Scarlet Disaster by Colette Rhodes

Chapter 10

I sighed in irritation as I read through the feedback for the article about a reindeer ranch I’d submitted to a trendy online magazine I’d recently started writing for. Not sexy enough. How was I supposed to make reindeers sexy? Sometimes the feedback I got was so ridiculous, I questioned why I was writing for other people at all. Online content had been a different landscape when I had started doing this, and I didn’t think I’d done enough to keep up with the changes.

My phone rang and I picked it up from the dining table I was using as a desk, absently glancing at the screen. Brooks was watching TV in the living room, and I expected Nate to call from wherever he was, asking what takeout we wanted for dinner again.

Louflashed across the screen, and I almost dropped it in surprise. I’d given up on ever hearing from her, to be honest. Her cautious flirtiness at the hardware store had morphed into something one step above indifference over text messages, so I’d backed off.

I definitely wasn’t expecting a phone call from her.

“Hello, querida,” I said in my smoothest voice, perhaps playing up the accent just a little, because if this was the only chance I had to impress her I was going to pull out all the stops.

“Gabriel,” Lou replied confidently, an unexpectedly sultry purr in her voice. “How about that dinner date?”

“When?” I asked, surprised. I must have earned some good karma for being so patient with these asshole 21-year-old Content Curation Experts telling me to make articles about reindeers and auto museums sexier. Lou’s sudden interest in me was obviously my reward for my good deeds.

“Tonight.”

“Tonight?” This conversation got more and more surprising. “Of course. I mean, I don’t have any plans.”

Smooth, Gabriel.

“Perfect, I’ll message you the details. See you later, Gabriel.” She hung up suddenly and I stared down at my phone, baffled. I wasn’t mad, but that sultry, forward woman on the phone had seemed so different from the one I’d met at the store.

“Who is queridaaaaaaaaa?” Brooks sang from the doorway to the kitchen, grinning obnoxiously at me.

“You’re a pain in the ass,” I laughed, shooting him a look. “A beautiful woman I met at the hardware store who wants to go out to dinner with me tonight.”

“Lucky you,” Brooks muttered. “I met a beautiful woman at the coffee shop, but she was all hung up on some dude and not interested in dating.”

“Well that’s lucky, since you don’t date,” I pointed out. Sometimes I thought Brooks might want to, but his wolf was the most distrustful animal I’d ever come across. All of Brooks’ worst memories had been caused by his own pack, the people he should have been able to trust the most.

“I guess so,” Brooks said dejectedly. “She was cool, though. We’re going to be friends, with my dick on tap should she decide to partake.”

“Charming,” I replied drily. “Can you feed yourself? I have no idea where Nate is.”

“Out sulking in his fur probably. He’s been in a weird mood lately,” Brooks said, sounding more serious than usual. “His mom wants to set him up with some nice cougar girls, but I don’t think that’s what his issue is.”

I didn’t think so either. Nate’s mom had been trying to set him up with eligible young women for years, even when he wasn’t in the country.

“I’ll go look for him later if he doesn’t come home,” Brooks said decisively. “Take him out for drinks or something and get him out of this funk.”

“Sounds good.” I stood up, clapping Brooks on the shoulder as I passed him. If I was going out on a date, then I needed to tame my beard from antisocial writer back to sexy stubble. “I’ll let you know where I’m going for dinner so you can stay far away from there.”

If this was my one chance to impress Lou, I wasn’t going to risk my friends coming along and stealing her attention.

* * *

Lou chose an uber casual grill place that had a game playing on the flat screen in the background, to my immense surprise. She met me just inside the doorway, looking incredibly chic in tight black leather pants with an oversize black wool jumper and black ankle boots, scrolling through her phone with a bored look on her face. Her red hair looked striking against her dark clothes, and she had fancy dark eye makeup that was nothing like the brighter, natural look she’d been sporting at the hardware store, but no less compelling.

I could stare at Lou all day.

She looked up at my approach, eyes lighting up with recognition and maybe something a little more heated as they ran down my body. I knew it had been a good call not to wear a jacket.

“You look beautiful,” I told her, leaning down to kiss her cheeks.

“Ooh, fancy kisses,” Lou laughed, air kissing me back. “I hope this place is okay.”

“I’m not fussy,” I assured her, following as she made a beeline for a booth at the back, further away from the rowdy bar crowd. “But I am guilty of assuming you would want something a little fancier.”

