Werewolf Wedding(16)

“Your brother is part of this family and part of this pack. Even if he did kind of... make some poor decisions.”

Jake scoffed. “Poor decisions? Really? He abandoned us and then just showed back up when it was time to collect inheritance. And all you can say is that he made a poor decision?”

Frowning deeply, Jake kept stirring the macaroni, and also turned his attention to shaking a sauté pan full of onions, garlic, and bell peppers. She tried to get his attention with a tap on the arm, but Jake just stared at the popping vegetables and grimaced. “He’s a piece of shit, er, sorry, what I mean is he’s no good.”

“I’ve heard profanity before,” Greta said. “But what I haven’t is you being quite this angry before. You were made alpha because you were so even handed and calm.”

“Right,” Jake said, with a laugh. “It had nothing to do with Dane running away. Nothing at all.”

Greta frowned and took the spatula from Jake, who was doing a very bad job at keeping the macaroni from sticking. “What’s bothering you? You never used to worry about this sort of thing so much. Who cares if he’s coming to dinner? Either way you should be happy – you never wanted to be alpha anyway, right? So what’s the problem?”

“Five years of growing up and realizing what I had to do, that’s the problem.” Jake looked back over his shoulder. “Is he really coming here tonight? Is that... I mean, why does he have to suddenly be a part of everything we do again?”

“Put down the spatula and stop nervously shaking the peppers.” Greta took her son’s hand and looked him straight in the eye, which took a pretty good angle on her neck. “He’s your brother. It doesn’t matter what kind of business he was involved in, as long as he can leave it at the door, he’s welcome to come to dinner. Get it?”

Jake was shaking his head. “That’s... yeah, I’m sure he’s going to put aside his mate challenge, and just forget about threatening to ruin everything if I didn’t play along on some idiot game – which by the way, I’m going to win – and... yeah, I’m sure he doesn’t mean anything by it.”

Greta looked at him a little sideways. “What did you do, Jacob?”

“What do you mean?”

She smiled a quirky, lupine smile. “You got a girl? Did she leave you after the first date again?”

“What the hell do you mean ‘again’?” Jake grimaced, tried to look angry, but just couldn’t. After all, it wasn’t like she was wrong. “I... uh... well, no, she didn’t leave.”

“Oh very good,” Greta said. “So what’s the problem? The only thing that’s going to happen is that your jackass brother will look like a fool. He’s had no issue doing that very well.”

“She didn’t leave because we were at her house,” Jake said, choosing to ignore going any further down the dark path that was discussing his brother. Or at least that brother. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, it was one date. And I’m not even really sure it was a date.”

He looked up at his mom, feeling a little flustered at all the weirdness he’d just splattered at her. “What? You’re staring at me and grinning. What did I do?”

“Do?” she asked. “I don’t know why it has to be that. Jacob, you’ve found a girl. You’ve found a girl that you both like, and who didn’t run off. And you’re scared that your brother is going to once again ruin it for you.”

“There’s a difference this time,” he said.

“And so you’re flustered. You always get flustered when you’re close to something you want. Remember that one time you caught a catfish bigger than your fathers? And you didn’t even have to throw anything remotely explosive into Lake St. Francis? You got so excited and flummoxed that you couldn’t spell your own name for a week or so.”

Jake flushed deeply, hoping that whatever extended family was milling around in the living room hadn’t heard that bit. “It’s not that, ma—”

She cut him off again. “It’s cute, dear. You never wanted to run the business, I know that. You never much cared to run the pack, I know that too. But in the five years you had, did you realize that intra-pack violence is down eighty-three percent?”

Jake quirked an eyebrow. “Really? That’s pretty good.”

“Yes, dear, it is. And it’s all because you took a stand against us killing each other. Your father never did that, and lord knows your brother wouldn’t have. Dane was always a hothead. You were always... not.”

Still, he was absolutely certain that when he spilled all the beans – that Delilah wasn’t even a wolf from their pack, much less a wolf at all – that would be an abrupt end to the whole business of how cute it was that he was wiggly-eyed over a woman.

“Remember those poems you used to write in school? I have one over here, laminated, let me get—”

“No!” he raised his hands in submission. “There is absolutely no need to invoke my high school poetry. No, no, no, we don’t need to do that. It’d destroy whatever is left of my feelings of masculinity. And if anyone else heard?”

Greta pursed her lips. “Spartans were quite manly, you know, and they valued poetry.”

“Right,” Jake said with a sardonic grin. “And they also oiled each other up and gave one another rubdowns before fights. I think whatever anyone can say about me, at least I don’t braid my beard.”