Haunted Wolves: Green Pines, Book 2 (3 page)

She grasped his hand, turned and almost ran into a solid chest. “Colin.”

Colin steadied her with a gentle touch on her shoulder, but his gaze fixed on the men behind her. “Everything all right?”

The look in his eyes could have frozen lava, and Lorelei muttered a curse under her breath. “Come on, not you too.”

“I’m only checking, honey.” His tone was mild, but the childhood memories that made Zack an attractive target didn’t extend to Colin. The drunks gathered their fallen comrade with a string of mutters and vanished in the opposite direction.

Zack grunted and released Lorelei’s hand. His own shook as he dragged it across his mouth, wiping blood away from cuts that had already begun to heal. “Bunch of bastards stuck in their glory days. All downhill after high school for them.”

And a situation from which Zack could have easily extricated himself. But Lorelei held her tongue and attempted a smile. “No harm done.”

“Thanks for rescuing me.” Zack’s smile was just as awkward, and she’d known him long enough—and well enough—to see he was still desperately trying to fulfill his duty. He’d been her alpha, and even if he’d officially relinquished that role to Jay and Eden, he would never stop trying to protect her.

Colin’s hand rested under her shoulder blade, a heavy warmth she liked just enough to disconcert her. “Shane has funnel cake,” she blurted.

“You should go have some.” Zack eased back, matching the emotional gulf between them with physical distance. Pulling away, like he had been since their arrival in Clover. But not entirely, and not enough to walk away before he jabbed a finger in Colin’s direction. “Stay with her until she’s with the others.”

“She’ll be fine,” Colin promised quietly.

She waited until Zack disappeared around the corner to poke Colin in the arm. “You should be staying with
him
, not me.”

Colin slipped his cell phone from his pocket. “I’ll put Fletcher on it. Zack tolerates him a lot better than he does the rest of us.”

He did no such thing. Fletcher’s supervision was just like everything else to Zack these days, acceptable because the alternative—fighting—was just too damn exhausting. “Have you ever dealt with a broken alpha before?”

“Yes.” Colin’s phone slid open to reveal a keypad, though his thumbs seemed too big for the tiny keys. He glared at the thing as he slowly typed out a message, but his voice remained level. “This country has more broken alphas than healthy ones. The only thing that makes Zack different is that he still gives a shit about what’s right and wrong.”

Lorelei didn’t realize she was digging her nails into her palms until pain slithered up her arm. She unclenched her fists and wrapped her fingers around Colin’s wrist. “What
happens
to them? Can they get better?”

Power ghosted over her, a soothing rush of warmth whispering of safety and pack, urging her to close her eyes and melt into the protection of a dominant wolf. Colin might have stepped comfortably into a beta position, but there was no questioning the strength seething under his human skin.

After sending the message, he closed his phone and curled a hand around hers. “Anyone can get better if they’ve got a safe place and people who love them,” he said. “Zack has both. A whole lot of the latter.”

In a perfect world, that would be enough. “You don’t have to lie,” she whispered. “It doesn’t make me feel better. The opposite, actually.”

Colin lifted her face to his with his warm, strong fingers under her chin. “I’m not lying, Lorelei. If you don’t believe me, ask Stella. She lived in Red Rock for years, and that’s what they do there. Take broken wolves and make them safe. Whole.”

It didn’t change the lack of conviction in his eyes, but she nodded anyway. “Whatever you say.”

Sighing, he let go of her. “I’m no good at this.”

“Which part?”

“Making people feel better.” His phone vibrated, and he glanced at it before tucking it back in his pocket. “Fletcher will take care of Zack. He’s seen a lot of broken wolves, and he knows how to handle them.”

What about you?
She wasn’t sure what the question meant, but she wanted to ask it so much that the base of her neck prickled.

When she didn’t say anything else, Colin touched her shoulder again. “Were you going somewhere? I can walk you if you want.”

Lorelei shivered. “I wanted to get away from the crowds for a while.”

“Do you mind some company?”

