Luna Junction 1 Feasts with Wolves (W) (4 page)

The growl died and I heard the hiss of
whispers. It seemed like a good idea to sprint for the house and I
was all set to do just that when the barn door opened. Claire’s
peaches and cream complexion was flushed and her red sweater was
incriminatingly askew. “Tatum!”

“
Hey Claire. I was just out
for a walk.” I pretended to have a sudden and very grave interest
in the weather. “You know, I’m sure that’s snow sky.”

Claire rapidly regained her composure
and after tossing a swift glance backwards stepped out and closed
that barn door behind her. She smiled. “You startled me.” Before
she shut the door I fearfully tried to peer around her for a
glimpse of a vicious animal within but saw only the cavernous
interior of a typical barn.

Claire took my arm, not looking back.
“Come on, it’s kind of cold out here for you. Let’s get in the
house.”

“
Great,” I muttered. Just
before we crossed the threshold of the Landon residence, I glanced
back again. Matthew Landon was exiting the barn. He closed his
jeans and darted away.

The guest room was pleasant. It had
been decorated in light blue and cream tones. A pair of twin beds
occupied opposite walls. My lonely backpack had already been
deposited on one of the beds. Another, more elaborate rolling
suitcase, presumably Claire’s, was on the other bed. She unzipped
it and began looking for something as she hummed. As I began to
rifle through the pathetically meager contents of my own backpack,
something occurred to me.

“
You said your brothers
still live around here? So how come you’re staying with the
Landons?”

Claire tensed. “My oldest brother and
I don’t really get along.”

“
Oh.”

She seemed to have heaps of belongings
stuffed into that little suitcase, sort of like Mary Poppins. “He’s
a douchebag.”

“
Douchebag, huh? I think
we’ve met.”

Claire laughed. Then she spied the
lacy birthday corset where I had casually tossed it on the
patchwork quilt and her face darkened. “Um, Tatum. About me and
Matt-“

“
Please.” I held up a hand.
“I get it, okay? You guys are like soul mates or something.” If I’d
had any doubts then nearly walking in on the recent barn
festivities had eliminated them.

Claire seemed relieved. She returned
to sorting through her carefully folded belongings. I tried to
think of a way to smoothly broach the next subject. “So, about Mr.
Landon…”

She raised an eyebrow. “Cade? What
about him?”

I felt my face blushing furiously. It
was my curse. “Nothing. Was just curious about him. He’s really
really…”

“
Sexy as shit?” Claire
finished with a wink.

There was no point in denying it.
“Sexy, yes. He is that.” I began folding a pair of lacy black
underwear with manic precision.

She sighed and sat primly on the edge
of the bed. “Well, he and Matt butt heads sometimes but he loves
his boys. His wife, Anna, was a Hoffman so she was quite the
beauty.” She waved a hand. “Ah, but I forget, you wouldn’t know
about the Hoffmans.”

I tried to picture Cade Landon happily
married to some backwoods beauty queen. The vision came quite
easily. “What happened to her?”

“
Killed by
hunters.”

I was startled. “Hunters?”

She grew agitated. “Yes, fucking
assholes. Always too close and interfering when they shouldn’t. It
was a big thing around here for a while. The packs all got together
and decided to obliterate them.” Her face softened. “But my father
was sheriff then and he managed to change their minds. Good thing
too because there would have been hell to pay.”

I was trying to keep up and failing
miserably. “Claire, I have no idea what you’re talking
about.”

She stared at me. A look of pity
passed over her pretty features. “I’m sorry, Tatum. None of that
shit would make any sense to you.”

I swallowed. “Claire, is Cade Landon
dangerous?”

She smiled vaguely. “No, not
dangerous, not for you.” She bit the corner of her lip,
considering. “Tatum, there’s a lot you don’t know about the
Landons.” Her wide blue eyes were solemn. “And me. And all of Luna
Junction really.”

There was that feeling again, a wisp
of worry in the pit of my stomach which was slowly mushrooming into
a sonic cloud. As if there were either something really spectacular
or really frightening lurking beneath the surface of everything and
everyone in this strangle little corner of the world. “Yeah, I’m
beginning to get that impression.”

