Werewolf Dreams (12 page)

“Now Grayson remember to take it in the morning, otherwise you’ll be miserable,” she said with a smile.

Ava watched as the thin man with spikey light brown hair took the bag and thanked Patricia. When he turned around Ava smiled. This guy was perfect. He had that cute, bookworm look that drove some girls crazy. He even had glasses. Her smile turned to a grin as she looked up to see Cyrus shaking his head at her cynically. She elbowed him in the side and he shrugged.

“Allergies getting to you Gray?”
Cyrus asked as he leaned up against the counter.

Grayson nodded his head in embarrassment and glanced back at Patricia. “Your mom said it should clear up soon. I’m glad I ran into you
Cy. I wanted to thank you again for stepping in with Tom last week. You saved my parents the cost of a funeral,” he said running a hand over his chest nervously as if it were still sore.

Cyrus smiled and punched Grayson lightly in the shoulder. “You’re my friend Gray. Of course I’ll stand up for you. Listen, I’d like to introduce you to a family friend. Ava and her father are staying with us this summer.
And um, I think Ava would be very interested in becoming friends with you,” he said dryly.

Grayson looked at Ava and nodded his head shyly as he held his hand out to shake hers. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Ava. I work down at the movie theater so I’m sure we’ll run into each other there,” he said, clear
ing his throat and then glancing at Cyrus nervously.

Cyrus grinned and glanced at Ava whose smile had slipped a few notches. Grayson was cute and geeky, but Cyrus was right. He wouldn’t be able to
protect her from macho idiots. She was sensing a complete lack of Alpha-ness. This guy, as cute as he was, would cower and back away from Ben and his friends.
Crap
.

“I’m sure we will run into each
other soon Grayson. It was very nice meeting you,” she said quietly and then watched in surprise as he practically ran out of the pharmacy.

“Was it something I said?” she asked out loud
staring after the young man with a frown.

Cyrus looked at her wide-eyed and shook his head as if he was confused too. Patricia chuckled making Ava turn back and look at her questioningly.

“He probably picked up on the fact that Cyrus is interested in you himself. He just didn’t want to step on Cyrus’ toes,” she said with an indulgent smile at her son.

Ava crinkled up her nose in confusion. “There’s no way he could have known that,” she stated with a suspicious glance at Cyrus.

Patricia grinned and leaned on the counter. “Sorry, I forget you don’t have any experience with our kind. We can pick up on what other people are feeling. We can even smell what other people are feeling sometimes if it’s strong. We can sense if someone is aggressive or angry or sad or um,
interested
,” she said glancing at her son with a raised eyebrow.

“Why do you think your dad’s been glaring at me non-stop since
the moment we met?” Cyrus said.

Ava sighed loudly and stared up at the ceiling. “I just don’t get any of this,” she said as Cyrus tried not to smile.

“Mom, Ava had the brilliant idea that instead of
pretending
to pick me as a mate, that she could find someone nerdy, like Grayson instead. She doesn’t, um . . .
trust
me to do the job,” he said looking deliberately sad and pathetic as his mom stood up straight and stared at Ava as if she were insane.

“
What?
You don’t think Cyrus can protect you?” she demanded, sounding offended.

Ava smiled and held up her hands to pacify a mother’s pride in her son. “That’s not it at all. I have no doubts in Cyrus’s abilities to fight or protect me or anything like that. Honestly Patricia, it’s me I don’t trust. There is no denying that your son is flat out beautiful. I’ve never met anyone like him before and it’s very possible I’ll throw myself at him. I’ve had to catch myself twice already. And like Tobias said this morning, it’s just not worth the risk of a pretend mate turning into a real one. I couldn’t do that to him and I couldn’t do that to you,” she said, looking as sincere as she possibly could. She could tell Patricia wasn’t buying it though. She wondered if she could dredge up a few fake tears.

