Suddenly feeling the need to be held—dominant female or not, she wasn’t made of stone—she instinctively called Dante. No answer. Five minutes later, she tried again. No answer. After another fifteen minutes she tried again, and again, and again. Soon three whole hours had passed and he hadn’t responded in any way to her attempts to call him. She knew there was no pack emergency, knew his meeting with Trey had ended two hours before. She even knew where he was—his damn office. But she wouldn’t chase after him.
When he didn’t appear for lunch, her sense of desolation increased. Again, she tried calling him, but nothing. When he didn’t turn up to the evening meal either, she was so down on herself that even her wolf was feeling depressed. Down because of Ben, down because she could soon be just as dead as he was, and down because the one person she needed wasn’t there. So she did what she always did when she wanted to forget about something for a little while. She made it her mission to get drunk.
The knock on his office door made Dante groan. It was now ten in the evening, and all he wanted to do was hunt down Jaime and take her to bed. He knew she’d been trying to call him, but he had been so damn busy. First he’d had to have a meeting with Trey to discuss a possible alliance with another pack; Trey had wanted him to do the necessary research into the pack before a decision was made.
Then Dante had had to see some of his own pack individually to go over issues they had raised. Then there had been phone calls he’d had to take or make, and a lot of paperwork to mill through. As much as he’d wanted to talk to Jaime, the last thing he’d needed was to hear her husky voice and have her distracting him.
“Come in.” He was surprised to see Trick enter with a smile on his face.
“D, um, you might want to see this.”
“Later, I’ve got a lot of stuff to do.”
Trick rolled his eyes in a way that said, What’s new? “No, you really do want to see this now.
Come on.”
A mixture of exasperated, curious, and confused, Dante rose from his seat. “What?”
“It’s nothing to be worried about, she’s fine, but—”
“Jaime?”
“Just come take a look.”
“Dude, you are so my BFF,” said Jaime as she folded her arms behind her head and gazed up at the night sky. “I mean, I don’t go counting stars with just anyone, you know.” Shaya, who was lying beside her on the grass, put a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell Taryn this, okay, but you’re so my BFF, too. Oh wow, look, that one’s twinkling. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.”
“You know what I don’t understand? Why they sing ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.’ Why do they wonder? They already know what it is—they answered their own question before they even asked it.”
“Oh yeah. My favorite nursery rhyme was always ‘Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry, and when the boys came out to play…he kissed them too ’cause he’s funny that way.’”
Jaime burst out laughing and gave her drinking partner a high five, almost missing her hand.
“Only you could make me laugh on a day this sad.” She released a sigh. “Ben was such a gorgeous dog, you know. My heart used to ache for him when I saw him shaking and trembling.”
“You have to look at it this way…he’s at peace now. He’s up in doggy heaven.” Jaime frowned at Shaya. “Do you think there’s a separate heaven for dogs?” Shaya looked at her like she was stupid. “Duh. Have you not seen the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven?”
The girl had a point. “I’m still sad that he died. I’m going to die like that, too. Just like him, I’ll snap and attack someone close to me.” Currently, her wolf was quiet. For some reason, large amounts of alcohol made it difficult for shifters to change form, as it seemed to submerge their animals, which was why it was very rare that shifters drank large amounts. But Jaime would be fine in the event of a problem, because she wasn’t drunk, not even a little.
“Dante won’t let you die.”
An ugly snort popped out of Jaime. “I doubt he’d be much good in an emergency with me. I’ve tried calling him about fifty times, but has he answered? No. Has Beta Boy taken his attention away from his job for even one second for me? No. I should just call him. I should just call him and tell him exactly what I think of him. No, I shouldn’t. Here, take my phone. Don’t let me call him.” She fished her BlackBerry out of her pocket and handed it to Shaya.
“I got your back. You’re like the sister I never had. Did I ever tell you that?”
“Aw, sweetie, right back at you. You know that I love you, right? Seriously, I’m not just saying it because I’m tipsy. I really do love you. You and me are tight. We’re like this.” She crossed her fingers. Shaya nodded, mimicking the move. “I mean, if you hadn’t been here for me tonight, I dunno what I would’ve done.”
“It’s the least I can do. You’ve been here for me, too. Like with the Nick thing. I still can’t believe how he’s acting.”
“You know, we should totally get a gun and a shovel and take care of that guy. I told him to stay away from you, you know. Oh yeah, I warned him away. I don’t think he’ll stay away. But we can shoot him when he comes here.”
A look of pure excitement took over Shaya’s face. “Yeah! Let’s go get a gun right now!”
“Ooh yeah, we so should. But wait, I don’t have a permit. You?”
“No. Damn. We’ll get one tomorrow, and then we’ll assassinate His Alpha-ness.” She and Jaime shook hands and nodded.
A random thought suddenly popped into Jaime’s head. “Why do you think spiders travel alone? It has to be pretty lonely. Really lonely. I’m lonely.” Shaya’s head whipped around to face her. “What? Why? No, you can’t be lonely. That’s not allowed.”
“There’s just this big gulf between Dante and me. But it’s fine. It’s totally fine.”
“It’s not fine.”
“No, it’s not. I should tell him that. Gimme my phone.” She held out her hand, but it flopped onto her chest.
“You know, I think he really cares for you.”
Jaime gasped, feeling suddenly optimistic. “You do?”
“It’s practically tattooed on his forehead. Ooh—let’s get a tattoo.”
“Yeah!” Jaime rolled onto her side. “We totally should. Let’s do it tomorrow.”
“Totally. Definitely. What’re you getting? I’m thinking of getting ‘Nick Axton Is a Fuck-Ass’ right across my forehead.”
Jaime pursed her lips as she considered it. “I like it. It’s different. It has an edge to it.”
“I know, right?”
Patting the ground to her left, Jaime frowned. Gazing around and finding no sign of what she was looking for, her frown deepened. “Did you hide my drinks?” Shaya shook her head. “No, why?”
“I came out with, like, eight, and they’re gone.”
“You sure you didn’t drink them all?”
“I can’t have, or I’d be drunk, wouldn’t I?”
“Oh yeah, I never thought of it like that.”
Suddenly four heads were peering down at them, smiling in amusement, but only one held Jaime’s attention. “Hey, Popeye, how’s it going?”
“Popeye,” chuckled Shaya with a pig-like snort. Tao, Trick, and Marcus chuckled, too.
“What you doing down there, baby?” Dante asked, smiling. She was absolutely wasted. Seeing the eight empty bottles at her feet, he could guess why.
“We’re just talking,” replied Jaime. “You’ve heard of talking, right? It’s what people do on the phone. Well, those who answer it.”