Wolverton by Julie Steimle (best romantic books to read TXT) 📕

led him to do. He had even been ready to ditch everything and join Daisy in their quiet, yet passionate, wolf life.

“Now you said they weren’t man-eaters,” his father said, sitting a little nearer. “I just heard a report that Mr. Whidbee saw wolves attack and devour the private detective who had come with him to find you.”

Rick lifted his head. “That wasn’t what happened. Mr. Whidbee was dragged out with a hunter—that George what’s-his-face who wears fancy leather and looks like Van Helsing from the movie. They came during their moon ritual—”

“Moon ritual?” his father repeated, worry in his voice.

Rick nodded shamefaced. “I admit it. I attended their full moon rites. I know. I don’t actually believe in their moon cult, but there was this girl and….”

“A girl?” His father’s voice grew sharper.

Rick moaned, bracing with a cringe. “Yes. A girl. She…”

His father stood up. “I think you need to tell me the story from the beginning.”

“Starting with me climbing out the office window? Or before that?” Rick got up also, clinging onto his towel.

Nodding, his father’s eyes were more sympathetic. “A little before that. Mr. Whidbee is telling stories, and I need your side. All the details. The sheriffs will come knocking soon enough.”

Looking around, Rick nodded, and sighed. Then he said, “Can I get dressed first?”

Laughing, his father nodded once more.

 

Once fully clothed and feeling human with regret, Rick told his father everything. Even the cringe-worthy parts about how he had been led to Daisy and how utterly out of his mind he was for her—or had been. Whipped, as Kurt had put it. He wasn’t so much now. Not to that extreme, anyway. The conversation mostly got stuck there.

“It wasn’t like I was in love with her either,” Rick murmured as he went over it again in his mind, analyzing what really happened. “I didn’t really even know her. It was something else. I liked her, you know, like I would any girl. She was friendly. Not overt. But her smell just drew me in. And the way she touched me… I, I just lost control. It was like losing my human mind completely and…” His face flushed a deep red, “…passion like nothing I had ever felt.” Rick shook his head, trying to clear off the sensation of lust that had begun to swell inside as he thought about it. “You are right. If I had stayed longer with her, even a second, I don’t think I would have ever left.”

His father stared at him, startled. Despite being a little rebellious, Rick was usually quite sensible. He had been in complete control of himself in Paris, for pity’s sake. But Mr. Deacon did not interrupt his son’s narrative, letting him get it out.

“It was like my brain just shut off,” Rick murmured, trying to figure it out himself. Then he shook his head, grabbing his hair. “Eve is going to kill me.”

“So… you liked this Daisy,” his father finally said, reading the contortions on Rick’s face.

“Yes,” Rick answered honestly. But then he shook his head. “No…. Well, not the way I… I… you know, think of….” He huffed in frustration as thinking of Daisy made his hormones go wild. “You know I’m jealous of Abey and what he’s got in Jessica. She is awesome. Beautiful and smart. A girl to wait for. And Eve… she’s like—”

“A demon,” his father reminded with a groan. “One who could literally rip you apart if you upset her.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rick muttered, waving that off as if that were a moot point. “But she’s fantastic. You know, sporty. Smart. Fun to be with. Great sense of humor—and really beautiful.”

“And this Daisy isn’t?” his father asked.

Rick leaned back, staring at the ceiling, picturing Daisy. She was definitely beautiful, luscious. But the more he thought about how she looked, he realized his mind had been in a funny state at the time. He had imagined angels, soft beauties, and those sweet spoken sort of gals that would have bored him in most circumstances. He usually liked spunky gals. “She fits her name. Sweet, simple, fragile looking. Nice curves. But soft, like I could just knock her over and…” He shook his head, realizing he was picturing them making love. “She says she wants to be a veterinarian, which is great. But…”

“Work it out, son. I know you can get there.” His father gazed at him, watching Rick carefully.

“I couldn’t control myself with her,” Rick murmured, thinking that over and over. “I’ve never been like that, ever. I was helplessly at her beck and call near the end. With all the girls I've liked… Jessica and Eve… even with Selena who was so manipulative with that siren voice of hers, I was clear-headed and in total control of myself. I didn’t feel whipped.”

“But with this Daisy?”

Nodding now, Rick sighed cringing. “I was definitely being manipulated. I knew it. I figured it out during the middle of it all. I even knew she was part of their scheme to try to keep me there. She even admitted to it. But even then, their plan worked perfectly. By that time, I craved her so badly…. I would have done anything to be with her.”

Mr. Deacon nodded.

“Everything,” Rick murmured, feeling hungry for her even now. Thinking about her brought back a strong desire for her.

Mr. Deacon sighed.

“Dad,” Rick murmured, staring at the carpet. “I am sure she is pregnant.”

“How can you know that after only two days?” his father asked with total incredulity—at first. But with an unspoken look, Rick conveyed the intensity of his and Daisy’s interactions as well as the duration, which had left him without any doubt his son was most likely right. His father sighed, nodding more. But then he chuckled. “Is she the only one?”

