by Scott, Talyn
“Off topic for who, me? That’s not the way we roll in this family, Bren, and you know it.” Tatum brought Ardan up to her shoulder, patting his back and wondering what else they were keeping from her. She had a nagging suspicion that she couldn’t shake. “The territorial Betas are questioning Jayce’s leadership, truly?”
Mike lifted Ardan from her arms, bringing the baby to his broad chest as if he just couldn’t get enough of him. “Big for a male werewolf, even for four weeks old, how much does he weigh?”
Tatum took a sip of water. “Thirty-four pounds and I’m not distracted that easily.”
Bren glanced at Mike. “Tenacity is Tatum’s foreplay.” Then to Tatum he said, “When the Dynasty Vampyrs threatened Ail with what was basically going to be a death sentence over the incidence that occurred on the Sanibel Causeway, Jayce took it as a threat of war. There are certain territorial Betas, four in particular,” he stalled, running the tip of his finger over the rim of his water glass, “who say Jayce risked thousands for one when Sanibel Island was attacked. Two out of the four Betas have recently deserted their positions.”
Outrage hit her square in the chest. Jayce Jordan’s heart was as big as his oversized body. How dare they! “Yet if any of those four had been in Ail’s boots, they would have expected the same.”
“Most assuredly,” Mike agreed, working a burp out of Ardan and the beginnings of his first laugh. “That doesn’t change history. When it didn’t happen in that way, they can’t see it that way. Not when they or their family members weren’t the ones needing protection. Jayce would have gone toe-to-toe with Prince Volos for any of them. Then there’s the Beta of North America. These particular four have no loyalty left for Bane, disregarding everything he has accomplished for this Pack as a whole, as well as those in Ireland and Scotland.”
Tatum found rage pulsating through her body in an entirely new way. She wanted to bite and to claw, go after anyone who questioned her Alpha male. And there was Bane, the male who would lay down his life for any Pack member no matter what, how his pride must sting. “Who are the four?”
Bren picked her up and placed her in his lap, rubbing his hand down her spine in a calming gesture. “You haven’t exactly met these particular Betas. We went to the Academy together.”
Since Ardan had fallen asleep against Mike’s chest, she quieted her voice, steadied her breathing. But her anger wouldn’t rest. “Exactly met them?”
“You were friends with Jill Holm,” Mike whispered back. “They’re her brothers.”
Tatum’s brows rose. “She was a werewolf?”
Bren tightened his arms around her, her very male security blanket. “Part werewolf, though I could never scent her other half.”
“Jayce,” she stopped before she said it, trying not to remember that Jayce had fucked Jill. It was too long ago to count. “Never mind.”
Mike nodded. “Some things are better left in the past.” Tatum didn’t miss his double meaning, but stopped cold when he added, “Jill was one of our females who was taken by the Habalines.”
“That’s horrible.” Tatum was better than petty jealousy. “I’ll help her personally. Tell me how to get in touch with her.”
Mike shook his head sadly. “She was used by those freaks for breeding and died during her first birthing.”
Bile burned her throat; reminders of the world she was rearing her son in stung her eyes. “Then her brothers have grieved horribly.”
“They’re strong males.” Bren worked her fingernails from her palms, kissing the inside of each hand and reaching the very soul of her with his soothing love. He never ceased to amaze her, his ruthless sex, his passion for her body, and his aching tenderness were necessary to her and she counted on him daily. Somehow, he always read what she needed, so did Jayce. Her eyes flicked up, meeting Mike’s and wondering if he could do the same thing. “So maybe after Jill's brothers work through the grieving process, they’ll settle down with their other disgruntlements, and those who left their positions will come back to work.”
“I doubt that.” Bren nipped his mark between her shoulder and throat and Mike’s eyes flared with his werewolf. “Jayce may offer all four positions to other males. We’ll see.”
“Does Jayce actually fire them?”
“Not exactly,” Mike whispered over Ardan’s golden head. “Unless Rock or Bane actually have the Holm brothers apprehended for proven crimes, Jayce’s only recourse is to allow others of Beta blood to challenge Rannan, Xhaiden, Padg, and Mabon for their districts.”
Tatum gaped. “They fight one another for promotions?”
Mike snorted. “What did you expect? Even so, any male going up against any of the Holm brothers is asking for it. They’re quite strong.”
“Well, that’s great,” she moaned softly as Bren massaged the tension from her shoulders. “I didn't think mixed bloods were as strong as full werewolves.”
Mike replied, “At the time of his rule, it was your father-n-law’s policy not to harass bastards. So long as those mixed bloods were born of werewolf lineage, he wouldn’t question them.”
“Jayce feels the same way,” replied Bren.
“But you can smell each other,” Tatum protested. “You could smell me as part werewolf part human, at least when I wasn’t immortal.”
Bren smelled her hair, licked her throat. “True, but I never could scent any other faction bloodlines from the Holm siblings. However, I agree with Mike. They are incredibly powerful, certainly not human in any way. I know that much.”
“You’re holding something back.” Tatum felt Bren’s cock press into her hip and she smiled. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
Bren stayed quiet.
Mike’s answer was a long time coming. “The Holm brothers are also questioning Jayce in other ways besides Ail’s most recent predicament, have spread gossip to the nth degree. This is why I would have come back sooner, to stop wagging tongues, but I wanted you to adjust to motherhood without the added stress of dealing with an estranged mate. Plus, as I said earlier, I hunted rogues.”
“What sort of gossip.”
“That Jayce can’t hold his family together so how can he hold his Pack together,” Mike answered slowly, his mouth drawing into a hard line.
When Bren remained quiet, she snapped at Mike, “And Jayce not holding his family together has to do with you living on another continent.”
