Territory - Prequel (25 page)

“Okay, see you then.”

She had to get out.  She needed something to get her mind off Dell.  She’d given herself a migraine just thinking about him.  Turning to eye the vase of
yellow
roses on her kitchen table, she ran a hand gingerly over her arm.  Over the past few days her skin was starting to become sensitive to anything that touched it.  The sensation had started as mere discomfort, but was quickly becomin
g painful.  She remembered
Dell had said that it would become physically
painful for mates to be apart f
rom each other.  She dropped her hand, sickened by the feel of it on her own skin. 
God if that’s what this is, I’ll never be able to stay away.

***

“Come on son, you’ll enjoy it.  You need to get out.”

Dell frowned at his mother, not wanting to disappoint her but not wanting to accompany the family to dinner either.

“It’s the new steak house Dell.  How can they fuck that up?” Pony bounded past and dashed to his
turquoise
colored
pickup with AJ quick on his heels.

“Yeah Uncle, how can they fuck that up
?
” AJ mimicked Pony.

“Hey,” Dell growled, “watch your mouth.”

AJ halted for a second to eye his uncle, unsure of how much trouble he’d just earned himself.  When Dell tore his disapproving eyes from his nephew, AJ climbed into the passen
ger side seat of Pony’s truck and punched Pony in the arm weakly for getting him in trouble.

“Son, come on.”
Mama waved him to follow as she walked to his truck and climbed in the passenger side seat.  Once inside she sat with her hands crossed over her purse on her lap as she waited for Dell to drive her to dinner.

“Shit,” he mumbled under his
breath as he stalked to his truck
.

Twenty minutes later he was seated at the head of a long wooden table in the dimly lit atmosphere of the new steak house.  To his left
Mama listened as AJ regaled the table with the story of h
is
and Pony’s most recent hunting trip.  To Dell’s right Cindy mumbled quietly
over her two-year old son Isaac’s
head to speak to her husband Michael.  On the opposite end of the table, Stevie and Hannah were arguing about the best way to tie a bib onto Stevie and Pony’s daughter Hailey.

Dell pretended to be engrossed in his menu.
  The pack rarely dined out.  The scents and noise were stifling to shifters who could hear every conversation and could smell not only the overpowering aromas coming from the kitchen, but the too heavily applied perfume the women wore and the stench of after shave slapped on
men
by the handful.

Dell was sifting through the noise, picking up pieces of mundane conversation when
it hit him.  He dropped the menu he held and lifted his head, drawing the attention of everyone at the table as the
y
quieted to watch him. 

Everyone tensed, inhaling deeply and straining to listen.  The pack wanted to know what had caused their Alpha to tense so suddenly.

Dell stood and
Cindy motioned with her chin, “By the kitchen.”

He turned and locked his eyes on Chloe seated in a corner booth, deep in conversation with her mother.  She hadn’t noticed him yet.  He didn’t hesitate to close the distance between them, stalking up quietly until his presence next to their ta
ble had both women looking up,
Bea in
delighted
surprise and Chloe in
utter
shock.

***

“Dell Blackbird, so good to see you,” Bea crooned.

Chloe stared up at Dell who had his eyes fixed on her.  She quickly looked down and picked up her menu.  Her heart thundered in her chest.

“Chloe, aren’t you going to say hello to Dell?”

Chloe kept her
nose poked
in the menu.  “Hi
,” she responded coolly.

“Chloe!” her mother chastised.

Chloe lifted her eyes to frown at her disapproving mother before turning to stare reluctantly at Dell,
her voice softened with resignation. 
“Hi.”

Dell didn’t smile, simply stared.

Bea eyed the restaurant, unsure of where Dell had come from.  “Are you dining alone?  Would you care to join us?”

Chloe snapped her eyes to her mother
and tried to shake her head imperceptibly, but Dell was already accepting the offer.

“I’d love to.”

Chloe cringed when he slid into the booth next to her.  She shimmied closer to the window
to avoid touching him,
dismayed that she was now
blocked in
.

“So,” Bea began delighted with their guest, “Chloe tells me she had a wonderful time on your camping trip
, too bad you had to pack it in early due to the storm
.”

Chloe shrunk in her seat.

Pulling his eyes from Chloe, Dell smiled warmly, “I
f I could go back, things definitely would have been planned differently.”  He turned to Chloe then, “Things didn’t end as I had hoped.”

Still eyeing the restaurant, Bea caught sight of the Blackbird clan.  “That’s your mother isn’t it?”

“Yes.  Candace.”
Dell supplied.

Bea began scooting out of the booth, “
I’ve only ever met your mother once.  It was quite brief, but she seemed a remarkable woman. 
I’d like to run over and just say hello.  If you two don’t mind.”

Dell smiled warmly and shook his head.

“Ma!”
Chloe’s eyes flashed to her mother.  “What if the waitress comes
?
  She should be back soon.”

Bea eased out of the table and waved a dismissing hand at Chloe before winking.  “You know what I like.  Order for me.”

Then she was alone with Dell.  He was so close she could smell him, and God he smelled good.  Like smoke and rain, it’s what sh
e imagined thunder smelt like…wild.

Chapter
22

“How have you been?”

She kept her eyes on the salt shaker she’d snatched up.  Twisting the cap off and back on as it rained white granules onto the table.  “Good,” she tried to keep her tone light and airy, “You?”

“Fucking miserable!”

