Wolf at first sight, p.1
Wolf at First Sight, page 1
Table of Contents
Blurb
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
About the Author
By Rhys Ford
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Copyright
Wolf at First Sight
By Rhys Ford
SFPD Lieutenant Joseph Zanetti has spent years protecting his city, and from the looks of St. Connal’s Pub and its bad-boy owner, Levi Keller, the place is a hotspot for trouble and violence. Joe’s problem? Levi is delectably hot, with secrets Joe can’t wait to dig into.
As a Peacekeeper for paranormals, wolf shifter Levi doesn’t need the complication of a hot cop sniffing around his pub when he’s just sent his teen son off to summer camp. He’s busy brokering a peace agreement between two warring factions. When Joe stumbles into Levi’s world, both plunge into a situation neither one of them was ready for—falling in love.
To everyone who loves things that go bump in the night…
Acknowledgments
OH, TO the Five… always. And to Bru, who jumped in on this ride. As well as to Elizabeth, Liz, Naomi, Gin, and everyone else at DSP for letting us go crazy with this.
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Author’s Note
I HAVE known Emily Chan for years. Way before I was published and even back then, her developing talents were extraordinary. When the idea to illustrate the Bad, Dad, and Dangerous anthology came about, Em was the first person I thought of who could not only work well with all of us but also deliver a unique style to go along with our stories.
Working with Em is such a delight and she put so much care into making sure things laid down right. From Joe’s distrustful scowl to Levi’s wolf form, she pulled the scenes out of my story and breathed life into them. I am in awe of her diverse talent with her being able to illustrate the hell out of the human face to the cute and comedic graphics of her award-winning webcomic, Stupid Fox.
I hope to work with Em again in the future — because I’d love to commission a graphic novel from one of Kai’s short stories — of course, that’s something for another day and I hope you enjoy her take on Wolf At First Sight as much as I do.
Thanks, Em!
Rhys Ford
One
“GOD, I hate you.”
It was a muttered refrain Levi had heard more than a couple of times since he first brought home his squalling red larva from the hospital, only his son’s face visible from the swaddling blankets wrapped around his squirming body. There’d been a few long, drawn-out fights when Declan entered adolescence and was conflicted by the rise of hormones every young boy faced. There was anger and a bit of self-doubt, mostly from grappling with the loss of a mother who’d checked herself out of the hospital and disappeared, practically right after they cleaned the afterbirth off the thin, pale newborn.
Then there was also the first time he shifted into his wolf form—a long-legged, gangly thing with too-big paws, no sense of direction or grace, and an overwhelming appetite for pizza and cheeseburgers.
Levi dealt with Declan’s little act of verbal aggression with an arched eyebrow, followed by an ice-cold shot back, “Really?”
At fifteen, his son was gaining on him in height but had years to go before he’d reach Levi’s muscle mass… if he ever did. Ashley passed on not only her beauty, blue eyes, and long lashes to their son, but also her compact dancer body—a lithe, sleek contrast to Levi’s brawler build. To be fair, Levi also spent many evenings tossing out drunks and staring down tipsy supernaturals with enough strength to tear down a streetlamp even in their human forms, so Levi knew he could bank on just a hard look to push his son’s bravado back down a few notches.
The really was an extra cherry on top of the Levi-takes-no-shit sundae.
Levi waited, holding his tongue in the tense silence. Declan glanced to the side, making the briefest of eye contact, then dropped his gaze down to the living room floor, where his half-packed duffels sat next to piles of folded summer clothes. If he’d been one to buy into the wolf lore some older packs whispered about, building up their own arrogance and need to feel superior over the next guy, Levi could have said Declan’s submissive drop of his head and gaze was lupine in nature, an instinctual reaction to Levi’s alpha status. Calling bullshit on that type of thing was exactly why the Keller family was split—one side clinging to the old myths and structure while the ones who had a lick of common sense formed a healthier splinter group.
