First, if I missed replying to your review, please forgive me. I tried to go back through and get everyone. I lost track of where I was when I last replied. I hugely enjoy your reviews and truly try not to miss replying. :)

Also, just FYI, I know this one's long, but I decided to make two short ones into one long one since we lost power thanks to Irene today. Hope you enjoy!

7. Rivals

If she hadn't wanted to fall over after the whole 'glands' business, she sure did now. But she was distracted from that fact by that kiss. And what a kiss it was! She put her fingers to her lips, as if to recapture it.

She'd been kissed before many times. She'd even been kissed aggressively before, and it had just angered her. This kiss, though... he would probably run for the hills thanks to being peed on and her apparent penchant for stupid remarks. Even if he did, she'd die a happy death.

That kiss had been somehow personal. Like he was kissing her, and not just some pretty chick who he hoped would spread it that night if he could convince her to. And it had been intimate, too... she could still feel his erection pressing against her belly, almost. She probably should have been offended or something.

She wanted to lock the door and rip his clothes off. If she remembered to lock the door first...

"Thanks," he said from the hallway behind her, making her jump. "I'm still amazed how you got my sizes right on everything."

That made her look at him to see if she really had, and the pants fit perfectly. Then she realized she was staring at his pants. And no doubt, looking like a dumbstruck calf.

Her eyes snapped to his face, and she was relieved to find him looking at the back of the pants.

"I think I've left a tag on them," he said. "I can't find it."

Being Sky, she couldn't stop herself from offering to help. Then she wanted to kick herself. The last thing she wanted was to be looking down his pants. She wanted to be taking them off, certainly—but not looking down them and digging around for a store tag!

She found it quickly, though, and snipped it with a pair of scissors. She would be relieved, except she could feel the skin of his back burning against her fingers.

"You're always so hot," she muttered.

"I'm a werewolf," he answered. "We're all like that."

She grinned at him. "Oh, I assure you, neither Debbie nor Marcus are as hot as you."

He laughed. "I'm not going to ask you where you put their thermometers."

Her mouth fell open, as she tried to think of something clever to say in answer to that, but she failed. So she just shrugged and finally said, "I can't tell you, it's a secret."

"Maybe you'd have breakfast with me, instead? Provided your boss ever lets you out of this place..." He was smiling as he said it.

"She lets me out once a year whether I need it or not. She'd let me out more often, but she's afraid I'll embarrass her. Which I really don't understand... I can do that just fine right here. I'll be right back."

This time, she picked Piddles up and took him back into his cage. For her trouble, this time it was her that he peed on. She sighed, grateful for lab coats. But the urine had gone down into the sleeve and onto her shirt.

She walked back out. "Alcide?" He turned back from the windows and she was again struck by how handsome he was as he stood silhouetted against the light. "Do you mind if I use one of these shirts? Piddles...piddled."

"Of course not. You bought them," he pointed out sanguinely.

"But I bought them for you," she argued. "I'll be right out. Again."

She grabbed a package and headed into the back. It turned out to be the red plaid. She didn't bother to unbutton it all the way, instead pulling it on over her head. She was tall for a woman, some five foot eight [172 cm], but she still swam in it. Sighing, she went back out and found him standing outside beside a rental car.

He opened the door for her and she got in. They arrived a few minutes later at Merlotte's.

"Is this place open twenty-four hours?" she asked with a chuckle.

"I don't really know," Alcide answered.

"That's okay," Sky said. "I was just making conversation anyway."

They went inside where they were met once more by Sookie.

"Alcide!" Sookie flounced over to them and hurtled herself into his arms. Sky stifled a jealous reflex.

But Sookie pulled away. "Did you just growl at me?"

Sky hadn't heard anything. And when he kissed her, she'd very clearly heard it. The jealousy rumbled deeper. But then she was distracted herself.

"Sky? You look great," Sam said as he came up behind her. "Not staying at that house, are you?"

He gave her a hug, and she noted a few things all at once. First was that she was getting more hugs in one day than she'd gotten in any single month before coming here since... she couldn't remember when. And secondly, she noticed that his hug held the warmth of someone gentle and comforting and somehow familiar.

She was surprised to find that she reacted to his hug with an attraction that, while more subtle than what she felt for Alcide, was almost as strong. She stepped back when Alcide growled, this time out loud. To her surprise, Sam glared over her shoulder as he stepped back.

Confusion warred in her, and she realized that a part of her recognized the unavailability of Alcide, especially knowing that he was attracted to Sookie. She knew what him growling meant, she wasn't stupid. And beside the petite, delicate blond, Sky knew she was practically a lumbering, ungainly giant.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked quietly of Sam.

