Page 12 of Secrets and Ruin

“Damn straight. That’s even better than free food. I’ll get paid to eat.”

“Good. We’ll leave you be, then. Actually, one more thing. Mark where you want the garden, and I’ll bring Arlo and Benjamin out here to help clear it, get it done while you’re in the city with Teagan. I won’t do anything else to the other fields. I just want to help you get started.” Heath stood, and I followed his lead, only half a second behind him.

“I can mark it out today. Maybe I should check on the trust fund, too….” Fenris’s frown was deep. “Haven’t looked at that stupid thing in months.”

“You used to get a monthly stipend deposited. Did those stop coming?”

Fenris shrugged in silence.

“Fenris.” Heath’s tone was a demand for anything more.

“I’ll figure it out and let you know. Maybe while I’m in Dallas with Teagan, he can spare an hour or two helping me see what’s wrong.”

“How are you eating?” I suddenly asked.

“Oh, I still had plenty in the bank. I’m good for a few years just on what I’ve saved. You don’t need to worry about me. Been a wolf for a long time. This isn’t the first time Callahan and I have stopped talking to each other. I always make sure to have a shoebox full of cash, too.”

“Okay then.” With that handled and him seeming comfortable, I finished the tooth-rotting lemonade and left his patio. He waved at Heath and I as we got back into Heath’s truck and pulled away.

“He’s doing really well, isn’t he?” I couldn’t help but ask, hoping I wasn’t the only person who had the growing sensation that things were changing for the better on this one front.

“He is,” Heath confirmed. “I’m really proud of him. Getting him out of a large pack, letting him have some freedom… It’s been really healthy for him.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Exactly. I hope he continues to get comfortable, maybe finally open up to us. I still wonder about what his real name is.”

It was one thing Heath and I hadn’t asked about, trying to respect the privacy of the old werewolf. He wasn’t as old as Teagan by any means, but Fenris carried the weight and trauma of his eight hundred years so much more than Teagan did. When we questioned him about being fluent in German, we had decided not to pry beyond that specific detail. I knew there was something about Fenris we all decided to ignore. I had only seen it that once, hearing him tell the matriarch of that malicious witch family that Fenris wasn’t his real name. It was a limited sample size from a bad night when I had been dealing with a lot of shit happening all at once. Some of it still gave me nightmares, not frequently, but I would never forget my fear as that witch captured my will.

“We’ll give him the time he needs to feel comfortable and hope one day, he’ll trust us with it,” Heath said, his tone telling me he was looking on the bright side.

“I hope so. I bet it’s something super proper. I mean, why else would he decide on a name that harkens to Fenrir, the apocalyptic wolf of Norse mythology? It’s probably the exact opposite.”

Heath’s chuckle at my theory brought my smile back as we headed to our next stop.

6

CHAPTER SIX

As we made the rounds, Heath listened to Rose complain about the job market, and Ranger bitched about his stairs. Shamus was trying to convince his children he didn’t need them hovering, and I tried to step in, Heath laughing as I did.

For all the respect they had for their father, Stacy and Kody thought he was a walking disaster. Stacy finally dropped it and left for her apartment while Kody stuck around, not having found his own way in the world yet. He still lived with Shamus, and we were all wondering what he would finally decide on and when.

I couldn’t worry about Kody as much as I wanted to because when Heath and I were finally done with seeing everyone, we found the three youngest members of our little community in our living room. Carey didn’t look up as she walked Arlo through what seemed to be a nasty little piece of work for a math problem. I made a face as I listened to her describe it, glad I wasn’t in school anymore. Benjamin tried to help, but he was a quiet young man, and Arlo was hitting adulthood and could be intimidating as he grew into his dominance.

“Look at them,” I said softly. “The future.”

“Getting sentimental?” Heath asked as he finished putting away our small load of groceries, then leaned on the bar next to me.

“A bit,” I admitted. “Probably because I miss Dirk.”

“Yeah…” Heath touched my lower back as he planted a kiss on my cheek. “But you don’t have to miss him forever. It’ll be fine.”

“Where did Dirk go?” Arlo asked loudly, his head popping up, curiosity lighting up his eyes. “I keep hearing about how he was going somewhere, but no one wants to say more.”

“Don’t eavesdrop,” Carey snapped. “And stay focused on this. I don’t want to be doing my homework for another hour because you keep getting distracted.”

I watched as Arlo’s lip began to twitch before one side rolled up in a silent growl. It was a perfectly natural response for a werewolf coming into his own, his hormones making his temper harder to control. I could even smell it, Arlo’s indignant rage at how she talked to him, the more dominant werewolf in the group. She didn’t even rank as a human.

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