Levi wasn’t alpha so much as he was Dad.
The silence simmered, bubbling between them until Declan finally broke.
“Sorry,” he muttered, a bit louder than before. “You didn’t deserve that crap from me. I just want—”
“You want to stay here and hang out at the pub,” Levi finished for his son, picking up one of the duffels. He’d heard enough of Declan’s varied arguments over the past few days, his objections ramping up as the date got closer. “And you’re not. You know why. It’s not up for discussion. You can’t spend your entire life only surrounded by your own kin. It doesn’t work that way in the human world, and it sure as hell doesn’t work that way in ours. Only way you’re going to learn about other kinds of people is if you’re around them. And don’t start telling me St. Con’s got lots of people you can learn from. That’s not the kind of crowd that needs to be teaching you.”
Declan flopped down on the living room couch, a heavy overpadded affair Levi was glad he’d paid through the nose for when the kid was younger. His son was hard on furniture, especially as he was growing into his enormous feet and hands. Puberty was rough, and there’d been times when Declan’s body ached from sprouting up an inch or two, seemingly overnight. The soft, comfortable sectional, with its wide cushions, made a great nest for him to curl up in. If he’d been thinking, Levi probably wouldn’t have chosen to have it upholstered in bloodred chenille, but he liked the color and didn’t realize eventually there’d be two wolves in the house and double the fur all over the place once Declan began to shift.
“Dad—”
“Michelle will be here when you come back,” Levi said, cutting through the heart of the bramble growing up around Declan’s objections. “You’re fifteen, and it might seem like she’s the love of your life right now, but the truth is, you’re barely a blink in the universe at the moment, kiddo. Yes, she’s pretty and she giggles when you tell a joke, but if she’s serious about you, she’ll wait. It’s only two and a half weeks at summer camp. There’s people you haven’t seen in a year, other kids you like and still talk to. Hell, some of them have even squatted in our house for a weekend or two.”
“It’s just….” Declan laid his head down to stare up at the ceiling, not even glancing at his father when Levi sat down next to him. “It’s not like I don’t like the place… or the things we do. Some of it’s really cool. It’s just that when I go out there, I feel like I’m a freak. At least at home, I feel normal. Like I could almost be normal.”
“You are normal, Deck.” Levi shifted over, hooking his arm around his son’s slender shoulders. Pulling his son close, Levi kissed the top of Declan’s head, wondering when the hell the little boy who’d fit in his lap only a few years ago was suddenly this handsome young man with a storm of confusion in his blue eyes and troubles in his heart. “We’re normal. Are we different than the people you go to school with? Yeah, you are. But not just because we’re shifters. We’re different in experiences and culture. There’s people out there with centuries of social burdens holding them down, and they’ve got to carry all of that crap on their shoulders, wondering if something shitty’s going to happen to them because of it or if it’s going to stop them from getting ahead.
“You’ve got other burdens, other troubles, and I’m not saying you’ve got it easy, but you’re not alone. I’m here. Your grandparents and some of the other family members are too,” he assured softly, wrapping his other arm around his kid to give Declan a tight hug. “I told you a long time ago, we’re making this shit up as we go along, and the only thing I have to guide you with is what I’ve learned myself and what everyone around me has to say.”
“Because you’re going to listen to Uncle Gibson?” Declan pulled back a bit to wrinkle his nose at his father. “He writes romance books and lives in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. What’s he going to teach me?”
“Probably that having romance in your life is a damned good thing to have,” Levi shot back, unwrapping his arms so he could tweak Declan’s nose. “I’m not saying I’m perfect. God knows I’ve fucked up, and I’m always going to adult up and apologize if I’m wrong, but in this, I know it’s the right thing for you. Everyone there’s got something to teach you about how to be you, and they’re people other than me. Because sometimes you’re going to need to hear truths that aren’t mine, and maybe you’ve got something to say to someone else to help them figure things out. Just… go up there, have a good time, and for God’s sake, don’t blow anything up this year.”
