Chapter 10

"What's upset you?" Tak asked for the second time.

Or maybe it was the third.

"My mind is on the store," I said in all honesty.

He rested his elbow on the car window and moved his hand in a serpentine motion against the wind. "Then we go there first."

I decided not to tell him the truth. Alpha wolves could be unpredictable. Some had an innate desire to sniff out trouble and punish the wicked.

Whoever had stolen my clothes knew where I lived. Melody's brothers might have pulled such a prank, but they were out of town along with everyone else I knew. Could it have been Tak? How much did I really know about this guy? He clearly had a sense of humor, and his timing couldn't have been more impeccable when he drove up. Maybe in the middle of the night, he ran out and retrieved the clothes to mess with my head. If he had some kind of vendetta against Lakota, then harassing his sister made sense. But logic went out the window when the ridiculous image of him running down the street naked entered my mind. What would be the point?

The moment the light switched to green, the car behind me held down the horn. I glared in my rearview mirror, wondering why two seconds was too long to wait.

Tak suddenly opened the door and got out.

"Where are you going?" I called out, wide-eyed as he sauntered toward the back.

I turned in my seat, and it was like watching a silent movie. Tak stood in the middle of the street in a sarong. He reached inside the driver's side open window of the car behind us and opened the door.

My breath caught when he leaned inside the car. What was he going to do, kill a human for honking the horn? A dizzying wave of panic swept over me, and the temptation to speed away grew strong. I couldn't get wrapped up in something like this. I'd be an accomplice.

Seconds later, Tak straightened, turned around, and swung his arm like a pitcher. A shiny cluster of keys somersaulted through the air, landing on top of a tire shop across the street.

Through the open door, a swarm of profanities flew at Tak. But he ignored the guy, casually swatting a bug on his neck as he headed back.

When he got in and shut the door, he took his time adjusting the seat to give him more legroom.

Thunderstruck, I kept staring.

He finally noticed. "Something wrong?"

"I… I thought you were going to kill him."

He said something in his language.

"What does that mean?"

Tak's knees came apart as he relaxed, and he turned his head and gave me a tight grin. "There are better ways to piss off a man than to break his nose. My people save their daggers for true enemies. My fists are to protect and serve. But assholes like that don't get my time. People will never trust an alpha with a hot temper."

I wanted to hit the gas, but the light had turned red again. "I need to drop you off at the motel."

"No. You need to take care of business. Family first. Business second. Brain-damaged houseguests third."

I chuckled and shook my head.

"You should do that more often," he said. "You have a nice smile. Laughter is good for the soul."

"I laugh all the time. It's just hard to find humor when my life is falling apart."

Tak suddenly reached over and turned my chin to face him. He brushed his fingers across my jaw and stroked my cheek with a compassionate touch—one that was unexpected and reassuring. The intensity of his gaze was so powerful that I couldn't look anywhere else—it drew me in and held my attention. Within moments, my restless wolf settled, and I realized Tak was using his alpha power to calm me.

"If someone has made you afraid, I'll take care of it," he said, his words inviting no argument.

His promise wrapped around me like a blanket, and as much as I wanted to let him keep touching me, I drew back. I knew better than to let a wolf beguile me. Many were smooth talkers who would do anything to get what they wanted.

I knew all about that game of consequence.

Tak lowered his arm but kept looking at me.

When the light turned green again, I hit the gas. After a few turns, we arrived at my shop and were lucky enough to find an empty spot up front. People were strolling down the sidewalks with shopping bags, and one little girl in a pink dress flew by with an ice cream cone melting down her hand.

I opened my door. "Wait here. I'll just be a few minutes."

To my relief, the store window was miraculously intact as if nothing had occurred. I approached the door, scanning the sidewalk for glittering flecks of glass. Mr. Franklin and his men had done a superb job cleaning up, but I still planned to sweep and mop later on.

I whirled around when I caught Tak's reflection in the window. He stepped up on the curb, and I thought how one strong gust of wind might blow that sarong clear across the street, where a bevy of women were gawking at him.

I quickly unlocked the door. "You're going to ruin my reputation."

He chuckled darkly and held the door open. "That's what I do best."

I rushed to the counter to make sure that all my jewelry was accounted for. I closely examined the locked displays and checked the safe where I hid the more expensive pieces. Everything looked okay, so I headed to the back of the store to make sure the door was locked.

When I returned, Tak was standing in the middle of the store with a bowling ball in his hands.

"Lose something?" he asked, closing the distance between us.

I looked down at his bare feet. "Careful where you step. There might be glass."

He reached the counter and propped the ball against the register. "What happened last night?"

"I don't exactly know. I was taking out the trash and heard a loud noise. By the time I came back inside, they were gone. I found that on the floor by the window."

"Do you have any enemies?"

