Page 96

Patting him on the back, I said, “You guys go ahead. Stormy and I ate while we cooked.”

Langston laid a dollop of sour cream on his plate and glanced up at Stormy. “Thank you for this. You guys didn’t have to do it, but we really appreciate it.”

Langston was still shirtless and glistening in sweat. Stormy’s gaze skimmed down to the rippling muscles of his stomach before she smiled awkwardly at him. “Uh, yeah, um, sure. No problem. Uh, I hope you like it.”

Grinning, he winked at her, then strolled away.

I smiled, but that faded when I saw the look on Cole’s face.

His shoulders were taut with tension. Though he didn’t look as upset as he had earlier, I could still tell it irked him how easily Langston and Trent had bested him.

Walking over, I took a seat beside him as he ate.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I’m all right.”

He looked over at the others who were all seated around the kitchen table while he sat on the couch eating on the coffee table. They were all joking and laughing, and there was something in Cole’s eyes that I couldn’t quite place. Inadequacy, maybe?

He scooped up the last of his beans and cheese, then wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I’m gonna go take a quick shower, if that’s okay?”

I elbowed him lightly in the ribs. “Please do. You reek.”

That got a chuckle out of him, and the smile broke apart whatever had been in his eyes before. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’ll make sure to scrub extra well,” he said before he went upstairs.

When he was out of earshot, Trent pointed at the stairs with a fork. “He’s gonna be a bit grumpy for a while, but this is good for him. His fighting skills had gotten worse than I’d thought. Better he knows now than to go into battle with a big head and assumptions about his strength.”

“Right,” Porter added. “An alpha is an alpha, sure, and in a fair fight against a beta or sigma, it’s no question who will come out on top. But this won’t be a fair fight, I bet.”

“Almost certainly not,” Langston agreed.

The cry of a cranky baby came from the den, and Stormy jumped up to go grab Shiloh. Langston’s eyes followed her as she went. Porter snorted but kept his mouth shut.

“Oh, God ,” Stormy called from the den, a disgusted note to her voice. “She’s crapped herself. Avery, is there anyone in the guest bathroom?”

“Nope,” I called. “All clear.”

A moment later, she emerged from the den. Shiloh was screaming her head off, and a brown smear was up the back of her head.

Stormy rolled her eyes. “Blowout. It went all the way up her back. I’ll get her washed up in the sink.”

“That’s fine,” I said.

“Do you need anything?” Langston asked.

Stormy almost stumbled to a stop. “Um.” She grinned at him. “No, I’ve got it. Thanks, though.”

Langston didn’t look away until the door to the bathroom was closed. Once she was out of sight, he took his plate to the sink and pulled a beer out of the fridge.

Popping the top, he said, “I’m gonna go sit on the porch for a bit.”

Zayde, Trent, and Porter all shared a look, then chuckled.

That was it. Enough beating around the bush. I went outside to join Langston.

“Something wrong?” he asked as I closed the door behind me.

“No.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “When are you going to tell Stormy she’s your fated mate?”

Langston choked, spraying beer out of his lips. He coughed and wiped his mouth.

“ What ?” he gasped. The wide, panic-stricken eyes that looked back at me belonged more to a boy than a man. A kid who’d been caught jerking off by a parent.

“Relax,” I said, shoving him playfully. “Don’t have a heart attack.”

He swallowed again, then sighed as his body deflated in dejection. “How’d you know?”

“I’ve known you a long time. I’ve never—and I mean, never —seen you look at a woman the way you look at Stormy.

And I’ve met a lot of your past girlfriends.

The sweet ones, the bitches, the models, the actresses, and so on.

It was pretty obvious.” I laughed and pointed back at the house.

“All your friends see it, too. Honestly, if Stormy wasn’t so blind, she’d have noticed, too. ”

“It’s a delicate situation,” he said, setting his bottle down and collapsing into one of the rocking chairs. “I… well… I did some checking on her when we first met.”

I took the chair beside him. “Are you talking about Marcus?”

He looked at me with pure misery. “Yeah. Avery, her husband has barely been gone for half a year. I can’t approach her with this now. Shit, she’s probably still grieving. I’d feel like I was taking advantage of her, and I don’t want to do that.”

“Right, but…” I stared at him like he was an idiot, even though he wasn’t. “You don’t live here, Langston. When this is all over and, God willing, Ashton is back safe, you guys are headed back across the country.”

“Hell, Avery, I know that.” He groaned. “I’m not going to ignore this.

She needs to know who she is to me, but I want to take it slow.

I want to get to know her so it won’t be weird when I tell her.

I’d like her to be in a place, emotionally and mentally, where she can accept what I have to offer.

Not only for her, but for her little girl, too. ”

As depressed as I’d been the last few days thinking about Ashton, hearing Langston talk about my friend and her baby filled my heart with so much love.

I remembered all those dark nights right after Marcus had died.

Stormy, lying in my bed, crying in soul-wrenching sobs that I didn’t think would ever end.

Knowing this man who I loved like a brother and who was kind and good was possibly going to be her mate and help heal her broken heart made me so damn happy.

“Shiloh is pretty cute, isn’t she?”

Langston laughed and slapped his knee. “She is so fucking cute. I wanna pinch those little cheeks. I’ve never felt that before, either. Before I came here, I wasn’t even sure if I ever wanted to be a father. Now, I think it might be pretty fun.”

A harried-looking Stormy came out, holding Shiloh on her hip.

“Hey, Avery? I hate to do this, but can you give me a ride back home? I put her last diaper on. I forgot to restock her bag, and I don’t want to have another accident without one.”