Dealing with him at the farm was hard enough. And now, when she was feeling a little shaky anyway, it would be torture. But she shrugged. “It’s up to you.”

Colin frowned. “You’re lying. You don’t need to. I’m not going to insist on following you to protect you from drunk humans. I know you can handle them.”

“The thought never occurred to me, Colin.”

“Then why did you—” The furrow between his brows deepened. “No, I suppose you didn’t really answer me, did you?”

“Smart man.”

“Almost never when it comes to women.” Colin sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair. “We’re pack, Lorelei. Like family. Don’t be polite, and don’t be obedient. If you’re tired of my face, tell me. It’ll make me feel a hell of a lot better than not realizing you’re gritting your teeth trying to tolerate me, okay?”

“You’re paranoid.” Never mind that the words held a ring of truth. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say. It’s a little awkward, isn’t it?”

“Why?”

“I made a pass at you and you shot me down.” She kept the words breezy and light. “I think etiquette dictates a bit of awkwardness now.”

“I guess so.” Colin brushed his fingertips over her cheek in a whisper-soft caress and smoothed a strand of hair from her temple. “I didn’t shoot you down, but if you asked again, I’d have to. Doesn’t mean I’d want to, but I made a promise to my alpha.”

So much for burning, undeniable desire. “Then I’m not sure what to do with you,” she confessed.

He laughed. “Refreshing honesty. I guess I wouldn’t have much use for me either.”

She tried for a smile. “I had friends. More than a few of them died in Memphis. I don’t really want any more right now.”

“I know, honey.” His humor vanished, and he dropped his hand. “I’m sorry. Fletcher’s good with people and Shane’s good with wolves and Jay’s good with everyone. I’m the only one who’s just bad.”

“So you said.” Lorelei took a step away. She felt like one giant exposed nerve, and being near Colin scraped her raw. “I should get back and help out with the booth.”

“You said you wanted to get away,” he said quickly. “Take your walk. I’ll go help Eden.”

“No, can’t you just—” She bit off the rest of her outburst and took a deep breath. “I’ll be fine.”

He started to say something, but the vibration of his phone stopped him. He pulled it out and checked the message. “Zack’s home. Fletcher says he’s already mostly healed.”

“Is he?” She turned toward the opposite end of the alley. “Enjoy the festival, Colin.”

“Take care, Lorelei.”

The effort just to put one foot in front of the other was exhausting, and she was already so tired. But she kept going because she didn’t know how to stop, or what would happen if she did.

Colin found Jay barbecuing slabs of ribs in the big brick pit at the edge of the square by the pavilion. He could smell the smoke from two blocks away, but it was the sight of Jay that shook Colin’s barely restored calm. Lording over the barbeque in his police-department polo, Jay didn’t look like the dangerous alpha of a werewolf pack. He looked like a staple of small-town life, the friendly Chief of Police who could switch, easy as breathing, between cowing rebellious teenagers with a glare and laughing at bad jokes.

It wasn’t that simple. Colin knew that in his mind, but his gut managed only jealousy at how seamlessly Jay had slid into a human community. The townsfolk might not think much of Zack Green and the rest of the newcomers, but they respected Jay. They trusted him to fix their problems, big or small.

No one trusted Colin with much of anything. Or anyone, unless they wanted that person dead.

Colin waited until a burly man in a hunting vest lumbered away before crossing the square to where Jay was momentarily alone with his work. “Had a little trouble, but it’s taken care of.”

Jay flipped the ribs with a huge pair of tongs. “What kind of trouble?”

“Some guys were beating the hell out of Zack, and he was letting them.”

Jay tensed, his hand clenching on the tongs. “Damn it. Did you break it up?”

“Lorelei already had.” If he’d actually followed her instead of hanging back, telling himself he
wasn’t
following her, he might have been able to head that off. “Zack roughed one of them up for talking shit to her, but they bolted.”

“He can’t pull this stuff, and he knows it.” Jay rubbed his forehead in disgust. “That could have literally been a bloody mess.”

