Werewolf Wedding(46)

-15-


“I’m so, so, so tired of this.”





-Jake


––––––––

“No. I’m not changing my mind. I made a deal with Dane, and I’m sticking to it. I can’t live without her, George, no matter what I said before, he got me and he knows it.”

Jake put the phone down on his desk and pushed his fingers into his temples so hard he was slightly afraid he’d punch through his skull. Ever since he’d promised the world to Dane, he’d had a headache. Somehow, he had chosen not to see the connection.

The voice on the other end was chirping so loudly he could still hear it even though the receiver was ten feet away and he was batting at golf balls as he threw them up in the air, one after another. White, dimpled orbs thunked against the wood paneling, and one of them hit the portrait of his dad and his red-nosed golfing buddies. Wonder how many of them knew he bayed at the moon every so often and ran around that same golf course buck naked at night to hunt squirrels? And what the hell am I doing?

As Jake realized that he was becoming his father way too early, he tossed the putter harmlessly to the ground. It landed with a muffled thud on the thick, cushy red rug.

“You can’t!” the voice on the phone was high pitched, obnoxious, and Jake was concerned, had caused his headache. “The pack, Jake, the pack needs you.”

“So does the company, huh?” he shouted at the receiver on his desk.

“Pick up the phone,” the voice said.

“George, good God, my head hurts and you’re yelling at me,” Jake protested. His voice was growing stormy and thunderous.

The phone went dead. About two minutes later, she strolled right into his office. “Your head hurts, and you’re an idiot who is trying to turn his back on all his friends.”

Jake sighed very heavily. “If you don’t think I’ve—”

“Oh, I know,” she said, a little mocking twist in her voice. “Trust me, I know. You just want to get away from it all, right? You’re tired of living a life you never asked for?”

He shrugged, feeling a little sheepish at her surgical dissection. “I guess I—”

“My entire life has been helping your pack. Why?”

Jake shrugged.

“Because I stumbled into it when I was nineteen f*ckin’ years old, and you guys became my family. Aside from Jonathan and the kids, you guys are all I have. Remember how we were friends our whole lives and then my parents died? Remember how at the beginning of high school your dad took me in? Remember that?”

Big hands with black hair on the backs lifted off a desk in a defensive gesture. “Okay, okay, I—”

“Nope, not done yet,” she said, picking one of the golf balls up off the floor and hurling it at Jake’s chest, although she missed.

“Good thing those are tempered,” Jake remarked as the ball bounced off one of the windows. “All I want is for me and Delilah to be—”

“There’s a laugh! You think so little of her that you honestly believe she’s going to not care about you turning your back on everything? I’m sure she’ll be really happy on the run from your crazy f*cking brother and... oh wait a minute, wait just a minute.”

“What?” he took a step forward, then one back.

“You actually think he’s just going to keep up his end of the deal, don’t you? You’re actually that much of a dingus.”

“I don’t... dingus?” Jake chuckled. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“Cute,” George said with a sneer. “Real cute. What happened to all your big shot talk about duty and honor and all that bullshit? That’s all it was, huh? Just bullshit. When life gets tough, just shrug and give it all up?”

“Are you sure you and Dilly haven’t been talking?”

George didn’t answer. Pointedly, she didn’t answer. Instead, she went straight to tugging on the curl of dark hair that normally fell right in front of her ear.

With werewolf speed, Jake was on her. He stiffened a single finger and drove it straight into a place between George’s eighth and ninth rib and jabbed her furiously.

“Ah!” she squawked, trying to throttle her laughter. “No! No! Ah God! Okay fine, fine, yeah. Stop!”

He gave his finger one more twist for good measure, digging deeper in her ribs. “Did you say something?”

They’d done this since they met. She’d taunt him with something, he’d tickle her until she started crying a little, then she’d relent and tell him whatever it was he wanted to know. It really is no wonder everyone always thought they were a thing. George knew better than to get mixed up with werewolves though.

“Quit!” she writhed around, managing to catch Jake in the side with one of her pointy, bony elbows. “Let go!”

Laughing at her struggle, and hurting in his side a little more than he expected to, Jake finally released his iron grip on his friend’s wrist. They were both breathing hard, both red-faced. “So,” he said, with as much composure as he could manage, “you and Dilly?”

George sat down – flopped more like – on the reclining sofa. She let out a huge exhale and crossed her arms over her stomach as she stretched. “I really do love this couch,” she said.