Reviving Bloom (33 page)

“Blu, is he eye candy or not.”

“
He could be considered attractive, if he wasn’t my brother.”

“Heck yeah!” Bonnie turn
s
to me, “Alpha man, invite him to join our little tour. Oh or maybe I can get myself a private tour.”

I dial Tuck
’
s number and shaking my head sa
y
, “Sure thing.”

Tucker picks
up on the second ring,
“Hey brother.”

“Hey man. How’s the Kyran situation going?”

“At the moment he’s in town at the bar shooting some pool with his boys.”

“Is Killian with him?”

“Nope, he’s at home with mom. So how did the announcement go?”

“Better than it did the first time around. Bloom made arrangements for us to have breakfast with the elders in the morning. Do you wanna join us?”

“I think I’ll skip this one, man.”

“Understandable.”
Bonnie grab
s
my attention by waving her hands and mouthing “Tour! Ask him!”

I turn my back to her and sigh,
“Man, the girls want a tour of the house and they thought you might want to join us.”

“Why? I’ve seen it before.”

“Bonnie has it in her head that you can be her eye candy for the night.”

I hear Bloom giggle and Bonnie gasp. “So not cool
Big Bad
!”

Tucker ask
s
around
a
laugh,
“She calls you
Big Bad
?”

“Among other thing
s
,”
I grumble.

“I already like this chick. Is she hot?”

“Tuck man, my mate
’
s standing right here.”

“Sorry forgot man.”
He
’
s silent for a second then continue
s
,
“But is she?”

“I doubt you’d kick her out of bed
for eating crackers.”

“Mmm
,
ok I’ll be there in
…”
There
i
s a loud crash in the background and a lot of hollering.

“Tuck, what’s happening?”

“Shit man, it’s Kyran.”

“What the hell is he doing now?”
I growl.

“He
’s
starting shit with some of the older wolves.”

“Do you need me to come put him in line?”
I
’m
hoping he sa
ys
yes, I’
ve
been aching to put that boy in line since his scene earlier
to
day.

“Nah, I got this. Tell the girls I’ll take a rain check on the tour.”

“I will. Call if you need me, Tuck.” There
’
s another crash in the background.

“Shit, I got to go man before he tears down the whole damn building.”
Tucker
i
s growling when he end
s
the call.

Damn Kyran
,
he’
s gonna make me break my promise to Bloom. If he ke
eps
this shit up I
will
have to put him down, and he wo
n
’t be getting back up. And that
’ll
hurt my mate. Damn it!

I fe
el
her hands on my arm
as she presses herself to my back
, “Tennessee, what’s going on?”

I turn in her arms to face her, “Kyran’s causing a ruckus at the bar in town.”

“Do you need to go and handle him?” She ask
s
softly, searching my face.

“No, Tuck is trying to get a handle on him.” I push her hair off her shoulder and use my thumb to rub the freckle on her neck.

“Baby, I
…” she
looks
away from me but she gather
s
her courage and turn
s
to my eyes, “If y
ou need to handle your business
I won’t hold it against you.”

“Bloom
…”

“No Pike, let me finish. I know you promised me but I see now that this is about more than me. He’s putting other in danger now, right?”

I nod.

“All I ask is that you try to reason with him first. If he can’t
see reason
, I promise I won’t get mad if you have to
…” She c
a
n’t finish her sentence.

I circled my arm around her neck and pul
l
her closer to me. Planting a kiss on the top of her head I whisper, “Darlin’, that will be a last resort. We’ll try everything we can to get through to him first.”

Her hands
are
fisted in the front of my t-shirt
, “I hope it doesn’t come down to that.”

“Neither do I, darlin’.”

“I don’t think I feel like a tour.”

I look over at Bonnie, “Sorry, can I show you around tomorrow?”

She
i
s watching her friend when she answer
s
, “Yeah, that’s fine.” She turn
s
her eyes to me, “Do you need me to help with anything?”

“No, Tuck has it under control.”

“Ok
ay
. I’m gonna head back to my suite, if you need me don’
t hesitate to come get me.” She’s back to
watching Bloom closely and I s
ee
how much she
worrie
s
about her friend. My mate
i
s strong, but today she ha
s
went through a lot of crap and it
’
s taking its toll.

“Thanks, Bonnie
,
” I call as she
’
s walking away.

She turn
s
and continues walking
back
wards
as she
replie
s
, “Anytime.” And I kn
o
w she mean
s
it. She w
ill
do anything for Bloom anytime she need
s
her. She ha
s
moved almost 600 miles away from her family so her best friend w
o
n’t have to face all of this alone. I hope she join
s
the pack; she’
ll
make one hell of an addition.

I remove my arms from around Bloom
’
s neck to grab her hand and inform her, “Come on darlin’ I think it’s time I take you home and tuck you into my arms for the night.”

“
Tennessee
how is it that after such a short time you already know that that’s what I need to wipe away all the bad that’s happened today?” Her voice
i
s barely a whisper and her eyes
a
re shinning with unshed tears that I kn
o
w she d
oes
n’t want to release. She d
oesn’t want anyone in the
pack to see her as weak so she
’
s using all of her will to keep them from spilling down her cheeks.

Still holding her hand I lean in to whisper in her ear
, “I know it because you’re mine
, and
I’m yours. Bloom, we may be two people in two bodies but our hearts and souls are connected as one. And thanks to that I will always know what you need to make your day better. And you’ll know what I need to do the same for me.”

“
This mating stuff is pretty freakin’ awesome.”

“Yeah, it is
,
” I
agree
trying unsuccessfully not to chuckle.

“Come on Tennessee; let’s head home so we can get to the part where you wrap me up in your arms.” She pull
s
back enough so I c
an
see the grin that
’
s lighting up her face.

“As you wish, darlin’
,
” I sa
y around a grin
. Then I guide my mate back to our suite and h
o
ld her
tucked
in
to
my arms the whole night.

Chapter 32 – Bloom

~
Unfinished business
~

Early that next morning I sh
o
ot up out of my sleep with a horrible sense of dread. I c
a
n’t explain what I
’m
feeling.
I just kn
o
w something bad
i
s going to happen
. I tr
y
to recall the dream I
was
having before I woke up but I c
a
n’t remember a single moment.
Once I settle myself down and tramp
l
e down the bad feeling (I d
o
n’t want Pike feeling my apprehension through our connection), I g
e
t out of bed to begin preparing
for
the breakfast with the elders.

When I walk out of the bathroom I f
i
nd Pike sitting on the balcony off our suite talking on his cell. I c
an tell by what’
s being said that
he
’s
talking to
Tucker. When he s
ees
me he t
ells
Tuck goodbye and
disconnect
s
.

I walk to him and put my arms around his middle and my head on his chest and mumble, “Good morning.”

He kiss the top of my head as he wrap
s
his arms around me, “Mornin’ darlin’, I
wo
n’t
say good though by the way you were feeling when you woke up.”

“Dang, I thought I hid it well.”

“Nope, I caught it.”

“Hmm
ph
.”
I need to get this dang connection under control if I’m ever gonna have secrets again.

We shouldn’t have secrets from our mate.
My wolf chastises me. I, of course, ignore her.

“I understand you wanting not to worry me, but darlin’ if these feel
ings are anything like the gut
“
feelings
”
you were having yesterday I need to know.”

“I don’t want to worry you over something that
’
s nothing more than a bad dream
,
” I confess
to his chest
.

“Even so, please share these feelings with me. I can at least hold you and help you through them if it’s just a dream
, but
if it’s something more we’ll figure out how to handle that to
gether
.”