Technical Threat (Westin Force #4) - Julie Trettel Page 0,82

Susan.”

“Macie Laine Landry. Are you new here?”

Shelby toyed with the girl’s hair. “Macie, Susan is Tarron’s new mate.”

“Oh, right. I heard all about you already.” She looked around and then whispered in my ear. “Dad lost a lot of money to Taylor by betting against you. He doesn’t want mommy to know.”

I looked up at Shelby who laughed and just shook her head. “Those guys are always making bets against each other. It’s usually spurred on by Baine.”

“That’s my dad,” Macie informed me. She looked up at Sage. “First day?”

She nodded.

“I haven’t lived here that long either. Are you a wolf?”

“No, a fox.”

Macie’s eyes lit up. “Awesome! We need less wolves around this place.”

“Macie,” Shelby warned.

“What? I’m just saying. I’m a bear. It’s nice to meet you, fox.”

“Sage,” she corrected.

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Thanks. Macie is very pretty too.”

A lady finally surfaced behind the front desk. I excused us and set to work filling out a mountain of paperwork to get Sage officially enrolled. With that done, I wished Sage well and left her to begin her own new adventure.

Nonna had told me earlier that Sapphire would be working at The Crate, so I headed there next to update her on Sage.

The room was dark as I walked in. Thanks to a bright, sunny day, I squinted to give my eyes a few minutes to adjust. I could feel the second my cat-like fox eyes kicked in and the room roared into sight.

Sapphire was talking to a man behind the bar. I walked over to it, but was intercepted before I could get her attention.

“Susan, over here.”

I turned to see Kyle Westin, the Alpha, waving me over. He was sitting with another man and two women. A smile lit my face as I recognized Kelsey with him.

“Hey Susan,” Kelsey said as I walked over to their table.

“This is Elise. She wasn’t able to make it to ladies’ night this week, but she’s usually there.”

“Hi. I’ve heard so much about you that I feel like we’re already friends,” Elise said. “This is my mate, Patrick O’Connell.”

“Patrick? You work with Tarron, right?”

“I do. He’s a great guy.”

I bit my lip and nodded. I couldn’t disagree with that. He’d really only been wonderful to me since the moment we had met. I’d given him my body and soul, but my heart was another story. I didn’t understand what my hesitation was, but there just seemed to be a link missing or something. When we were together it mostly felt right. I blamed my hesitations on my mother and years of destroying a part of me necessary to truly connect and love another person.

After only a few minutes with these two couples, I could see that they had whatever Tarron, and I were missing. It saddened me to realize just how much I craved that ultimate closeness too, but likely would never have it.

We were bonded and according to everyone else some of these feelings of insecurity should have subsided by now, but they weren’t going anywhere.

Mine, a voice in my head still whined.

At their insistence I pulled up a chair to the end of their booth and joined them

“Well, you seem to be finding your way around town okay. How are you settling in?” Kyle asked.

“Well, it’s certainly different. I just stopped by to tell my sister that I got Sage registered over at the school today. There’s only one school for all ages?” Seeing little Macie and a few other kids walking around with high schoolers seemed strange to me.

“Well, it’s not that big of an area, but usually the K-7 are in one building and 8-12 right next door. There’s work being done on the primary school side with a new addition being added so everyone’s together and trying to make the most of it right now. Did you see Shelby there?” Kelsey asked.

I genuinely smiled at the mention of her name. “I did. I got to meet a little girl who’s father is on Tarron’s team too.”

“Macie,” the four of them said in unison before laughing.

“Macie and our son, Zander, have been thick as thieves since the day that girl stepped into my territory,” Kyle said affectionately.

“Beware. They are quite the pranksters,” Patrick said. “Tarron’s one of the few people around here that they haven’t targeted—yet.”

“I still say he’s in on it. How else can they pull some of that crap off? Someone’s helping them,” Elise insisted.

“I don’t know about that. Apart, maybe,” Kelsey admitted. “But together those two are like