Prickly Business Read Free Page B

over to Dylan’s table. “Just so you know, Derick had your boy’s back with Glenn.”
    Dylan rolled his eyes. Why not dive bomb the giant pink elephant in the room?
    “He’s not my boy.”
    “Whatever. You know what I mean.”
    Yeah, Dylan did. Didn’t mean he liked it. Then the rest of Lucas’s revelation registered. Dylan bristled. Another wolf shouldn’t be watching out for Avery. Not that Dylan was standing in line for the job. He sighed. “Did Avery start it? Did he cause any trouble?” He wouldn’t put it past the prickly brat.
    “Dunno. Don’t think so. Glenn was being his charming dickhead self.” Lucas gave a snort-chuckle, and Dylan shook his head. For a man of such model perfection, he was a dork sometimes. “Good thing you have pack betas to look out for the little guy, huh?”
    “Yeah, good thing,” Dylan grunted.
    “You could go talk to him, you know?”
    “Not a good idea.” Dylan took a drink from the beer he’d ordered from a passing waitress. He didn’t need to ask whom Lucas was talking about. He’d been trying to get Dylan to talk to Avery for two years. It hadn’t worked yet.
    “You’ve got to stop doing this to yourself, D.”
    Dylan really didn’t want to have this conversation. “Not now.”
    Lucas pursed his lips, then glanced at the table where Kirk hovered over Chance, their bodies pressed flush as Kirk demonstrated a shooting position. A soft growl caught Dylan off guard, and he turned to find Sawyer staring at the pair, the strangest expression on his face—puzzled, like he was trying to sort something out, but angry too. Dylan might have to keep an eye on that.
    “You are not your folks,” Lucas continued, as if Dylan had been paying attention to him. Dylan brushed off the comment in exchange for studying the scarred surface in front of him. “Fine, you’re not going to talk? You can listen.”
    Dylan could have walked away then, and their friendship would have remained intact, but he didn’t. Instead, he continued to feign ignoring Lucas by taking another swig of his dark ale while staring blankly ahead.
    “You know I think of your mom like she’s my own….”
    Sadness and longing in his voice almost had Dylan caving and tugging Lucas into a hug. He had been there when Lucas’s world shattered with the death of his mother. Dylan still felt the loss. He’d loved Michelle like a second mom, so yeah, Dylan knew how he felt.
    “And I know Law is a complete asshat to her and to you,” Lucas continued.
    Law . Dylan smirked at Lucas’s blatant disregard of his father’s edict that he should be called Mr. Green instead of Lawrence or Law by his inferiors. One of Law’s Laws , as Dylan and Lucas had called them. A remnant of his days as one of Portland Police Bureau’s polished and perfect captains before he retired a couple of years ago. He’d been a good cop but a shit dad.
    “Here’s the thing. Your mom—she’s strong, stronger than any woman I know. And if she didn’t want to be exactly where she was, she would find a way out.”
    Finally turning his gaze on Lucas, Dylan snarled. Everyone knew that once a wolf was mated, that was it. Although, not all wolves found their mates, so some married for love instead of waiting for fate. Once a mating bond was completed, there was no out.
    When Lawrence Green had batted his baby blues at Betty Wilkerson thirty years ago, their mating had been all but a done deal. Dylan’s mom hadn’t stopped to think, to get to know him. As a result, she’d spent the past thirty years with a beta wolf who controlled her every move, who talked down to her, who degraded her at every turn. She was a servant in her own home, and if Dylan could have gotten her out, he would have. Thank heavens Law never hit her, because Dylan might have been forced to do something he might regret.
    No. There was no walking away from a permanent mating bond. Fate controlled the spirit of the bond, even though it wasn’t infallible. Before