TWO - SEBASTIAN

I let myself have a moment of pure satisfaction as I looked at the reservations spreadsheet on the iPad at the front desk. In the hospitality business, January was often a slow month. Even in cities like Boston that are doing well, most businesses had to work harder to keep sales up after the holidays.

The fact that A Taste of Magic was a shining exception to that rule gave me a lot of pleasure.

It didn't matter what the pride said. It could laugh all it wanted about the "vanity project" Sam and I were "indulging in" while we put off growing up and taking our rightful places as mates to dominant females, as every good panther male should. But, like they always did, they were talking out of their rear ends. Sam and I were building an empire together in a quiet way. One that meant we'd never have to be submissive little house-husbands like my brother Benno and my father. I was going to be someone, and I had the proof in the form of a full reservations list and a balance sheet.

Even though I had proof of my success, I still had to do my job. Sam was in charge of the kitchen tonight, so I was in charge of the front of the house. About an hour ago, I went around to each table, shook hands, made jokes and compliments, and bought customers desserts or drinks for free here and there to make the end of their night shine a little brighter. It was time to go around again. But first, I'd take care of a few more details.

I circled a reservation for later in the night and tipped the iPad so that Bea, the hostess on duty, could see it. "Please give this table to Suzie." I tapped a second one. "Give that one to Justin. It's a big party, so if you need to, you can give Justin a second job, but start with him." I gave her a sideways look. "It doesn't matter to Mr. Hughes, but Mrs. Hughes likes the view."

Bea laughed as she changed the seating chart to reflect the changes. "And Justin likes to wiggle his butt when he knows someone is watching."

I wasn't a jerk, so I never made anyone on my staff serve a table they didn't feel good about. But when the flirting was fun for both the server and the customer, I never liked to get in the way of anyone having a good time.

About that, Juno was eating dinner in the corner with the Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General and his guests. She was very polite, so she would love a reason to bat her eyelashes at me while her date proudly showed her off, not noticing her attention. I wouldn't let her sleep in my bed while she was sort of dating someone else, but it wouldn't hurt to get a few favors in the bank for when she got tired of him and was single for a few weeks before finding a new boyfriend.

As a swimwear model, her schedule was always changing, and she was often gone for weeks at a time. She liked fast, dirty, no-strings-attached fucks in broom closets, back alleys, and back seats when she was around, and I was always happy to give her what she wanted. When I thought about our last meeting, I got a real smile on my face, which helped me as I went to the next table in the dining room.

***

 

I had made my way to the Assistant Attorney General's table and was listening to him praise the evening's special, a Lobster Newberg fusion made with bourbon instead of cognac and served in classic French vol au vent pastry shells drizzled with a house-made seafood aspic, when Sam walked up to me in his chef's whites.

I couldn't help but stifle a laugh as I saw Juno's eyes move slowly over my best friend. She liked the way he looked, but she was so not his type.

"Sorry," Sam said, putting one hand flat on his chest and looking very sorry. "I'm sorry to cut you off." He opened his big, blue-gray eyes wide and gave the people sitting around the table his most innocent and charming "scout's honor" look. This was the look that had always made people like him since we were six years old. "But there's a problem in the kitchen, and I'm afraid we really need Sebastian's help."

I fought the urge to laugh out loud. My best friend and business partner could act like a helpless kitten very well, but there was nothing in our business that he couldn't handle on his own.

"Of course, that's fine." The Assistant Attorney General graciously told us to leave. "I get it 100 percent."

Sam put his hand under my elbow and pushed me away. He thanked everyone in the group very much for understanding. As I turned away, Juno pouted at me, so I gave her a wink and then let myself be steered toward the kitchen.

"You're going to want to change that smug look for a serious one," Sam said in a low voice that only I could hear. "Here's your mother."

“What?” I snarled. My good mood went away right away, and I could feel my face folding into a familiar flat, blank mask that didn't say anything.

"Boy Toy is with her, too," he said in a whisper, letting go of my arm because he was sure I would now follow. "I hung them on the wall in the party room." He pointed quietly to the U-shaped staircase made of walnut that was blocked off with a red velvet rope. "She looks like that."

My stomach turned into a block of ice. "Fucking hell."

"Best of luck." Sam put his fingers together in a cross and put them to his temple. The grim salute was like a secret handshake between us. It was a way for each of us to show support for the other when they were facing the ugly side of pride politics.

I gave it back, gritting my teeth to keep from making a face. When Sam went back into the kitchen, I straightened my shoulders, put on a polite face, and unclipped the rope to climb the stairs.