“I got my fill of fancy restaurants when I was in New York a few weeks ago,” she replied with a tight smile as I gestured for her to climb into the crescent-shaped booth first. “Besides, sometimes you just want waffle fries, you know?”

“I do know,” I chuckled as I sat down, trying to remember what humans considered an acceptable amount of meat to consume in one sitting as I scanned the menu. One 16oz steak was probably the limit.

“Today has felt like a week,” she sighed. “I just want carbs and a beer.”

“Rough day?” I asked sympathetically.

“Just some old ghosts not staying in the past where they belong,” Lou said with a shrug, though I could see it was bothering her more than she wanted to let on.

“Is that why you called? I must admit, I was surprised to hear from you. Happy and surprised,” I amended quickly.

The harried-looking server came over, interrupting our conversation, and we placed our orders—steak for me, an enormous burger and fries for Lou, and beers for both of us.

“So,” Lou said with a wince after she left. “Would you totally hate me if I admitted this was a spite date?”

I choked slightly on my saliva like the smooth, debonair man I liked to think I was.

“A spite date?” I repeated, clearing my throat.

“I guess I didn’t put that much forethought into it when I called you, but now I’m sitting here with you and you’re so nice and I feel like an asshole,” Lou sighed. “I’m not really dating right now—I’m leaving town at the end of winter.”

“Okay,” I replied slowly. “As am I. Where does the spite part come in?”

Her leaving didn’t need to be a deterrent. It was a convenient bonus if anything.

“This guy sort of messed with my head,” Lou continued, flicking her hand absently, like she could swat the annoying memory away. “It wasn’t serious or anything, it was just… whatever. Anyway, then my asshole ex, sort of, showed up in town today and they basically had a dick measuring contest in my front yard. It’s all just been a lot, you know?”

“It sounds like a lot,” I replied with a quiet laugh, a little overwhelmed at the amount of information she’d just given me. She was a beautiful, fascinating woman. Of course there were other men competing for her attention. I did have one advantage over them though.

“Why don’t we use this spite date to restore your faith in men, then?” I suggested. “Let me show you how a non-asshole man behaves on a date.”

Lou’s lips twitched. “Bold of you to assume there was any faith there in the first place to restore, but okay. Frankly, I should be begging for your forgiveness for asking you out under false pretenses. That was a dick move.”

“Nonsense,” I shot back, shaking my head. “You asked me to join you for dinner, nothing more than that. I was having a frustrating day at work. Some good food and beautiful company is exactly what I needed.”

“What is your line of work?” Lou asked with a small smile, relaxing into her seat. I was glad that the overtly sultry voice she’d used on the phone was gone, but she was a real conundrum, this woman. So unaffected one moment, so bold the next.

“I’m a travel writer,” I told her. “I freelance write for a few different publications, mostly online. I have my own blog, but I’m not very good with it.”

“Oh, maybe we can exchange ideas then” Lou said, thanking the server as they brought over our beers. “My social media is my main source of revenue right now, but I probably need to do some longer form content too. I’m trying to be an influencer,” she said dramatically.

“Social media is not my strong suit,” I admitted with a grimace. Brooks had been trying to convince me for years that I needed to put more effort into it. He had more luck than I did, but he only posted his own photos, which were incredible.

“Why?” Lou gaped at me. “You should have millions of followers. Are you not familiar with the concept of a ‘thirst trap’?”

“A what?” I asked, mystified.

“It’s like… a sexy pic. Designed to draw all those thirsty people in. And you, Gabriel, are a walking thirst trap,” she added, running her eyes over my chest and arms in a very gratifying way. “Get them to come for the shirtless selfies and stay for the travel pics.”

“You think so?” I asked, contemplating the idea. It’s not that I thought I was a bad looking guy, but I’d never considered getting in front of the camera to hook people into my blog.

“Um, yes,” Lou replied like it was obvious. “Post a few photos of your rippling muscles at the beach and you’ll have so many followers you won’t know what to do with them. Ooh, you need a shot where you’re emerging from the ocean, Bond-girl style, pushing those dark curls back, chin tilted down but like, looking up at the camera.” She fanned herself dramatically, and I laughed at the picture she’d painted in my mind. That was really more Brooks’ style than mine.

“I’ll consider it,” I chuckled. I wasn’t sure I had the charisma to pull that idea off.

“So have you found anything to write about while you’ve been here?” Lou asked, sounding doubtful.

“Winter in Alaska?” I replied, raising an eyebrow. “That’s a bucket list item for a lot of people. I’m not short on content, believe me.”

