Safety (2 page)

Hale exhaled slowly, leaning his forehead against hers. He wasn’t in the mood to talk or do anything that didn’t involve fucking.

Gruffly, he asked, “What do you want to talk about?”

Her eyes moved to the nearby doorway and then back to him. “Can we go somewhere else?”

Reluctantly, he pulled back and grabbed her hand, brusquely dragging her to the next available room. Pelts hung over the doorway, affording a measure of privacy. He pushed them out of the way, allowing her to enter first.

The room was one that the pack previously used for meetings. It contained two wood tables, each with four stools to sit at. As the pack had grown, they’d moved their meeting area into the larger room, leaving this one in a state of neglect.

They were on the upper level of the den, where light occasionally entered through fissures on the mountain’s surface. This room was no exception. The cracks in the wall were blanketed in plant overgrowth, most of which crept into the room and up the wall. Morning sunlight filtered in past the vegetation, bathing the room in a green glow.

Had he not been painfully hard, Hale might have appreciated the expression of wonderment on Taylor’s face as she looked around the room. He took a seat on one of the stools, motioning for her to join him. He hoped that the formality of sitting at the table would help him to focus on whatever nonsense she was going to start saying.

“My scent is starting to change,” she said, taking a seat across from him.

“I’ve noticed,” was his flat reply.

“Right, well, I’m worried that Alder is going to try to sleep with me.”

What?
“What?”

“It’s a long story,” she said, resting her elbows on the table. “Basically, he kind of thinks that I’m okay with having kids, which is why I need you to talk to him and convince him to wait a little longer.”

Her tone became more uncertain towards the end, as if she realized how foolish her request was. Nevertheless, she laced her fingers together and gave him an expectant look. When Hale simply stared back at her, too perplexed to respond, she continued to talk.

“Maybe just ask him to wait another month?” she asked, and then added under her breath, “Or twelve?”

“Another month for what?”

She let out a sigh of exasperation. “Have you been listening to anything I’ve said? Alder wants to get me pregnant and I need you to stop him.”

Hale blinked at her. “You want
me
to stop
him
?”

The entire proposition was made all the more absurd by the fact that only a few hours earlier, it had been Alder who had been stopping Hale from having her again. Hale wasn’t even sure if he could wait until the hunt was over to fuck her again, let alone resist her for three damn days while convincing his brother to do the same. Of all the stupid things this human had ever said…

“Please.” She reached across the table to place a hand over his. “I never even thought I would have kids. I’m sort of getting used to the idea, but I need time. A lot of time. I’m still getting to know the two of you and…” she paused and swallowed hard. “There’s still the very real possibility that any day now, the FBI will find me and I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison.”

Hale stared down at the hand covering his. Her skin was tanner now, though still lighter than his own golden bronze hue. Unlike his fingers, there was no scarring or callouses on her soft digits. Not understanding why he was doing what he was doing, he placed his free hand on top of hers.

“I’ll talk to him for you,” he said. “But it will mean more coming from you.”

She gave a reluctant nod. “Thank you, Hale.”

Why did his name sound so much better when she said it? Hale puzzled over this and much more after Taylor left the room. He would honor his agreement to speak to his brother, and in the meantime, he would think of a way to convince Taylor to forget all of her nonsensical reasons for not wanting pups.

One way or another, he was going to have her tonight, and tomorrow night, and the night after that. The sooner Taylor was pregnant, the sooner Hale could have his life back.

Taylor made her way back to the main room on unsteady legs. Most of her encounters with Hale left her feeling disturbed on some level, but today had been exceptionally unsettling. In spite of the numerous reasons why she shouldn’t have wanted to let him have his way with her, it had taken a great deal of willpower to make him stop.

There was something weird about him today. His skin had felt warmer than usual, as if he’d just been lying in the sun, and his scent…something about it had her salivating, even now.

The main room was a tunnel-like cavern with zigzagging walkways and various fire pits where the pack congregated at night. It typically cleared out before dawn, with pack members retreating into shadowed passageways to sleep the morning away in their rooms. This morning, however, there were numerous pack members coming and going, all moving as if carried by an undercurrent of urgency.

She paused at the top of a walkway, peering down the slope and scanning the pack members below. Most of them were still strangers to her. With the exception of Beka and her crew, who’d made themselves scarce over the past few days, none of the pack members seemed to dislike her. If anything, they regarded her with a polite indifference, which was fine by her.

Fenix was nowhere to be found, but Lark’s frizzy hair was impossible to miss. She stood by a bored-looking Holly and—to Taylor’s annoyance—she was chatting enthusiastically with Tulip.

Angry, jealous, possessive—a month ago, Taylor would have never used any these words to describe herself, but her strange new relationship seemed to be bringing out the worst in her.

Tulip had defected from Whiteriver a couple days ago, and by all appearances, she was a sweet, mild-mannered wolf shifter. She was also very pretty, and if Taylor were to guess, probably the exact type of woman Hale would go for.

As she approached them, Taylor smiled stiffly. “Where’s Fenix?”

“Otherwise occupied,” was Holly’s cryptic response.

Lark said, “I was going to show Tulip our quail coop, if that’s okay.”

Lacking any substantive reason to say no, Taylor nodded. “Sure thing.”

The walk back to the cabin was awkward, due to a combination of Holly refusing to speak and Taylor not wanting to speak. After a few moments of being utterly standoffish, Taylor recognized how ridiculous she was being.

Being angry at Tulip was unfair. Hale would inevitably get bored with Taylor and with their arrangement. When he did, he’d probably sleep with anyone, be it Tulip, Beka, or even Holly. There was no reason for Taylor to resent Tulip, not when Hale, and Taylor’s own inability to simply be happy with Alder alone, were the root problems.

