The Wolf Marshal's Pack (U.S. Marshal Shifters 3)

Colby groaned. “Don’t encourage it.”

She stayed pressed against him. “I’m glad you and your dad had such a good relationship.”

“Me too. My mom took off when I was a kid—I guess maybe that’s why I used to think that werewolves were needier than other people. It was like I’d asked her for too much.”

“You were a kid,” Aria said fiercely. “Your parents are supposed to be there for you. If she wasn’t, that’s because of her, not because of you.”

“I’m starting to believe that. Thanks to you.”

“Good.”

“And my dad always tried to convince me of that too. I was a real pain when I was a teenager, and I’m sure I gave him a lot of grief, but he never stopped letting me know I was important to him. Your dad reminds me of him, actually.”

“I

think Dad would be really flattered to know that.” She hesitated. “You said he died a few years ago...”

He didn’t mind talking about it, not with her. “Yeah. He got sick when I was overseas, and when I came home, I took care of him. That’s when we moved here. He wasn’t that mobile in the last couple of years, so I lived with him for a while. Tried to take care of him the way he always took care of me. It was slow, I guess, but most of his last days were good ones. And I’m glad I got to soak up the time we had left.”

“I’m sure he knew how much you loved him,” Aria said.

“I think so.” He kissed her on top of her head. “I’ve been sort of... adrift, since he died. But it’s better now. I wish he could have met you, though. He would have liked you right away.”

“Photography buff?”

He shook his head. “He would have seen how happy you make me. And he would have seen the light in your eyes. He was a good judge of character.”

*

It was almost midnight by the time they settled down to have dinner, but Colby felt like he had somehow powered through his sleepiness and found a new reserve of energy.

One that would probably vanish, he had to admit, as soon as his stomach was full. But it was nice to sit across the table from Aria and get to appreciate her in full, without being distracted by any need to yawn.

He hadn’t done much besides the roast—even he had his limits—but he’d thrown some vegetables into the pan and opened up a box of cookies. Then they had sliced up some of Theo’s hostess cheese and paired it with some slightly stale back-of-the-cupboard crackers.

It wasn’t the most romantic dinner the world had ever seen, especially since the only candle he’d been able to find was an enormous “holiday-scented” one that had been left in a closet, but as far as safe house date nights went, he thought he had done a pretty good job.

Aria had even higher praise. “Oh my God, Colby, this is amazing.” Her eyes had dropped closed with her first bite of roast. “You really do have to teach me your recipes.”

“It took a lot of trial and error as a kid before I could even follow them right. I remember trying to make this for my dad for Father’s Day once, as a surprise—I was probably around twelve—and I didn’t realize until right at the end that we were out of brown sugar. I thought, hey, sugar’s sugar—and dumped about a pound of powdered sugar all over the pork roast. That one didn’t turn out so well.”

“I can imagine.”

He told her a few other embarrassing anecdotes from his childhood since there was sadly no shortage of them. But eventually, as they got down to having nothing on their plates but cookie crumbs, he had to admit that he wasn’t really making conversation. He was stalling.

He didn’t want to remind her of Eli Hebbert right when she’d relaxed.

But they had to think about Eli, because there was no way Eli wasn’t out there somewhere thinking about them.

Colby had killed his brother. Even if Eli was the worst pack leader in the history of all wolves, even if he was the one who had started the fight, he wouldn’t be able to let that kind of challenge go unanswered. He would want both Colby and Aria dead now.

And Colby wasn’t going to let anything happen to her, no matter what it took to keep her safe.

“Aria,” he said.

The look on her face said she already knew what he was thinking. “Yeah. We have to talk about how we were almost dinner.”

“If it helps, I don’t actually think they would have eaten us.”