Claire opened her mouth to speak again
but a shadow fell across the doorway. Cade Landon was staring at me
but he spoke to Claire. “The boys are getting the pits prepared for
tomorrow, Claire. They could use a hand.”

Claire threw me an uncertain glance
but took the hint, scurrying out of the room. Cade leaned against
the doorframe, as I tried desperately to keep my eyes trained to
his face and not the other hard and delicious features of his body.
Visions of our brief kitchen tryst came flooding back. I still
wasn’t completely convinced it wasn’t all a byproduct of hunger
delirium but my senses seemed to feel otherwise. My face grew hot.
I didn’t need a mirror to know my skin was bright red. Cade’s
finger was at his lips. He seemed to be thinking.

“
Tatum, I told Matt it
would be all right if he wanted to drive you back to the
valley.”

The disappointment was just about
crushing. I could hear the quaver in my voice. “I thought you
wanted me to stay.” I knew I sounded girlish and pouty. But even
with all the weirdness of Luna Junction the thought of returning to
a lonely campus and putting several hundred miles between me and
that looming pile of male perfection in the doorway was
unendurable.

Cade seemed to choose his words
carefully. “I do want you to stay.”

I lowered my head. “You know, there’s
nothing between me and Matt, not really.”

“
I know it.”

“
It’s because of the
kitchen thing, isn’t it?”

“
No. Well, yes.” He looked
at me seriously. “If you remain here you’re going to see some
things you’ve never seen before.”

My heart pounded and I was afraid I
would begin panting and then clawing at the rough denim which
separated my wanton little soul from those wonderful things I had
never seen before. “I can deal with that.”

Cade was silent for a moment. Then he
eased closer, one step at a time. Startled, I backed into a wall as
his chest grazed the alert tips of my breasts. He placed a hand on
the wall on either side of me and stared into my eyes. “Good,” he
said.

A split second later he
backed away and I almost moaned with frustration.
Was this a game to him
?
He glanced around the room and I realized I had left the corset
peeking out of my backpack. I hoped it would give him some ideas.
But when he spoke his voice was merely curious. “Why didn’t you go
home for the holidays?”

“
Home, yeah, I don’t really
have one of those anymore.”

“
No family?”

“
None that cares about
seeing me for the holidays.” I had a sudden flash of long ago happy
days of childhood, full of pleasant smells and happy expectancy.
The memory made me lonely. “You’re lucky,” I said
softly.

“
Pardon?”

I took a deep breath. “You have one. A
family.” Then I remembered something. “I’m sorry, this time of year
is probably hard for you with the terrible loss of your wife and
all.”

Cade sighed. “Yes, Anna is missed. But
it was a long time ago and I’m grateful every day for my
boys.”

“
I miss being part of a
family.” It was an admission I had never spoken aloud. Of course,
my parents were still alive but those precious concepts of home and
unconditional love seemed increasingly lost to me.

Cade Landon’s dark sympathetic eyes
seemed to stroke the depths of my soul. “Tatum, there’s nothing on
earth more important.”

We stared at one another for a long
moment. I heard the happy bustle of the boys out in the yard doing
whatever what was involved in pit-making. Cade seemed to be waiting
for me to do or say something but I’d be damned if I knew what.
Finally he took a deep breath and headed for the door. He paused
before exiting and spoke briskly. “Lots of prep to do outside
before the Yule tomorrow. Help is appreciated but not required. I
see you didn’t bring a coat so you can have mine. It was a gift
from someone who didn’t know any better but it’s pretty much
unused. I’ll leave it in the foyer.”

“
Won’t you be
cold?”

Cade grinned sardonically. “We don’t
get cold.”

“
Right,” I muttered. I
remembered Claire’s earlier remark about being thick-skinned or
whatever. Must be something in the dense blood of these country
people.

