Page 5 of Alpha Talk (Hemlock Wolf Pack: Life in the Happily Ever After #7)
Cody
We arrived home full-bellied, bloodied, and ready for a nap. If the very human part of my brain wasn’t worried about the carpet, I might’ve not bothered to undress outside the front door. Nudity wasn’t that big of a deal to shifters, but I preferred to be nude inside my house and not outside of it when I could help it. In this fleshy form, being nude made me feel too vulnerable. Clothes wouldn’t protect me against an attack but fighting naked wouldn’t be fun.
Micah stood in front of me, trapping me between his broad shoulders and the door. Sometimes the position left me claustrophobic but not this time. He blocked me from the view of any passersby while I stripped out of my clothes. They weren’t the bloodiest post-hunt clothes we’d ever brought home but we tried to keep the house clean. Once I was down to my underwear, I slipped off my socks and stepped inside. At least my underwear survived the blood bath.
Micah stripped naked as if he wasn’t a wolf man who had a huge following and the occasional stalker photographer who’d love to get a photo of him in the buff. As soon as he was clothes-free enough, I pulled him inside and shut the door behind us. I locked it up tight and bunched up all our clothes under my arms and headed toward the laundry room. Micah started in the other direction, prompting me to call his name. I didn’t want to be alone.
“Starting the shower, love,” he called back.
“Oh, thanks,” I laughed.
Yep. My hormones were going into full swing. The safest place to be was alone with Micah. The safest place to be was home with our alpha behind a locked door. Maybe we’d den under the bed, or we’d hide in the closet or the pantry. I started the laundry and glanced around the room. We could technically den down in here.
“We have to go to work tomorrow,” I said aloud to my inner beast but wasn’t sure the furry guy was listening.
I glanced around the laundry room again. My wolf shifted my eyes to his and started taking his own measurements. He was almost positive the futon sofa from the office would fit up against the far wall under the shelf if we were careful. I shook the thought away as Micah appeared in the doorway.
He was naked and still bloody which meant he hadn’t showered without me. A smear of deer’s blood marked his stomach and chest, dried on the tip of one of his nipples. Another smear was across his mouth and up on his temple. A dot on his earlobe and a spray across his legs. We’d let ourselves go primal on the deer once he was down for the count.
“Everything alright?” Micah asked, careful not to touch the doorway.
“Yeah. My wolf is….”
“Not going to work tomorrow,” Micah offered, arching a brow. “I think we might get held hostage, mate. By our own traitorous inner beasts at that.”
“We need to work. People are counting on us.”
“Other people work at Dark Soul,” Micah reminded me.
“Yes, but they’re not me.”
“We can go in on days you feel like it,” Micah said. “It’s not a bad thing to take time for yourself. It’s not a bad thing to take time off when you’re pregnant. Think about it. We’re legally obligated by pack law to give paternal leave to all of our employees!”
“Not everyone takes it---” I tried but Micah cut me off.
“I know but they are encouraged to. You encourage them to! Taking time off doesn’t mean the whole pregnancy. Maybe we den down for a week or two. Maybe he feels better in a few days,” Micah pointed at my stomach, and I wasn’t sure if he meant the wolf or our pup.
“Wolf,” Micah said, picking up on my thoughts over our mating link. “Your wolf. My mate. We’ll talk to Silas and them about it too. I’m sure Silas will agree…”
“We agreed,” I stood akimbo and narrowed my eyes on him. “We agreed we’d work as long as we could.”
“Yes we did,” Micah nodded. “We did, but that doesn’t mean we work until one of us falls over or has a mental breakdown. As long as we could is open ended. I think you should listen to your wolf. How about we just go in for those coregulation classes or whatever you call them.”
“What about Alpha Talk?” I asked.
“Alpha Talk centers operate around the globe without me, mate. I’ll keep in touch with the clients I think need the most attention but I don’t need to go in every day. I don’t want to go in every day. I missed too much of your pregnancy last time. Between being kidnapped, losing my hand, and trying to figure out how to live with that it felt like I let you down in every way known to shifterkind.”
“I don’t want to end up locked in bed again!” I growled. “You didn’t let me down but I can’t go through that again, Micah! That was the scariest part about it! Being locked in bed and told if I didn’t rest we’d lose the girls!”
Micah took a deep breath and glanced down at the black and white tiled floor. Whatever was on his mind I wasn’t going to like by how his scent turned.
“What?” I barked.
“Maybe if we rest when you want to, it won’t get like that. You couldn’t rest last time, Cody. You couldn’t take time and sit and not be upset. I should’ve made you wait to go back or---”
“Micah, people would’ve died. We’ve been over this. You did not fail me as anything – not as a mate, a partner, an alpha, or a protector. If you remember, I wasn’t the one kidnapped and tortured!”
“What do we do?” Micah asked. “I’m done arguing. I don’t want you upset. So, just tell me the plan, mate.”
“I--- I shouldn’t have said that,” I said, tripping over my words as I stepped toward him. “I meant, you saved me. I know it didn’t feel like it at the time. I know how I felt. I know how it must’ve felt over our link before he clamped it off. I’m sorry. I – I only meant I wish you wouldn’t beat yourself up, Micah, because you know how to make the hard calls better than anyone else. If anyone ever says you weren’t there for me I want you to punch them square in the nose or the balls or…” I was tearing up more with each word I said. “I know I can count on you. I can count on you no matter how hard this gets. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that – not just for making sure they did get me and the girls but for everything you gave up for my pack.”
“They’re family. That’s what family does,” Micah stepped closer and took my face in his hands. He bowed it and kissed the top of my head before pulling me into his arms.
“It’s not that I don’t want to take time off,” I said, still fighting against the tears rolling down my cheeks. “I don’t want to end up helpless again.”
“You were never helpless, mate. You’re one of the strongest people I know.”
We stood like that, holding onto each other in the laundry room for a long time before Micah scooped me up and carried me down the hall to the shower. Luckily, the water was still warm.
“Gilmore magic,” Micah winked at me as he sat me down on my own two feet.
We scrubbed the blood from each other’s skin in silence. We didn’t have all the answers. Hell, by the old crows, we probably didn’t even have most of the answers, but we had each other and that had to be enough. It was always enough for us.