The Burning Claw: Book 10, The Grey Wolves Series (21 page)

Sally slipped her phone from her back pocket and pulled up her map application. She typed in ‘nearest hair salon’ and waited for the list to pop up. She picked the closest one within walking distance and started walking, attempting to clear her mind of Jericho and all the worries that came with him. In that moment, she was just Sally, a young, single woman with her whole life ahead of her. She wasn’t going to let fear, indecision, and worry rule her. Just as this proclamation was made, she stepped up to the hair salon to which her phone had directed her. She glanced at the name, ‘Taming the Mane.’ She chuckled to herself; at least they were attempting to be original.

She opened the door and stepped in. A cute girl sporting black tips at the end of her blonde locks looked up and smiled widely at her. Sally liked the extreme contrast in the girl’s hair. She liked how it seemed to make the girl stand out and somehow gave her confidence.

“How can we help you?” Missy, Sally realized as she looked at the girl’s nametag, asked her.

“I want to cut my hair and do something fun. It’s been long for as long as I can remember and I think it’s time for a change,” Sally told her, feeling excitement bubbling up inside of her.

“How short?” Missy asked her.

Sally looked around at the style magazines laying on the waiting room coffee table and one caught her eye. She reached down and picked up one bearing a brunette on the cover with chin length hair, cut at a dramatic angle, shorter in the back, gradually getting longer in the front. It framed her face and gave her a sassy look.

“This,” Sally said and pointed at the picture. “And I think I’d like some fun highlights too.”

Missy grinned ear to ear. “We can take care of that and you are going to love it.”

D
ecebel ran his fingers through his mate’s long hair, loving the way it felt as it fell around him onto his chest and stomach. It was late at night, actually early morning. He’d had to go and drag her from the library and the intense, not to mention, explicit conversation that had been ongoing with Jacque, Bethany, and her. As usual, he’d thrown her over his shoulder and smacked her backside while telling her to behave, ignoring her kicking, slapping, and tongue lashing. It wasn’t the tongue lashing he had wanted from her. Just another day in the life of being mated to Jennifer. He grinned to himself because he loved it.

“What are you feeling so smug about?” Her sleepy, sexy voice filled the quiet room.

He opened up the bond, giving her access to his thoughts. He loved the way she got irritated and interested at the same time.

“Feeling feisty, Mate?”

She smacked his chest. “If I am, it’s only because I spent several hours explaining the intimate mechanics of sexual intercourse to Bethany. How’s a girl not supposed to get feisty, as you call it, while looking at pictures that explain the act of making love.”

“Pictures?” he asked his brow raising.

“No, you cannot see them,” she growled.

“Why’d you get to see them?”

“It was for educational purposes.”

Decebel moved with inhuman speed and flipped his mate onto her back, hovering over her. “Well, then by all means, educate me Mrs. Anghelescu,” he purred.

Jennifer shoved at his shoulders, attempting to push him off of her. It was cute, really. He just stared at her, the heat in his gaze making her squirm.

“Not now, we need to talk.”

He did not like that answer at all.
We need to talk
is code for
sit, stay, and get your ass chewed out.

“I think I like my idea better,” he said using the bond to persuade her.

She growled at him and slammed her end of the bond shut. He hated when she did that. It was painful to be cut off from her.

“Jennifer,” he snarled.

His mate snarled right back and seven hells if it didn’t just make him want her more. Why was she being difficult? She never turned him away. Never. Yes, he was a blessed son-of-a-wolf.

“We. Need. To Talk,” she said again slowly, putting the emphasis on each word as if he wasn’t capable of understanding her.

Decebel knew that look. That was the look that said
there is nothing on this earth or in any other realm that will change my mind, so change yours or die
. He groaned and rolled off of her. He really didn’t want to.

“I didn’t say you had to move,” she grumbled. “I just said we needed to talk.”

“I can’t lay on top of you and just talk. No male could lay on top of his woman’s body and
just
talk. It’s an unspoken rule. If she’s underneath you, then it’s go time.”

She snorted at him. “It’s go time?” The words came out in a laugh.

“
You
say stuff like that all the time.”

“Yeah, but coming from me it’s awesome. Coming from you it’s like a medieval Romanian warrior attempting to use twenty-first century military lingo. Sort of like a bear attempting to poop in a toilet and not in the woods.”

Decebel shook his head as he chuckled. “Only you would say something like ‘a bear attempting to poop in a toilet’ and not think that it was a strange thing to say.”

“It’s why you lurv me, babe.” She winked at him. “Now, quit distracting me. We need to talk.”

He let out a sigh. “What’d I do this time?”

Her brow drew together and her lips pursed. “What?” Realizing what he was thinking, she shook her head and waved him off. “No, no. You aren’t in trouble this time—at least not yet. But the day is still young, so there’s hope for you yet. No, we need to talk about Drake and Bethany.”

Decebel almost face palmed. If he had to deal with one more territorial, out of control wolf, he just might kill them all and be done with it. “What’d
he
do this time?”

“Well…” Jennifer began.

Decebel settled back against his pillow. Whenever she started a sentence with ‘well,’ it meant that whatever she was going to say wasn’t going to be quick.

“Bethany and Drake got into an argument because he won’t touch her and she wants him to touch her. But he’s being this chivalrous butthead about it and making decisions for her.”