“Sure, let me get my?—”

“I can give you a ride,” Langston said.

Stormy looked a little taken aback. “Oh, you don’t have to do that. Avery can take me. It’s no problem. She picked me up this morning.”

“She…” Langston’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Stormy. “She needs to stay and talk to Cole about something important. Plus, you shouldn’t be going anywhere alone at the moment. I swear, it’s no problem.”

Playing along, I put a hand to my head. “Crap, he’s right. I need to go talk to him right now, actually. I totally forgot.”

Stormy licked her lips and gave Langston a goofy little smile. “All right, then, big guy. Let me grab my stuff.”

They left a few minutes later, and I went inside to check on Cole. I found him upstairs, sitting on the bed, fully dressed but his hair still wet from the shower. He had the same glum look I’d seen before.

“You look like someone just told you your dog died,” I said, sitting down next to him.

He chuckled. “Sorry. My pride took a big hit, you know?”

“You’re still upset about the training? You shouldn’t be. Trent and Langston were in the military. You can’t judge yourself based on them.”

He sat up straighter. “I suppose you have a point, but it’s hard to get that through my thick skull. It’s hard to explain to a human, but when you’re born an alpha, especially the heir to a pack, there are certain expectations. About how you can handle yourself in a fight, for one.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Is this some sort of toxic masculinity thing?”

“No.” Then he shrugged. “Actually, that might be a good description. You’re born as this person who’s stronger and faster than everyone else, and you get used to it, you know? Having someone else put your ass in the dirt—easily, at that—is humbling.”

“Listen, mister,” I said, putting my arm around him, “you’ve done a lot, more than most people could. There’s no reason to beat yourself up after one bad day. I know we’re going to get out of this, and I know that’s because we have you. I believe in you.”

That pulled him out of his funk a bit, and the light returned to his eyes. “I like hearing you say that.”

“I like saying it.”

“I don’t want to let you down,” he said, becoming serious again. “There’s so much riding on me. You, Ashton, the whole pack? There’s all this pressure. I don’t have the room to be weak. I’ve got too many people relying on me.”

“Like I said before, you’re doing great.”

“Yeah. Maybe I am, but it doesn’t feel like it.

All I know is that I spent all those years running from being a pack leader, but now I can’t run anymore.

My son’s life is at stake. Your life is at stake.

I refuse to run from that.” He looked at me, his eyes icy-cold.

“I’m going to handle this. I’m going to take care of Kyle once and for all. I guarantee that.”

Nothing about killing or hurting someone should make a person happy, but after everything that had happened, it was the only way. I wouldn’t relish Cole having to bear that, but we’d both do whatever was necessary for our son.

A fter a dinner of takeout pizza, the others left, and Cole and I went to bed early. I drifted off to sleep, nestled beside Cole’s warm body.

“ M om! Momma!”

Ashton’s scream came from down the hallway.

My heart lurched at the agony in his voice.

He hadn’t called for me like that since he was a small child.

Stumbling from bed, I ran for the door, swinging it open.

I stepped out of Cole’s bedroom into the living room of the house we’d shared with Perry in Des Moines.

Perry, naked and humping the same neighbor I’d caught him fucking weeks ago, grinned at me.

“Told you you’d regret leaving me,” he sneered, his thrusts never slowing. “Dumb bitch ran off, and what happened? Got your little bastard kidnapped.”

“Where’s Ashton?” I screamed.

“Fuck if I know.”

Ashton screamed again, and I ran to the front door, throwing it open and rushing out into a store.

The hardware store where I’d met Kyle the first time.

The smells of oil, metal, and sawdust stung my nose as I ran down the aisles, each one a hundred yards long and so tall, I couldn’t even see the top.

Nothing but hundreds of hammers, millions of cans of paint, and an infinite number of rolls of copper wire.

Ashton’s voice grew more fervent and panicked as I ran, but I was getting closer.

“MOMMY!”

My legs burned from the exertion, urging my body to run faster than was humanly possible, though it felt like running in wet sand.

“I’m coming, baby!” I shouted. “Mommy’s coming.”

Rounding a corner, Kyle stood smirking at me, and I slid to a stop, falling on my ass. Kyle raised a small handsaw that was coated in blood to his mouth. His lips parted. Instead of a human tongue, a forked snake tongue slid forth along the metal blade, gliding through the blood.

“Mmm,” Kyle murmured. “He tastes just like you. A real momma’s boy.”

“ A very? Jesus, Avery, calm down.”

I was screaming Ashton’s name over and over. Hands clutched at me, trying to grab my arms and hands. In my frenzy, I slapped them away.

“Where is he?” I shouted. “Where’s my baby? What did you do to him?”

“Avery, it’s me. It’s Cole. Calm down.”

Gasping, I sagged backward onto a hard wooden surface. Through the light of the moon, I saw I was in Cole’s bedroom, my back pressed up against the door, and Cole kneeling beside me. I was pressed up against the door.

A nightmare. It had all been a nightmare.

“Cole?” My lips trembled, and tears streamed down my face.

“Yeah.” He wrapped me in his arms, his warmth grounding me. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You were having a nightmare.”

The vestiges of the dream still clung to me.

I could still see Kyle’s face and the blood on his lips.

Shuddering, I dug my fingers into Cole’s back, pulling myself even closer to him.

Ashton was almost a man, but he would always be my baby, and I needed him back.

Cole already had enough pressure on him without me adding to it, but the words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them.

“Cole, bring my baby home. Please. I don’t think I can survive without him much longer.”