Chapter Four

(James)

This entire conversation had been torture. Ever since I felt her body up against mine outside the door I've been unable to think of anything else. Then Sara had to be the one working. I knew the way she acted toward Tracy bothered her even if she wouldn't admit it. She was too gracious to be petty, aloud anyway. Her eyes spoke something else entirely.

It was those eyes I was searching for answers. They seemed to speak volumes and yet give nothing away. It was frustrating to me. Most people were easy to read. I figured once I told her my proposal she'd be gone faster than I could blink, but then she muttered the one word that changed everything.

"Fine."

She'd said it so quietly I almost wasn't sure I'd heard it or just imagined it. I hoped it was the former. "Fine?"

"Yes, fine. I'm in." She said as she took a sip of her coffee before I could stop her. I wouldn't put anything by Sara. One could only guess what she would have done, but she has been known to give the nasty day old coffee to people she didn't like. When she tried to hide the grimace behind her cup I couldn't help the laugh that came out. She looked so adorable.

She shook her head as she laughed. "Are you trying to kill me on purpose?"

"Here, try mine." I pushed my cup over to her.

"Now why would I put myself through that again? I know you ordered two of the same thing."

"Just try it," I urged.

I watched her every movement as she slowly brought the cup to her lips. "Mmmmmm."

That hum of pleasure had me subconsciously leaning toward her. "Sara has a thing for me and has jealousy issues. If I wager a guess, she probably gave you day old coffee. And before you ask, no we never dated." I don't know why I felt the need to clarify that, but I wanted to.

I watched as she attempted to process something. I was so visible I could almost see the wheels turning in her mind.

"O-kay. But just so you know if we ever have another date here I'm stealing your cup."

Her voice may have started hesitant, but that almost sounded like a tease. "Noted. Now are you ready to make a go of this charade?" I dared, ready to take full advantage of making this fake relationship appear real.

"Yes."

A single word and yet it held so much. I could no longer hold myself back. I knew it wasn't the time, but I had to know. I stood, reached my hand out for hers, and pulled her up and into my arms. I pressed my lips to hers the moment she was fully in my embrace.

Her lips lasted of coffee and cherry. It was only a small taste, but it touched a part of me that none had before. It had awoken my wolf. He growled urging me to let him take over. I had to pull away before he did without my consent.

He had never done that before and I wasn't entirely sure why he was doing it now. I'd have to be careful over the next two weeks. She was human. Letting my wolf out around her wasn't exactly an option.

This may have been a mistake. I was drawn to her. I wanted nothing more than to feel her lips against mine again, but that would be too dangerous.

This was going to be a long two weeks.

"Just wanted to start the gossip train off right." I nodded my head toward a furious looking Sara. I knew with her as a witness that everyone would know before I got home tonight. At least my inability to hold back will work in my favor this time.

She nodded in acceptance and I reached for her hand again. She took it a little more hesitantly than she had the first time, but she still took it and that made me smile.

I led us out to Main Street. "How about a walk?"

She smirked. "A walk sounds good. I could use the fresh cold air about now. I think maybe we both could."

Who was this woman? She was being sassy and it only amplified her beauty.

"I can agree with that." We began walking, hand in hand. "So Tracy, how long have you lived here. I don't remember seeing you before yesterday."

"I only just got here. How about you?"

A normal dating conversation. This was easy. This I could do. "All my life. Where are you from? And why in the world would you come here to our small little town?"

Her steps faltered, which made me look at her a little more closely. She quickly schooled her features, but before she did I saw a ghost of pain there.

She looked forward as if trying to avoid my eyes. "Oklahoma. And I needed something new. I literally closed my eyes and picked, so here I am."

So she was adventurous. I thought she may be since she accepted my crazy offer and is currently walking down the street, holding my hand, but now I was certain. No sane person did what she just admitted to doing. There had to have been a reason, but that didn't seem like a first date question.

"May I ask where you live? I mean technically that is something a boyfriend should know," I teased.

She looked up at me with a smile that would have brought a lesser man to his knees. "I bought a little cabin over on the edge of the Manti-La Sal National Forest."

I knew exactly where she was talking about. There was only one cabin over there and it was on the very edge of our pack lands. My grandfather had built it with his bare hands after he and my grandmother retired, or at least that is what they called it. I hadn't even known we were selling it. I would have to talk to my parents about it.

I mean I wasn't too worried since it was Tracy, but that didn't change the fact that we now had a human actually living on our land. To my knowledge I'd never heard of that happening before. What in the hell had my parents been thinking even selling it in the first place?

"I know it."

She tugged on my hand. "Oh, hey, can we go over to the craft store? I have something I need to show Miss Bonnie," she said excitedly.

She was on a first name basis with my aunt already. This would surely be interesting. Bonnie was a little eccentric. She was a pack elder and the record keeper of our entire history. Sometimes she would ramble about nonsense in the past, but other than that she was a sweetheart. "Of course, let's go."

I held the door for Tracy as she called out, "Good morning, Miss Bonnie."

"Tracy is that you?" she called from the back room.

"Yes, ma'am. I came to show you what I created as promised."

Now that had my interest piqued. I wondered what my aunt could have possibly talked Tracy into doing.

We walked further inside, still hand in hand when Bonnie stepped through the curtain. Her face lit up the moment she saw Tracy, but then she noticed me and how our hands were connected and I could have sworn her expression somehow managed to become even brighter. I arched my eyebrow, silently questioning her response. But she refused to take the bait.

"Well good morning James. I see you've met Tracy."

"Good morning, Aunt Bonnie," I replied as nonchalantly as possible.

"Miss Bonnie is your aunt?" She kept looking from me to my aunt. "Ya, I can see the resemblance now."

"Back to the reason you stopped by… You say you finished already?"

Tracy's smiled perked up even larger than it had been. "Oh yes. I couldn't wait to get started on it. I kind of lost myself in it last night."

She smiled up at me as she pulled her hand from mine and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a small bag and handed it to my aunt.

"Are you going to let me see too?" I asked.

"Most definitely."

I watched as she pulled it from the bag and laid it across the counter. It had a delicate silver chain with sapphire and emerald beads intricately placed along it, with a grouping of them wrapped around a pendant. The beading patterns were beautifully done, but it was that pendant that stole my breath. It was very similar to the mark on my hand. It was the mark that every pack member wore somewhere on their body. It was the crest of the New Moon Pack. My pack. It was also one humans couldn't see.

"What do think?" she asked, full of hope.

"Did you alter the pendant you picked yesterday?" Thank goodness my aunt responded first because I was still speechless.

"Yes, I did. I found some old tools in my house and was able to add in the rose work behind the wolf. Do you like it?"

My eyes met my aunts. 'Did you show her our crest?' I asked through the pack link.

'No. This is all her.'

"It's absolutely beautiful. Just like you."