He nodded. "It was excellent work," he answered, also quietly. He smiled and told Sookie, "Get them whatever they want. I'm buying."

"Sure thing, Boss," Sookie answered, leading Sky and Alcide to a table.

"What can I get you to drink?" she asked. Then she looked at Alcide. "Will you stop that?"

Sky hated these 'conversations' with Sookie.

"It's not me, it's my wolf," Alcide said very softly and quietly.

"I thought you are the wolf," Sookie told him, raising an eyebrow.

"Sort of," he answered. "Technically that's correct, I guess. But he has his own thoughts and opinions."

"Well, tell him to stop it," she told him, a bit crossly.

Sky looked around the restaurant, trying to ignore the pair across from her. What had she been thinking, anyway? A kiss wasn't marriage. She'd been kissed by insincere men enough over to years not to make such a stupid, childish mistake. Falling for a guy just because you like his wolf... well, that was certainly a new one.

Then she remembered where she was and put aside her thoughts entirely, focusing on the lotus bloom floating on a still pond. She didn't want to share her misery with Sookie. It was none of her business.

"Drink?" Sookie prodded her.

"Oh, bottled water and a Lemon soda, please."

"Sprite okay?"

"Sure," Sky agreed. Then she turned to Alcide, who wasn't looking at her, and she felt suddenly gouche and foolish. But she decided to try, anyway. "So, you never did tell me how you got injured," she asked him, hoping to prompt conversation.

"No," he answered. "And I probably shouldn't do it here. It's not really the right place or time. Too many people around."

Sky tried to melt into the booth. She managed somehow not to bang her head on it and call herself an idiot. Of course he was right. Would there ever be a time she didn't say the absolute most stupid possible thing in any social experience?

"Of course," she answered. "That's why I usually spend my time around animals. You can say anything you want around them, and they never tell."

Then she sighed. "Or that's what I used to believe. Of course, not so much anymore." She was irritated with him. He chastised her for asking about how he was injured—and she'd not said 'shout' out loud—but he hadn't said a single thing when Sookie carried on about 'his wolf' right in front of god and everybody.

She sighed, quietly, trying not to let her distress project itself. She wondered why she set herself up for failure with men so often. It didn't have to be like that, yet it was, time and again. So she had retreated to the safety of her vet's office. Cats and dogs didn't used to be humans, just their own kind of people.

"Pardon me," she said. "I need the ladies' room."

She stood up just as Sookie walked up with their drinks. She gave her order and then went to the bathroom. There, she leaned on the bathroom sink, pain running somewhere along the vicinity of her heart.

Alcide liked blonds. He liked petite, delicate little blonds, to make matters better. Sky wasn't blond, wasn't petite, and wasn't short.

Taking a deep breath, she stood up. She was a fool and she knew it, but it didn't usually hurt so much. She felt like a fool as a tear slipped down her cheek. In fairness, she tried to remind herself, she'd lived with the wolf and the man in her home for weeks.

But that she would lose them both was inevitable. To harbor any other imagination was a vain dream. She washed her face, glad in a way that she didn't wear makeup at the clinic. Yet sorry in another way, because Sookie was always perfect made up. She was the diamond to Sky's pebble.

Sky finally got her emotions under control by focusing on the lotus. Then she went back out and sat down, offering no explanation for the lengthy bathroom trip.

Desperate to find something to talk about, she said, "So, Piddles was brought in after having been found wandering in downtown Bon Temps. So far as they've been able to determine, he's a stray. As things look now, I'll probably be taking him to Shreveport at the end of the week to the pound. It's a shame to save him only to have to do that. Maybe I'll see if Sam can ask around and find out if anyone's in the market for a puppy around here..."

Her voice trailed off. He was scowling at the table. She was surprised to see such a look on his face, as she'd seen him so even tempered and easy-going prior to that moment. So she sat, awkward and silent. After some time, when she could barely stand it anymore, she asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

"What could you possibly have done wrong?" he asked, sharp and irritated.

Taken aback, Sky said nothing. Somehow, she had angered him and she didn't know how or why. It was clear from his tone that she should know, but... apparently he didn't know her very well yet. She could step on a lizard's tail and fail to realize how she'd hurt him. Much less the complexities of human beings.

"Here you go," Sam said, placing plates in front of each of them.

Relieved to see a friendly face in the midst of her confusion and turbulence, Sky smiled at him. "Thank you."

He smiled back, his face lighting up with uncomplicated warmth. "Sure. You're welcome," he told her.

He walked away and Sky looked up to find Alcide glaring after him. He turned back to his food and ate.

