Mac shook his head. “I tried already. She said her mom had the same kind of headaches. That it was a family thing. You can only press her so long before she throws you out of the house. Nan’s got opinions.”
Aimee snorted a laugh. “She gave birth to a lot of bossy wolves. I imagine she has to be tough to have survived this long dealing with your daddy.”
Huston’s startled guffaw made her smile.
“I’ll talk to her when I take over the tincture myself. She’s probably right. This is pretty common with female shifters as they near the century mark. Happens to the cats too. I’d feel better if she at least spoke with a doctor. I know you said she’s got opinions. And good for her. But I deal with crotchety old shifters weekly. Believe it or not, I’m pretty good at getting my way.”
Mac raised a brow. “You don’t say.”
She flicked her wet fingers his way, sticking out her tongue.
“She already went to the doctor,” Huston said at last.
Mac turned, mouth dropping open to speak but his cousin held up a hand.
“She made me promise not to tell anyone. That was the condition on which she’d allow me to take her to Knoxville. I talked to the doctor after she had an MRI. It’s a form of migraine, like Aimee just said. But she doesn’t like the pills they gave her so she doesn’t take them.”
Human medication didn’t usually work on shifters. Their metabolisms ate through most before they could work. There were some pain relievers and the like, but many of them came with side effects because of their unique physiology.
“Some shifters react worse to the medication than the headaches. I expect that’s what happened.” She turned to look through the apothecary cabinet standing in her mudroom.
There she kept the various supplies she needed for the remedies she created for her clients. At her touch, the doors sprang open, though they wouldn’t for anyone else. A pulse of magic tickled her fingertip as the locks recognized her.
“I can stop by her place on my way to the town hall tonight,” she called out as she tucked two dark brown bottles with dropper lids into the pocket of the apron she wore.
Thinking again, she grabbed some of the cream she made for her dad’s shoulder pain before drawing the doors closed and resetting the magical lock with a few words and movements of her hands.
“There something dangerous in there?” Huston asked her as she came back.
“Where?”
“You had the cabinet locked. Is it safe to have that cabinet in a room with all those windows? Someone could break in and steal whatever’s inside.”
“I told you to stop watching all that true-crime stuff on cable, didn’t I?” Mac said.
“I lock my cabinet for several reasons.” As she spoke, she washed her hands and set about organizing the basket of supplies she needed. Each client was getting a separate muslin bag with whatever she brought them. Sometimes it was medicinal, other times it was a book or a puzzle. Just something to brighten a day.
“My cabinet is where I keep my Work. Capital W magic work. It’s irresponsible to not take care in how I use the power I’m gifted with. I know you think that room would be easy to break into.” She smiled then, showing teeth. “It’s not. The cabinet is a way to keep whatever batch of medicinals I make fresh. They’re organized.” Color coded and indexed by client, but she didn’t need to tell them that. “It’s handy to have it all in one spot and somewhere visible so I won’t forget. Witches like organization, I don’t know if you figured that out yet. I also lock it because it’s my space. My magical energy is there and I don’t want anyone else poking around without my permission.”
Huston nodded. “Makes sense. I don’t think you should go over there before the town hall. Just tell Mac and me what she needs to do and we’ll relay that to her.”
Aimee frowned. “Why? If she’s planning our babies, she can’t hate me. Or I guess that’s how I’d imagine it going. But your family is...uh, you’re all outliers. Yeah, that’s the word. So what’s the story?”
“There’s a pack dinner before the candidates’ forum,” Mac told her. “She’ll be there so one of us can pass it along.”
Aw, he didn’t want her to feel bad that she wasn’t invited to the family dinner before the forum later that night. She smiled to let him know she was teasing. “No consorting with the enemy before the event?”
“It’s not that. You know it isn’t. Normally I’d say go over there and meet her. But tonight she’s going and only because my dad called to invite her personally. Nan’s not a fan of my mom.” Mac winced.
As Aimee certainly couldn’t argue with that perspective, not having much like for Scarlett either, she just said, “Okay.”
She wrote up a card with directions for the tincture and tucked it along with the bottles into a bag, handing that over to Mac.
“It tastes gross. That’s just truth. But it should help her. It won’t help if she doesn’t use it. I find a fancy way of making that point so I trust you’ll do the same.”
Huston stood. “I’m, uh, going to the car. I’ll wait for you there,” he told Mac. To Aimee, he said, “Thank you for helping Uncle Jeph and our nan.”
“Wait a sec.” Aimee handed him the cream she’d pulled from her cabinet. “You appear to be favoring your left side. Bruise? Soreness from working?”
He grinned. “My brother and I got into a fight after we went on a run last night. I’ve got a massive bruise on my right hip.” Usually things like that healed very quickly for shifters. But at times when it was combat between two shifters, the wounds received would stick around longer than usual.
“This is good for bruises and muscle soreness. Just rub it on after you get out of the shower and any other time you might need it. It’s arnica and a few other things. Nothing spooky.” She winked.
“Thanks for this too.” Huston held up the jar.
Mac waited until he’d gone before hugging her and laying a long slow kiss on her.
