Luna Junction 2 Forbidden Mate (W) (5 page)

Immediately I caught the heady aroma of
food. Cade, I recalled, was an expert cook. His had been a
cheerful, welcoming home, but the tension I felt as I crossed the
threshold was becoming a familiar response. There were werewolves
within.

Tatum led me back towards the kitchen
where Cade Landon presided alone over an assortment of
preparations. He waited by the stove, staring expectantly as if he
knew I was about to enter. His expression was kind when he saw me
and as I did a quick once over I reflected that the past six years
certainly hadn’t done him any harm. I could well see how his
imposing body and chiseled features would tempt any
woman.

He smiled as Tatum melted into his arms
and they tangled in an embarrassingly passionate kiss. I tried not
to stare at them but truthfully felt a tug of longing in my gut.
The sexual pull in the room was almost palpable between these two.
Although I’d had more than my share of exploits, they were often
quick and brutish couplings which left me frustrated and
incomplete. I’d never been cherished or gazed at with the
combination of lust and love which hung between these
two.

I looked up and realized they were both
staring at me. I tried to smile. “Hello, Mr. Landon.”

He laughed. “You’re an adult now,
Artemis. Call me Cade.”

“
Very well, Cade. Thanks
for the invite to dinner. Oh, but I go by Acie all the time
now.”

He turned back to the stove, Tatum’s
arms still wrapped around his waist. “You still take you meat well
done?”

With a jolt I realized that the blood
rare meals which had been a common sight in my Luna Junction
childhood likely had something to do with the hidden nature of
those eating them. “Thank you. That would be great.”

He touched Tatum’s upturned face.
“Sweetheart, I heard the boys out back. Why don’t you bring Acie
out there?”

Tatum gave him a quick kiss and patted
him on the derriere. “C’mon Ace. Can I call you Ace? That’s an
awesome name.” She bounded past me through the kitchen and down the
hall, moving quite quickly for a heavily pregnant woman. “So you
grew up here, huh? What was that like? You’ll have to tell me about
it. Did you always know about the werewolf thing? Sometimes I still
can’t believe it. Ha! My mother crapped a big enough golden twinkie
when I told her I had quit school and married a guy twice my age.
It’s been a year and a half and I’m still leaving the zoology
aspect out.”

I smiled. It was hard not to enjoy
Tatum’s exuberance. Plus I was relieved to not be the only
non-werewolf in attendance.

Tatum opened the back door and I
squinted into the sunlight. Zane and Benji were a ways off,
fiddling with something by the barn. They waved. I still felt
strongly off balance and tried to banish the wish to hold a
bow.

Sitting nearby, so still I didn’t see
them at first, was a young blonde couple. Matthew Landon was the
older brother of the twins. I remembered him as serious, but ever
polite. He offered a small grin and mild hand wave. The girl
sitting mutely on his lap was not smiling, nor did she offer any
greeting. She was still quite petite and had grown even prettier
than I remembered her. She was Claire Casteel, Gideon’s older
sister.

“
Acie,” she finally
said.

“
Claire,” I responded
carefully.

She swallowed but made no
move to rise. Matthew squeezed her hand. I remembered them just
like this, the Luna Junction golden power couple. It was nice to
know some things hadn’t changed. Claire had always been friendly
towards me, but guarded. Once, seemingly a million years earlier,
I’d heard her arguing with Gideon.
You’re
not a couple of cute kids anymore. It’s dangerous and Mom and Dad
would have forced you to end it. It’s inevitable, Gid.

I had never understood what she was
talking about. Until that moment. Claire sighed and jumped up
suddenly, wrapping me in a strong hug before I even saw her coming.
She released me quickly and stepped back, looking at me curiously.
“Well, you came back. So, when did you find out?”

She didn’t need to elaborate.
“Yesterday.”

Her face registered shock. “What? You
all this time went by without you knowing?”

I shook my head, feeling vaguely
annoyed. “I sure as hell didn’t. My mother spirited me away and she
wasn’t talking. All I ever knew was overnight I grew repulsive to
everyone I’d grown up with.” I looked her in the eye. “Even
Gideon.”