OoOoOoO

Alcide ate quickly. His wolf was snarling and snapping and it was all Alcide could do not to get up and go over and beat the life out of the shapeshifter. The worst part was that there was some undercurrent between Sky and the other man that Alcide couldn't place. Or didn't want to.

It was Debbie all over again.

But the wolf placed the blame on Alcide. He wanted the woman. He had insisted, but Alcide hadn't listened. Now if they had competition, it was Alcide's fault. He'd had opportunity and obvious interest from the woman and hadn't followed through.

Pointing out that they didn't have the right did no good. The wolf didn't understand rights, or right... it understood that this was Sky and he wanted her and she wanted him and life wasn't really all that complex when it got right down to it. Not really.

The wolf was wrong, but couldn't be reasoned with in human terms. And it was upsetting. Alcide had never experienced his wolf acting like this, and he didn't like it. Plus, he wasn't so sure he liked Sky anymore, either. He'd smelled her response to the shapeshifter. That shapeshifters put out hormones when they were attracted to someone didn't make it any easier.

Somehow, Alcide thought, she should be immune to that. She'd faced down a vampire, two weres, and then had fled from the pack when they'd come to her home. She was something special. The wolf was disgusted with his train of thought. She was human. He could smell it. He could taste it. He could feel it. He'd have known if she were anything other than human, and he was being stupid.

He should just take her back to the hotel and claim her, because he was a wolf, and she smelled good and felt good and she wouldn't stop him. Then she would be his and everything would be good and fine and happy. He could forget about Debbie and forget about Sookie and keep the Sky woman happy.

Alcide was only getting angrier. He not only had to face Sky's response to the shapeshifter, but the irritable, intractable wolf as well. Plus Sookie was looking at him as if he were schizophrenic.

"Would you like any dessert?" Sookie was asking, while looking at him as if he were a two-headed monster.

He shook his head.

"Do you make any of the desserts here?" Sky asked.

"Lafayette makes the apple pie," Sookie answered. "But that's about it, I think."

Sky smiled. "I'd love a piece of that, please. Do you have ice cream and caramel sauce?"

"I'll ask," Sookie said. "I know we have ice cream, but I'm not sure on the sauce."

A little while later, while Alcide tried to think of something to say to break the increasing tension, Sookie brought the piece of pie back. It was smothered in ice cream and drizzled with chocolate and caramel.

"Wow," Sky said. "That's amazing!"

"I told Lafayette that you asked for something that was made here, so he did it all up for you."

Sky looked over at the cook's window, and Lafayette smiled at her. She smiled and waved at him, then turned back to pick up her fork. "Please tell him how awesome this is and how grateful I am."

Sookie headed for the back and Alcide stared at the pie as Sky picked up her fork. He couldn't believe how much stuff Lafayette had put on it. "Are you really going to eat all that?" To him, it looked like a pile of sugar.

But he realized too late that he'd said it sharply. She stopped with the fork halfway to her mouth. She stared at him in surprise. Then her eyes narrowed. "Now I am. And you can leave any time you want, I'll get a ride home."

"With Sam?" he demanded.

She shrugged. "Maybe Marcus. He gave me his card. He can't be any nastier to me than you're being. If I'm going to beat myself up by hanging out with someone who's going to be rude and sharp to me, I just as well go all the way. Kind of like pie. If you order it, you just as well eat every single bite of it. It isn't as if common sense or health should enter into the picture." She lifted the fork up again. "Please leave. And don't feel you need to come back to the house or the clinic if you're going to continue to bite my head off for reasons you can't be bothered to explain."

Alcide stared at her. She ate without looking at him, as if he weren't even there. He tried to find something to say, but his wolf was furious with him and clamoring for him to fix it.

"I'm sorry," he said eventually. "I'm just in a bad mood. It was unfair of me to take it out on you."

"I forgive you but I'm not in the mood to talk about this." She laid the fork down. "Can you please go?"

She pulled cash out of her pocket and left it on the table, and Alcide wanted to kick himself yet again for not thinking of it before her. "I'll drive you back to the clinic, at least," he offered.

She sighed. "Fine."

When they arrived, he walked around and let her out. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Sky, I really am sorry. Nothing I said seemed to come out right."

She smiled gently at that. "I don't suppose I'm in any position to hold that against anyone," she told him. "Have a better day, Alcide."

"Can I call you?"

She looked uncertain, and he thought—not for the first time—that she looked a little like a young Sophia Loren. She had the same statuesque body and the sensual lips. Her eyes were less tilted, but just as rich and deep.

"I..." Her voice trailed off and she sighed. She looked lost and uncertain.