I repositioned the wolf carving to face the door. "None."

"You hesitated."

"I'm not really sure how to answer that. I'm a Packmaster's daughter, so I guess my father's enemies are my enemies."

Tak rested his palms on the counter and leaned forward. "A woman of your station should be revered and respected by those in the community. No one would dare threaten any of my sisters, even though they're mated."

Dodging his question, I knelt to check the safe again.

Years ago, I brought shame to my family. Only those in close circles knew about the scandal. I had just gone through my first change, and my packmates were looking at me in a different light. I exuded the power of the old world, which was alluring to the opposite sex. An older wolf in our pack seduced me. I wasn't naive about Shifter desires, especially after having gone through heat for the first time. My mother always said that my purity was a gift—one I should give to a chosen life mate. In retrospect, I should have listened to her. I ended up giving my virginity to someone who didn't matter. My father was adept at reading people, and it didn't take him long before he noticed the intimate and familiar way that wolf looked at me. When he found out the truth, he almost killed the wolf. Instead, he disgraced him by kicking him out of the pack. My parents swept it under the rug, but there was no telling who else might have found out about it. That uncertainty made it difficult to look my former packmates in the eye. Did they know my secret? Did my actions make my father an incompetent leader in their eyes?

It made moving out with Melody the sanest thing to do.

There was no shame in having sex outside of marriage, but it was a big no-no to fool around with packmates in secret. Packmasters kept the peace, so it was crucial for them to know about any developing relationships that could jeopardize the harmony of the pack. The alpha might have to make the decision whether to allow that union under his roof or put in a transfer request.

Two or more wolves vying for the same woman can be trouble, which is why children move out when they come of age. Not all packmates are mated, so running a cohesive pack is imperative.

I'd put my father in a difficult situation by keeping my affair a secret. It was deceptive and unworthy of the kind of woman they'd raised.

"You're quiet down there," Tak said. "Are you sure that's all that happened last night?"

I put everything back in the safe and stood, my thumbs hooked behind the straps of my overalls. "It just shook me up. That's all."

He sniffed and turned around. "Maybe the message was meant for Melody or Lakota. That, I could see. Your brother seems to leave a mess wherever he goes."

"Or maybe it was just a prank. At this point, there's nothing I can do about it but speculate. There's no note, no witnesses who came forward, and no reason to worry myself sick. The show must go on."

He folded his arms, his back still to me. "So what are your plans for today?"

I looked around the shop. "It'll take me a while to clean everything to my standards. No sense opening the store today, so I guess when I'm done, I'll go home and do chores. If there's any time left, I might work on some designs."

"Do you make all that jewelry yourself?"

"I used to, but now I just come up with the designs. My assistant assembles the popular items we sell in high volume, which gives me time to focus on the more expensive pieces."

His back muscles flexed when he lowered his arms. "Do you want to go out?"

"I have work to do."

"No, I mean when you're done." His braid rose a little higher on his back when he looked down at his bare feet.

"There's nowhere I need to go."

He peered over his shoulder and stared intensely. "You're going to make this hard for me, aren't you?" Tak slowly turned around and splayed his fingertips on the counter. "Do you… want to go out… with me?"

My stunned gaze traveled from his bare chest to the sarong knotted at his hip.

A smile wound up the tatted side of his face. "I can either change clothes or wear this. Whatever you want."

"You mean a date?"

"I'm not asking to be your life mate. I just thought you could show me around the city. You have the day off, and I'm in no rush to get home. I want to know you, and that means spending time together."

I thought about it. How often did I ever go out with someone other than my best friend and brother? After the stressful night I'd had, maybe a little lunch and sightseeing would put me in a better state of mind. "Are you going to tell me what your relationship is with my brother? It looked like you two wanted to toss each other out the window."

He shook his head. "That's between your brother and me."

I wiped a hair off the counter. "Then you can't ask me out. I could never do anything to dishonor my brother."

Tak steered his attention to the glass counter on my right. "You have a lot in common with your jewelry."

"What do you mean by that?"

He stared vacantly at everything in the store except me. "I guess I have no reason to stay." He backed up a few steps and bowed. "It was a pleasure, Miss Church. I'll be sure to let my father know his gemstones are in good hands."

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. How could I risk damaging my relationship with my brother when I still didn't know who this man was and why there was animosity between them? They could be sworn enemies.

The bell jingled on the door when he left the shop. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. Surely Lakota wouldn't have made enemies with the tribe who supplied my gemstones. It was better that Tak leave, but as I watched him standing outside, my wolf howled, calling for his return. I secretly hoped he'd turn around and look at me one last time.

But he didn't.

Two women sauntered past him and turned for a second glance. I laughed when a gust of wind made the sarong open up at the side. The women noticed. No doubt their dirty thoughts would have set a confessional on fire. Tak stood with his face to the wind, unperturbed by his provocative display. The sun shone on his brown skin, and he looked like he should have been in a painting on my wall.