“
Gideon,” she whispered.
Her mouth turned down and she gazed at me sadly. “You must hate
us.”

“
No,” I said. “Not
you.”

She sighed. “Acie, Gideon’s suffered a
world of hurt.”

I felt mean enough that her words gave
me some satisfaction. “Good, then I’m not the only one.”

The hair stood up on the back of my
neck before his cold voice reached my ears. “What the fuck’s going
on here?” Gideon Casteel towered over me with none too pleasant
expression. His eyes were bloodshot and his clothes disheveled. “I
could smell the hunter before I even drove up.”

Matthew stood and scowled at him. “Acie
is a guest in the Landon home. You have nothing to say about
it.”

Gideon was larger than Matthew and
moved forward menacingly when tiny Claire stepped between them.
“Enough. Gideon, I asked you to join us for dinner because this
shit needs to end.”

Gideon didn’t look at me. I could feel
the rage rolling off him as he tried to control himself. “You
neglected to mention you were expecting another guest.”

“
Acie was your friend and
now she’s back. I was wrong once too. She’s no threat. Quit
listening to goddamn Michael and pull your head out of your
ass.”

Gideon shoved his hands in his pockets
and turned away, simmering.

“
You just home from UCLA
for the summer?” I asked suddenly. It was the wrong thing to say.
Clare winced and Gideon turned around, his eyes wide with anger.
Before I could register what was happening, Gideon changed. His
eyes grew bright and their shape changed. His face elongated and
instantly sprouted a million bristly strands of hair. I fell
backwards into the dirt as he bared his teeth and leapt toward
me.

“
STOP!” Cade Landon stood
at the back door, glowering with fury.

Gideon’s wolf face glared at me and he
retreated. In the space of a breath he returned to his human form.
His shirt had torn where changing muscles had bulged and ripped
through the fabric.

Cade motioned to Benji and Zane, who
had reached us and were slack-jawed with shock. “Boys, take him for
a walk and get him under control.”

Matthew lifted me under my armpits and
I swayed unsteadily on my feet. Decorum aside, I was sick of being
bullied by a surly werewolf. I stalked over to where Gideon was
still seething and kicked him hard in the shin. It was childish, I
knew. Risky, too. But Gideon only glanced at me with surprise
before Benji and Zane hustled him away.

Distantly, I heard the plaintive wail
of a baby’s cry. “Stupid boy,” Claire swore and retreated into the
house. Tatum shot me a quick look of pity and followed
her.

Matthew coughed. “You all
right?”

I began brushing dirt from my pants and
trying not to shake. “Fine,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Although if you don’t mind, I’m not really hungry
anymore.”

“
Nonsense,” Cade snorted.
“Acie, please accept my apologies. He will not behave like that
again. If he does, he will be dealt with.” Cade looked meaningfully
at Matthew who nodded.

Claire emerged with an angelic little
creature in her arms. The baby blinked at me and cooed. Matthew
grinned and let the baby wrap her little hand around his finger.
“Acie, meet our daughter, Peyton.”

I stared at the baby girl. She was
perfect, flanked on either side by adoring parents. Who also
happened to be werewolves. Which meant that someday, whether she
wanted it or not, she would be a werewolf too.

Tatum appeared on the patio and
gleefully rang a large bell. “Dinner!” she yelled.

A long time passed before Benji and
Zane returned with Gideon. After a few minutes I stopped glancing
fearfully at the dining room archway. I believed Cade when he said
Gideon’s aggressive behavior would not be tolerated in his house
and I felt somewhat safe. But I also suspected I was not done
dealing with Gideon Casteel.

Tatum kept up a steady stream of
chatter, firing questions at me and allowing half a response before
she moved onto the next one. Cade grinned at her as she ate
voraciously and plumbed my personal history. I didn’t feel
comfortable relating my many private failures at the dinner table
so I kept my answers short and my mouth filled with
food.

