Finding Forgiveness

Chapter Four

“Did you scent him?”

Dave nodded. What kind of teenage hell was this? Ben was leaving things—nasty, flowery, melty, bleeding things—on his back porch and then slinking away like a terrified Scooby-Doo. “The man needs a clue.”

“Then give him one.” Rick picked up the meat, his brows rising in surprise. “Fresh venison. Straight off the deer.”

Dave wrinkled his nose. “Ew.” He darted back into the house and grabbed his bottle of Mr. Clean. He doused the back porch and grabbed the hose. “I’d move if I were you.”

Rick moved. He knew Dave meant it.

Dave started the hose and rinsed off the blood and disinfectant. “Has he ever heard of ‘I’m sorry’?”

“Rumor has it he’s been trying to say it, but the women have decided he needs to grovel more.”

Dave stopped the flow of water and stared at his Alpha. “What?”

“Yup. They want you to go on vacation and come home, calm, rested and ready to claim your mate. They want Ben to suffer while you’re gone. And they want to have a hand in it so later they can whisper and smirk and look all smug when you two snuggle-bunnies coo at each other.” Rick rolled his eyes. “Hey, I tried to stop them.”

“But stopping Belle and Chela when they’re on a roll is like trying to stop a hurricane with tissue paper.” Dave leaned against the back wall of his cabin and sighed. “They’re more likely to drive him off than drive him closer. Ben hates games.”

Rick held up the bloody slab of meat.

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know what the fuck that’s about.” Dave threw up his hands and got dripped on. He ignored Rick’s chuckles and coiled up the hose. “If he really wants to apologize, why didn’t he knock on the door? Why this stupid-ass shit?”

“Maybe he thinks it’s romantic.”

The two men eyed the blood dripping to the ground from Ben’s latest “present”.

“Nah.”

Rick laughed and threw the meat in the garbage. Dave had no idea how long it had been sitting out in the sun before they found it, but the scent was already beginning to turn sour. “He gave you flowers and candy and venison steaks. What more does a guy need?”

“How about actually talking to me?”

“How about a fifty-two-inch LCD flat screen with surround sound and a vibrating recliner to sit in while watching Jessica Alba in that skin-tight Fantastic Four outfit?”

Dave blinked. “That’s oddly specific.”

“Thanks. I’m warming Belle up for our anniversary. Think it’ll work?”

“Not if you mention Jessica Alba.” Rick had claimed Belle the previous February; it was now nearly June. She’d been Luna for over a year now, and Dave had a good idea how she’d react to her mate’s obsession with Ms. Alba. “You’ve got a ways to go before then.”

“I know, but maybe I’ll get one of them for Christmas.” Rick winked, as happy and carefree as Dave ever got to see his best friend. But that carefree expression didn’t last long. “Listen. Whatever Ben’s planning, he’s obviously not ready to claim you yet. Go and enjoy your vacation. The women will torture him, you’ll get some sun, and maybe he’ll have gotten his head out of his ass by then.”

Dave shook his head. “I don’t know. At this point I’m not sure if I want his head on straight or if I should just look for a second mate.”

Rick looked shocked. “Are you serious?”

Dave shrugged. “It would be a fresh start with someone new, someone who doesn’t have the baggage Ben and I do. And besides, bloody chunks of meat aside, can you honestly say Ben wants me?”

Rick opened his mouth to reply, but there was nothing really to be said. All games aside, Dave was pretty sure this was Ben’s way of taking care of his poor, wounded mate. Dave would lay odds it was Ben’s wolf that had pushed him into it too.

Well, if Dave got a second mate, Ben’s wolf could take a flying leap. He’d have someone to take care of him, thank you very much, and Ben could sit alone and miserable in his cabin while Dave boned and got boned every damn night for the rest of his life.

“The week I head to Florida?”

“Yeah?” Rick was giving him a strange look, but Dave couldn’t figure it out.

“It’s Gay Pride Week.” He smiled, aware of how sad it looked. He really wished, from the bottom of his heart, that his mate was going with him. They could ogle all the pretty men during the day and wrestle naked at night. But Ben wasn’t going to Disney World, and it was past time for Dave to stop dreaming.

“Dave. You’re my best buddy. You’re like the annoying little brother I never had and still don’t want. I want you to know that I say this with love in my heart for you.”

Dave winced.

“You’re a dumb ass.”

Dave picked the hose back up and sprayed down his Alpha. He had two weeks until he left for Florida. Dave ran for it, laughing as Rick snapped at him, that long red hair dripping into the Alpha’s eyes. By the time he left Rick would have forgiven him.

Two days later, when a bucket of water was dumped on his head from one of the balconies surrounding the hotel accompanied by a soft “Gotcha!” he knew he’d been right.

“Florida? What is Dave planning on doing in Florida?”

“Visiting Mickey Mouse.”

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. Ever since he’d come back from New York the Luna had been particularly bitchy. Dave wasn’t himself, even Ben knew that. Dave was rarely this quiet, but Ben had barely heard a peep out of the normally laughing Beta. It was like the sun was hidden behind impenetrable clouds, and Ben wasn’t the only one suffering from lack of light.