As I started going up, I tried to guess what would happen next by going through different scenarios in my head. From the start, I made it clear that I didn't want Mother to go to the restaurant unless it was an emergency. I had also made it clear that I didn't like the fact that she was sleeping with a man two years younger than me.

She didn't care what I thought about Myles, and she never really respected my boundaries. However, she thought A Taste of Magic was beneath her, so she didn't show up very often. I couldn't think of anything I'd done recently that would have made them want to see me, but that didn't help. It wouldn't be good no matter what she wanted.

Sam, god bless him, had done what he could in a hurry to make things as easy as possible for everyone. He took Mother and Myles to the party room that was already set up for an event tomorrow night. The sparkling silver and glassware gave it a high-end, elegant feel, unlike the other room, which was empty and not ready for anything. He turned on the gas fireplace and got our most expensive champagne for us to drink.

When I walked in, Mother was standing with her back to me. She was talking to Myles, and as I walked in, I felt sick to my stomach because of the way Myles was looking at her.

He looked at me to let me know I was there, and my mother turned and handed him her glass as if he were a serving boy.

“Mother.” I wasn't quite able to make the greeting warm, but it came out polite and proper. As I crossed the room, I put my palms up and spread my hands. As a shifter should be around their Alpha, they were respectful. "Why did you come to A Taste of Magic?"

"Business," she said in a clear voice, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at me with an authoritative look. "I've found a wife for you."

I just stared at her for a second before laughing. Nothing else could be done. She couldn't really mean that.

"Uh-huh?"

Mother's lips were pursed in a way that showed she was about to scold me sharply, but she didn't want to waste her breath on my useless, ungrateful hide.

Instead, she said, "She's the new Alpha of that disaster wolf pack to the north."

That stopped me in my tracks.

"She has a grand plan to bring life back to the area," Mother told me, and the sneer in her voice made it clear how she felt about it. "She wants to keep the agreement between her pack and our pride. She won't succeed, but I'm not going to sit back and do nothing like I did during the last disaster."

My mind's red flags and sirens went off, telling me that something was wrong. When the old Alpha died, she was perfectly happy to watch the wolves eat each other alive. What was different now if this new Alpha's plans were so sure to fail? What was different this time that made her stick her nose into things?

"If she's busy with all of that," I said, carefully changing my tone, "I don't think she'll be interested in dating. Least of all by a male who wasn't part of her pack."

Mother huffed, and the way she rolled her eyes told me I was a stupid kid. "No, Sebastian, you're not going to date her." Her voice was rough. "I wouldn't trust you with something this important, you know that."

She turned to Myles and got her champagne, then turned back to me with a frown on her face. "I already set up the wedding as a condition for us to renew our agreement. She will take you to her bed because if she doesn't, her poor pack will be left in the dark.

Blackmail. She forced the new Alpha to marry her in exchange for a peace treaty. Unbelievable.

"You're going to get involved in every part of her life," Mother said in a cold voice. "I want to know who in that group could be dangerous and who could be helpful. You will steer her toward lenders and lawyers. Her pride already has a hold on her. If there is money to be made, I want it in our coffers, not dumped in that pack's little mud-hole of a town." Her eyes were shining.

"And if it all falls apart, as I expect it to, I'll have to step in and take charge, won't I? Not if my little boy is in danger."

That was so full of irony that I almost choked on it.

"Mom," I said, clenching my teeth so hard that a sharp pain shot up my jaw. "I have—"

"Don't whine that you have a business," she said sharply, cutting me off. "I've already given you way too much time to work on your little projects."

I was angry, and I could feel it under my skin and in my bones. "I'm not—"

"The best choice for this?" she cut in with a sniff of disapproval. “Please. Let's not act like I don't know that you like to sleep with less attractive women. If there's anyone who can make this chick forget what's going on right in front of her eyes, it's you."

Only a well-honed instinct to stay alive kept my disgusted and angry eyes from rolling back into my head.

Although Cassia had been sleeping around since she was fifteen, my mother didn't give a damn. No. Of course not, because the matriarchal rules of the pride said that my sister could do whatever she wanted. But god forbid I try as many of the pretty and willing women Boston had to offer as my sister did with the men she took to bed. That was a big mistake.

"I have plans," I said in a gravelly voice, trying hard not to snarl. “Sam—”

"Sam has all the skills he needs to run your business by himself." She gave me a mean look, and I could see something ugly behind her eyes. "But if you're that worried, you can choose."

I stopped taking in air. I knew how to play this game, but I didn't want to.

