She answered it to find the Luna, James’ mother on the line. “Hello?”
“Emmie, dear, I’m wondering if I could persuade you to come to dinner one last time? It’s nothing big. Just a few people. I would love to see you one last time.” Janie or Janine was a second mother to Emily. With Emily’s mother gone these past three years, Janie stepped up to more than fill in the gap Emily bore in her life and heart.
“One last time. You know I can’t say no to one of your meals. Usual time?” Emily couldn’t say no to her without feeling the guilt of disappointing a very important person in her life and in James’ life. “But if you want James there, you’ll need to call Evan and have him add it to James’ schedule right away if you haven’t done that yet. You should invite James’ guests too. It would look rude if we did not invite them.”
“Yes, seven this evening as usual, and I’m glad you didn’t say no. I’ll call him right away. Take care and I’ll see you soon.” Emily could hear Janie’s delight in her voice as the call disconnected. Maybe there was a going-away party after all. This new understanding came with mixed feelings for Emily. She’d now need to put on a brave face and see James again in public. She needed to stay strong for that, because Annabelle would be there, as well. The Annabelle that hates Emily for some unforeseen reason she’d never declared. Emily could only assume she was jealous of the friendship between her and James. Emily was too polite to confront her, but she wondered if she saw Emily as competition for James’ affections.
Emily needed to remind herself that James clearly didn’t feel the same way, and Annabelle’s competition radar appeared broken.
Everything was ready. Emily’s cottage was barren of her personal things. It would stay furnished and if Evan worked out as the new Beta, he’d move into this cottage by the next full moon. She’d be mated by then. Now one last thing to do tonight and she’d sleep one more night here before she, too, would leave for good.
As she returned to the packhouse for the evening meal, Emily looked around at everything she’d taken for granted living here. Now she looked at everything with fresh eyes and it looked grey, cold. The same feel and look she felt on the last day before graduating high school.
They quickly lay dinner out. But one thing Emily noticed with the first course. This wasn’t Janie’s usual cooking. “Did you have this catered Luna Janine? It’s all very nice.”
“Nothing gets past you, dear, does it? Yes, Evan helped me find a caterer on short notice. He did such a great job. Please, everyone, eat and enjoy.” Janie acted like the nicest host. With a bubbly personality and witty conversation.
The first course came out, and there was very nice. However, one slight problem. While she watched Annabelle flirt outrageously with James, Emily noticed the Greek salad before Annabelle. She knew Annabelle despised goat cheese and olives. They riddled the salad with them. This was not good. Not good at all. Evan failed to read the notes on the people coming to dinner when he arranged the meal. Luna Janie would not have known.
“Emily, dear, is there no way for us to persuade you to stay? I’ve always wished you and James would mate. You just seemed so perfect for each other.” Emily’s mind raced to think of how she’d fix the issue with the salad when Janie dropped this bombshell on her.
Annabelle gasped at Janie’s words and still hadn’t looked at her salad. Emily’s time was short. “Luna James has never felt like that toward me in all the years we’ve spent together growing up. I appreciate your kind consideration, but this is my one chance at the life I’ve always wanted. But it warms my heart that you think so highly of me. If you’ll excuse me for a moment. I’ll just be a minute.”
Emily all but fled the room in her need to get to the kitchens. She couldn’t leave the table and the looks everyone gave her. It surprised James at the nerve of his mother. He’d not said anything more than hello when she arrived. Annabelle glared daggers at her, and her father looked uncomfortable with all this.
This should not have surprised Emily at all. Janie was honest to a fault, loyal to those she loved, and a romantic at heart. She’d rooted and encouraged James and her to mate over the years, but James showed no interest in taking their friendship any further. Emily always honoured his choice and didn’t press the issue. No, she was the first to admit she admired him from afar.
In the kitchen, the pack’s Den Mother arranged the next stage of the meal to go out. “Natalie, we have a big problem, and it’s about to explode. What’s for dessert?”
“I have a mixed berry cobbler. Why is that wrong?” She blinked, not understanding why Emily asked her this.
“No, but not enough. One of our guests is about to have a meltdown. Do you have anything with chocolate in it? Dark chocolate is preferable.” As if on cue, Annabelle’s wail of discontent echoed through the packhouse. Emily sighed and prayed this would work or James would not get access to the construction company he needed to expand the ale production house.
“Yes, I have a few cupcakes leftover from lunch, they’re chocolate devil’s food cake.” Natalie turned to the refrigerator and opened it for Emily to see a half dozen cupcakes in a plastic container.
“Perfect. I need one. Now.” Natalie nodded as she too heard the colourful complaints crossed with wailing. Annabelle was in fine form tonight. “Thank you.” Taking the plate with a single cupcake on it, Emily slipped from the kitchen back into the dining room and expertly replaced the Greek salad with the cupcake, then returned to her seat. Even though the room was in chaos, thanks to Annabelle. Now she needed to calm down the rest of the room. James and Annabelle’s father, John, were yelling. Janie and Evan were taking the brunt of it. Emily only felt tired. Tired of all of this. Though she would miss the people. Now how would she pull a rabbit out of this hat?