Now the Beta was taking two weeks’ vacation. Not that Ben would know anything about that since Dave was still avoiding him like the plague. Hell, the other night after the Pack meeting, when everyone else had changed for a good run, Dave had turned and gone back to the main house, still fully dressed, still human.

Ben had, for a split second, thought of following him. They’d be alone at the big house, with no interference from the Pack females. He could confront him, apologize, and finally claim him as his own. The gifts hadn’t worked. It was time for direct confrontation, and Ben was more than ready to get this settled between them.

Then the air horn had gone off next to his ear, and by the time his hearing had returned he’d been alone in the great circle. The order was clear, even if the delivery method was cruel: stay away from the Beta or suffer any consequences his crazy, overprotective Luna deemed fit.

Ben had tried once or twice to corner Dave after that, but he’d been wily, his mate. Ben hadn’t caught Dave alone at all in the two weeks since he’d left the venison, and now his Luna was informing him that Dave would be leaving for two weeks’ vacation starting Friday.

Shit.

“And it’s Gay Pride Week at Disney.” She sounded absolutely delighted, the bitch.

Ben saw red. His wolf snapped and snarled. No way.

No fucking way.

Was Dave looking for a second mate? He’d kill any man that touched his David. He took a deep breath, trying desperately to control his snarling wolf. If he let the wolf out now he’d hunt Dave down and force a mating on him, something he didn’t want to do. He wanted to woo Dave the way the man deserved, and biting his ass in wolf form wasn’t the way to go about it.

Ben turned to the keyboard and began typing. “Thank you, Luna.”

He didn’t give a fuck if Belle became pissed at him. Ben picked up the phone and began dialing. Sometimes it paid to have friends in interesting places. “Please put me through to Steven Hoode. Tell him it’s Ben Malone, and it’s an emergency.” He waited patiently while Steve’s personal army connected Ben to the best friend he’d ever had. If anyone could pull a miracle out of his ass and help Ben get his mate, it would be Steve.

“Ben! What’s wrong?” The concern in his friend’s voice soothed something in him, but nothing would get rid of his tension if Dave succeeded in his quest and found a second mate. He wouldn’t put it past the man to bring him home and flaunt him in front of Ben for eternity.

“Hey, Steve? Can I borrow the Disney timeshare for a couple of weeks? I’ll trade you a few weeks here at the lodge in primo rooms.” He had the authority to offer those, and when Rick found out who he was trading rooms with he’d kiss Ben’s feet. The man could give the Lodge’s reputation a huge boost among the humans. Steve hadn’t stayed here yet, so it would be a real treat for the New Yorker. He’d been so busy building his business he’d refused to take a vacation in years. That dedication had paid off, making Steve one of the richest men on the East Coast. He’d bought the timeshare planning to use it when he had the time. And now Ben was going to beg and plead to use it himself.

“This is your emergency?” He could hear the creak of Steve’s office chair as the man leaned back. One of these days he was going to fall and crack his head wide open.

“Dave. Gay Pride Week. Help, man.” He ignored the snickers of the Luna behind him as he began typing the email to Rick informing him he’d be gone for a couple of weeks unexpectedly. There was no way he’d allow Dave to find another mate.

The Beta already had one.

“I thought you wanted nothing to do with him.”

“Let’s just say I was dead wrong. Need to grovel over broken glass wrong. Bamboo shoots shoved in my…okay, not that wrong, but you get the idea.”

“Ah.” Steve’s chair creaked again. “Tell me everything.”

And Ben did, except for the part about him and Dave being Wolves and mates. Steve still didn’t know his best friend was a Wolf, and Ben couldn’t tell him. Not yet, anyway. “And now I’m afraid he’s given up on me, just as I’m ready to try and win him.”

“You owe me. I was planning on going myself on Friday.”

“Yeah. I know.” Ben grinned and brought up the Southwest Airlines website. He knew it was okay to book his flight. Steve hadn’t said if I do this. The timeshare was Ben’s.

“Big time. I was going babe watching.”

“During Gay Pride Week.”

Steven clucked his tongue. “Hate to tell you this, but those of us of the straight persuasion tend not to notice little things like that until our asses get groped.”

“I told you not to wear those shorts.”

“How about next time you just warn me that it’s a gay bar?”

Ben winced. He hadn’t wanted to go into the bar in the first place and hadn’t been in another one since. “Yeah, yeah. Let me know how much I owe you for tickets, ’cause I know you have to arrange things through the timeshare people.”

“Will do. By the way, I expect roaring fires, pretty ski instructors and Tia Maria-laced hot chocolate.”

Ben snorted. “Are you sure you’re not gay?”

“Don’t make me hurt you.” Ben grinned at the sound of another creak. “You win over your lady-love and you can consider this your wedding present, okay?”

“Thanks.”

“But I’m still taking those rooms at the Lodge.”

“Fine.”

“For a month.”

“A…what?” Ben blinked, shocked. “You. A month off. When did the sky turn pink?”

“Don’t you think I’ve earned it?”

“Yeah, but…” There was something Steve wasn’t telling him.

“Ben. You want the room or not? Think about it. Dave, all alone in Florida. Hot guys in bathing suits wandering around shirtless sucking on dripping—”

“Deal.”