Lou wrinkled her nose. “Not spending a winter in Alaska is on my bucket list. I’m hoping this one is my last ever.”

In the back of my mind, a lightbulb switched on. If Lou was willing to travel, there was the potential for something more than just a winter fling. God, I wanted that. Something meaningful. Being a spite date wasn’t the best start, but perhaps I could woo her?

She’s human, the more logical part of my brain reminded me unhelpfully. However much I was intrigued by her and had been longing for the idea of something more permanent for years, Lou being a human complicated things. We could only ever take things so far until I’d have to tell her what I was, at which point I would have to claim her to keep her safe.

I’d never had the experience personally, but I imagined some women didn’t respond well to finding out their partner could shift into an animal.

“So, you know what that means?” Lou continued, leaning forward with her elbows resting on the table, chin on her knuckles.

That I should propose to you?

“What?” I asked before taking a long swig of my beer so I wouldn’t say something ridiculous.

“That means I want to hear about every single place you’ve ever been, starting with the hottest, beachiest places first,” she said with a grin.

I opened my mouth, ready to do just that, when I caught a whiff of both of my friends’ scents. Fuckers.

Nate appeared first, his clothes rumpled like they’d been carried in a cougar’s teeth and his face like thunder, and my eyebrows shot up at the hostility in his posture. It wasn’t like him to get so angry. Brooks jogged after Nate like he was following him in, dressed normally. He must have gone looking for Nate after all.

“Not going to lie, now I’m taking it personally,” Brooks announced, bumping Nate with his shoulder and moving to slide into the booth next to Lou. “I thought you weren’t interested in dating? I really must be losing my touch.”

The woman from the coffee shop?

Before he could sit next to her, Nate grabbed his shoulder and tugged him backwards, sitting next to Lou instead. She tensed instantly, giving him a scathing look.

“Are you stalking me?” she demanded.

“No,” Nate shot back, a little too defensively.

Was Nate the asshole guy who’d upset her?

What the hell was going on?

Brooks made a noise of disagreement. “I’ve been stalking him, and he sort of looked like he was stalking you. Don’t worry though, Red. Nate is good people. It was probably friendly stalking. Stalking among friends, which we are. Best buddies.”

“Let me guess,” Lou sighed, massaging her temples. “Gabriel and Brooks are the roommates you were talking about.”

“You’ve all met then,” I said, looking between them. Fuck. That’s why Lou’s scent had been so familiar to me. It had lingered in Nate’s studio when we first arrived in Fairbanks. A sweeter, more aroused version of her scent.

“We’ve met,” Lou clipped, still glaring at a sheepish looking Nate.

“Wait, is this the guy who put you off men?” Brooks asked in disbelief, a little slow on the uptake. “Nate, the fuck?”

“It’s complicated,” he rumbled, still looking at Lou. “Did you listen to any of what I said this afternoon?”

“Nope,” Lou replied airily. “All the hatred was ringing in my ears, making it hard for me to hear you.”

I choked on my mouthful of beer, coughing awkwardly as Brooks laughed and Nate looked an intriguing combination of irritated and ashamed. Who was this woman?

“Lou has a persistent admirer who flew in from New York today,” Nate told me through gritted teeth. “He’s a bit like Brooks. Has a real wolfy grin.” Nate raised his eyebrows pointedly at me while Lou gaped at him.

A wolf shifter from New York? Not good. The biggest pack there had a particularly unfriendly reputation. Brooks frowned, looking between us. As a wolf shifter, he couldn’t even travel into Manhattan without meeting and getting permission from the Alpha there, which is why Brooks never went. Hopefully Lou’s admirer wasn’t one of those wolves.

“Um, you were really focused on the wrong things,” Lou told Nate, before looking at Brooks. “Your grin isn’t wolfy.”

“Thanks, Red,” he chuckled, though his expression was still a little grim.

“Anyway, Lou told her wolfy admirer that I was her boyfriend, which makes it a strange choice for her to be on a date with someone who isn’t me,” Nate continued, looking put out by it.

“Oh, it’s because I loathe you,” Lou replied matter-of-factly. “It was just a convenient white lie that I regret telling immensely. Gabriel already has a great track record as my fake boyfriend, your services are no longer required, Nate.”

“Too late,” he grumbled.

“Hold on,” Brooks said, raising his hand. “Both these dickheads got to be your fake boyfriend and all I got was a ‘not interested’? I really am losing my touch,” he sighed, slumping back against the booth.