Cyrus snorted rudely and Patricia looked at her suspiciously. “Honey, Cyrus has been fighting off women since he was fifteen. I don’t think if you threw yourself at him he’d have any problems holding you off if he wanted to. Besides, we talked about it this morning. Ava honey, if you can make the change, Cyrus assures me that’s good enough for him. He told me that he barely held you back from changing this morning. If Cyrus wants to choose you, then I support him and I’m sure the town will too. Well
, eventually
anyways.”

Ava looked at Patricia in horror and turned to see Cyrus grinning at her triumphantly.
“
But Tobias!
What about Tobias? There’s no way he’d accept me,” she said, starting to feel desperate.

Patricia shrugged and moved down the counter to straighten a display of lip balm. “Tobias does have his doubts of course, but he loves your father like a brother. He’s so happy to have his friend back home. And if you two had children and combined our families, he’d be in heaven. Sorry Ava, it looks like you’re on your own,” she said with commiserating smile.

Ava shook her head back and forth biting her lip. “Well, there is no way my father would ever accept it. If he even thought for a second Cyrus was serious about me, I’d be out of here before you know it. He doesn’t want this life for me. He wants me to be safe from a society that treats women with so little respect. He told me that’s why he left,” she said, looking at Patricia pleadingly.

Cyrus stopped smiling and moved toward her, gripping her upper arms and forcing her to look up at him. “You would be safe with me Ava. I would respect you and that means everyone in this town will too,” he said, his voice sounding low and dangerous.

Ava closed her eyes, trying to block out his face. “Look, it’s not you. It’s me. I don’t want this town Cyrus. I don’t want this life. I won’t stay here,” she said, pulling her arms free from his grasp.

Cyrus stared at her moodily and turned away in silence. Patricia looked at her son’s face, her eye’s widening and then looked at Ava with determination.

“Honey, you’re being a little dramatic aren’t you? This is for
pretend
. It won’t be real. Maybe Cyrus would like it to be real, but he’s a big boy. He can handle rejection,” she said, looking at her son doubtfully. “There’s really no other option. Now come on, shake hands you two. Let’s begin your pretend relationship right now and I’ll start spreading it around. It should only take an hour or two for the news to spread. People in town have been waiting for years to see who Cyrus ends up with. It’ll cause a stir that a little slip like you did the choosing but that just makes it more interesting. Everyone will know and you’ll be able to spend your summer worry free,” she said soothingly.

Ava and Cyrus stared at each other for a minute before Ava moved forward, holding her hand out. “Thank you Cyrus for being willing to protect me for the summer. I appreciate your willingness to help me out,” she said solemnly, her eyes filled with worry.

Cyrus bowed his head as he shook her hand lightly, letting go almost immediately. “It’s my pleasure,” he said in a dry business like way.

Patricia clapped her hands and grinned at them. “Perfect. Now why don’t you two go grab some lunch. I have
work to do for a couple more hours so I’ll see you both back at the house for dinner around six,” she said, waving them off.

Ava sighed and glanced up at Cyrus. “It’s like I’m engaged now or something. This whole day has been so surreal. I can’t believe it,” she said as he opened the door for her.

Cyrus cracked a smile and put his arm around her shoulders as they walked down the street to the pub she had seen her first day in town. She didn’t bother pushing his arm away. There was no use anymore.

Cyrus could sense her capitulation and grinned. “You should probably put your arm around my waist, you know, so that this is believable,” he said casually.

Ava winced knowing she was already way over her head. But she did as he instructed and put her arm around his waist, surprised at how right it felt. She didn’t have to look up to know that he was grinning.

Ava scanned the streets and realized that just about everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at them. “Why are they all staring at me like I’m a freak?” she whispered, letting her hair fall to cover her face.

Cyrus stopped her and moved to stand in front of her, raising her chin so she had to look at him. “No mate of mine would ever hide her face. My mate holds her head up high, because she’s proud to be seen with me.
Got it?”
he said firmly.