“He’s protecting her, as is his right,” Decebel interrupted.

She snapped her fingers at him. “Uh-uh, buddy. You keep those beautiful lips shut. You can say your peace after I’ve told you everything.”

“Fine,” he huffed.

“Bethany is eighteen. No, she isn’t a normal eighteen-year-old, but she’s still an adult. She’s in her right mind and has every right to make decisions for herself.”

“Even if those decisions could be harmful?”

This time Jennifer slapped a hand over his mouth. “Shut. It.”

She waited a couple of minutes before finally removing her hand and continuing.  Decebel wouldn’t have minded if she had left her hand there. He could have given it a few licks and let his wolf enjoy her taste. His wolf was wicked crazy about their mate and loved licking her. And he was pretty sure that any other female besides his would be creeped out by that.

“He told her…well actually, he
yelled
at her that she didn’t even know what happened in a relationship besides kissing. She said something…I can’t remember exactly what… and he threw a lamp at the wall.”

Decebel started to sit up. “He threw something,” he growled.

Jennifer pushed on his chest. “Not at her. I’ve thrown crap when I get pissed at you.”

“You throw it
at
me” he pointed out.

“Yeah, because a lamp wouldn’t hurt you. You’d hurt the lamp, so it’s not the same. The point is, he wasn’t aiming for her, he was just reacting. Oh, wait, now I think I remember what she said. She might have asked him if—maybe, just maybe—she should perhaps seek out a different male—someone that would be willing to teach her the things that Drake wouldn’t. I think that might have been what set him off,” she finished, raising her eyebrows, pretending to seriously consider the situation.

“She said she’d go to another male? In his presence? To him?”

Jennifer scrunched up her face. “See, I feel like those are the same question. And I’ve already answered that in my original statement. So…we’re moving on.”

Decebel reached over and laid a hand on his mate’s thigh, stopping her words. “You
know
what we fear most, Jennifer. You know what we endured in the InBetween. Threatening to be with another male, Jennifer? That is enough to drive a wolf to do desperate things, especially one that is already barely holding it together. He might do anything in order to prevent his mate from carrying out her threat.”

“Desperate?” she asked. “Are we talking, ‘gets on his knees and grovels desperate, or take out every available male in a ten mile radius,’ desperate?”

“Option two,” Decebel answered his voice rough with anger.

“Wow. I keep saying you guys are off-the-charts psycho and you just keep proving me right. It’s like you’re afraid to disappoint me.”

“What happened after the lamp?” he pressed.

Jennifer bit her bottom lip as she looked up at him. “I’ve changed my mind. Now that I think about it, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to tell you,” she said, the words coming out slowly.

His wolf perked up at the challenge and he knew his eyes were glowing as he stared back at her. “Why. Not.”

“It will hit too close to home. You know what,” she said, suddenly sitting up and reaching for the hem of her t-shirt. “I think your idea is better, let’s go with that. You can just climb back on over here and show me this whole ‘can’t lay on top of your female and just talk stuff.’ ”

He reached over and stopped her from pulling her shirt up any further up. It was already high enough to reveal her creamy stomach and that was painfully tempting.

“Do not try to distract me, Jennifer. Tell me.”

“But my distractions are always so much fun and often involve removing clothing. Remember how much you like me to remove clothing?”

“Not happening, female. Now answer the question.”

“Ugh!” she groaned and threw herself back in the bed. “Damn stubborn, fur ball. Fine,” she snapped at him. “She told him that if he didn’t want to touch her, then he’d lost the right to. She forbade him to touch her and told him that his touch was…unwanted.”

Decebel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How did he take that?”

“Not good, but she doesn’t know if he started throwing things because she left.”

“To meet with you and Jacque in the library?”

“Yep.”

“Where is Drake now?”

“I don’t know. I’m not Drake’s keeper. Bethany isn’t running through the halls screaming, so he must not be chasing her like a rabid wolf, which is what I would have expected. Maybe he came to his senses and they’re all up in each other’s fur.”

“Does she understand what she’s done by telling him that?”

“Well, she does now,” Jen drawled. “We enlightened her to all things pack, magic, male, and bedroom. You name it, we covered it.”

“Why does that scare me?” Decebel narrowed his eyes on her.

“Because you know how my wicked mind works. You know my diabolical plan to turn Bethany into a sex kitten—though she’s a wolf, so that doesn’t make much sense, but sex puppy sounds like some weird fetish, so we’re going with sex kitten. She will be my greatest achievement yet.”

“What about your daughter,” he asked dryly.

“Right,” she said and then dramatically reiterated. “Bethany will be my second greatest achievement yet.”

“What about me?”

“Babe, you aren’t an achievement. You’re the booty from a successful plunder.”

And that did it. Decebel threw his head back and laughed. “You’re saying you plundered me?”

“Regularly,” she nodded. “A good woman plunders her male frequently to keep him operating at maximum efficiency. It’s in the handbook.”

“What handbook?”

She grinned and winked. “The one I’m writing.”

Decebel smirked at her and started to reach for his mate just as his cell phone rang. He frowned at the device as though it was the phones fault he’d been interrupted. And maybe it sort of was. But if someone was calling that early, then it was important. He looked at the screen and let out a low growl. This wasn’t going to be good.