“You could replace Nate?” Lou offered, looking hopeful.

“That’s not an option,” Nate gritted out. “He’ll be watching us specifically, Lou.”

Lou was looking at him like he was insane, and Nate looked a little lost and a lot frustrated. My brain scrambled to follow the breadcrumbs of information he was leaving.

New York wolf shifter. Lou’s ex. Fake boyfriend. Lou hating Nate for some reason.

Okay, none of that was ideal, but I was definitely missing whatever urgent thing Nate was willing me with his eyes to understand.

“His name is Frank. I believe he is a threat to Lou’s safety. I invited her to come and stay with us for a few days in the hopes that he’d give up and leave her alone,” Nate explained with more pointed looks, willing us to understand.

Frank…wasn’t the Alpha of the big New York pack called Frank? Brooks’ eyes widened in alarm, and that was all the unfortunate confirmation I needed. Shit.

“And I told him I’d rather pierce my own nipples with a rusty nail,” Lou drawled, taking a swig of her beer.

“Blunt safety pin,” Nate corrected.

“That was until you stalked me here. Now you’ve moved up to the rusty nail level, aka tetanus nips level. Congrats.”

A muscle in Nate’s jaw ticked, and a grin spread slowly over Brooks’ face as his gaze darted between them, like he was watching the most exciting tennis match he’d ever seen.

The server returned with me and Lou’s meals, and Brooks cheerfully ordered steaks for him and Nate, settling in to properly ruin my date. I should have been more irritated, but they were my pack and I couldn’t stay mad at them. Besides, if Lou had caught the attention of a powerful Alpha, the more of us around to keep her safe, the better.

There was no question in my mind that we would rally around to keep her safe. I didn’t particularly think of myself as a hero, but nothing angered me more than shifters who toyed with unsuspecting humans.

“Start eating,” Brooks insisted, leaning forward on the table so he could talk to Lou around Nate, who was sitting stiffly in his seat, glowering out at the bar like he expected threats from every corner. I had a lot of questions for him. He’d been acting strange almost the entire time we’d been here, and I couldn’t help but think this little redhead was the reason why.

“So, Red. I’d love to hear how Nate managed to put you off real-life pensises,” Brooks said conversationally, never one to self-filter.

“I’m sure you would love to hear about it,” Lou laughed while Nate shot him a baleful look. “But we are never speaking of it again, sorry.”

“Boo,” Brooks replied sulkily.

“Boo yourself,” I grumbled, shooting him an irritated look. “You are ruining the conversation. Before you showed up, I was attempting to prove to Lou that not all men are assholes.”

“That isn’t going very well, by the way,” Lou remarked drily, giving Nate a scathing look. I’d never seen the guy look so uncomfortable. He wasn’t really someone who people disliked, which made the tension between them all the more unusual. Nate was chill, polite, and respectful of all women.

How had things gone so wrong here?

Brooks grinned, before launching into a conversation about Monkey Beach on Koh Phi Phi that successfully grabbed Lou’s attention. Brooks didn’t do well with long periods alone. The words seemed to build up and build up, and whenever he found someone to talk to, he’d launch them all at once. Fortunately, Lou didn’t seem to mind chatting with him, and Nate was more than happy to sit silently between them like a sentinel.

The others got their meals, and Brooks and I answered Lou’s endless stream of questions about scuba diving in the Philippines for a while, lulling me into a false sense of security that this date was not a total fucking disaster.

And then they showed up. Nate picked up the scent first, stiffening even more in his seat as his eyes swiveled towards the door. He looped an arm around Lou’s waist and tugged her into his side, and for all of her talk about hating him, she didn’t fight it. Perhaps because Brooks and I had fallen silent too, going on high alert as we cataloged the distinctive scent of the three wolf shifters who had just walked in.

Heads turned and eyes followed their movements as two men and one woman strode confidently into the bar like they owned the place. There was no question of who the Alpha was. He walked slightly ahead of the others, and power practically rolled off him, awing the humans he passed. I glanced at Lou out of the corner of my eye, wondering if she’d fallen prey to his magnetism, but she definitely hadn’t.

She spared him a dismissive glance before returning her gaze to our table. Pride swelled in me at Lou’s inner strength. There were shifters who would struggle not to be sucked into that Alpha’s orbit, but she didn’t look like she was having any difficulty with it. Maybe she was human, but she had the heart of a shifter, and a predator at that.

Nate leaned down, his lips brushing Lou’s ear, making her shiver. “He’s following you.”

