"I thought I had you figured out, wolf," Kane said, angling his head and relaxing back in his chair. "Now I'm not so sure."
"Well, there was your first problem, Alpha." Dustin offered him an empty smile. "No use trying to figure out a werewolf."
"Hmm," Kane rumbled noncommittally. His eyes were glowing that iridescent green with the long dragon pupils, but he wasn't sneering. In fact, the End of Days was smiling ever so slightly at Dustin. A first. And creepy.
He was probably planning what seasoning to eat him with.
****
Gray Dog was a beggar. Emma loved him, especially after Rowan had given him a bath and made him smell like honeysuckle. He wore a black leather collar with silver spikes and a pink bow on a tuft of hair right on the top of his head, a testament to Roe and Kane's disagreements behind the scenes on how to raise their fur baby. Gray Dog didn't seem to mind, though, and didn't even try to scratch the bow out. He was a mutt, but Emma would bet her britches he had a lot of Irish Wolfhound in him. Wiry, coarse gray fur, long, lanky legs, barrel chest but lean, and with a great smile. It was one of those doggy grins where his tongue always hung out to the side while he stared with his big brown eyes. Like he was doing now as he whined for Emma to sneak him a bite of her leftover steak.
Dustin didn't hesitate, just flipped the dog a piece of his without a thought. Kane growled. Dustin shrugged. Rowan giggled. And Emma fell a little harder for the werewolf sitting beside her.
"So, tell me, Dustin," Kane said around a bite of fruit salad. "What did you do with my dog all that time you had him?"
Dustin tossed his now empty plate on the table and leaned back in his chair, pulled Emma's feet into his lap, and leveled Kane with a look. "We watched TV every night, he ate table scraps and dog food, and I took him to the dog park three times a week until he banged this poodle and we got banned on account of you not neutering him, so now he probably has some ugly puppies somewhere." Dustin gave another hollow smile. "Congrats, grandpa."
Something was up with him and Kane. The tension had always been there, but lately it was thick as fog.
"I don't know. We just did regular shit," Dustin ended, linking his hands behind his head.
"But you let me think this entire time that my dog was murdered."
"Yeah, well, he wasn't. He was having a vacation. I even gave him a flea bath. Mostly because he gave my wolf fleas, and it sucked. His bow looks extra stupid, by the way."
"Heeey," Rowan drawled with a disapproving grimace. She leaned forward and covered Gray Dog's ears. "He's sensitive."
"False, I called him Smelly Motherfucker the entire time he lived with me. He never got his feelings hurt, and he answers to it now. Come here, Smelly Motherfucker."
Gray Dog gave Dustin a canine grin and scrabbled over to him. The dog licked under his chin while Dustin baby-talked him. God, Emma had never considered loving animals a sexy quality in a man, but it really was. Gray Dog was getting so worked up and happy his wagging tail was a blur, and he was whining between licks.
Dustin ripped the bow out of his hair and tossed it in Rowan's lap. "Who's a handsome tough guy now?" he asked, scratching under his spiked collar. Dustin sniffed him and grimaced. "Why does he smell like douche water?"
Logan was standing on a ladder wrapping the new porch beams in outdoor lights. "I don't even want to ask how you know what douche water smells like."
Emma and Winter snickered, Rowan twirled the bow in her hands and grinned proudly, Kane shook his head in annoyance, and Beast downed an entire beer in one long swig and looked like he hated everything. And all was right in her crew.
Her crew. She could really have this. Sure, there were conditions, but they didn't seem so bad anymore. A bite-mark on Dustin, and they could both be in. They could both be home. She was turning vamp soon anyways, and he'd already told her he wanted to be her feeder. She would be biting him then whenever she needed sustenance so what was a bite-mark in the grand scheme of things? Now they felt like a shoo-in to register for the Blackwings.
"Kane?" Emma asked.
"Yep?"
"Which concrete pad is for me and Dustin?"
"The one right next to this one. I figured you would want to be close to Winter. Beast will be on the end, in the back of the trailer park where he asked to be."
"It's closest to the woods," Beast said gruffly.
"We're going to be one big, happy family," Winter said.
"I meant to say it's farthest away from all of you," Beast corrected. He gave a wicked smile and a nod like he'd won some contest.
"Do you want me to make you a trophy for biggest asshole in the crew?" Dustin asked, twisting a few napkins together.
"Yeah. I'd love that. I'll put it right in my front window as a warning for you fuckers to stay off my lawn."
Dustin handed him what looked suspiciously like a penis he'd fashioned from the napkins. "Congratulations, Beast. We're all so proud of you and support you in your endeavors."
Beast yanked it out of his hand and growled a terrifying noise.
"What happened to your face?" Emma asked.
"Not polite," Beast said, eyes on the woods.
"Why not? People ask me all the time about my hearing aids. I don't get my panties in a twist."
Beast cast her an angry glare, then gave his attention back to the woods, offering them all a perfect view of the deep claw marks that marred half of his face. "I fell," he said sarcastically.
Emma tapped her hearing aid and murmured, "Me, too." She wouldn't get anywhere with Beast. He was an enigma set behind sky-high walls a mile thick. And really, right now, she wanted to go see the place that might be home someday. "Come on," she said, tugging Dustin up out of his chair. "Let's go see our house."
"Wait, is this the bat signal?"
"No, you horny werewolf, I actually just want to see where our future house will be."
"Living with Dustin won't be as fun as you think," Logan muttered from up on the ladder.
"Oh, and living with you is going to be a cake-walk? Please," Dustin muttered as Emma dragged him down the porch stairs. "You're lucky Winter's type is ‘lunatic.'"
When Dustin scooped her up in his arms suddenly, Emma squealed and clutched onto his neck. "What are you doing?"
"Walking you across the threshold."
"Aaaaw!" Her cheeks heated with pleasure, and she hugged him tighter as he did indeed walk over where the door would be.
The concrete was freshly poured but dry to walk on. "Kitchen," she said, pointing. It would be the same layout as Winter and Logan's home, and she'd been in there several times just to memorize the layout and fantasize about her own house.
"Living room," he said, jerking his chin to the right.
"Bedroom-"
"My favorite room," Dustin said with a naughty glint to his eyes.
Emma giggled as he lowered her to her feet directly in the middle of the concrete. His eyes went serious in a second. "Are you sure, Emma? With me? It's … "
"It's what?"
"I don't know, a risk. And it's still not a done deal. I have to work out some major shit still to swing this. It's scary to imagine things that might not come true."
"Are you backing out?"
"No, no." He shook his head hard. "Not me. But if something happens to me..."
She hated the sound of that. "Like what?"
"Or, you know, you might back out when you figure out who I really am."
Emma smiled up at him. "Silly wolf, don't you know?"
Dustin cocked his head. "Know what?"
Sliding her hands up his shoulders, she murmured, "I see you. The real you. Maybe the crew doesn't yet, but I do. You didn't hide well enough from me."
Dustin searched her face with an unfathomable expression. His eyes glowed with such beautiful intensity, it threatened to take her breath away. He signed clumsily, If I could have my way, I would give this all to you.
You will, she signed back slowly in the simple alphabet so he could understand her.
His chest rose with his deep inhalation, and he pulled her into a hug, stood their swaying them gently from side to side in the middle of their pretend house as they watched the sun setting over the mountains. Dusk was putting on quite the show tonight. The sky was painted in soft yellows and pinks, and thin clouds dotted the horizon. The two towering mountains behind the trailer park created a perfect valley between them to watch the sun sink to the horizon.