“Thank you. For everything. I’m sorry I can’t be with you before the forum. Are you sure you’re okay with me doing this dinner tonight?”
Since they’d been together, they’d been trying to keep everything low-key. They weren’t hiding their relationship, but given the renewed tension since she’d challenged Dwayne for the mayor’s office, they’d been quiet and private in what Aimee liked to think of as their love bubble. Which was so schmoopy she didn’t call it that out loud.
“You have shit to do as Prime, Mac. I get it. I’m not insulted. I’m having dinner at Salt & Pepper in an hour anyway. I’ll have a bite of cheeseburger in your honor.” And count her lucky stars she didn’t have to do it while at the same table as his mother and father.
“Now that my grandmother knows for sure that we’re together, I expect everyone in town will soon enough.”
“Yeah I figured as much.” She shrugged, hoping like hell they were strong enough to make it through what was sure to be a tumultuous time over the next several weeks until election day.
“Truth be told, I’m glad of it. I don’t like not showing you off.”
She smiled up at him. “You’re really going to get me sexed up later, just so you know.”
“I’m always glad to hear that reaffirmed.” He kissed her again. “Good luck tonight. I’ll meet you here after?”
“We’re going to the Counter after for milkshakes. Come by then. I mean, if you’re not doing something with the pack. If you can’t make that, I’ll text you when I’m done and you can meet me.”
He frowned and she laughed because he was so cute when he didn’t get his way. “I know. It’s hard when everything in the universe doesn’t change itself to suit your preferences.”
“It is! I’ll just have to endure, I suppose.”
She swatted him on his very adorable ass as he left,
wishing her good luck one last time.
Chapter Sixteen
Mac’s father pulled him aside just before they went into the city council chambers for the forum. “I heard some new rumors floating around town about Katie Faith.”
Mac stared and then shook his head. “No.”
“Everyone in town should know what she got up to down in the city. She comes back here pretending to be pure as the driven snow, paints Darrell as a monster when she was opening up her legs to anyone who offered. Maybe that’s why Darrell left her. She was doing the dirty to him before the wedding.”
Jace was going to freak the fuck out when these rumors—ones Mac was sure his father had planted—got to him. And that made everything so much harder than it had to be.
“You know that’s a lie. As does everyone in this town. You pulled this right after Darrell ran off and left Katie Faith. Remember how that turned out? This isn’t going to get you reelected. It’s only going to get the Dooleys all worked up and pissed off in defense of their Patron. And they’d be right to do so. You gain absolutely nothing from this so stop it now. Do you hear me? No more rumormongering. This is going to blow up in your face and I’m not going to be able to save you. No one will.”
Dwayne sighed. “Why are you always trying to argue me out of doing what I need to?’
“Because you think you need to do stupid crap like start rumors about the Patron of another pack. You asked me for help with this campaign. You promised to take my advice. Play your strengths. You have the experience to get Diablo Lake back on track.” Mac had only been running this campaign for his father for a week and it felt like five years. He was past hoping that if he just repeated it enough times his dad would finally hear it and listen. All he could hope was that his dad’s loss wasn’t so crushing it affected the pack negatively.
His dad’s gaze narrowed a moment as he leaned in and sniffed at Mac. “You’re still going with that Benton girl. You got Nan all in a lather over it.”
Mac said, “Nan likes Aimee. She’s just a little overenthusiastic about the speed of the relationship. Back to the forum—”
“What’s her strategy tonight then?” his dad demanded.
Mac gave him a hard, incredulous look. “Really? It’s a question-and-answer format with people you know and have worked with for decades. You’ve done this many times before. There’s no strategy other than being prepared. And,” he added, “she and I don’t talk about the campaign, especially anything about strategy.” He was damned if he was going to let his father question his loyalty again.
Which he did nearly immediately. “You’re choosing this witch over this pack.”
Mac’s mother sighed. “Don’t be an idiot, Dwayne. That girl can bring a lot of power into this pack. Lord knows I hate to agree with your mother, but in this thing I surely do. Them Dooleys have Katie Faith, why shouldn’t we be encouraging Mac and Aimee?”
Mac held his hands up. “Nope. We’re not discussing this.” He faced his dad. “Don’t question my allegiance again.” He turned his back and stalked away.
A long table sat in the middle of the room, down where the chairs for the audience normally were. The only spectators invited that night were the candidates, two guests and the city council members, along with the editor of the town paper.
It sounded pretty grand, but really it was a dozen people. If his dad couldn’t manage this, he didn’t deserve to be mayor. Which, naturally, was becoming apparent to pretty much everyone.
But before Mac could think about that any further, a ruckus caught his attention.
Darrell stood at the side of the room, arguing with Carl about why he should be allowed inside.
With an annoyed grunt, he headed over before Darrell could cause an even bigger scene.
“Go on home, Darrell,” he told his brother. “I told you we’d call you when this was over.”
“You’re in here! I should be in here too. Carl gets to be in here!”
Carl’s magic rose, steely and more menacing than Mac usually saw from the man. He pointed a finger at Darrell. “I will haul your ass out this door myself if you don’t get out of here.”
