Sondrae Bennett: Worth Fighting For

“Still crushing on Cody, huh?” her friend Jen asked, following her gaze to their skulk’s Premier.

“He’s not a man easily forgotten.” Something Misty knew well. God knew she’d tried hard enough to get over him the past couple months.

Jen reached for her hand resting on the table and squeezed in sympathy. They’d been friends their whole lives, so Jen knew the ridiculous amount of time Misty spent pining for a man who thought of her as one of the guys.

“It’s fine,” Misty lied. “You can’t make someone love you, right?”

She’d tried that, too. But ever since Cody and Misty had met, the first day of middle school, they had become fast friends. Once puberty hit, Misty had developed feelings. Cody hadn’t. And because they were the best of friends, she hadn’t stood a chance. Not even wearing skimpy outfits or dating other guys had budged her position as “friend.” She’d done some stupid things trying to get his attention, but nothing had worked. All she’d ended with were nights full of regrets. She included her get-Cody-drunk-and-take-advantage-of-him night in the regret column. After everything that happened afterward, Misty was grateful he didn’t remember anything.

Or maybe he did and was trying to spare her feelings. He’d been remote since that night, almost as if avoiding her. Her gaze drifted to the exit.

“Have you tried talking to him since then?”

Misty’s gaze shot to her friend’s concerned one. Jen couldn’t be reading her mind...right? As close as they were, she hadn’t told Jen about that night. She hadn’t told anyone, too ashamed to even talk about it.

“Since when?” Her words were measured. Misty hated uncertainty. Her father had always told her when she needed to make a decision, make one and deal with the consequences later. Don’t pussy foot around an issue. Okay, so he told her that while teaching her to drive, but the lesson worked on so many different levels. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the best advice considering recent events.

“Since the morning you saw that slut in his apartment wearing his clothes.” The sneering tone of Jen’s voice told Misty how the “other woman” ranked in her friend’s eyes.

A snort escaped Misty and the first real smile of the evening curved her lips. Fierce loyalty was one thing she loved about Jen. Ever since Misty had confessed the morning she’d gone to Cody’s house and seen a woman coming out of his bedroom, Jen had insisted on calling her a slut. Even after learning the woman was an arctic fox who had gotten lost while hunting, and was now mated to the Premier of the neighboring wolf pack. It didn’t matter nothing had happened between the woman and Cody, or that she’d been dating the wolf when she’d stumbled into Vulpes Creek. All that mattered to Jen was the hurt her appearance had caused Misty.

“She’s not a slut. And don’t let any of the wolves hear you talk about her like that. Or Cody, for that matter. They adore her.” Cody had been moping around town ever since she’d left with the wolves months ago. According to the rampant town gossip mill, he’d thought he’d found his mate and was heartsick after learning she’d already been attached to Jason, the wolves’ leader.

To Misty, Cody thinking he found his mate wasn’t all that much different than him actually finding his mate. Both put him out of reach.

“Whatever. Now that she’s mated and marrying Jason, maybe things will change. Not that Jason isn’t attractive, but why anyone would choose a wolf over a fox is beyond me.” Jen strove for a light tone but Misty read the doubt in her friend’s eyes, belying the words. Jen had been quite vocal about trying to get Misty to move on, until she’d realized it was hurting their friendship. Clearly Jen didn’t believe anything would change, but being the good friend she was, she kept those thoughts to herself.

“What about you and Nick? Things seem to be pretty hot and heavy from what I can see.” Misty had to change the subject. She didn’t want to talk about Cody. She didn’t want to see the doubt and disbelief that she and Cody could ever be more than friends.

Before Jen could answer, Cody strode back through the door of the pub and stood inside the entrance, capturing everybody’s attention. Misty stared at him, a sense of foreboding filling her as she studied his frown. In their fifteen years of friendship, Misty had never seen Cody look this angry before. Whatever that phone call had been about, something seriously bad had happened.

“I just got off the phone with Samantha.” Great. Misty couldn’t escape that damn arctic fox. She rolled her eyes and took a swig to hide her sneer. “Someone has taken Julie, the youngest Callahan.”

The beer stuck in her throat and Misty coughed to clear her airway. Cody’s words replayed in her mind. Even though the foxes preferred to keep to themselves, the Callahan wolf pack was right next door. The two communities often worked together. Their middle schools and high schools were separate, but school lines bunched the two communities together for elementary school.

Julie had been four years behind her in school, but Misty remembered her well. How could she forget? The girl had gotten picked on for being a full human born to wolves. The bullies had been careful not to tease Julie around her siblings, but Misty had seen it happen and informed Julie’s sister, Laurie, who was in her grade. Misty didn’t know what Laurie had done. Truthfully, she didn’t want to know. But whatever she’d done had stopped the bullying.

Misty had been a bit of an outsider herself, being a runt, and as a result she’d always sympathized with the youngest Callahan. The thought of someone taking her left a sour taste in Misty’s mouth. Okay, that might be the beer. But this situation didn’t sit well.

The wolves were family. Maybe the red-headed stepchild of the family, but still family. Some of her red hair fell into her face, catching her eye–maybe the wolves were the non-red-headed stepchildren. Looking around the bar, Misty knew she wasn’t alone in the feeling.

“What do you mean, taken ?” A male called from the bar.

“Kidnapped.”

At Cody’s reply, someone unplugged the juke box, cutting off Billy Joel mid-sentence. The silence in the room deafened. An attack against the Callahans hit too close to home to ignore.

“They don’t know who, but the wolves are tracking her scent. Samantha says they’re heading our way. I’m going to run out and see if I can help. I’m looking for volunteers to come with me,” Cody announced.

Chairs scraped against the floor as all around the bar, people stood. It was a busy night, but almost every male and quite a few females made their way toward the door, ready to help.

Misty took one look around the bar and the flood of people leaving, and made up her mind. Doing nothing didn’t sit well with her. If she could help, even in some small way, she owed it to herself and to the wolves to do it. She turned to Jen and raised her eyebrows, even as her friend frowned.

“You’re kidding, right? I’m not real great at the fighting thing, and unless you’ve been taking lessons I don’t know about, neither are you.”

Misty pushed out her lip and gave Jen her best puppy dog eyes.

They stared at each other until Jen rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine, let’s go. But if you get killed, I’m taking your movie collection and if I get killed, I’m coming back to haunt you.”

“Deal.” With a big smile, Misty grabbed her purse and held out a hand for Jen’s. She ran to the bar in the back and hailed Jarrod. Being the bartender, he would have to stay behind and since he was a friend, could watch their purses for them.

He studied her a moment before tilting his head to the side and opening his mouth.