Page 24 of Wild Wolf Betrothal

“Sure, that sounds good. Where at?”

Dean named a small diner that was located on the outskirts of town.

“I’m buying,” Dean promised.

“Then I think I’m very hungry,” Micah said, laughing.

The two men found an open table in the back corner of the diner. A cute waitress approached to take their order. Micah was amused that she was flirting heavily with Dean.

“You have the most incredible blue eyes that I’ve ever seen,” she said, putting her hand on Dean’s arm.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling at her. “I’ll have the steak omelet, hashbrowns, and bacon.”

The young woman poked out her bottom lip when she figured out that Dean wasn’t going to flirt back with her. She quickly took Micah’s order and walked away, quickly.

“I think that you just broke her heart,” Micah said.

“Did I?” Dean asked. “I hate that for her.”

Micah just shook his head and grinned.

“Are you having fun on your vacation?” Micah asked.

Dean shrugged and said, “Mostly it’s just boring. I get up, eat breakfast, try to have lunch with Lucy, and then go back and play pool, swim, or sit in the hot tub.”

“How have your lunches with Lucy going?” Micah asked.

Dean laughed humorlessly.

“Same as always. We talk and have fun, but she insists that she’ll never see me as more than a brother or good friend.”

Micah nodded.

“What about you?” Dean asked.

“We hang out and have fun, but I don’t try to push her. I know Lucy well enough to know that she isn’t going to do anything if she thinks that someone is trying to force her into doing it. If and when she falls in love with someone, it will be because it comes naturally to her.”

“That isn’t stopping you from being here,” Dean said.

“I realize that. If nothing else, though, I can convince her to come home. I’ll protect her from the elders and my father, if she still refuses to go through with the mating ceremony,” Micah said.

“I’m glad for that,” Dean said. “I think that she is going to end up an old spinster out of sheer spite.”

“That’s always a possibility,” Micah said.

“What are you doing this afternoon?”

“I have some emails to catch up on. Even though I’m supposedly on vacation, I still have certain tasks that I have to keep up with.”

“Ah, man, that sucks. I think that I’m going to go up on the mountain and go for a run,” Dean said.

“That’s not a good idea,” Micah replied.

“Why not?” Dean asked, confused, a frown furrowing his forehead.

Micah told Dean about the war going on in Ivy Springs between the shifters and the mundane humans.

“Why don’t the shifters just stand up to the Faisons?” Dean asked. “That would shut them down pretty quickly.”

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