Taylor heard Lark ask, “So what happened? Why did they let you go?”

“Silas isn’t like his father,” Tulip replied. “He’s strict, but he would never kill his own. Even a traitor like me.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Lark said, patting Tulip on the back. “I would have done the same thing.”

“What did you do?” Taylor asked, both curious and making an effort to join the conversation.

“I smuggled food into Whiteriver for a couple years,” Tulip said.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” said Taylor.

“I think Silas knew, and turned a blind eye to it for the good of the pack,” Tulip said. “But then I showed Hale how to get into the den.”

Taylor could tell from the grave look on Tulip’s face that this was a serious offense. “Oh. How come?”

“To deface Silas’s property and force him to declare war.”

Alder had mentioned something like that last night, though Taylor hadn’t asked him for the details.

“Why force Silas to declare war?” Taylor asked. “Isn’t Halcyon a really tough pack? If Hale wanted to go to war, why didn’t he just declare it himself, or launch a surprise attack or something?”

It almost seemed silly to Taylor, talking about pack wars. While pack politics were interesting and she recognized that these things could affect her, Taylor still felt separate from it all. Her own issues with Alder, Hale, and the whole mating-whatever seemed like a much more important concern than war.

“It’s difficult to explain,” Tulip said, looking to Lark for assistance. Lark only shrugged in response.

From behind them, Holly let out a heavy sigh. “It’s simple. If we declare war over something trivial—or worse, nothing at all—it makes us look like warmongers. Believe it or not, there are other packs that could rival us and may be inclined to do so if they thought we were interested in acquiring more real estate.”

Taylor tilted her head. “So, Hale is forcing Whiteriver to declare war so that Halcyon doesn’t look bad?”

“Bingo.”

Tulip added, “But it’s more than that. Hale doesn’t actually want war with Whiteriver. If Silas declares war, a lot of Whiteriver wolves are going to defect to Halcyon. They aren’t going to put their lives on the line to defend his honor.”

“So Hale insulted Silas so that Silas would declare war on Halcyon so that Whiteriver would defect to Halcyon?” Taylor asked, scratching her chin.

“Sounds about right,” Holly said.

The whole thing seemed awfully convoluted, but then again, Taylor didn’t understand much about pack politics. At times, she forgot that the shifters weren’t human. Other times, they seemed to be ruled by their animal instincts.

Tulip said, “You’re so fortunate to have a strong and compassionate alpha like Hale.”

Taylor wondered how Tulip had known Hale for so long, but somehow hadn’t caught on to the fact that he was an asshole.

“Are you and Hale close?” Taylor asked.

Tulip’s eyes practically sparkled. “We are. He’s been acting strangely since I arrived, but I imagine he must be under a lot of pressure. I have high hopes.”

“Well, maybe you’ll be the woman who can finally tie him down,” Taylor heard herself say.

Tulip’s brows rose. “Have there been a lot of women?”

Holly snorted loudly. Before Taylor could say anything, Lark cleared her throat.

“The quail coop is over here,” Lark said, taking the distressed blonde by the arm. Lark cast Taylor a look of disappointment before dragging Tulip away.

“That was mean of me,” Taylor mumbled.

Holly grinned, patting Taylor on the back a little too hard. “I believe I am starting to like you, human.”

***

“The hunters are waiting for you,” Alder said.

Alder stood at the foot of Hale’s bed, staring down at him. Hale took in his brother’s calm demeanor and relaxed stance.

He gave a curt reply. “Fine.”

“What are you even doing down here?” Alder asked, glancing around the room with an arched brow.

“I was trying to come,” Hale said bluntly.

Upon Alder’s arrival, Hale had thrown a pelt over his hips, covering up the current bane of his existence. Since Taylor had left him, he’d been sporting a massive erection.

When it hadn’t gone away on its own, Hale had retreated to his room, intent on bringing himself to a quick climax before approaching his brother. Instead, he’d spent the better part of an hour angrily jerking what he now concluded was a broken cock.

There was no better way to describe it. No matter how hard or for how long he stroked himself, he couldn’t wrench so much as a drop of pre-cum from his cock. Even fantasizing about Taylor wasn’t working. If anything, thoughts of being with her made him ache even more.

“
Trying
to come?”

Alder looked amused by his predicament and Hale had the urge to slap the smirk off his face.

“Will you just fuck off?” Hale said irritably. “Tell the hunters I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

Alder made a sound of acknowledgement before turning to leave. It was only once his brother was descending towards the doorway that Hale remembered his promise to Taylor.

“Wait,” Hale called out. He muttered a few choice curses under his breath as he stood and knotted a deerskin around his hips. “I need to talk to you about Taylor.”

Alder leaned against the stone frame of the doorway. “All right.”

“She doesn’t think she’s ready to have pups yet. You should probably talk to her about it.”

Done
, Hale thought, mentally checking the conversation off his to-do list.

“She told you this?” Alder asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“More or less,” Hale remarked, as he considered what to do about his cock. He couldn’t approach the hunters in this state and he definitely wasn’t going to shift. Shifting with a hard-on was already painful. The last thing he was going to do was attempt the shift with the mother of all erections jutting out from between his thighs.

“Which was it, more or less?” Alder’s clipped tone drew Hale’s attention. “What did she say, exactly?”

Hale scratched the back of his neck. “Exactly?”

He thought back, trying to remember what she’d said. He could recall her scent and the way her nipples had been stiff and poking against the fabric of her dress. There was something else too, her hand. She had placed it over his.