Page 17 of Found (Mate Rejected #8)

17

AERIN

I count down the seconds, then the minutes.

Mack left nearly fifteen minutes ago and there's still no sign of him.

Did they kill him like they killed Shane?

I debate what to do for another five minutes. Stay and wait a little longer or risk running into Franklin and have him carry out his threat when he warned me not to go wandering around?

Another minute passes and I can’t sit here anymore.

I’m levering myself up from the bed when the sound of footsteps heading down the hallway makes me pause.

Does that sound like it could be Mack?

Yes.

My stomach grumbles, and I place my hand over it when the sweet and savory scent of bacon and vanilla sugar awakens my hunger.

The footsteps stop right outside my door and it swings open, revealing Mack holding a wooden tray full of breakfast.

He smiles as he steps inside, nudging the door closed with his hip. “We have the usual suspects. A towering stack of crispy bacon—your favorite—pancakes with syrup, scrambled eggs, and orange juice.”

I chew my lip as he places the tray carefully on the bed. “How about we eat in bed and don’t care about crumbs?”

He’s the same cheerful Mack I fell in love with, but something is wrong.

Why does it feel like something is wrong?

Slowly, his smile fades. “Aerin?”

“Why are you here, Mack?” I whisper.

He crosses over to me as I stand beside the bed, rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “To be with you.”

“But—”

He kisses me. “Let me feed you, and we can share a shower after if you want. I was on the road for hours from Winter Lake and I wouldn’t mind a soak in a tub if there is one.”

When has Mack ever cared about soaking in the tub?

Easy. He hasn’t.

This feels an awful lot like distraction talking to me.

My unease grows. “You’re trying to avoid talking about something important. Aren’t you?”

“I’m avoiding talking about something that we can talk about later. And we will. But I just found you again after someone took you from me. I just want to enjoy you for a little while. How about it?”

“What about the omegas?” I ask him quietly, casting a glance at the closed door.

He gives me a reassuring smile. “I have a plan to get them out of here.”

I should push to know what he’s determined to avoid talking about. And there is definitely avoidance going on here. But I want the same thing he wants. I want to eat with him, hold him, just enjoy being with him for a bit after the world turned upside down and inside out.

He went out to get food for us, and no one tried to kill him—at least, I hope not—which means Franklin must not have a problem with Mack being here.

For now.

“We’ll talk about it later?” I ask.

He laces his fingers with mine. “I promise. Let’s eat before everything gets cold.”

We sit on the bed and despite my unease about why Mack is here, how he’s allowed to stay here with me, and what’s going to happen in the coming days, my stomach is almost always growling at me to eat something. So I eat.

We clear the plates, drain our juices, and once Mack has moved the tray to the side table, he pulls me into his arms and kisses the top of my head.

“I was thinking we need to talk about names,” he says.

“What about names?” I ask, yawning, and edging closer to having a food coma from how fast we just inhaled enough breakfast to feed a family of four.

“For Thumper.”

Now doesn’t feel like the time to be talking about baby names. I’m not sure what it feels like the time for, but it isn’t that. "Mack…”

“How about Sky for your mom?”

My eyes prickle and I lift my head to look at him. “You’re trying to distract me.”

He kisses me. “I’m trying to make you smile. Is it not working?”

“It always works.”

His smile takes my breath away. “Then I am doing something very, very right.”

“Mack. We have to talk.” I wish I could just set everything aside the way he seems determined to. But we’re in enemy territory and Franklin could burst in and kill Mack at any moment. Not that Mack seems the least bit concerned.

“No bad thoughts today. Just good thoughts and a name for Thumper, unless it’s grown on you, in which case I guess it could work.”

I laugh, despite myself. “We are not calling this baby Thumper Winters.”

His eyes crease with mirth. “There it is,” he murmurs.

“There what is?” I ask as his head lowers.

“The most beautiful sight in the world.” His lips touch mine.

“And that is?”

He kisses me again. “My mate happy.”

When he starts kissing his way down my body, my eyes widen. “Mack?”

“Hmm?” He kisses my collar bone.

“You are not doing what I think you are, are you?” I swallow a moan as he presses a kiss on my right breast through the thin fabric of my blouse.

“And what do you think I’m doing?”

There’s a smile in his voice as he keeps angling down.

“Inappropriate things.”

He grins up at me. “Like what?”

I’m blushing. “Kissing me in… inappropriate places.”

He laughs as he bends his head. “Well, I don’t think those places are inappropriate at all.”

My blush intensifies and I’m breathless, but not trying nearly as hard as I should to stop him when he eases my skirt up. “Mack…”

He kisses my right inner thigh. “Is this not the right inappropriate place?”

I can’t help but laugh. “You are being deliberately… ah .” My fingers clench in his hair as his next kiss lands between my thighs.

Every single thought empties right out of my mind as my eyes drift closed and I luxuriate in pure feeling. And when the pleasure hits, I bite my lip to choke back my scream.

I’m still coming down from my release when Mack skims my skirt up over my hips and tucks himself behind me.

Mack started to get worried that if he was on top, he’d slump over me and hurt the baby, so now when we make love, it’s on our sides. I know Mack would never hurt me, even accidentally.

He kisses my throat as I’m trying to steady my breathing. “Aerin?”

“Yeah?” I twist to face him.

He gives me a searching look. “Happy?”

I touch his jaw lightly, amazed I have to say this at all. “I’m always happy with you.”