The admission had her hands stilling on the salt shaker as she looked up at him.

“I’m sorry for what happened.  I hurt you
and I don’t expect you to forgive me because I can’t forgive myself.”

She lifted a hand to rub over her arm where she still had bruises.  She noted that for the first time in days, her skin didn’t crawl at her own touch.
“I’m tougher than I look.”

He swallowed hard, “I know.  You posses
s
m
ore admirable
traits than it
would initially appear
.  I’m praying that forgiveness is among them.”

She didn’t respond.

“At least give me the opportunity to defend myself.  I need to explain.”

“You didn’t give me the opportunity.”
Her eyes locked on his.

Dell dipped his head, “I know
, and I regret it.  I attacked you when I should have comforted you.”

The waitress arrived at the table, her brows hiked high as she looked from Dell to Chloe.  Obviously she’d heard his statement. 
“Uhh, we ready to order?”

Chloe shot the waitress an annoyed frown, “No, I’m waiting for my mother to return.”

The waitress turned to point over her shoulder with her pen.  “She already ordered.  She said to tell you two to enjoy your
dinner;
she’s eating with his mother.”
She turned and jabbed her pen in Dell’s direction.

Chloe frowned across the room at her mother, who simply waved then returned to her conversation with
Mama
. 
Shit!
  She heaved an exasperated sigh.  “I’ll have the sirloin, medium rare, with a baked potato and steamed carrots.”

The waitress jotted then turned to Dell, “For you?”

“Same.”

The waitress turned back to Chloe, “Anything to drink?”

Chloe
wrapped a small hand around the dark bottle near her silverware. “Another beer.”

“For you?” the waitress turned to Dell.

“Just water.”

The waitress continued to write as she walked away.

“Look,” Chloe’s eyes darted up to Dell’s then back down, “I
really
don’t want to talk about this
.  I’ve been trying
to forget about it all week, so if you wouldn’t mind.”

Dell eyed her for long moments before he reclined back in his seat, his hands falling to his lap.  “I’m probably not going to get another chance to explain myself where you’re forced to listen.  So I apologize, but I’m taking advantage of this opportunity.”

The waitress returned and set their drinks on the table then disappeared. 

“Chloe, I’m dying here.” 

The pain in his voice
was so raw that Chloe couldn’t help but
peek up at him.  Her hear
t
contracted painfully
at the expression on his face.

“Everything was going so well.  But when I entered the room and saw you…”  He balled his hands into white-knuckled fists and dropped his voice to a whisper, “I don’t regret killing him.  I only regret doing it so quickly.”  He took a deep calming breath, his broad chest expanding then relaxing.  “I scented you as soon as I stepped back into the house.”  He looked at her then with
sorrowful eyes.  “It wasn’t sadness or fear, it was overwhelming terror.  I knew you were in danger, being hurt, and I was so fucking disgusted with myself for
having left
you unattended.  I should have known.”  He swiped a hand over his tired features, “When I saw how close he was to claiming you, to taking you from me
.
”

Chloe swallowed hard, emotion thickening her throat at the memory
as she blinked back tears
. 

“I didn’t know if he had.  Everything happened so fast.
  When I smelled your blood, I just assumed…”  He drew in a r
agged
breath and frowned at the room before looking back to her.  “I thought he’d
taken you from me.  I thought he’d claimed what was mine and I was so repulsed with myself for
having let him beat me to it.”  He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling it to his lap and looking down to play with her small fingers.  “I couldn’t take my rage out on him, he was already dead.”  He looked up, “That left only you, and I’m sorry.  I’m sorry I couldn’t control myself.
  After Donnie’s death, I didn’t blame Mace, but I blamed what we are.  The man should have been able to deny his wolf’s claim on an already married woman and I…”

“
What?” Chloe’s body went rigid, shock coursing through her.  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Is that what happened?  Mace claimed Beverly?”  Angry tears flooded her eyes and she gritted in a hushed tone as she sneered at Dell, “Are you fucking kidding me?  They all died over this mating shit?”  She
jerked her hand free and
stood, “Let me out!”

Dell didn’t move.  His shoulders fell when he realized his mistake.

“Let me out, now!”
Her tone rose slightly, drawing att
ention from a few of the near
by
tables.

He turned his body slightly.  He allowed her to pass then stood and followed her as she stormed out of the restaurant. 
He was relieved when he glanced over and saw that Cindy had distracted Bea to keep her from noticing her daughter’s
abrupt
departure.

Outside Dell saw Chloe storming across the parking lot.  He lifted his nose and scented her anger and her tears. 
Fuck!
He jogged to catch up with her and caught her by the elbow.  He expected her to turn and slap him but she didn’t.  It was worse.  Instead she turned sad eyes up at him, her lower jaw quivering.

“Is there anything else I need to know that you haven’t told me?” Her voice cracked as she fought to retain her composure.

Dell shook his head, his heart breaking at her clear distress. 
He lifted a hand to her cheek.  “I have never intentionally lied to you Chloe.  I’ve only kept things from you that I knew would hurt you.”

“And when I find them out anyway?” she challenged.  “When I am hurt by them anyway and even more so when I discover that you’ve intentionally kept me in the dark?”

He didn’t respond, just held her gaze.

She jerked her chin from his grasp and turned her back to him, “This is killing me Dell. 
All
of this.  The deceit, the absurdity of it all, the fact that I want you when I shouldn’t.”