Page 49 of The Rabbit's Foot
“Really? Cool. Show me your license.” She smiled. “I know all about you, Alpin Dawkins. I even spoke with your mother. She’s a lovely woman. I’m going to fly out to see her next week so we can go shopping. If you want, I can swing by and pick you up.”
“You talked to my mother?” Alp was a little offended. “What gives you the right?”
She reached out and patted his arm. “I protect what’s mine, sweetheart. If you think I would let Damon go off without knowing the people he was going to be dealing with, you’re sadly mistaken. I’m sorry if it hurts your feelings, but my mate comes first in every situation.”
It made sense. Alp would do the same for Mal. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.
“Don’t be. You have every right to know. I might bust his balls, pretty much constantly, but I love Damon with every fiber of my being. That’s why I wasn’t about to let him come here without me. He might not like to admit it, but he knows in a fight, I would kick his ass, just like I did the Tweedles. If I wanted to be First, it wouldn’t be hard.”
Alp could see that. She had the swagger and cocky attitude down. “Why don’t you?”
A soft smile tugged at her lips. “I love my life. I’m a mother, the First mate of one of the wealthiest packs in the country, and I have a husband I would give my life for. I’m content.”
That was how Alp felt about Mal. Well, except for the rich part.
“You really have a jet?” he asked, steering the conversation away from uncomfortable topics.
She shrugged. “Sure. It’s not a huge one, more like a lear jet, but we make do.”
Make do? Alp couldn’t imagine having that much money.
When they got to the diner, a sign in the window said they were closed for a special event. Alp opened his door and slid out of the behemoth vehicle. He went and knocked, and a few moments later, a harried older man opened for him.
“Good afternoon. I called in an order?”
The man shook his head. “Do you know you wiped out every last bit of our inventory. I think we might have a bucket of pickles left.”
“Ooh, I love pickles,” Cece said, coming up beside Alp. “Let us have those too. And give Alp back his deposit, because I’ll be paying for this.”
She held out a credit card, the likes of which Alp had never seen. The owner of the diner’s eyes widened, but he snatched the card away and hurried back inside.
“What was that card?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s an Amex Black Card.” She shrugged. “It’s nice for small things.”
“Never heard of it,” Alp told her. “We were going to pay cash.”
“I know, and believe me, we do appreciate your hospitality. But you shouldn’t be put out because of us. As for the card? You have to be invited to get one. We had been offered another, and it was a lot better, but it came from a courier for the Dubai royal family. When Damon saw it, he handed it back to the man, thanked him, and told him no way was he interested in something from a country that treated women and gays poorly.”
Alp was floored. “I thought most wolf packs weren’t cool with the whole gay thing?”
“We adapt, my darling. Our son Wiley is gay, and Damon announced it at the last gathering of the packs. When someone like Damon tells you he’s not going to take shit, you change that shit to something he’s going to accept, or you lose out on any hope of partnering with us on projects. Most packs fell in line quickly. The holdouts soon learned that Damon’s reach is as deep as his pockets, and they came around. Sure, there is still some grumbling, but they’re smart enough to do it out of earshot of the man who worships his family. And I have to admit, a lot of them really seemed to have embraced the changes and have admitted they have gay family members too.”
The whole exchange made Alp feel like he was dealing with shifter royalty.
A few minutes later, the door to the diner opened up again, and six young men, loaded down with boxes of food, came out. The two men with Cece grabbed the boxes and stacked them into the trucks. It was funny watching them lug all the boxes it took the six guys to carry without breaking a sweat.
In no time at all, everything was put away and ready to go. The owner presented Cece with a receipt, which she signed and added a tip that made the guy’s eyes bug out.
“Thank you!” he practically shouted. “Thanks to you and your friends, we’re making more in one day than we have in the last nine months.”
“You and your employees did us a great favor. It’s the least we can do.”
“If you need anything else, let me know. I’ll do my best to get it for you.”
“I will likely take you up on that,” Cece told him. She then turned to Alp and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Let’s go feed our boys.”
The ride back, she and Alp didn’t speak, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. More like being with a good friend, without having to constantly fill the quiet with meaningless conversation.
