Choices (4 page)

Taylor folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Are you calling me fat?”

“I said that I like your size,” he reminded her. “I also like your hips and your ass.” He paused, a speculative look on his face. “Especially your ass. I like the shape of it and how soft it is. Yesterday, when I was behind you—”

“I get the picture,” she said, cutting him off. His words had made her cheeks burn and had awakened other parts of her body as well.

He was silent as he finished tying the dress. When he was done, she helped him to gather up the onions. She’d pulled up way more than she could eat in a day and hoped they would keep well in the summer heat. Hopefully, Lark and Glenn would help her eat them. If not, maybe she could even replant some of them in her garden.

Hale’s low voice drew her from her musings. “I also like your breasts.”

Maintaining her poise, she said, “I wasn’t aware that you saw them.”

At the river, Hale had taken her from behind. While he’d had an excellent view of her rear, her breasts had been pressed against Alder’s chest.

Then, she remembered the night she’d met Hale, just hours after she’d slept with Alder. He had come into the room and, not knowing that Alder had a twin, Taylor had mistakenly believed he was Alder. Hale had touched, licked, and squeezed her breasts that night. How had she forgotten?

She expected him to drudge up their first meeting, but when he spoke, his words knocked the breath from her.

“I saw them when my brother was fucking you.”

Taylor was instantly aroused. She tried to speak, intending on chastising him for speaking to her like that, but a lump had formed in her throat and she couldn’t force words past it. With unsteady hands, she gathered the last of the onions into her makeshift sack.

Two questions played on a loop in her brain. The first was born out of genuine curiosity and fairly innocent.

What do you like about my breasts?

It had never occurred to her that a man would find her breasts appealing. It wasn’t really low self-esteem, per se. It was just that when she saw her breasts, it wasn’t their generous size or their perkiness that she noticed. All she ever saw was the scar that ran between them.

She knew that Hale had seen her scar, though he’d never asked about it. Was it just that her breasts captivated him so much that he barely noticed it, or did he just not care at all about it?

The other question was also born from curiosity, but there was nothing innocent about it.

“Did you like watching us?”

Taylor asked the question aloud, not intending to, but not regretting it, either. She did her best to sound poised, though her insides were in knots.

“Yes.”

He said the word without inflection, his face stoic, but her pulse quickened all the same. A vision flashed before her eyes. Hale springing on her, pushing her down on all fours and taking her from behind. He took her hard, ignoring her protests because he knew that regardless of what she said, she wanted him.

She blinked and Hale was still sitting across from her. His gaze had darkened, as if her thoughts were scrawled across her forehead, but he remained still.

“You were right before,” she said, breaking the tense silence. “I mean, I wasn’t lying when I said that you intimidate me, but it’s also true that I’m afraid of hurting Alder.”

Hale just stared at her and after a short pause, she began talking again, her thoughts streaming from her lips without a filter.

“I don’t understand. Alder is like a dream come true. He’s amazing. I should be counting my lucky stars that someone like him ever gave me the time of day, let alone wants a relationship with me.” Her voice became hoarse. “Instead, all I can think about is sleeping with his brother, a man who, when I first met him, tried to rape me.”

At that, Hale scowled. “I wasn’t going to rape you.”

“I don’t understand,” she said again, running a hand through her hair. “When I’m with Alder, I feel so many emotions. But how could I ever love him when I also want you?”

“Are you asking me to justify it? Tell you it’s normal to want to be with two men?”

His tone was that of brisk practicality and his coolness somehow centered her.

“I’m not sure what I’m looking for you to say. I guess I needed to vent, get it all off my chest.”

“Do you want my opinion?”

After a slight hesitation, she replied, “Okay.”

“I think you’re making this whole thing too complicated.”

She waited for him to crack a smile or wink, but when he didn’t, she realized he was serious. “What about this isn’t complicated?”

“We all need something from one another and we all have something the other needs. When you think about it like that, our arrangement makes perfect sense.”

Taylor crossed her legs, allowing herself to get comfortable. “What do you mean?”

“Well, take Alder, for example. He’s always wanted a mate, but he’s afraid of not being able to protect and provide for one.”

“He told you that?” she asked, surprised at the revelation.

Hale nodded. “A long time ago, but I don’t doubt that it’s still true. Anyway, with us sharing you, he gets the security of our pack and he knows that one of us can always be there to watch out for you.”

“Then what do you get out of this? It can’t just be sex. I mean, I’m sure you have plenty of women who would…”

Taylor trailed off, recognizing the bitter feeling in her stomach. The thought of Hale with another woman made her feel…jealous.

Hale shrugged. “I get a mate. I can satisfy my instincts without the inconveniences of parenthood and monogamy.”

“So you’re still going to sleep with other women?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound as displeased as she felt.

Taylor couldn’t really fault Hale for sleeping with other women, given that she was also with his brother. She would just have to reconcile herself to the fact that exclusivity would never be a part of their arrangement.

“Eventually,” he said, scratching the stubble on his chin. “Right now, I can’t even get hard at the thought of being with anyone but you. Once you’re pregnant, I think things will settle down and go back to normal.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” she said dryly. “What if I were to become pregnant? You wouldn’t want to be a father?”

He gave her a lop-sided grin. “I make a much better uncle.”

“You’re kind of weird, you know that?”

His grin widened. “This, from the woman who’s in love with two men.”

Taylor let out a snort of laughter. “I’m not in love with you.”

