just went with the flow.

The food truck had a huge picture of a subway sandwich painted on the side, and the name ‘Sub Heaven.’

“Get out here, now!” roared Hans.

“I have a legal right to be here!” called a voice from inside the truck.

Hans’ face burned red in fury. “Come out here and say that to my face!”

“Do you think I’m frigging suicidal?!”

Jake turned to Deanna. “I’ll take Hans, and you deal with the guy in the truck, okay?”

“Definitely,” she replied, quickly.
She wasn’t suicidal either.

She watched as Jake cautiously approached his raging pack mate, and began, with the help of Melanie, pulling him away from the truck. Jake, at least, was safe with Melanie there, no way would Hans risk lashing out at Jake and hurting his own mate. Although, Deanna doubted Hans would have hurt her either, he wasn’t the type to be violent against women.
Other men were fair game, however.

Deanna watched as Jake pulled Hans away with little trouble. There were actually very few of Hans’ pack mates who would actually come out the victor from a fight with Hans, what with him being a trained cage fighter and all. But, other than the Alpha and Beta of the pack, she actually thought Jake might be able to hold his own. He possessed a certain amount of power, which only shone through in moments like these.

Deanna walked up and rapped on the door of the truck. “Sir, this is Deputy Hardison. Everything’s under control, you can come out now.”

A surprisingly relaxed looking coyote shifter opened the door, and walked down the steps. “You don’t have to arrest him on my account; I’ll settle for an apology.”

“An apology!” bellowed Hans. “I’m not fucking apologizing to you!”

Melanie rubbed her hand on her mate’s bicep, trying to soothe him.

“Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?” suggested Deanna to the coyote.

Hans huffed. “I’ll tell you what’s fucking going on…”

“No, I will,” interrupted Melanie, calmly. She gestured to the coyote, “This man parked his truck right outside our restaurant, and he started telling customers who were trying to come in that we had health code violations. He was trying to steal our customers.”

Jake gave the coyote a piercing glare. “Is this true?”

The coyote blushed in embarrassment. “Not exactly… I just suggested that my kitchen was cleaner…”

Jake raised an eyebrow, and the coyote visibly wilted. “Can I see your vendor permit?”

The coyote passed it to Deanna, who scanned through it. It was legit; he was permitted to park his truck wherever he wanted, all over town. There were no restrictions on it. She was surprised to see it had been signed by the Mayor himself.

She nodded to Jake, who turned to the coyote. “Legally, you can be here, but you can’t make accusations like that. You should move along and find somewhere else to park your truck.”

The coyote’s mouth twitched. “Is that an order?”

“No, it’s a strong suggestion.”

Hans let out a lengthy snarl.
Even if it weren’t an order, the coyote certainly didn’t like the ramifications if he did opt to stay put.

The coyote swallowed. “I’ll move.”

“Wise decision,” said Jake, sagely, before maneuvering an irate Hans inside the pizza parlor, with Melanie following.

The coyote rubbed the back of his neck. “Boy, that guy… that guy sure has a temper on him.”

Deanna arched an eyebrow. “And what exactly did you think was going to happen, when you started telling people his kitchen wasn’t clean? You’re brave I’ll give you that, but you really shouldn’t antagonize wolf shifters.”

“Most of the town is run by wolf shifters, that’s the problem with this place.”

She cocked her head on one side. “I wouldn’t say it was a problem.”

The coyote looked her up and down appraisingly. “I’m Matt Bailey, by the way.”

He stuck out his hand, and she shook it. “Deanna Hardison.”

Matt dug his hands in his pockets. “So, listen, I’m new in town, and I could really do with someone to show me around.”

Deanna blinked a few times in surprise, as her bobcat wailed in irritation. “The town’s not that big; I’m sure you’ll manage.”

He chuckled. “Noted, if you change your mind, just look for the truck. I’ll be there.”

Matt clambered into the truck and drove away. Deanna shook her head;
she hoped he wasn’t dumb enough to park anywhere near the pizza parlor again.

“Hey, I think he likes you.”

Deanna jumped at the sound of Melanie’s voice behind her.

BOOK: The Wolf and the Bobcat:
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