The Mating Heat(23)

For every hellish act Alastair had done to her, the pack had also suffered.
It’s not only you who bore scars from his wrath.
Their scars are equally deep, only hidden.
She turned to Ryder, whose expression remained carefully blank.
“You’re continuing to follow this tradition?” she asked him.
“It was meant to honor your mother. I’ll leave it up to you if the tradition should continue,” Ryder said softly. “What is your wish, Kara?”
The pack turned toward her expectantly, and the faint, damnable hope on their expressions made her fingers curl into fists. Anger burned through her, along with hard resolve. These past two years, she’d focused solely on the damage her father had done to her shattered spirit.
Kara now realized she’d been selfish, thinking herself the only victim. She hunkered down and clasped Jason’s arms. “Today we’re celebrating your birthday. You’re 7, right?”
Doubts filled the boy’s eyes. She straightened and looked at Jason's mother. “Go into town. I want the biggest birthday celebration this pack has ever seen. I want ice cream, cake, you name it.”
Kara beckoned to David and Marcus. “Both of you go with her, help her out. And get presents. Maybe even a piñata. Is the restaurant that served those awesome chicken wings still open?”
Seeing several nods, she decided. “I’ll call and order platters, they should be ready for you to pick up when you’re done shopping.”
Something flickered in David’s eyes that could have been approval. For a moment they seemed to shift from dark brown to vibrant blue.
“Money, it’s a little tight right now,” Marcus began.
“There’s twenty $100 bills my father always kept as emergency cash behind my mother’s photo on his desk downstairs. Use that.”
“I’m really going to have a party?” Wonder filled the boy’s eyes.
Kara struggled with the thick knot clogging her throat as she hugged Jason. “The best damn party this pack has ever seen. I think it's about time for a celebration. Long past time.”
Glancing up, she met Ryder's gaze and saw tenderness shining there, mingling with a raw, fierce heat.
He was right, and she was home.
***
Never one to sit idle, she joined the others in decorating the basement, then sped upstairs for a quick shower. When she returned to join the party, Kara smiled with delight.
Blue and yellow streamers hung from the ceiling, tangling with dozens of colorful balloons. A cake the size of a truck tire saying “Happy Birthday Jason!” sat on a table near the bar, along with enormous platters of chicken wings, hamburgers and other food. Several pack members crowded around the bar, drinking beer or wine. Lupines sat at tables scattered around the room or curled up on the sofas and armchairs. Children shrieked with laughter as Jason hit a blue donkey piñata.
This is how it was supposed to be, she thought. Not sadness and strictness and fear.
Sitting at a dining table, munching on a chicken wing, Ryder talked with Jason’s parents. Their expressions brightened upon seeing her and Alyssa, Jason’s mother, moved over to make room on the bench.
“Thank you for everything.” Alyssa squeezed Kara’s hand and Jason’s father piled a plate with food and set it before her.
Kara ate, listening to the light banter between the mated couple, but keeping her gaze centered on Ryder. Stubble shadowed his jawline and his blue eyes sparkled with life. He was so damn sexy, even when he drank beer. Watching his mouth close around the bottle’s lip, she shivered with awareness. An ache pulsed in her sex as she imagined his perfect, wet mouth on her intimate flesh. Kara clenched her thighs together.
When Jason’s parents finished eating, they excused themselves and joined a game of darts.
She was left alone with Ryder.
He thumbed his lip, slowly. Ryder squeezed his beer bottle, rolling it in his hands.
“You always play with your beverages?” she teased.
“I’d rather be playing with you,” he countered, his gaze flicking to her breasts.
When she finished the chicken on her plate, he got up and fetched her more. “Eat,” he prodded. “I want my female well-fed.”
“Too much food and I'll be rounder than I already am.”
“I like you well-rounded.” His heat gaze swept appreciatively over her body.
Desire tightened her nipples, turning them hard as pearls. She shivered.
“Cold?” Ryder asked.
“A bit.”
David noticed and loped over, unzipping his sweatshirt and shrugging out of it. He handed it to her with a flourish, but before she could thank him, Ryder snatched it with a scowl.
“Keep it.” A low growl rumbled deep in his throat.