Her laughter died as she realized the implication in her words. She definitely wasn’t in love with Hale, but Alder…

“You need things, too,” he said, turning serious once more. “Things that neither Alder nor I can give you on our own.”

She gave him a questioning look.

Hale continued, “You need a man that’s loyal to you, one who you can trust to always love you and put your needs before his own. That’s Alder.”

Taylor tried to shake her head, but Hale leaned over and grabbed her chin. She said, “I don’t need someone to put my needs before their own.”

“You’re a female. Of course you do.”

“You’re being sexist again,” she mumbled as Hale leaned in to kiss her.

His lips were the same lips as his brother’s, but his kisses were entirely different. Where Alder’s lips would move over hers in a slow, intimate dance, Hale’s took control, setting a hard pace that had Taylor fumbling to keep up.

When he pulled back, she was simultaneously disappointed and relieved. The crazy sex fiend that was inhabiting her body wanted more, but at the same time, she could tell that as far as sex was concerned, Hale was in a whole ‘nother league.

Hale shifted again and she climbed onto his back. Their conversation had been enlightening, and as they made their way down the mountainside, she contemplated her feelings for Alder. Then, she considered Hale and what he had said about her needs. He hadn’t told her what she needed from him and it left her to speculate. She didn’t know what, specifically, she needed from him, mainly because the part of her that needed him scared the hell out of her and she was afraid to examine it.

As they reentered the valley, she realized Hale wasn’t taking her back to the cabin like he’d said he would. He was taking her to his den. She had a feeling that before the night was out, she’d know exactly what Hale had to offer her.

The border between Halcyon and Whiteriver territories was a narrow strip of treeless land that lay between the Mistwood and the foot of Mount Ezra. The division of the territories had been made after the war, when most of the Whiteriver pack failed to integrate into Halcyon. The division heavily favored Halcyon, giving Alder and Hale’s pack the entire valley and with it, the most plentiful hunting grounds.

Hale had made the final decision in where the borders lay. Silas, the son of the former Whiteriver alpha, had been sixteen at the time. Eager to have a new home for his pack, he’d accepted what he could get, too young to realize that Hale had forced him into an impossible situation. The small territory Whiteriver received simply wasn’t enough to sustain a pack their size.

At the time, Alder hadn’t objected to his brother’s handling of the situation. It was before he had begun taking an active role in the leadership of the pack and even then, he had still been too bitter over the war and the atrocities committed by Silas’s father. Over the years, though, he would often turn a blind eye to Whiteriver wolves hunting on the outskirts of their territory.

He didn’t want war, but he was not going to allow them to attack his pack or jeopardize the life of his mate.

Alder tossed the body on the ground just as Laurel began to howl, beckoning Whiteriver to meet them at the border.

He had brought four of his betas with him, Laurel and three of the stronger males. The likelihood of Silas staging an impromptu attack without the advantage of his home turf was slim, but Alder preferred to err on the side of caution.

Laurel finished her cry and then fell back to the edge of the forest to wait with the others. When Whiteriver came, they would smell and hear other wolves, but in the shroud of the forest, four wolves may have very well been ten or twenty. Another layer of protection.

Right now, they would have already heard Halcyon’s call. They would be conferring amongst one another and Silas would be giving orders.

It was unlikely that the Whiteriver alpha would make an appearance. Packs with only one alpha did not have the luxury of jeopardizing said alpha’s life. Silas would stay in the den, acting as the last line of defense between potential intruders and the more vulnerable members of the pack—pups and the elderly.

Alder took a step back from the body. The heat and humidity of August had accelerated the decay process, causing the body to reek of death. Carrying it all the way to the border had caused the meal he’d eaten, leftovers from last night’s hunt, to harden in his stomach. In short, he was in a foul mood.

As he waited, he tried to distract himself with thoughts of his mate, or rather, soon to be mate. ‘Mate’ was a term that many wolves threw around cavalierly and now Alder could understand why. Having some sort of claim on Taylor, even if only verbally, was a visceral need.

A human female became a mate after the first mating thrall. It was what the wolves called the period of days that a female was fertile. It typically lasted three days, though oftentimes began during the days leading up to her fertile time. 

Possessive and prone to severe aggression, most alpha males took their mates away from the den when their scents started to change. What ensued was as much as a week of raw, uninhibited mating. When it was over, the alpha’s scent would be fully imprinted onto his mate.

Alder was looking forward to making Taylor his mate, though he had his concerns about being able to share her with Hale, at least during the thrall. He knew firsthand what it was like to be caught in the mating thrall, how all good sense could abandon an alpha as he surrendered himself to his most fundamental of instincts.

But aside from the thrall, Alder found that he liked their arrangement, though not for the reasons he should have. He should have liked it because it meant he could remain in the valley, or perhaps because of the comfort of knowing that no matter what happened to him, Taylor and their pups would have a male that could provide for them.

Those were both valid reasons and if anyone ever asked, they would be the reasons he gave. Some would probably think it was strange for an alpha to be willing to share his mate, but wouldn’t doubt that Alder would do so if it were in the best interests of others. After all, he was the good, noble, and responsible brother.

His attention was drawn to the forest that lined the edge of Whiteriver territory. Shadows shifted between the trees. There were at least ten of them that Alder could see, but only one emerged from the darkness.

Alder recognized her as the beta female that had accosted him and Taylor on their way through Mount Ezra. She wore white animal furs around her hips, but only her long, black hair obscured her high breasts. Just as before, he recognized her, but this time with more clarity.