Free Quest (Shifter Island Book 4) by Carol Davis

to share this meal with you, but if you would prefer it, we will leave.”
    Matt didn’t say anything. He was frowning deeply.
    “As I recall from years ago,” Luca said, “you are not… an asshole. I am not your competition.”
    Even over the noise of the restaurant—dishes and cutlery clanking, people talking, the door to the kitchen creaking as the servers went in and out—Luca could hear Matt breathing. He was struggling with himself, and that made Luca think of the human man who had come out to the island intending to seize his brother Aaron’s mate and drag her back to the mainland with him. The wolves had chased him back and forth across the island for hours, until the last of his strength was gone.
    He had no desire to chase Matt anywhere. He simply wanted to eat.
    “They’ll be back soon,” Luca said, hoping he was right. The two women had already been gone what seemed like an unreasonably long time. “I would enjoy having a good dinner. Can we do that?”
    “You can come,” Matt muttered.
    Luca tipped his head a little. “I did not hear what you said.”
    Matt lifted his head and stared Luca in the eye. “I said, come. To the wedding. They always figure on a stray or two. And I think we might have had a cancellation. I don’t know for sure. Julie’s mother has the list.”
    How that sudden shift in the tide had come about, Luca wasn’t sure. He’d said nothing, done nothing to prompt it.
    These humans were very complicated, he thought with an inward sigh.
    “That would not be a good idea,” he said quietly.
    Matt nodded in the direction of the rest rooms. “Five bucks says the girls won’t agree with you.”
    “It still would not be a good idea,” Luca said. “Beyond that—I don’t have the appropriate clothing.”
    “The—what, you don’t have a suit?”
    “I do not.”
    “Just do shirt and tie, then. It’s not formal.”
    “I do not have a tie.”
    Now Matt’s change of heart began to make sense. Sometimes, Luca observed, humans and wolves were not so very different after all. He had seen more than one wolf back down from a confrontation in just this way. Not surrendering, exactly. Matt was giving ground for the moment—step by step, setting aside their conflict for another time, acknowledging Luca’s position as the stronger of the two, the more dominant male.
    Then Matt offered another gift of conciliation. “You can borrow one of mine. I have a million of them.”
    “A necktie,” Luca said bemusedly.
    “Come over to the house tomorrow, and you can pick one. And you can…” Matt sighed deeply. “My bachelor party. It’s tomorrow night. It’s just me and a bunch of guys, at this place out by the highway. Come, if you like.”
    The man was all but groveling. He’d pushed things a bit too far for Luca’s taste, and Luca began to hope that he didn’t intend to throw himself down on the carpet so he could lick Luca’s shoes.
    But he didn’t have a chance to respond. Julie sat down beside Matt and smiled in a way that looked like an apology. Matt frowned for a moment, then, in a sudden show of his virility, he pulled her in to him and kissed her passionately.
    Someone at a nearby table whistled.
    Luca picked up the scent of his mate returning, and then Allison was tugging at his arm, saying quietly, “Can I talk to you for a minute? I-I really need to talk to you.”
    Clearly, something had happened in the toilet room, but Luca couldn’t begin to guess what it was.
    “Now,” Allison said. “Please? I need to talk to you right now.”

Ten
     
    She had no real idea what to say to him once they were outside the restaurant. The whole idea struck her as ridiculous, as something so completely off the wall that it couldn’t possibly be real.
    But the moment that word had come out of Julie’s mouth, all she had been able to think was, Why didn’t I realize that a long time ago? Why did it never occur to me?
    After more than a year of living next door to Russell and