Page 76 of Tricky Magic
“No, but Sam may be a little jealous. One of his betas is trying to call dibs,” he said with a sly smile at Devika. She gave him an incredulous look with her bright green eyes.
“What’s Sam going to be jealous of?” Sam called from his front porch.
Both men walked to meet them, somehow beating them to the farm.
“Devika,” Sam said sternly. “You’re supposed to be patrolling.”
The wolven only blinked as she leaned her large body against Ellea’s thighs.
“Devika,” Sam said with a low growl, and the small black wolven seemed forced to bow.
“Don’t be a bully,” Ellea scolded him. She crossed her arms and stepped toward him.
“I know you’re mad at me, but I’m not opposed to burning your burger if you try to deter my alpha business,” Sam said.
Ros was having too much fun seeing Ellea focus her viciousness on someone else. Neither of them backed down for a whole minute, and a battle seemed to rage between them. Then Ellea gave Sam a cunning smile, and he seemed to falter. Sam looked over Ellea’s shoulder toward the treeline. The large male swallowed hard and let his arms dangle at his sides.
“I’ll take my burger medium, please,” Ellea said to Sam, and he chuckled at her.
“Have you ever had a burger?” Ros asked, walking up to them.
Devika rubbed against Ellea one last time before walking toward the edge of the property. Sam looked shocked at Ros’ question to Ellea.
“Yes,” she grumbled at him. “I’ve just never had them off a grill…or outside.”
Sam’s hand rested against his heart, and he gasped. “You poor, sheltered girl,” he said and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go fix that right now.”
43
Ellea
Sam’s arm warmed Ellea through the sweater as he led her across the worn porch to the back yard. She was thankful she’d had it in Ros’ truck; the shirt she’d worn during their “walk”had been destroyed. She still couldn’t believe he’d tricked her like that. Even though it had worked, she was still pissed. Something had snapped when Sam had her pinned against the forest floor.Fucking assholes.
She’d felt so helpless until a whisper came in the back of her mind, telling her of freedom and power if she would only let it out. So she had. A wonderful smell greeted her as they came to the back of the porch. There were maybe fifteen people on the large lawn.
“What is that?” Ellea asked, pointing toward a gigantic black metal thing that was smoking.
“A smoker,” Sam answered. “We have all kinds of meats in there, chicken, ribs, and brisket. One of the guys started yesterday.”
“It smells so good.” She groaned as her stomach growled.
“It may be a little before it’s ready,” Sam said, and then he turned her toward the far corner of the porch where two large tables stood, covered in different foods. “You can start there, and I’ll go grab you a drink.”
Ellea headed straight for that impressive table. It held chips, crackers, and so many other things—including cookies.
Oh, cookies,she groaned inwardly. She grabbed one and brought it to her mouth. It was rich and chewy. She moaned and took another bite before she’d even swallowed her first.
“You can grab more than a cookie,” Ros said, coming up to her with a paper plate in his hand.
Ellea slowly took it from him and searched the table, unsure of where to start.
“You’re acting like you’ve never seen food before.”
Ellea rolled her eyes at him. She had, but never like this. “Of course, I’ve seen food before. It’s always been given to me or served, never out in the open with so many random choices.”
“I’ll admit I was worried about your ability to take care of yourself or cook after seeing your fridge the other day,” he teased.
She slapped him in his large chest with the paper plate. She knew how to cook, sort of. Being in the city meant she could order out every night if she needed to. But lately, it had been snacks, sandwiches, and a lot of coffee keeping her going. Seeing this magnificent spread had her feeling overwhelmed.