When Tak turned to leave, he bumped right into Dutch—the man who'd come into my store yesterday looking for feather earrings. They stared each other down for a brief moment, each man lifting his chin and not showing a submissive bone in his body. It was a common display among Shifter men, who were always posturing among one another.

Tak finally swaggered off, and I blew out a breath.

Dutch poked his head in the door. "Mind if I intrude? I know you're closed, but I just heard about the trouble you had last night."

"Watch your step," I said, gesturing at his leather shoes. "I don't know how well they cleaned up, and I still have to shake out all the clothes and sweep again."

"Do you have a large box or something wide to catch the glass?"

I thought about his clever idea. "There should be some in the alley."

Dutch disappeared and quickly returned with a cardboard box. "Shake them out in here."

I collected one shirt at a time and thoroughly shook each one out inside the box, carefully inspecting them for glass particles. Dutch did the same, and the conversation dwindled for several minutes.

"Want to tell me about it?" he asked, breaking the silence. "Word spreads fast. When Mo Franklin is around, it's never for a good reason."

"Someone smashed my window. I didn't see it happen, so there's not much to tell."

Dutch shook out another blouse, and I stole a moment to admire him. Not many men I knew wore dress slacks. His pale-blue button-up shirt made his eyes look like multifaceted gemstones, and a leather belt finished off the ensemble. Despite his crisp appearance, I liked that he wasn't afraid to roll up his sleeves.

"Have you had this kind of trouble before?"

"When we first opened up," I admitted. "We had a few obscene words written on the windows, and they even left a flaming bag of manure outside the door. I guess it was the welcoming committee."

"Did you report it to the Council?"

"The Shifter Council? My partner's former Packmaster had a talk with one of them, and he said without evidence, there wasn't anything they could do. There aren't security cameras on this side of town for obvious reasons." I folded another shirt and set it aside. "Even if they did find the culprits, what could they do? A slap on the wrist is all."

After we finished shaking out all the garments from the shelf, Dutch lifted the broken mannequin. "Do you want me to take off her clothes?"

I bubbled with laughter. "You barely know each other."

He gave me a thin-lipped smile. "That's rarely made a difference before."

I dusted off a dress hanging from a rack. As I did so, I couldn't strip my eyes away from the way Dutch's fingers deftly unfastened each button on the back of the blouse. He took his time, and the way he did it was so sensual that I could almost imagine that mannequin was me. He probably took his time seducing women the same way.

Dutch circled the mannequin, his fingertips tracing around her narrow hips, until he faced her. Unable to look away, I watched as he brushed his hand down her shoulders, the delicate straps sliding away and the garment falling to the floor. He stroked one of the smooth breasts with the tips of his fingers.

I swallowed hard, my throat parched.

"Will you look at that," he said, gazing upon her alabaster chest. "I've never seen breasts like these before. Why don't they make them more… realistic?"

When he snapped his gaze in my direction, the shirt slipped out of my hand. "I guess they don't want to sexualize them."

Dutch smiled and circled the box to pick up the shirt I'd dropped. When he stood up, we were a breath apart. His cologne filled my nose, inviting me to lean in. "You might attract more male shoppers. A breast is lovely, but nothing is more titillating than the sight of a woman aroused."

His gaze slipped down to my white T-shirt, and he stared at my overalls as if he had X-ray vision.

"Thanks for helping out," I said, feeling fire in my cheeks. "After I sweep and mop the floors, I plan to go home and rest."

His brow arched, and he glanced at his expensive-looking watch. "Why don't I pick you up at five? We can discuss security and come up with a plan to protect our businesses. We don't need senseless violence in our neighborhood. I'd stay and chat with you longer, but I'm on a short lunch break and need to get back to my store."

"I won't be here that late."

He canted his head and regarded me for a moment. "Let's meet somewhere then. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Howlers?"

"That'll do. We'll talk shop over a glass of wine."

It wouldn't hurt to share a little information. Most owners in the neighborhood didn't like people knowing their business, so they kept to themselves. "Okay. You've talked me into it. Five o'clock at Howlers."

Coins jingled when he put his hands in his pockets and headed toward the door. "If you need anything, do you know where to find me?"

"Two streets over, right? Thank you again."

When he opened the door, his musky cologne wafted across the room. "My name's Dutch, just in case you forgot. See you this evening, Hope."

Once alone, I stared at the hand-carved wolf, completely dumbfounded by the turn of events in just one day. Two complete strangers had entered my life for reasons not yet known—men who couldn't be more opposite. That, combined with the mystery behind the property damage, gave me a strong premonition that the perfect storm was brewing, and I was caught in the eye.