“Shit, blow up one toilet—”
“You blew up three toilets, and the year before that, you guys were caught making a still out in the canoe shed, which also exploded.” Levi sighed. “Seriously, dude, can you just not se t anything on fire or bring down hellfire and brimstone for three weeks? Between you and your cousin Dino, I think our family’s replaced most of the buildings up there. Go, have fun, and this time, no makey with the boom-boom. My bank account can either feed you or buy a new roof for a cafeteria. Your choice, kiddo.”
JUDGING BY the weight of the duffel in his hand, Levi figured Declan shoveled all of his belongings—and possibly the pub’s huge kitchen sink—into the two soft-sided totes. Waiting outside for the camp van to come by to grab his kid was a summer ritual, one he’d participated in at least fourteen times himself. Now, on the other side of the pickup, Levi wondered if his own parents worried about making sure he’d been ready to take on the world once he stepped off the curb.
Talking seemed to push back the anxiety of watching his son take another leap forward, and even though he knew in his gut Declan needed to hear others’ stories and maybe discover a bit about himself without his old man looming over him, it was still hard to let go.
“Now, remember what I’ve told you, Deck?” Scuffing his boots on the gritty sidewalk outside of the building where he lived and worked, Levi peered down the street, then clarified, “Other than the no-exploding-things bit.”
“No means no. If someone doesn’t listen to me saying no, then….” Declan snarled, shifting his canines into wolf-form to make snick-snick noises with his elongated teeth. “Make them listen with a bit of bitey-bitey?”
“You’re fifteen now. We don’t call it bitey-bitey.” He covered his son’s mouth, looking around to see if anyone was near. “And don’t let Grandma see you do that. She’ll tear me a new asshole for teaching you that. Bad enough Pops taught me. She’ll start saying you look like a chihuahua. And yeah, no means no, but I was thinking more of the whole… keep it wrapped, or better yet, keep it tucked?”
“Dad, anything I can do there, I can do here, just in a bed that doesn’t smell like mold and maybe snakeskin,” Declan groaned, rolling his eyes. “I love you, but man, I don’t want to have a kid before I’m twenty. Maybe not even before I’m thirty. I want to be old when I have crotch goblins.”
“Great, now I’m old,” Levi chuckled, mocking Declan’s eye roll with one of his own. “And that’s going to be your new nickname—Crotch Goblin. That’s how I’m going to introduce you to everyone. Hey, have you met Crotch Goblin Declan? I made him myself.”
“Swear to God, the main reason I’m sorry I’m an only child is because someone else should share the shame of having you as a dad.” Declan dug into his jeans pocket, probably looking for something to bind his long brown hair with. The wind picked up a few strands, carrying a hot kiss on it, the heavy mugginess of summer lingering in the afternoon air. “I’m okay. I haven’t bitten anyone in years, and to flip things around, if you do decide to bring someone home, make sure they don’t wear the same size shoes I do. Unless you want to replace all my Converse again.”
“Have you looked at the boats on your feet?” He snorted. “I could just buy you those inflatable Zodiacs and put them on you. It’ll be a lot cheaper.”
“Yeah, yeah, so funny.” Declan narrowed his eyes and peered around his father, pushing Levi’s firm shoulder out of the way. “Van’s coming.”
“Okay, give me a hug before anyone can see you,” Levi murmured, drawing his kid into a smothering embrace. “Can’t let them see we love each other.”
“You are so fucking weird, Dad,” Declan grumbled into Levi’s chest, but his arms came up, wrapping around his father’s back. “Gonna miss you anyway.”