He wanted to beg her. The wolf wanted to jump on her. But he had his pride, so he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Or he meant to, anyway. Except she pulled back, an irritated, surprised look on her face.

"You are totally unpredictable. You need to decide if you're Mr. Kissyface or Mr. Nastypants. And by the way, the next time you make a comment on my weight, I'm going to make a comment on... well, I don't know what, but I'll find something. Your predilection for running around with no clothes on!"

She turned to go inside. He felt her slipping away. "Can I call you, then?"

She stopped just as she was going in the door. "If you must. And if you leave Mr. Nastypants at home."

The door chimed closed behind her.

Marrok grumbled and growled and complained in the back of his mind. Alcide got into the rental and drove away.

The next day, he brought flowers to her clinic, but found the doors locked. He waited for two hours, until finally leaving. He went back to the hotel and paced. That night, Eric showed up, floating outside the window.

"Come in," Alcide offered, and Eric landed lightly.

"We need you tonight," Eric informed him.

"What's up?" Alcide asked as he pulled shoes on.

"We need a guard for the witch that she can't control. She's a necromancer. She has taken control over a human and a vampire so far. We need a werewolf."

As a naturally occurring supernatural creature, the werewolf could not be controlled by witches. It was one of the reasons why witches had hunted werewolves, just as vampires had hunted witches. Because of the presence of the wolf within, Alcide had a dual nature. It was that which made them immune to most forms of witchcraft.

Guns, however, were a different story, and Alcide had already felt their bite. Yet he couldn't refuse. Eric was helping him to stay hidden and keeping him alive. He owed the vampire, like it or not.

Once in the car, they drove in silence for a while before Eric said, "That vet of yours is giving the Coff Inn hell."

"How so?" Alcide's heart fell and his wolf stirred, growling.

"Apparently a vampire now and then thinks she's on the menu. A couple have gotten aggressive about it and she has tried some human self-defense tactics on them, with startling results. The staff at one point asked her to leave, I guess. She demanded to know if they were discriminating against her for being human." He grinned. "I like this human of yours."

"I thought you said she was irritating," Alcide told him.

"She was when she was doing it to me," he answered, his grin getting bigger. "She's quite popular over there. Some vampire's going to glamor her soon, I suspect."

Marrok growled so hard that it escaped Alcide's lips before he could stop it.

Eric's eyebrow rose. "I thought you weres didn't fraternize with humans."

"That's more of a guideline," Alcide grumbled.

Marrok sulked. Alcide should have marked her when he had the chance. Alcide knew, though, that his wolf didn't understand. He knew that in one way, Marrok was right, Alcide could have pushed the issue and probably taken Sky right there in the foyer of the clinic. But it wouldn't have been the right thing to do.

Yet the right thing wasn't always the easy thing and another very human part of him felt like an idiot for not pushing his advantage. At the same time, though, he realized on a profound level that he had a bad track record for choosing women.

"Bill is negotiating with the Shreveport pack leader for help with the witches," Eric interrupted Alcides reverie.

"Marcus?"

"Who knows. Whatever his name is."

"You can't trust Marcus, Eric. He'll double-cross you the first time you blink."

"What makes you so sure?" Eric asked. "I was not aware that you knew him."

"Debbie's been-"

"You don't trust him because he stole your girlfriend? You'll have to give me something more than that. It might be considered underhanded in the human world, but it is hardly something to make us believe he would be foolish enough to double cross vampires. I would almost think you had forgotten who I am." Eric's grin was feral this time, a cold reminder of his arrogant awareness of his own power, even over werewolves.

"He's sneaky. He'll pat you on the back with one hand and hide a knife in the other. When he came to me not long after Cooter died, I agreed to join the pack only because Debbie convinced me to. We were trying to work it out. I admit I've never seen anything overt outside of him convincing Debbie that I wasn't good enough for her. But still, something isn't right with him. He came looking for me after I was shot, and they tore Sky's place up something fierce."

"You know," Eric told him, "I think that's the longest I've ever heard you talk."

Alcide shook his head. Eric wasn't taking him seriously at all. He knew he shouldn't be surprised, but somehow it seemed like nothing was really right here. He had left things poorly with Debbie, but he had openly blamed the witch attack on the weres on Marcus. Marcus, on the other hand, blamed it on the vampires.

Yet it had been Marcus and Debbie who had tried to cut a deal with them. Alcide wasn't prepared to tell Eric about that, as he wasn't completely sure about it. The weres had agreed to support the witches, that much Alcide knew. But the particulars of it were what he wasn't privy to. And when he'd left rather than be a part of it all, he'd been shot.

While he'd told Sky that a witch had shot him, he wasn't entirely sure.

He suspected it might have been Marcus.