Seeking Pack Redemption (19 page)

He caught
her gaze, a smoldering stare that brought a flush to her body that had
everything to do with arousal and the remembrance of how he’d touched her the
night before.

“I’m glad
to see you’re not trying to run away or hide,” he said. “I kind of wondered if
you would.”

A chuckle slipped
past her lips. “I wondered, too. But it’s weird. I feel so totally comfortable
with you. Like we’ve known each other forever.”

“It’s the
mating bond. You might even sense some of my emotions, and in some cases, know
where I am.”

Before she
could ask him more about the whole mating thing, her stomach growled, a loud,
insistent noise that made her cheeks heat with embarrassment.

“Sounds
like someone is hungry.” He grinned, the carefree expression taking the hard
edges away from his face. “Why don’t you hop in the shower, while I go grab us
something to eat?”

“No eggs, please.
They and my pregnancy don’t agree with each other.” She shuddered, and he
laughed. He rolled her to lie under him and gave her a hard kiss before getting
up and strutting naked to the bathroom. She lay on her back, a smile on her
lips.

Maybe things will turn out all right.

A shower,
pee, and a thorough brushing of her teeth later, she emerged in a towel and
squeaked. She clutched the damp fabric to her closely and Darren, who lounged
in a chair, grinned.

“Sorry I
startled you. Marc left to get breakfast. Trent needed to pick up some
untraceable cell phones, and we didn’t want to leave you alone.”

“Where’s
Jaxon
?”

“Showering.
He fell asleep last night before his turn. And given the way his nerves are
shot this morning, I don’t expect we’ll see him until he’s completed his part
of the plan.”

“Which
is?”

“Convincing
his mate to take you in just in case Nathan, the pack alpha, refuses.”

“Did you
guys spend a lot of time planning last night after I flaked?” She asked this
idly while wondering how she could grab her pants discreetly and run back to
the bathroom to dress before Trent arrived and saw her conversing practically
naked with his friend.

“Some. But
we can fill you in on that later when we’re all together. I hear
congratulations are in order?”

“Excuse
me?”

Darren
stood and strode toward her, and she backed up until her butt hit the wall. He
kept coming until he towered over her, a half smile curling his lips. “You
mated with Trent. You’re part of our pack now. Welcome.” She couldn’t move away
with him crowding her, and with his hand tilting her chin to turn her face up,
couldn’t avoid his lips when they brushed over hers. A tingle spread through
her, heating her body and curling in her tummy.

This is so wrong.
How could she desire
another man after what she’d shared with Trent?

She placed
her palms against his chest, meaning to push him away, but he pressed closer,
his tongue slipping past the barrier of her lips to slide along hers. A languorous
sensation spread through her, rendering her limbs wobbly, not that she could
fall with his body pinning her in place.

“Breakfast.”
Trent’s announcement acted like a cold bucket of water. She turned her head
sideways breaking off the kiss and shoved at Darren.

“It’s
okay,” he murmured.

“No, it’s
not,” she hissed.

“What’s
wrong?” Trent asked, coming alongside them.

Darren
still hadn’t moved, and
Thea
vacillated between
embarrassment and anger.

The moment
demanded she speak. “I didn’t kiss him.”

“Then what
do you call the lip-lock I walked in on?” Trent asked wryly.

“My
doing,” Darren fessed up. “I was congratulating her on the mating and welcoming
her to the pack.” Darren finally moved away and clasped Trent in a hug, patting
his back with hard thumps.

Thea
inched away, still clutching at her towel. “Do all welcomes include
tongue?” she snapped, not sure why Trent’s lack of reaction bothered her.

The men
separated, and both eyed her. “You enjoyed it,” Darren announced.

“Did not.”

Trent
shook his head. “I can smell you did, beautiful. It’s okay. I told you last
night, in the pack, females take more than one mate. Darren is just stating his
interest in being one. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Marc does something soon
to stake a claim, too.”

“You were
serious about that? But we just hooked up. And who says I want three guys? I
don’t even know if I can handle you, Trent, let alone your buddies.”

“You don’t
need to handle us. We’ll
handle
you.
Just imagine, three guys means three times the pleasure,” Darren replied with a
wicked grin.

Now there
was a visual to make her cross-eyed and weak-kneed. “This is so wrong,” she
moaned.

“Only by
human morals. In our world, it’s totally normal and expected.”

“It’s
okay,
Thea
,” Trent murmured before dipping his head
to brush her lips. “This changes nothing between us.”

“How can
it not?” she exclaimed.

“Because
this is how it works in the pack. And if I have to share you with anybody, I’d
rather it be with men that I count as friends. Men whom I know and trust.”

“I need to
sit down,” she mumbled, heading to a chair. She halted before sitting,
realizing she still wore the damned towel. With a growl of annoyance she
snagged her pants off the floor and entered the bathroom to change into them
and the T-shirt she’d removed before her shower.
God, I hope we can get some real clothes soon.
Underwear and a bra
would be nice for starters.

When she
emerged for the second time, all the guys but
Jaxon
were
in the room. Nobody said a word, but as she walked to the chair left for her at
the table, she couldn’t help feeling like everyone stared at her. Judged her.
Yeah, I slept with Trent.
Something they
all seemed to know. But, dammit, she had no plans to sleep with his buddies.
Awesome kiss or not.
Weird pack rules or
not.

Getting
involved in a four-way orgy wasn’t high on her list of priorities. According to
the guys, they were still in danger. She needed to get somewhere safe and take
care of herself and the baby. She also needed time to adjust to the fact,
according to them, that she was a wolf or at least part wolf.