James couldn’t get his anger in check. He was furious with everyone. He didn’t want to be around anyone right now. He never did. Emily made these events tolerable. But now his anger didn’t have an outlet because Emily’s reasoning for leaving was so sound, he didn’t have a right to be angry with it or her. With his mother for planning this event without consulting him and then cornering him and Emily like that in front of his guests. One guest was flirting with him at the time she said this. He couldn’t be any more embarrassed than this. His feelings bordered on humiliation. Or so he thought. The mistake with the salad by Evan was over the top and he couldn’t let it go. Now Annabelle’s gone after inciting her father into a rage. James struggled with his temper. He saw red. Desperately, he tried to throttle back his words. He desperately wanted to tell Alpha Haden t
Emily was getting ready for bed. Tomorrow would be here soon, and it would be a long day. But ask she came out of the bathroom, she heard an odd sound outside her cottage. This was a more quiet section of the pack’s territory, being that it was closer to the lake house than the packhouse. Also, the time of night was off. This didn’t bode well for her peace of mind, and she went to see what it was all about. If there was a problem, the person should take it to the enforcers on duty or go to the packhouse. She worried it might be a medical emergency or a rogue attack. Both things Janine worried about when Emily moved out to this cottage alone. Emily moved to the front door and slipped off her shoes in case she needed to shift quickly to protect herself. What greeted her wasn’t a rogue wolf or a bloody accident. No, i
“You and I are going to talk now, Emily. This has been a long time coming.” “Talk about what? James, you aren’t making sense. One minute you show up at my place drunk out of your skull asking questions that make little sense. Now you’re standing there a few hours later telling me we need to talk. You started this evening barely looking at me or saying anything beyond hello. Then you take over my going away dinner with some crazy mistake you did nothing to fix but left me, too.” He didn’t bother listening to this. He guilted her to say this as she followed him back to the Lake House. “I think we’ll both need a drink to have this conversation. Come on.” He disappeared into the house, expecting her
“Hi, Evan. I’m fine. Everything is fine. I need to take a few days away from the pack. I just need to get my head on straight. You’ll need to complete the deal with Alpha Haden. Just get him to sign the paperwork and keep Annabelle from making anyone else’s lives miserable.” James disconnected his call. He’d been lucky and got Evan’s message machine. That was perfect. He wouldn’t need to answer any prying questions for now. They could leave messages on his phone. He leaned over and looked at Emily’s sleeping form in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Now he just needed to get them settled in the old packhouse and then they could finally talk about this. James wasn’t sure what he’d say yet. All he knew was that whatever he felt about her leaving, it felt wrong. It hurt
Emily woke slowly. Her eyelids were heavy and hard to keep open. Groaning, she shifted. When did she go to bed? Her blurry sight came into focus. That’s when she realized nothing was familiar. Dust clung to everything. Whoever owned this place covered the furniture in drop cloths. The air felt stale and not pleasant to breathe. Where was she? Sitting up, Emily pondered her next move. She felt like she should go back to sleep, but her brain registered that this wasn’t a safe place to sleep. She needed to get out of this building so she could breathe. Stumbling to her feet, she found the door in the gloomy room. Her feet felt sluggish and weighted. But she made it to the door to find out that it's locked. The door handle and lock were old, and she couldn’t see the key anywhere.&n
Evan entered the office looking for James and he didn’t find him anywhere. He assumed James went for a morning run to check up on things around the territory. Which, by Emily’s notes, he often checked on things first thing in the morning. Evan decided he’d start the day by recovering the phone messages and checking email. The email went easily, and he’d got all the documents printed for the day. So, he started in on the phone messages. Nice, simple, call this person back about that. Nothing important or rushed. Until he found a message from James. His voice sounded distracted. What did Evan do now? Their guests were still here. They’d not concluded their business yet. This was a disaster in the making. He tried calling Emily, but she wasn’t answering h
“James, this is insane. What did you do? Where are we?” Emily couldn’t believe he wasn’t a victim. She was the victim. James kidnapped her, but she didn’t understand why he’d done this. “What do we have to talk about that we haven’t talked about a million times? I need to get back soon because I need to close up the cottage before I leave for the airport.” “Rebecca. Never mind about closing up your cottage.” James said simply as he watched Emily and any telltale response, she might miss and betray herself true feelings with. “We’ve never talked about what happened.” He tried to approach her but hesitated. “What’s there to say? We lost many people that night. R
It stunned Emily when James’ lips came down in an insistent, no demanding kiss. Ever since he’d found Rebecca, she’d shied away from any thought of James like this. Gods, she could feel the heat of his body as he pulled her against him. He’d caught her arms between them and now his hands roamed her back for the first time. Feeling her body for the first time. With surprise on his side, she clung there, feeling him, and the inexplicable response to his kiss, his body, even his demands. Time felt like it stood still, and Emily’s mind struggled to make sense of this new turn of events. Finally, she broke the kiss and hid her face in his chest. Breathlessly, Emily demanded. “What was that? That was wrong on so many levels. No, this can’t be happening and it can’t happen again.”