Chapter 5

The temperature had grown even colder
and I was glad to be wrapped in Cade’s warm jacket. The younger
boys were dutifully shoveling up dirt to form a series of shallow
pits about fifty yards away from the house. Matthew and Claire were
sorting through large piles of stones and lining the fresh pits.
Their companionable ease and playful touches illustrated their
affection for one another and I wasn’t resentful, only slightly
sad. Cade himself was nowhere to be seen.

I pulled the jacket closer and
shivered. No one else wore so much as a pair of gloves. They were
out there all happy and comfortable as if it were the middle of May
instead of a frigid twenty Fahrenheit winter afternoon. Claire
noticed me and nudged Matthew. He glanced at her and sighed,
dropping a pair of rocks.

He approached me with almost pained
slowness and I realized he was dreading speaking to me. I had every
right to be hurt and angry. But I wasn’t. “Hey,” I nodded to
him.

“
Hey.” His face showed his
relief that I wasn’t apt to create a blubbering scene. “Look, I’m
sorry, Tatum. Not just about Claire but because I knew it wouldn’t
be right bringing you up here. I guess I did it to make him see…ah
shit, it doesn’t matter. My dad said you don’t want to go back to
Phoenix but it’s really no trouble to take you.” He coughed. “I
wouldn’t expect that you’d want to stay.” Claire pretended to
continue lining the pits but I knew she listened to every
word.

I shook my head. “It’s all right,
Matt. And I’d like to stay. If it’s okay with you.”

He looked away. Was
enduring my presence really that painful? I was starting to get
annoyed. After all, with one phone call Matthew Landon had torn me
out of my comfortable cocoon where I’d been content to wallow in my
own jingle bell rock misery and get privately drunk off of Julia
From New York’s secret stash of Everclear. Okay, maybe ‘content’
was the wrong word, but at least I was
resigned
to a dreary holiday
season.

Matthew gazed at me with sudden
intensity. He spoke in a very low voice. “Not everything is what it
appears to be.”

But I’d had enough. “Okay, what’s with
you people? Your mysterious comments and veiled suggestions. Your
affection for nearly raw meat and apparent immunity to winter.
Seriously Matt, what the hell?” I hadn’t realized I’d begun
shouting until I stopped and saw the uneasy faces of Claire, Benji
and Zane all trained on me. Matt closed his eyes. He opened his
mouth to speak and then closed it quickly, shaking his head and
looking at the ground.

This time I hadn’t felt his approach
but the resonance of his voice sent tremors through my body.
“What’s with us people, Tatum, is that we’re not
people.”

Cade’s shirt was off and the sight of
his magnificent bare chest lived up to every fantasy of our very
brief acquaintance. So focused was I on the sight of his skin that
it took a moment for his words to register. “Come
again?”

Cade Landon nodded to his oldest son.
“Show her, Matt.”

Matthew’s eyes flashed angrily but he
gritted his teeth and didn’t argue. He looked down at the ground
and a low rumble issued from his chest. Even before he raised his
changed face I realized I was looking at the creature which had
growled at my unexpected approach earlier. Matthew’s eyes had the
yellow glow of animal sight. His face had elongated and fur
sprouted from every pore. This was no rabid demon flickering on a
television screen. This was real. I screamed. Instinct ordered me
to run, run, run but my booted feet tripped over themselves and I
sprawled on the cold ground, whimpering.

Then Cade’s broad arms were cradling
me, pinning my arms. His voice was calm. “Tatum. Hush now. You’re
not in any danger.”

Matthew knelt beside us, suddenly no
more an animal. I began to doubt my sanity. Had someone slipped
hallucinogens into those Eggs Florentine? Matthew’s face was
pitying as I hyperventilated in his father’s embrace. “Don’t eat
me,” I sniveled and shrunk into Cade’s chest.

The Landons laughed. Claire hunkered
down and touched my arm. “Don’t be ridiculous, Tatum. We don’t eat
people we like.” She winked and they all laughed again. Out of the
corner of my eye I saw Benji and Zane doubled over with mirth as if
I were the subject in a comedy club skit. Well, that sort of pissed
me off. If we were plucking a page from Grimm’s Fairy Tales I stood
little chance against a whole pack of them anyway.