Ava swallowed and nodded. “Sorry, it’s not that I’m ashamed of you. I just have this thing where I hate people staring at me.
It started when I did gymnastics and it’s just gotten worse. It makes me feel shaky inside. My dad doesn’t know this, but I had a panic attack before one of my last meets,” she admitted quietly.

Cyrus tilted his head and looked at her with a slight smile on his face. “You’re shy. You’ve always been so feisty with me that I never realized. I should have guessed when I found you outside hiding under the tree. Here’s the trick. Just focus on me. Ignore them. Pretend they don’t exist. It’s just you and me Ava,” he said and then took her hand and led her to the pub, holding the door open for her.

Ava blinked a few times before her eyes got used to the dim lighting inside the small pub. Cyrus pulled her to a table in the very middle so everyone had a perfect view of the new couple.

“Hi cuz!”

Ava whipped her head around and grinned happily to see her cousin Yvonne.
She was dressed in a black Led Zeppelin t-shirt and shorts with a small white apron wrapped around her tiny waist. “Oh I had no idea you were a waitress here. I’ll come here every day now.”

Yvonne laughed and flipped her long hair over her shoulder.
“Most people do. It’s a fun job. I get to talk to everyone and my dad keeps the men in line,” she said glancing over her shoulder at the humongous bald man wiping down the bar.

“Yvonne is saving her money to go to college in the fall.
She wants to be a veterinarian, isn’t that right?” Cyrus said as he leaned casually back in his chair.

Ava’s eyes widened in surprise.
“But I thought . . .” she said, and then stopped, not knowing how to finish her sentence without sounding offensive.

Yvonne looked at her curiously. “
What?
That I’d want to be a waitress forever? Nah, I love animals. Listen, I have to go check on my other tables, but here are some menus. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said with a smile and a wistful look at Cyrus.

Ava raised her eyebrows and turned to stare at Cyrus.
“
Hmm
.”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow back.
“Hmmm, what?”

“I just got the distinct impression that Yvonne has a thing for you,” she said softly so no one else could hear.

Cyrus shrugged and opened his menu. “We dated a few times last year, but she’s not for me. She’s dating Big Red now. She’s an amazing girl though. I’m glad you two hit it off. She’s very sweet,” he said, smiling over at Yvonne as she bent down to hear what an older man was saying to her.

Ava tilted her head and stared at Cyrus in confusion. “You could have som
eone as beautiful and amazing as my cousin. I don’t get it Cyrus, why are you even interested in me? It doesn’t make sense,” she said in irritation.

Cyrus looked up from his menu and leaned forward.
“There’s no explaining chemistry. Logically, I should be with Yvonne or Zoe, but when I met you I had what you might call a
reaction,
” he said as he reached out and pushed a strand of hair over her ear.

Ava blushed and changed the subject.
They both ordered buffalo burgers and French fries, although Cyrus ended up eating most of hers. Half way through lunch though he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Haven’t you ever had a boyfriend before? You’re not acting like someone who just picked me for a mate.”

Ava frowned
at Cyrus and swirled a fry in a circle of ketchup. “I don’t know. This whole reaction thing you had to me and um, I had to you. It just makes me think this is all animal instinct. I mean, you don’t even really know anything about me. You don’t know my friends, you don’t know what music I like or what I want to do after college. And I don’t know anything about you either. I mean, isn’t that weird. You’re throwing your heart at my feet and you don’t even know if we like each other,” she said softly staring up into his icy blue eyes worriedly.

Cyrus blinked a few times and wiped his mouth with his napkin before taking her hand in his. “You have a point Ava.
We don’t know each other as well as I would like. That’s why I’m so excited to spend the summer with you. The reaction that we had to each other was definitely from the animal sides of our personas, but it doesn’t make it wrong. It means we need to give this time. We need to check it out. We need to give this a chance. Can you trust your instincts?” he asked just as softly so no one could over hear them.