Wolf Tracks - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,42
were passing each other—some going in and some coming out. She saw the sign above the door.
“Big Wolf Barbeque,” she read aloud. “That sounds good.”
“It smells even better,” he agreed. “Wait ‘til you get closer and get a good whiff of what they’re cooking inside. This place is well-known among pilots. They deliver out to the airport, and some people just fly in for the ribs then fly back out again.”
Dinner was every bit as delicious as Jim promised. They were seated quickly because the restaurant had a deceptively large dining room with other rooms branching off from the main one. What she’d assumed was just one store in a row of them was probably more like the whole block, spread out in interconnected rooms and a very large state-of-the-art kitchen.
Helen hadn’t quite realized just how hungry she was until they got there. She ordered a shifter-sized portion of ribs and ate every last piece. She didn’t remark on the fact that Jim still ate way more than she did, but he was grinning at her steady consumption all through their meal.
“Stop that smiling,” she told him at one point. “Haven’t you ever seen a woman eat before?”
“I’ve never seen you eat like that before,” he replied quickly, still smiling. “I’m just happy to see it. Shifters like feeding the people they care about.”
He cared about her? That was…interesting…and exciting.
“That’s nice to know.” Let him figure out if she meant it was nice generally that shifters liked to feed people they liked or, more personally, by implication, that he cared for her. She smiled at him, hoping he would say more to clue her in on which it was.
“I hope you’ll join me in dessert,” he said, pushing the plate of assorted pastries that had been delivered to their table toward her. “I hear the bakery in town recently got an upgrade. Some fancy baker from New York joined the Pack and has been teaching classes for some of the teenagers who want to learn the trade.”
“Teenagers made all this?”
Helen was impressed by the variety and fanciness of the little treats. Now that she looked around, just about every table had a similar plate of goodies on it, and everyone was partaking with gusto. She picked a small cake with a lacy sugar decoration on top and put it on her plate.
“So I’ve heard,” Jim replied, taking two of the treats for himself. There were still two more on the plate, but knowing how much Jim ate, she knew they wouldn’t go to waste. He was probably just being polite in not grabbing the whole plate right away. “My brother is in pretty close contact with Joe.”
“Your brother, the Alpha of your Pack?” Helen repeated what Joe had said, inviting Jim to explain more.
“Brock is… Well…he’s great. He’s my older brother. A few decades older than me, so we both grew up, to some extent, independently, but we’re close friends now, of course. He’s been the Alpha for a while, but he’s still relatively young for an Alpha of a big Pack, like ours. Joe has been sort of mentoring him over the years, which is quite a coup for our Pack. Joe runs one of the largest, most successful Packs in the country. He’s a great role model for Brock and his ambitions for our home Pack.”
“That’s really nice. I didn’t realize there could be so much cooperation between groups like that,” she said, taking a bite of the little cake. The flavors danced on her tongue, and she had to stifle a groan of delight at the incredible taste. “Sweet Mother in heaven,” she said instead, once she had swallowed. “This is amazing. Whoever is teaching a bunch of kids to make this is some kind of culinary genius.”
Jim took a bite and nodded. “Agreed. Amazing,” he replied after a moment. “Just like you.” He took a sip of his water, watching her over the rim of his glass with half-hooded eyes that she found incredibly sexy.
Was he flirting with her? Sweet Mother of All. She really thought he was flirting with her! Helen tried not to panic and to just go with the flow. She knew she’d be a goner if he so much as crooked his little finger at her, but she hadn’t thought he’d really noticed her as a woman. Well…not much. He’d kissed her last night, of course, but he hadn’t really made any more bold overtures all day, and they’d been together for