"Only three of the males in our pride are not useful to me or anyone else right now." Every word was short and sharp. "Zane, you, and Sam. If one of you doesn't go marry the wolf girl and do my bidding there, I'll take away all your protections."

I felt a flash of white-hot anger, which turned to ash in an instant. I always thought we might get to this point. I just hoped that by the time it came, I would have other plans. What a waste of time.

"Mother, I live to serve." I heard myself say the words, but they sounded strange and far away. "I assume you'll send me details."

Her face softened until it looked like a house cat who had just drank a whole bucket of cream. She purred, "Of course."

She waved Myles forward with a flick of her finger. He took her glass and put it down. Then, he went and got her coat and helped her put it on in a very gentlemanly way. As Myles put on his own jacket, Mother tucked her hands into her gloves.

"Tonight, Sebastian, pack your things. Tomorrow, I'll be expecting you to be on the road.

She left without waiting for a response, with Myles right behind her. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists when I was alone in the room. Loss had punched a hole through my chest that nothing would ever fill again.

Everything I had worked so hard to build in my life was gone.

 

***

 

Sam threw a dish at me from across the white granite of his kitchen island.

“Eat.”

The sound of the ceramic on stone was too loud and rough. But then, since my mother walked out of A Taste of Magic in a hurry, every sound had been getting on my nerves. It wasn't a surprise that I had a rare but terrible headache.

Sam changed direction and reached for a bottle of Spanish red wine and two glasses. His apartment was just like mine, so I felt right at home there. When we opened A Taste of Magic, we bought two penthouses in Beacon Hill that were right next to each other. Just down a cobblestone street from the restaurant, our homes were close enough to walk to work, had a cool address when that mattered, and were the kind of big, comfortable places we'd grown up expecting to live in.

I took an appetizer plate from the stack on the island and filled it with perfectly plated bite-sized servings of Tortilla Espaola, Calamares Fritos, and Gambas al Ajillo, as well as bamboo skewers with prosciutto, chorizo, and chunks of Manchego cheese arranged in an artful way. I huffed as I took my plate to one of the deep chairs in the bay window nook and plopped down in it.

Sam gave us both deep glasses of wine and said, "You should call Zane." He brought them to the nook and put mine on the blocky side table at my elbow. His eyes were cloudy. "Just in case, tell them."

“No.” I picked up a skewer and used my teeth to pull a piece of chorizo off of it. I then chewed it with anger.

Sam didn't say anything; he just turned around and went back to fill his own plate. We always ate t***s late at night after the restaurant closed. A chance to talk about how things went, bring up anything that might need to be fixed in the business, and talk about new menu ideas. Tonight, my mother's requests put a damper on what is usually a pleasant break. My anger toward her grew a little bit.

Sam came back and sat down in the chair next to me.

I took a bite. "I'm not going to call Zane because I won't let Mother take pride protections away from them or you."

I didn't say that my mother would let either of them take my place as the groom, but I didn't want to bring that up. I had never made my friends take punishments that were supposed to be for me, and I had no plans to start now.

Sam looked at me and asked, "You don't have a valid number, do you?" He didn't mean any harm. He broke up the question by putting a shrimp in his mouth.

"No," I admitted begrudgingly. "They're at an artists' retreat of some kind. Somewhere in the desert. "There are no phones."

Sam licked his fingers clean of garlic-butter sauce and laughed. "They might send you another statue thing when they're done."

I snorted. "God, I sure hope not."

For a moment, we both thought about the time when my sibling sent me the ugliest statue ever made. Zane had told me that it was made of "mixed media," which meant that it was made of whatever trash was around. My twin was the bane of our mother's life because he was two minutes younger than me, he was gender-fluid, and he was both crazy and brilliant like an artist. If there was one thing she hated more than a panther who wouldn't accept and follow the role and expectations of their place in the pride, it was a person who wouldn't give her a single binary gender that she could use to put them into those expectations. The final nail in their coffin was that Zane hated shifting and didn't even want to acknowledge that they were shifters.

Zane hadn't been kicked out of the pride yet because I was still useful to my mother and because I made it clear when Zane first said they were non-binary that my twin and I came as a package. Mother was never one to waste useful things, so she had made a deal.

Zane was sent to live with our late father's family until he was old enough to care for himself. I was told that they would be safe as long as I did what Mother wanted. She may have given me a lot of freedom, but we both knew that when it came down to it, I would give up.

The world was dangerous for shifters who didn't have a group to protect them, and Zane's safety was more important to me than anything I wanted for myself.

