Grayslake: More than Mated: A Bite of Love (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page B

them?
    I felt slightly protective of my town, as if his being here could somehow shift the balance of what I had grown accustomed to. That was ridiculous. One man couldn’t possibly have that much power to change Grayslake.
    I had shivered when he told me he was a king as if a sudden icy breeze had coated my spine. A royal jaguar. I let that idea roll around in my head. For one of the few humans in a shifter town, I realized there was still so much I didn’t know.
    I drove through sleepy Grayslake, turning on streets I had driven on my entire life. Everything felt as familiar as my own skin. I put the van in park at the back of the shop and traipsed upstairs to my one-bedroom apartment. I loved it. Small, quaint, and everything shabby chic I loved. My mother always told me if I didn’t have such a passion for cooking I should go into the refinishing business. I winced at the thought that I might have to pick up something on the side like that to keep the money coming in.
    Every piece of furniture in my home was something I had painstakingly stripped, sanded, and either painted or stained myself. It wasn’t as if that career wouldn’t be something I could love too—it was only that catering had become my life.
    I saw how parties brought people together. How sharing meals could end arguments, or welcome in a new family memory. What I did was important in Grayslake. I threw in dashes of happiness and joy when people least expected it.
    I had a sudden memory of Case throwing a dilapidated porch swing over the side of the house. It was a shame, too. I could have whipped that piece of furniture into shape with a little elbow grease. It would have been extra cute with a few brightly colored throw pillows.
    I wondered what had him so worked up. What could make someone who seemed to have such a cool exterior fire off like that?
    I dropped my bag on the console table, another one of my artsy projects, slumped onto the couch, and reached for the remote. If nothing else, I could always binge-watch some of my favorite shows. My neck ached and my feet were tired from being on them all day. The clan orders always took a lot of my energy. The list on my DVR was piling up.
    Somewhere after the third episode of Fixer Upper I fell asleep. I wasn’t certain, but it felt as if a pair of dark green emerald eyes were the last things I saw before I started to dream.
     

5
    Case
     
    There was a separate workshop behind the house where my grandmother had kept her tools. Over the years she had added a potting shed, and accumulated a supply of anything you could possibly think of for building or gardening. I was going to need something more powerful than what I started with yesterday if I was going to rip the kitchen apart.
    I had decided the yellowed Formica needed to come out. It might be the only thing that wouldn’t remind me that my wife was on her fucking honeymoon with someone else. Fuck, I had to stop calling her that. I didn’t have a wife.
    I looked up at the wooden building, lined with a tin roof. Ivy climbed the sides and on one end tree roots had started to work their way under the foundation. I waded through the tall grass in the back yard. I could add that to the list of things to do around here. I doubted the tractor was in operation.
    The barn door creaked open and a scurry of wild cats ran through my legs.
    “Mother f—” I bit my tongue.
    They were only kittens. No telling how many wild things lived out here. There hadn’t been Maddoxes in Grayslake in a long time.
    I don’t know why it hurt when I walked inside, but it did. I was flooded with memories. Memories of my brother. Memories of swinging off the loft using a rope. Memories of watching my grandmother do amazing things in this shop. She made furniture for people in Grayslake.
    It was ironic I had always been surrounded by strong women, yet somehow I wasn’t prepared for the strongest one of all.
    The one who had the power to grab my heart, seize it in her