I don’t need distractions in the form of three too-sexy-for-their-own-good
men.
Although
in the case of Trent, it was too late to go back. Him, she’d keep. But that was
it. No matter what they thought.

None of
her thoughts were spoken aloud, and she watched them as she chewed. They seemed
oblivious to the mental turmoil they’d put her through, laughing and joking
amongst themselves. Tossing her the occasional wicked grin, or teasing smile.
It didn’t help her mental mindset.

Why, oh why, do I feel like getting naked and
telling them breakfast is on me?

*
* * *

Darren
could see the conflict on
Thea’s
face. He’d not meant
to cause it, but when she emerged from the bathroom looking so tempting and
sexy wearing just a towel and damp skin, he couldn’t resist. He kissed her on a
flimsy pretext, and despite her words of protest, she enjoyed it. He’d not
missed how her heart raced, her body softened, accompanied by the sweet smell
of her arousal.

Chagrin,
though, did claim him a bit when he saw her upset at getting caught by Trent.
Actually, a part of him had worried for a moment, too. It was one thing to
share regular human girls and to preach pack
law,
it
was another to confront it. Some males who found and claimed their mates experienced
difficulties in the beginning when it came to sharing. Lucky for Darren, it
looked like Trent had already come to terms with it. Now they just had to
convince
Thea
. Had to because despite having only met
her a few days ago, Darren wanted to make
her his
,
badly.

“So are we
still on board for the plan?”
Jaxon
asked, finally
joining them and grabbing his breakfast of a BLT McDonald’s bagel and
hashbrowns
. He took a sip of his coffee as he waited for
confirmation.

Trent
frowned. “What makes you think the pack will go for it? It means putting the
spotlight on them where Roderick is concerned.”

“Roderick
already has his sight on them because of his son, Nathan,”
Jaxon
replied. “Nathan would do anything to end the travesty that wears his father’s
body.”

“But what
about the rest of the pack?” Marc chewed on the stirring stick that came with
the coffees. “Just because Nathan might want to do something crazy to kill the
vampire doesn’t mean the rest of the pack will go along.”

Jaxon
laughed. “Have you met Nathan? That guy is a true-blue alpha who’s
only gotten stronger since he discovered the truth about his father. If he says
jump off a cliff to his pack, they’ll run and do it without question.”

“He didn’t
manage to convince me to stay even when he threatened me with rogue status,”
Trent supplied.

A sly
smile tilted
Jaxon’s
lips. “As if a temporary member
of his pack, who is an alpha in his own right would so easily bow to the
dictates of another. Give me a break. When I said
his pack
, I meant those he led before the curfews and the merging
of the groups for safety.”

“So who’s
going to call him?” Darren asked.

Trent
sighed. “I am.”

“And I’ll
make my own phone call and see if Bailey and her boys can’t do something for
Thea
,”
Jaxon
said with a grimace.
Darren caught the flash of pain on his face and felt sorry for the guy, but not
sorry enough to stop him from his task.
Thea
needed a
haven before the vampire caught up to them. As for Darren and his buds, once
they had her squared away, they were going hunting.

The house
phone rang, the digital display showing a number she didn’t recognize. Bailey
answered.

“Hello.”

Nothing. A
silence broken only by static hummed in her ear, but of more interest, the scar
in her lip tingled. “
Jaxon
?” she whispered, her heart
stuttering to a halt. “Is that you?” For a moment, only more static greeted
her. Then . . .

“Hi, sweet
cheeks.”

Suddenly boneless,
she slumped into a chair. For a moment, pure shock kept her silent. Not for
long. “Oh, my God. You’re alive. I knew it. I knew you didn’t die. But where
are you? Where have you been? Why haven’t you called?” she accused. Left unsaid
was
why didn’t you return
. They both
knew how impossible that was.

“I’ve been
here and there. Trying to atone for my actions. Not succeeding as well as I’d
hoped.”

Closing
her eyes, she let herself drink in the sound of his voice. He spoke with a
weariness that made her ache, ache for the man who used to laugh all the time,
the man who sounded so alone. “Are you the one who’s been killing rogues before
the extermination teams arrive and spoiling everyone’s fun?”

A chuckle
rumbled through the earpiece, and she smiled at this ghost of his former self even
as tears filled her eyes at the wry twist. “Maybe.”

“It’s
dangerous.”

“It’s
necessary,” he countered. “I would do anything to help keep you safe.”

He’d
already proven that when he dove off the cliff with Roderick, saving her and
the others. “I miss you,
Jaxon
. I miss you so much,
and I know they won’t say it, but the guys miss you, too.”

“They miss
the fact they haven’t been able to kill me yet.”

“No!
They—”

“You don’t
need to lie, sweet cheeks. I know they hate me, and with good reason. I
betrayed them and you. Because of me, you got hurt. You could have died. I’d
hate me, too, if I were in their shoes.”

“Isn’t
there a way to fix this? I want you to come home.
To me.
Although you might not be too impressed.
I’m the size
of a house now.”

“I bet you
look beautiful no matter your size,” he softly whispered. “And I miss you, too.
I dream of you every night.
But that’s all we can have
now. Dreams. There is no forgiveness for me, only revenge against the one who
did this, which is why I’m calling. I know I don’t have the right to ask, but I
need a favor.”

“Anything.”

“There’s a
girl.”

“Really?”
Bailey couldn’t help the jealous lilt of her question.

“Not my
girl, so don’t start growling, sweet cheeks. She belongs to some friends I
made. She was Roderick’s prisoner until we rescued her.”