His voice was quiet so as not to carry across the noisy bar where Frank and his pack members had made themselves comfortable, blatantly observing our table as they ordered their drinks. Brooks and I could hear all of Nate’s words though, and I suddenly felt a sliver of guilt that Lou didn’t realize that.

She lightly cupped Nate’s jaw, brushing her lips across his cheek, and I couldn’t decide if the sight made me jealous or turned me on. “Coincidence,” Lou breathed.

Except it wasn’t, because Frank would easily be able to track Lou’s melted chocolate scent all around town. Suddenly, I understood Nate’s frustration. Lou couldn’t comprehend the threat Frank presented without all the information, and we couldn’t tell her without putting her at even greater risk.

Nate captured Lou’s hand, holding it in place against his cheek, and keeping their mouths hidden from prying eyes. “Let’s get dessert.”

I couldn’t see her face, but I could practically feel the disbelief rolling off her. I understood his logic though. If we left now, it would look like we were running and only inspire Frank to give chase.

Pity that Lou hated Nate and everything he suggested sounded terrible to her.

Before she could object, Brooks had hailed the server and was placing an order for three sundaes, but either she wasn’t that mad or she was a good actress, because Lou didn’t protest. She was too busy torturing Nate.

Her hand slid up from his jaw into his hair, and she used her grip to angle his head closer towards her, her mouth firmly attached to his exposed neck. I swallowed down my surprise that he was letting her do it, even knowing there was an audience watching every move.

It was no small thing for a shifter to let a lover near their neck. Lou may not have sharp enough canines to do any damage, but Nate was still showing her an extraordinary amount of trust. I leaned forward on the table to speak to Brooks, trying to make it seem like I wasn’t obsessively watching every move the other party made, and trying not to focus too much on what Lou and Nate were up to. Except he was dragging her closer, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other hand clamped dominantly on the back of her neck, and the syrupy sweet scent of her arousal was perfuming the air around us.

Maybe she did hate Nate, but she definitely wanted to fuck him too.

“So,” Brooks said, his cheerfulness a little more forced than usual. “I ate, like, seven Lunchables today.”

I blinked at him, not entirely sure how to respond to that.

“The pizza ones?” Lou asked against Nate’s neck, her breathy voice shooting straight to my dick. Some part of me was happy that she hadn’t tuned Brooks and I out completely in favor of Nate.

Some part of me wondered if we could share.

I definitely wouldn’t be averse to sharing.

“Three pizzas, three mini hot dogs, and one nachos,” Brooks replied thoughtfully, listing them off on his fingers.

“It’s not fair that you look like that,” Lou shot back, her pouty lips now hovering just below Nate’s ear. Her thigh was right there, and I desperately wanted to put my hand on it, run my palm up her leather-clad leg, see how she reacted…

Nate gave me a warning look, like he could see—or perhaps scent—the direction my thoughts had taken, and wanted to give me a reminder that all of us were putting on a show.

The two of them continued their borderline inappropriate petting while Brooks kept the conversation deliberately dull in case anyone was eavesdropping. When our desserts arrived, Nate alternated between feeding Lou and himself, and my zipper felt increasingly like barbed wire against my dick.

“You’ve got chocolate sauce on your lip,” Nate murmured, moving to wipe it away with his thumb. There was a soft look in his eyes that I had never seen before in the decade plus I’d known him. If he was acting, he was a lot better at it than I would have ever given him credit for.

Lou caught his hand, leaning up for a kiss, and Brooks barely stifled his groan as Nate licked the chocolate from her skin before sucking her lower lip into his mouth.

Brooks gave me a look that very clearly said ‘I thought she hated him?’ and I sent him one back that replied ‘same?’ because now her tongue was in his mouth and it was difficult to tell.

It was certainly the weirdest date I’d ever been on.

Movement from across the room caught my eye as Frank and his cronies stood. Nate stiffened slightly, but kept his attention solely on Lou, putting his trust in Brooks and I to watch their backs and communicating to Frank that he wasn’t afraid of him, even if he probably should have been.

Frank strode up to our table, his two pack members hanging back a few feet. With deliberate slowness, Lou pulled back, still staring into Nate’s eyes like he was all she could see, and there was no faking the scent of how much she enjoyed Nate’s attention. Frank’s nostrils flared slightly, a brittle smile plastered on his face.

“You’ve always been such a beautiful little actress, Scarlet.” He turned and walked away without another word, the other two wolves following in his wake.

Who the fuck was Scarlet?