I blushed when Claire abruptly opened
her blouse and began feeding the baby. Surely I had seen women
breastfeeding before but her manner of exposing her rosy nipple to
all and sundry was so matter of fact the steak fell out of my
mouth. I hurriedly took a drink of water, hoping no one had
noticed. Claire and Matthew were focused solely on their daughter
and when I finally peeked across the table again they looked almost
biblical in their serene contentment.

“
I’m sorry, what?” I asked,
realizing Tatum was speaking to me.

She pushed away from the table. “Oh!
Ow!” She waved Cade off, breathing deeply. “Just another of those
Braxton Hicks thingies. Anyway, I asked if you had a
boyfriend.”

Claire looked up to hear my answer so I
chose it carefully. “No, not anymore.” My hand brushed the side of
my face which was still mildly swollen courtesy of Dylan, but
makeup had taken care of the faint bruising. Suddenly I clenched my
jaw. “And I don’t plan to anytime soon. I’ve had boyfriends in some
ghastly form or another since I was fourteen and it’s been a long
series of heartaches. So I’m concentrating just on me for a while.”
I took a fierce forkful of steak, questioning what in the world
prompted me to speak so plainly.

I heard Zane’s playful voice in the
hallway just outside the dining room. “You pigs saved some for us,
right?”

He walked right in and sat down next to
me, spearing a hunk of rare meat and tearing off a gigantic bite.
Gideon still wore his torn shirt but he appeared calm. He didn’t
look at me as he settled stiffly into the opposite chair. Benji
entered last, shooting Gideon a warning glance before sitting
beside Claire. I wondered what had transpired on their little walk.
I doubted open threats would have been effective. To be sure, the
twins had grown impressively, but they would be no match for
Gideon’s hulking strength.

While Gideon kept his eyes cast down
and began quietly eating. Tatum asked me if she could cut my
hair.

“
Not that there’s anything
wrong with your hair,” she assured me quickly. “But I’m really good
at it. Claire let me cut her hair.” Claire smiled. Her blonde bangs
were crooked.

“
Um, sure,” I said and
tried to look untroubled. But there was an elephant in the room. I
took a deep breath and decided to approach the unapproachable.
“Look, you all know that I know. I mean, I do now. About Luna
Junction. And you. And me…” Seven pairs of eyes were fixed on me.
Eight, if you counted the baby, who had finished feeding and was
gaping at me from her father’s lap. No one interrupted. I avoided
Gideon’s eyes but felt the heat of his stare. “I couldn’t imagine
hurting anyone. I’m not part of that whole hunter thing, not
really. And anyway my dad wants to keep me out of it.”

Gideon laughed suddenly. It was not a
happy laugh. “That must be why he named you Artemis?” His smirk was
mocking. “Don’t you even know what it means?” He spat my name.
“Artemis. Jaeger.”

“
Gideon,” Claire warned.
“Stop it.”

I reddened. “Artemis wasn’t just a
huntress. She was…” I trailed off uncertainly.

“
A protector,” Tatum spoke
up from the end of the table. “She was a goddess who looked after
women, particularly expectant mothers. Young girls especially
worshipped her, a strong female figure in an age of brutal men.”
She smiled at me kindly. “I took a semester of mythology. I got a
B. No, an A. No wait, I did get a B. Spazzed on a
paper.”

I looked at her gratefully. Cade took
his mate’s hand and spoke to me in a serious tone. “I’ve known you
since you were a small girl, Acie. You’re not a danger.” He glared
at Gideon. “Anyone with an ounce of sense should know that
too.”

I wanted to believe it but I repeated
the words which had been seared into my mind six years ago. “I have
no friends here.”

At Gideon’s sharp intake of breath I
glanced across the table. He looked stricken. I knew he remembered
where I’d heard that before.

Claire’s voice was gentle. “You have
friends. If you want them.”

I trained my eyes on the polished
table, not wanting anyone to see the hot tears which
threatened.

Tatum spoke with sudden brightness.
“Well, I say the boys do the dishes. Sound good, ladies? Hop to it,
men. And be careful with my glasses. They are real imitation
crystal from Target.”