“I didn’t get the impression he started it,” Colin countered. “The rest of them didn’t have a damn hair out of place, and he looked like they’d been trying to beat him the hell down. He can hold it together unless someone threatens one of the girls.”

“I wasn’t talking about Zack. What if Kaley had stumbled across that instead of Lorelei?”

Kaley had torn into Colin over a
joke
. He had no trouble believing she’d tear literal pieces off anyone who hurt him. For that matter, Eden was a new alpha with protective instincts she didn’t understand and the newly gained capacity to break a human man in half. If she caught someone beating on her family, the chances she’d keep her cool weren’t great. “I see your point.”

“I’ll talk to him.” Jay dropped the tongs into a steel bowl beside the grate. “How’d Lorelei handle it?”

Helpless anger rose inside Colin, driven higher by his wolf’s agitation. “Not well. She doesn’t trust me. I try to help and I can’t—there’s nothing to
fight
.”

“I didn’t keep you around to fight, Colin. We need you.”

“Fighting’s the only thing I’m good at.”

“That’s not true.” Jay motioned him around the low brick wall. “Come on back here so I can talk to you. The smoke’s stinging my eyes.”

Still agitated, Colin obeyed. The sounds of kids shrieking with laughter drifted on the evening air, combining with the scratchy country music pouring out of half a dozen speakers. The whole damn festival was a picture-perfect postcard waiting to happen, which made the edgy danger inside him that much more out of place.

He didn’t fit here, even though he wanted to.

Jay pointed to a heavy iron smoker beside the grill. “Help me with the wood chips, huh?”

It wasn’t a glamorous task, but it was productive and easily defined. Problem, plan, action, results. That had been his life before Clover. “Maybe you should ask Eden to check on Lorelei. I know they get along.”

“Check on her yourself.” Jay picked up a soda and grinned. “They’ll have dancing ’til ten, you know.”

Colin winced. “She’s mad at me.”

“For what?”

Colin rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “She kinda came on to me last night. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I just reminded her that’s not how the pack works now.”

Jay grimaced. “Sorry, man.”

“It wasn’t right. It wasn’t real.” Colin couldn’t banish the memory of her eyes in the moonlight, haunted and sad. “She would have screwed me, but it wouldn’t have been because she wanted me.”

“In Memphis…” The words trailed off, and Jay heaved a sigh. “Lorelei spent a lot of time deflecting interest from the other women. Maybe it’s habit.”

“Maybe.” Not that Colin needed his interest deflected. Kaley was a wobbly-legged baby deer, all adorable awkwardness until something brought her deadly alpha nature to the surface. And Mae might have a sleek sort of sensuality hidden under Shane’s sweatshirts, but she cringed when Colin got too close to her, and that wasn’t hot under any circumstances.

“If it bothers you, Eden can talk to her. Unless…” Jay arched an eyebrow. “Unless it bothers you for another reason?”

Colin sidestepped the question. “No, don’t have Eden talk to her. Lorelei already feels like I blew her off. It’ll make it worse if she thinks we’re all talking about it.”

Jay let it go with a shrug. “Okay. Your call.”

His alpha had given him a pass, but Colin felt edgy, dangerous. Someone needed to step on him—hard. “I didn’t take advantage of her.”

Jay paused with his soda halfway to his lips. “I didn’t say you did. The opposite, actually. Sounds like you took a lot of care with her.”

“I still managed to hurt her,” he muttered.

“That’s not always avoidable.”

“Well it fucking well
should
be.” There was the anger, the grating frustration at being
not enough
, and Jay was a safe target. “After everything she’s been through, I should be able to make her safe.”

An older man walked up to the pit, and Jay smiled and clapped Colin on the shoulder. “Mr. Thompson, have you met my oldest friend? I don’t think you have.”

Colin was left choking back emotion, forcing a pleasant expression onto his face as he extended a hand. He hated touching strangers, but the pack had enough trouble without him acting as antisocial as Shane. “Nice to meet you.”