“Sheriff, please allow me to handle this. I apologize for the delay.” Mac picked his brother up bodily and hauled him through the door back out into the small grassy area out front.
“Get the fuck out of here. Dad needs calm right now if he’s going to be effective. You’re acting like an asshole,” Mac told him. “I’m inside because I’m Prime of this pack. Because he named me as one of his two guests and because I’m not prone to acting like a tantruming toddler in front of the newspaper whose endorsement we want.”
Darrell’s face reddened with fury. “He didn’t announce you Prime. That’s my place, not yours! You abandoned this pack when you left.”
Mac had known this would come and probably that it would come at the least opportune time.
“He didn’t have to announce me. I’m Prime and every wolf in this pack knew it without anyone having to say a word. That’s why it’s always been my place and never yours.” Brutal words designed to bring his brother to heel. “I was sent away to be trained to run this pack. You’re not capable of this job. You’re out of shape. You’re close-minded. You’re envious and petty and lazy. Dad gets up at five every single day to get ahead of any potential issue the pack might need him to handle. Since I’ve been back, it’s been me who provides him with daily reports about everything going on in Diablo Lake. You have no curiosity. No ambition. Running this pack would be a job every single minute of every single day. It doesn’t make you weak to admit you don’t have the desire, or the skill set to do it.”
“He’s been training me since we was kids.” But his yelling had subsided. Sadly, his shitty attitude remained.
It hurt to have to deliver the blow to his brother’s pride. But he needed to get a clue so he could turn himself around and enjoy who and what he was without trying to tear the pack apart.
And Mac wasn’t going to allow that.
“You’re old enough to know the difference between a wistful fucking fantasy and real life. If not, consider this your lesson. Go home to your family.”
Mac turned and went back inside, closing the door behind himself.
Aimee had settled at the table so he angled his chair to watch her and his father better. She’d changed into a pretty blue suit and looked smart and able and adorable. Though he wouldn’t tell her the last bit because she’d punch his nuts.
Katie Faith sat with Carl, Aimee’s plus-two apparently, and waved at him with a goofy smile.
Mac tipped his chin at her.
Beside him, his mother shifted, the annoyance and anxiety coming off her in waves. Becoming Prime had amped up his emotional connection with all the wolves in the pack.
She’d just essentially thrown her lot behind Mac dating Aimee, so it couldn’t be that. He’d asked her several times, but she continued to insist nothing was wrong but the same usual, tired attacks on Katie Faith.
At the table, the rules were being explained and the first question was asked. His father turned on the genial-mayor bit, laying on the condescension a bit thick. If he thought he could get to Aimee that way, his dad was mistaken.
She never lost her cool. She wasn’t a shark—or a werewolf—but she wasn’t a doormat either. An alpha in her own right, Aimee never let him shake her as she answered the questions in a thoughtful manner. She didn’t let his father talk over her—though he tried repeatedly—and held her own. On the issues she was informed and forward thinking. But she managed to speak in terms even the older folks could hear and not be offended or threatened by.
She was, he realized, perfect.
His father was used to being in charge and he’d gotten lazy. His grasp of the issues was borne of holding the job, which was a big point in his
favor. But it was outdated in many ways and when that was brought up he got defensive and closed-off to the point of being rude to the person who’d asked the question.
Not a winning strategy.
Worse, his father was a complete patronizing asshole to Aimee, and through her, all the witches, including the ones who’d married into the Pembry pack. They didn’t have to be there to hear about this. In a town like Diablo Lake, the gossip tree was far more efficient than the emergency broadcast system.
He was dismissive of her magic. Of magic in general, but especially nurturing magic. He had no idea the kind of power Aimee could wield and Mac feared it would be his father’s undoing in the end.
Thank heavens Dwayne didn’t bring up the rumors about Katie Faith. Mac had thought a lot about how to get out in front of the situation. He sent texts to Huston, having him poke around to see how far the rumors had gotten and who’d been passing them along.
Hopefully it was something they could clean up quickly. Then Mac would deal with that person himself. And he’d let Jace know it had happened. Otherwise there’d be another bloody, gaping wound between Dooley and Pembry that’d take a lot more than a bit of pack discipline to fix.
At the table, the forum was winding down. His dad’s vanity and ego would be the death knell of his career as mayor of Diablo Lake. And Mac wanted it to go that way. Though he had a soft spot for the woman challenging his dad, Mac thought of the pack and the town as well. She’d win anyway.
Dwayne shouldn’t be mayor, but if he had a way to leave that allowed him some pride, it’d be better for the town and the Pembry pack.
At the end of the ninety minutes the forum broke up. He smiled Aimee’s way before following his parents back to his dad’s office.
“She kept interrupting me,” his dad snarled as they got the door closed.
Already looking for excuses.
“No, she didn’t. “ He held up the pad of paper he’d been using. “I timed each of you to see if they were being fair. You actually got two and a half minutes more than she did.” He’d also interrupted Aimee twelve times while she’d interrupted him three. “You got plenty of time to answer the questions.” Mac phrased it like a positive, not wanting to trip down some lane where all he did was complain.