Levi closed his eyes, holding on to the moment as tightly as he did his son. They’d come a long way together, battling the world and pushing back anyone who said Levi could only raise hell and not a kid. It’d been a battle with temptations along the way, sins dark and deep enough to pull him off the path he’d set for himself, but he’d overcome them, focused on being the kind of father he’d had instead of the man he’d become. He and his father, Davis, were too much alike, his mother always said, destined to butt heads because they always had to be right. In some ways, Levi hoped she was right, because if anyone deserved the kind of stand-by-you father Davis was to his kids, it was Declan.
“Man, I love you, kiddo.” He squeezed tighter. “I would recognize your foul stench anywhere.”
“Okay, Dad… um, the van’s almost here.” Declan squirmed. “You can let go now.”
“No, no. Let me have this moment,” Levi sighed, rocking Declan back and forth in as dramatic of a roll as he could. “Seeing my little boy off—”
“Dad, do you want me living with you for the rest of your life?” his son mumbled, unable to pull away from Levi’s strong hold. “Because this is how that happens. This is becoming a ‘Hot For Teacher Sweet, Sweet Waldo’ thing, and dying a virgin wasn’t on my life plan. Let go before I have to live under my bed.”
“Okay, go get into the van, and good luck with the bears.” Levi released Declan, then steadied him with a firm hand, clenching his son’s shoulder affectionately. “And well, whatever other shifter is up there this year. Send me an email or something if they ever unchain you from the basket-weaving bench, and no—”
“Biting or exploding stuff.” Declan picked up his duffels, his shoulder muscles bulging under his thin T-shirt. “Yeah, I know. Same goes for you.”
There was a bit of the same old catch-up small talk with Brandon, the camp’s head counselor, as Declan loaded his things and climbed into the van, already mostly full with other teenagers in various stages of funk and sullenness. Stepping back onto the curb, Levi watched the van take off, cruising down the road toward the woodland site nestled in the hills. It would be a long drive ahead, or at least long enough for the kids to get caught up on old friendships. A part of him missed those days.
He’d bought the St. Connal’s Pub off of his uncle, moving into the large apartment over the bar with an inquisitive five-year-old boy, both of them ready to take on the world. Or at least that’s what he told Declan. The truth was he needed to settle down, and the two-story brick building in an old, established neighborhood was just where he felt they belonged. The St. Con was a piece of Keller history, belonging to the family since the 1930s, and now more than ever, Levi felt the weight of its legacy on his shoulders.
“You know, for a pile of bricks and wood, you’re not too bad-looking, old man,” he said to the building sitting on the corner, the pub’s intersection-facing door open in welcome to anyone passing by. The afternoon shift sounded like it was doing well—a bit of laughter tumbling out onto the street and the delicious scent of beef pies beginning to fight its way through the afternoon air. Cocking his head, Levi turned toward the garage attached to the back of the building and smiled. “Been a while since I’ve seen you on two feet, cousin. Should have come out and said hey to the kid. About time he met you again.”
He caught Ellis’s scent as soon as they came out the security door. At first, he didn’t quite believe his cousin was lurking about. The last he’d heard from the family was Ellis was no longer curled up inside of his wolf form. But making his way out into the world wasn’t something Levi expected Ellis to do, not so soon. Not after… everything he’d gone through.
“Last thing the kid needed,” Ellis growled. His voice sounded rough, torn around the edges and lacking the lightness of humor Levi always associated with his older cousin. “Came begging for favors. Didn’t want to… muddy things up.”
“Okay, I can see that.” A reunion would have meant catching up and then Declan again not wanting to leave. Levi nodded, then jerked his head toward the apartment’s entrance. “You hungry? I can toss together a dinner. Not on the job tonight.”
Ellis studied the wrought iron security gate guarding the place’s front steps and stoop as if it were an oracle and he could only ask it one question. His gaze shifted, settling on the mudroom and its chaos beyond the open front door, then a quick glance at the curved stairs beyond that, the warm honey-oak steps leading up into the apartment. Something flickered across Ellis’s strong face, turning any softness in his features to stone, and for a moment, Levi wondered if his cousin was even aware he was there.