His eyes soften with pleasure and he kisses me. Lightly at first, and as he deepens the kiss, he sweeps a hand down my breasts, clasps my hip and presses inside me.

He swallows my moan and I capture his husky groan.

And as we kiss, we rock together, neither of us in any rush to fall. Our pace is languid and easy.

Perfect.

It is always perfect.

Mack is drawing shapes on my belly when I wake.

He kisses the back of my shoulder. “Awake, love?”

“Barely. What time is it?” I yawn.

“Probably lunch time soon unless you’re hungry now?”

I shake my head.

“I realized something a moment ago,” his tone is thoughtful.

“Realized what?”

“That I never told you how we settled in Winter Lake. Or why. You never asked, though I’m positive I have dropped numerous hints that if you ask for something, it’s yours.”

I smile. “Adela told me the same thing. That you would tell me if I ask.”

“And yet you haven’t asked.”

I lift his arm and kiss it. “Because your past is yours to decide if you want to share it with me. But only if you want to. And more importantly, when you want to.”

“Have I told you I love you today?” he asks softly.

“You have.”

“Aerin? Turn around, love.”

I turn around. With his help, of course, and it still takes a second, but I’m still out of breath at the end of it. “Uh, I’m like a beached whale.”

He smiles at me. “You’re not like a beached whale. I love you, is what I wanted to say. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. You know that, right?”

Instantly, my eyes fill with tears. “Stop being so nice. My hormones are everywhere.”

He kisses my forehead and pulls me close, covering us with the sheets.

We’re sharing the same pillow when he speaks. “After I left this place, I tried never to think about it.”

And I realize he’s finally going to tell me about how he came to be the Winter Lake Alpha. It’s a story I’ve always wanted to hear, but with what I know about the way the Raleighs self-imploded, I know it’s a story so painful that I never would have asked him to tell me. Because it’s not mine to prompt. It’s his to decide to tell me.

“Is it weird being back?” I whisper.

He shakes his head. “Not really. Mostly because this house isn’t the same, though it’s built in the same place as the old house and it’s made of the same gold wood. Even if they hadn’t burned down the old house, this house would still feel different and strange. Winter Lake is home.”

“What happened to the old house?” I ask, though I think I can guess.

“Almost everything was on fire when I left. Everyone was fighting. At the time, I thought the fire might have been accidental, but the longer time has gone by, the more certain I’ve grown that it couldn’t have been. It was intentional.” His eyes are distant. “That last day, I thought the world was ending.”

Poor Mack.

“I’m sorry.”

His smile is brief. “It was a lifetime ago, back when I stopped thinking of this place as home. I thought everyone was gone. Then my dad showed up in Winter Lake and we all have a family reunion from hell.”

I sigh. “Yeah, my dad didn’t make things easy, did he?”

They had descended on us and had pecked and pecked at each other, sniping at each other like they were kids and not middle-aged men. I had briefly considered living out the rest of my days in the forest with the squirrels if it had meant I no longer had to listen to them. Mack had felt the same way.

“Then there was my fated mate who decided to crash our mating ceremony.”

We smile at each other.

“That was an intense time,” I say.

“It was.” He shakes his head. “I skipped over a big chunk of what happened after I left Michigan.”

“The most painful part?”

“The part that no longer hurts because you healed me. But I still remember it, and I’d like to tell you it, if you want to listen?”

My stomach chooses that moment to growl, and it growls loud .

I blush and Mack laughs.

He releases me. “Wait here. I’ll grab us some food and be right back.”

He’s stepping into pants and walking out before I can stop him, returning minutes later with food for us. It’s a lunch spread. Bread, olives, salami, sliced fruit, cold chicken, and all to be washed down with fresh, cool water.

We eat in bed again, and between bites of our lunch, Mack tells me the story of how he became the Winter Lake Alpha after his pack imploded.

“I was a wolf for the first few nights. It was cold, and I didn’t have much with me. I thought at the time that I wouldn’t need much when I left, but I could have done with being a little more prepared than I was.”

I stop eating. “Then what did you do?”

He flashes me a brief smile. “I survived. It wasn’t easy, but I survived. So did the rest of them.”

I scrunch my nose. “The rest of who?”

“The rest of the pack. Bennett, Warren, Penny, Tina, Chris, Adela. You. The Winter Lake Pack.”

I shake my head. “I’m sure your version of surviving did not involve sleeping in a filthy toilet one night.”

He takes my hand and squeezes it. “You did what you had to do to get through a difficult thing. We all did. It’s no better or worse. Just different. You know I met Bennett first in New York?”

I nod. “I remember you saying that.”

“Before New York was a whole heap of shit menial jobs, sleepless nights, roach infested apartments, and far too many close encounters with less than friendly shifters on the way to find a place that we could call home.”

“That’s why you chose Winter Lake? It felt like home?”

He shakes his head, smiling wryly. “I was pretty sick of people by the time I got to New York. Bennett felt much the same way. We both wanted somewhere we could live our own lives, not be surrounded by crowds, and build something that was just ours.”

I smile. “Ah, and a quiet retirement town was what you found.”

He slides his arm around my back, drawing me closer. “We didn’t find it. I like to think it found us .”

I’m trying not to think about the reason Mack is here, and that there is a world outside these four walls. But that world is still there, and I can’t ignore it even though I’d like to pretend it isn’t there.

I think about the reason Mack is here.

The reason Shane kidnapped me.

Dread forms in the pit of my belly at what it must mean.

Nothing good.

“Mack…”

He kisses me. “Tomorrow, Aerin. Let me have today, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”