Honesty (12 page)

“We share her body,” Hale recited. “Everything else is yours, brother.”

Hours ago, Hale had only wanted two things, aside from Silas’s head on a spike. He wanted to keep his brother in the valley and he wanted to be able to fuck his brother’s human. Now, he had both of those things. So why did he suddenly feel so fucking dissatisfied?

“I’m going to have Glenn patch
up the roof as soon as he’s done with your, uh…” Alder scratched his head. “What is it called again?”

Taylor
smiled at him. She could tell the alpha had woken up and come right down to the cabin. His hair was still bedraggled and he looked to be making an effort to keep his eyes open.

“A quail coop,” she told him.

She pointed out the window to where Glenn had begun building the coop. After Hale’s verbal lashing the day before, the teenager had seemed more determined than ever to be useful. He’d finished clearing out the cabin just before dawn and then had woken them up at noon, already working on the frame.

Taylor hadn’t minded being up so early. She’d gotten a lot of sleep the night before, when Alder had brought her back to the den to nap
for a few hours. Plus, it had given her plenty of time to clean. The cabin was nearly spotless and aside from one broken window and a few scuffs on the floor, it looked beautiful and cozy.

Alder casually slung a hand around her hips as his brothe
r stepped into the cabin. Hale carried folded pelts under one arm. His eyes moved around the room, displeasure evident in his expression.

“I don’t see why you’d rather stay here than in the den.”

She hadn’t spoken to them about the interlude at the river, but she sensed that they had spoken to each other. Neither seemed at all awkward about it and Alder had made no mention of leaving the valley. On the contrary, he seemed eager to get her settled into the cabin, despite Hale’s opposition.

“The cabin is a stone’s throw from the den,” Alder said in her defense. “She’ll be safe here.”

Hale grunted in acknowledgement before hefting the pelts at her.

“What are those for?” she asked, not reaching to take them.

“To keep you warm.”

Taylor gave him a quizzical look. “It’s
, like, 90 degrees out.”

She thought she heard Alder chuckle as Hale to
ssed the pelts onto the floor.

“You’ll appreciate them, come winter,” Hale said brusquely.

Lark entered the room, carrying a crate that was overflowing with…stuff.

“I went through some of the things in my room and I found some great things for the cabin,” she announced.

“This place is small enough as it is,” said Hale. He pointed towards the door. “Take that shit back to the den and don’t let me catch you bringing anything else in here.”

Taylor was inclined to agree with the alpha, but Lark’s crestfallen face won her over.

“Don’t be a jerk,” Taylor said to him. She picked up one of the objects from the crate, an egg carton. “I’m sure we can find some use for this… How about we leave it all on the porch for now?”

Taylor guided Lark out to the porch. When she caught sight of the coop frame, Lark squealed in delight.

“It’s much bigger than I thought it would be!” she exclaimed, dashing over to examine it.

Taylor followed her. As Lark gushed over Glenn’s handiwork,
Taylor watched Alder and Hale, who had hung back on the porch. They both looked relaxed as they engaged in an easy conversation.

It was the first time that she’d seen them together under normal circumstances, free of jealousy, death, and sex. Though Hale wore his furs and Alder was clad in jeans and a rumpled tee, it seemed so natural to see them together.

Although they hadn’t said it, she sensed that what happened between them wasn’t going to be a one-time thing. It was as thrilling as it was frightening. Could she really maintain a relationship with two dominant alpha males, or was this, like every other situation in her life, doomed to go horribly wrong?

Taylor isn’t sure what the rules are to their
polyamorous arrangement, but Hale isn’t letting his new female talk her way out of his bed. Now that he’s had a taste of Taylor, he can’t think of anything but having her in every way possible.

While Hale is chasing after Taylor, Alder delves deeper into the Whiteriver conflict, finding out that his brother isn’t as innocent as he claims…

COMING SEPTEMBER 25th 2014

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