Staring, Rick growled at him. “Dad!”

Shrugging, Mr. Deacon raised his eyebrows. “Son, remember, when I was year older than you are now I was manipulated into mating with fourteen she-wolves.”

Rick groaned, closing his eyes, deciding not to correct him that there actually had been fifteen. He was just embarrassed that he had followed too well in his father's footsteps. Even the bad stuff. He really was a chip off the old block. How pathetic.

“You were lucky when you escaped the Loup Garou,” his father said, sighing to himself.

“To be fair,” Rick grumbled, “You were in a bad emotional state back then ‘cause grandpa just got killed, and you didn’t know how twisted these packs can get—and you only got seven of them pregnant.”

Chuckling, his father nodded. He seemed amused that Rick would excuse his larger indiscretion in comparison to this singular one.

After a silence, Rick said, “This pack was sneakier than the French. Much sneakier. I really underestimated them. They completely took my guard down. I was so convinced I was safe. But Mrs. Blithe was right. It was a honey trap.”

His father nodded, then chuckled. “There are always those who outsmart us. But, this is how we learn, I guess. You can't undo the past, but you’ll be smarter next time.”

Mr. Deacon then urged Rick to pack his bags and set them aside so Henry could load them into the car. They had gotten a summons from the sheriffs who wanted Mr. Deacon and Rick to come to Wolverton and make a statement, rather than the sheriffs coming to the bed and breakfast. They were going to fly to Massachusetts afterwards.

“Fly?” Rick asked when they went down to another car, not their Rolls-Royce.

“Yes,” his father mildly explained as a hired driver opened the door for them, “Henry will be taking the Rolls Royce Phantom to get it cleaned to remove all the oily scent that you had brought into it—even if they have to tear out the upholstery.”

“Tear out the upholstery?” Rick gaped at him. “Isn’t that going a little overboard? It was just a little bug repellant.”

His father gravely shook his head. “Not at all. It was more than that. We had incinerate your clothing and that wallet.”

Rick’s jaw dropped. “Dad! That wallet was a gift from Eve and Dawn McAllister for my birthday last year. What am I going to tell them?”

“Don’t tell them anything.” He urged Rick to go inside. Rick didn’t move. “Or you can tell them it was stolen. Or be honest, and say a she-wolf put her scent all over it and we had to have it incinerated.”

Rick stared. If he said that, he'd have to tell Eve about what he had done. And he didn't want that.

“Go in.” His father nudged him.

Rick climbed inside the car, his mind whirling.

Daisy’s scent had been all over him? Was that why his father had made him scrub with the lye soap? And why was that bad? Daisy had the most amazing smell. He sniffed himself, but her scent was definitely gone. He moaned.

His father noticed and sighed. “Son. It was that she-wolf’s way of owning you.”

Cringing, Rick nodded. As the car started, his mind went back to Daisy. Just being near her had overpowered him, and he didn’t know why a simple scent could do that. Their relationship had been purely physical. And entirely chemical. He realized in that moment that there really was nothing else about her that he honestly liked. She was definitely pretty, but not actually his type. Not really. He had always leaned toward dark-haired women—like his mother. He like also spending time with the strong, sporty type. The type who would go camping with him and didn’t mind getting dirty—girls like Eve and Jessica. It was one of the reasons he didn’t like Selena. She was too prissy. She hated getting dirty and really didn’t like any sport that did not involve water. And though Daisy was the type who wanted to roll around in the grass with him, it wasn’t the same thing.

Besides, he liked girls who were direct with a strong personality, one who could and would stand up for themselves. Not schemers like Selena and (admittedly) Daisy. Daisy had played him the entire time, from start to finish. Daisy’s words, he realized now, had been perfectly crafted lines. She knew what to say, and when to say it. When she said she had studied him, she wasn’t lying. She just didn’t describe the full extent of it. The thing was, he wasn’t sure if all of it had been purposeful manipulation to get pregnant, or if she truly had felt the same uncontrollable passion as he did and she was also innocently swept up into the trap. And unlike Selena who was a siren, Daisy really was like a daisy. Fair, light, airy, and soft. Waking up with her in his arms, her skin against his—the memory of it made his heart race. But there really had been nothing else to it. It had just been animal passion. And though some men liked that, he had always wanted a girl with whom he could have intelligent conversation with in the morning, and not just a thing to make love to. He had wanted a relationship with significance.

One thing was for certain, Daisy definitely knew how to turn him on. The way she touched his hand and his face. How she had leaned against him, just being near enough so he could breathe her in, allowing him come the rest of the way to her. No force. Nothing overt. Just the right words and the right touch. He had completely lowered his guard with her. And of course, then the moon ritual happened. And that blew him entire over as the full moon always did.

Maybe there was magic in that full moon ceremony. Rick had lived among witches and had attended school with cursed people, half-demons, and half-elves, so he knew such things were real. Maybe it was a wolf magic which had invoked the primal core within him that he had never known, and may not know again. His father did not approve after all. And though with Daisy they were not mentally a