"All right," Sam said when we were done laughing about how we both remembered the statue thing.

"So you can't say no to this deal with the devil because Zane's safety is at stake. Fine. What do you think we should do?" As he talked, he picked at his food while he talked.

"We have lawyers who work for us. Since they don't know the pride or your mother, they should be able to help you make a prenuptial agreement that protects your assets. If everything goes wrong, at least you'll have money to start over."

"We need to put your name on the restaurant." Saying the words out loud made me feel sick, but it was one of the first thoughts I had that made sense after Mother left.

“What? No way!" Sam spoke up, and his eyes got very big. He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, and pushed his plate to the side. "Sebastian, we built this business together! I'm not going to take your share!"

"If you don't do it, she might," I shot back in anger.

"That wolf whore."

His brow went up. He said, "You don't know that." "Wolves don't have a single leader, right? It won't be the same as teaming up with another panther."

“Maybe.” I reached for my glass and took a sip of wine. The taste of the wine was rich and mineral-y. "Maybe not." I stuck out my hand. "Didn't she make a deal with Mother? agreed to take a mate without seeing her first. That says something about who she is. "Fuck, I have no idea how old she is." I pinched my nose's bridge.

"For all I know, she could be as old as my mother." My stomach hurt from feeling sick. "I could take Myles' place."

Sam's nose turned up in disgust. "If that's the case, we can't let her anywhere near the business," he said. "But there must be a way out of this. Something besides just me taking your share."

I grumbled, "You might as well." I lifted my wine glass with a scowl on my face and tried to figure out if drinking it would help or hurt my stomach, which was already upset. "From what I can tell, I won't be here to do my part of the work for the foreseeable future. Y ou have a lot of hours to cover."

He made a face and leaned back in his seat.

“Right.” He picked at the fabric of his pants as he looked out the window. "Okay, look," he said at last, turning his eyes back to me. "Tomorrow morning, I'll call the lawyers. Get them to start writing something, preferably something reversible, in case you manage to get out of this or your new wife agrees to allow you continue working on it as a hobby."

He made a face like the words he was saying tasted bad. I understood, but I wasn't going to let everything we'd worked for burn down because the truth was hard to face.

I grumbled, "You might as well." I lifted my wine glass with a scowl on my face and tried to figure out if drinking it would help or hurt my stomach, which was already upset. "From what I can tell, I won't be here to do my part of the work for the foreseeable future. Y ou have a lot of hours to cover."

He made a face and leaned back in his seat.

“Right.” He picked at the fabric of his pants as he looked out the window. "Okay, look," he said at last, turning his eyes back to me. "Tomorrow morning, I'll call the lawyers. Get them to start writing something, preferably something reversible, in case you manage to get out of this or your new wife agrees to allow you continue working on it as a hobby."

He made a face like the words he was saying tasted bad. I understood, but I wasn't going to let everything we'd worked for burn down because the truth was hard to face.

I knew he wasn't happy by the way he acted. Sam was the one person I could never get to do what I wanted. He told them straight out, "I'm here." "You know I'll be there for you when you need me."

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath and set my glass down. "I know. I should get going, though. I've gotta pack. "Get your act together!"

"Is the Mercedes yours?"

"It has snow tires on it." I usually didn't need them because the city kept the streets clean and I walked to work most of the time. But the SL65 was my go-to car in the winter, so I made sure it had everything it needed. I was sure that would help me out now. In the middle of the pack lands, God only knew how bad the mountain roads would be.

He gave me a grunt of agreement, and I put my dishes in the sink before going to my own place next door. I walked down the hall in silence, leaving the lights off in the front hall. As I turned on the lights in the master bedroom suite, I glared at the bed because it made me think of the way Juno had looked at me earlier tonight, like she was hungry. Whether or not my new wolf bride liked me, she wasn't going to let me hang out with other people. It was no longer possible to spend long, lazy weekends in bed with a willing woman.

I grabbed a duffle bag from the top shelf of my walk-in closet, threw it on the bed, and then started grabbing clothes. I didn't know yet what I'd need, so I took a little bit of everything.

Jeans and sweaters in case my fiancee liked the casual "kept man" look that my brother's wife made him wear. Business clothes, in case she wanted something more polished on her arm as she put her pack back together. I probably wouldn't be able to avoid shopping to get clothes that she likes, but at least I'd have enough to get by for a few days until she told me her rules.

When I was done, I undressed, took a shower, and threw myself into bed in a bad mood. I stewed quietly while staring at the dark ceiling. I'd do what I had to, but even Mother couldn't make me like it.