Page 87 of Bewicched

“Okay, guys, the cookies aren’t going to eat themselves.” I held out the plate and Daniel and Kenji each took one, quite obviously trying to appease me.

Daniel stopped chewing, cocking his head to the side. Kenji grinned broadly and reached for more, Daniel following suit a moment behind him.

I turned, offering the last two to Declan. The struggle was clear. He wanted to maintain his hard-ass silence, but he also wanted the cookies. Which would win?

Declan grabbed them while I asked the guys, “What’s going on with the pack? Is Logan still gunning for this one?” I jabbed a thumb in Declan’s direction.

Their expressions sobered. Kenji said, “Officially, we left the pack. We still hear things, though.”

“That’s none of our business,” Declan broke in. “You don’t have to share anything.”

“You,” I said to Declan, “shut up.” I turned back to our guests. “I want to know if people are trying to kill him.” And I couldn’t just touch Declan to find out.

Daniel shrugged. “After they shot out his tires, dumping him into a ditch—”

“What?” I turned back to Declan. “Afterwhathappened?”

He ran a hand down my sleeve. “It was nothing. I have spares. I changed them out easily and I was still here on time for work.”

He gave the men a look and then both were assuring me it was no big deal.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I won’t be lied to or protected from the truth. If you can’t be honest, you can all leave.” I held out the empty plate, waiting for my glass and soda cans to be returned. Daniel and Kenji put theirs on the plate with a look of apology. I waited for Declan.

“Arwyn,” he began and then stopped.

I flicked my fingers and everything disappeared, including the can in his hand. I’d opened up to him and I never did that shit. I’d begun to trust him, and he couldn’t even tell me people were trying to kill him? This is what being vulnerable got you. Lies.

I walked away. I had baking to do. My aunt was dead and I had a wake to prepare for. They had werewolf business, which was apparently none of mine. Fine by me.

Striding through the gallery, propelled by anger, I was annoyed—mostly with myself—for giving him the power to take the shine off the work being done in here. I’d been so pleased with it only moments before. Stupid man.

I went to my studio and closed the door. I was done people-ing for a while. Opening cupboards, I pulled out ingredients, moving them to my kitchen counter.

“Sorry.”

I jumped at his voice.

“For scaring you too.” He was sitting on the loft stairs, watching me. He’d obviously gone the back way while I’d been stomping through the gallery. “I didn’t tell you what was going on because we’d been busy—”

“Don’t. There’s always time to say,Hey, somebody just tried to kill me.” I took out my mixing bowls, measuring cups, and tartlet pans.

Scratching his beard, he nodded slowly. “That’s true.” He came down the stairs and stood beside me. “I was uncomfortable that you’d had a vision about me. That you’d seen what I’d done on the pack lands. You saw me shift, saw my other nature. I was ashamed you saw me kill a man I didn’t have to.”

“He was the one who attacked you,” I said, in spite of myself. I wasn’t planning to help him explain why he’d lied by omission.

“Yeah, but I could have put him down without killing him.” He stared out the window and sighed. “I did it for a lot of reasons. If I killed him decisively, I hoped no one else would try me; no one else would get hurt in a battle they couldn’t win. Part of me, though, was so damned sick of keeping my head down and moving on when wolves far weaker than me came at me. My whole life has been like that. At first I did it to placate my aunt. She worried so much. When I was eighteen, I ran into a pack in Idaho. Assholes trying to cow me, trying to get me to break and turn tail. I was a man—or so I thought— and I wanted to fight back.

“I did fight back, humiliating a few of the members, including the Alpha. They didn’t come for me, though. They went for my very human and fragile aunt, tearing her apart while she was jogging in the park.”

“Oh, Declan, I’m so sorry.”

“Me too. The authorities chalked it up to a mountain lion, since one had been spotted near town a few days earlier.” He shook his head, silent for a while. “I was trying to keep you away from it all. I didn’t want someone else I cared about dying because of me.”

“Not because of you,” I protested.

“Close enough.” He blew out a breath. “I was going to leave again when that pretty boy Alpha showed up here, but I’d met you at that point and I didn’t want to leave.” His gaze traveled over me before returning to the ocean. “I still don’t.”

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