“Yes,” Mike said simply, “no matter how much I give, whatever service I’ve provided to the Scottish Pack over the past year, those who aren’t my immediate clan are only reminded that I’m a cuckold to my own co-mates.”
“I’ve never cheated,” she argued. “Nor would I want to.”
“Not accepting one mate in your bed while accepting other co-mates is also considered cuckolding in our world.”
Her temper flared. “Considering everything that happened.”
Bren finally spoke up. “Don’t you think we kept what happened on our mating night as quiet as possible. Jayce didn’t need those stories of Mike taking you for himself, Jody killing your ex-husband, and then me killing Jody circulating throughout the country.” Mike winced, but Bren continued, “God, can you imagine all the inquisitions we would have gone through and possibly your family, as well? If the true story had spread, any disgruntled members of Pack, including territorial Betas, could have slipped information to the human authorities before we could put out that fire. The possibilities were endless.”
Tatum looked between Mike and Bren, understanding everything Jayce dealt with all alone, the heavy burden weighing his shoulders. “So how does all this stand?”
“Like I said, they think we can’t hold our family together.” Bren shrugged. “That we don’t get along. In fact, several co-mates have threatened not to accept this mate or that mate, not to share since Jayce supposedly sets that example”
To Mike she said, “So you came back out of embarrassment, to stop harsh rumors regarding our family?”
His nostrils flared, his eyes dipping to her wedding ring and back. Mike hadn’t attended the human wedding service. He hadn’t been invited, though they'd made a minimal production of it. Their full moon mating was their true wedding. “I came back for you. You know I never stopped wanting you. That I’ve tried to correct the mistakes I’ve made. We are mated, Tatum Carter, and I’m not going anywhere. Adjust,” he growled. “I will help you do so quickly, just ask.”
“I won’t ask.”
Bren warned, “Both of you keep your voices down. There are more servants here than I care to keep up with, so why fuel more gossip? We are supposed to quell it instead, show ourselves as a loving family, especially with our newest, precious addition.”
Mike pursed his lips. “Perhaps, you should put Ardan to bed while I feed our mate.”
“Feed me?” She shook her head, not wanting to accept hand feeding from Mike the way she did from Jayce and Bren during private moments. Between werewolves, it was as personal as sex was, but she couldn’t allow Mike to sense her turmoil on this subject or he’d press her further than she intended to go. “As you’ve witnessed, I have already eaten.”
“Blood not food,” Bren explained. “One of the reasons you’re so exhausted is that it has been far too long between your blood exchanges with Mike.”
“That was once,” she argued. “Mike and I exchanged blood during one full moon.” This was the unease she’d been sensing, the little something Jayce and Bren had not been telling her.
Mike remained stoic. “Once feeding exchange was enough for a bond between Mates, which was the very reason Jayce couldn’t finish my killing blow. We’d exchanged far too much blood. Never forget we’re bonded for life. So, let me ask you, are you going to fight me at every turn?”
“Don’t ask me that while I’m on information overload.” Embarrassingly enough, Tatum found her fingers curling around the hilt of a steak knife.
Bren placed his hand over hers, easing the knife out of her grip. “You must exchange blood with Mike, particularly since giving birth,” he said in hushed tones.
Mike laughed quietly. “Let her toy with the knife, maybe a bit of sparring with me will quiet her temper. I’ll allow her a jab or two, then she can lick my bloodied offerings.”
Tatum felt her chin hit the pavers. “Of all the -”
Mike cut her off, “Before Bren brought the baby down your sex was wetted for me in less than five minutes.”
“You’re mistaken,” she lied, bristling, hating how her body responded to him. “After everything I’ve just been told, if you must live here, I understand completely. Other than my understanding, however, expect nothing from me apart from friendship.” The look Mike delivered proved she’d made one of the biggest mistakes of her life.
“Ah, Tatum, challenge accepted.”
Chapter 9
A shiver ran over Tatum, one very similar to what she felt when Jayce and Bren had reentered her life. She could spend all day wondering what that meant. Instead, she stepped inside their guesthouse without comment. Rock, Jude, and their security team had recently transformed the structure into one of their much-needed outbuildings. “Why here, Mike?” All hurricane shutters were down, the rooms darkened, but werewolves could see better in the dark.
“For feeding,” he answered.
She’d walked in on one too many awkward moments. Jude wasn’t yet mated, and he had quite an appetite. “I’ve learned the hard way to stay out of my security team’s area and Jayce deemed this security’s building after we had to boost our bodyguard count.”
“You mean Jayce boosted your and Ardan’s bodyguard count.” Mike led her inside the dim main room, waving his magical hand and illuminating some sidelights. “Jayce Jordan and Bren Walker never need bodyguards, never have. Besides, we have been guaranteed private use of this building for a couple of hours.”
She knew what he was up to, and she wouldn’t be able to face herself if she grew wet for him again. There was too much between them unsaid, unfixed. “It doesn’t take a couple of hours to exchange blood, Mike. Ardan will be up from his nap by then, and he’ll need me.”
“You are doting, wondrous, far better than Principia ever pretended to be for me,” he said wistfully. “Fate made up for my childhood in allowing me you. I was appointed a Mate who is the perfect mother.”
“I’ll never be perfect.”
He kept talking, “And one day, when we have our next Youngling, I’ll be there for the birth, holding you.”
Tatum shook her head. “I’m not discussing future children with you.”
“You’ll change your mind soon enough.”
“Don’t act like you know me, when you don’t,” she said quietly.
“So you admit that we need time to get reacquainted,” he pressed. “Therefore, two hours alone with me can only improve our acquaintance.”
“Depends on what fills those two hours,” she challenged.
“I have something specific in mind.”
“Not too specific,” she qualified.
He steered her into what used to be Granny’s bedroom for when she visited. Tatum noted the new corner desk with monitors depicting most of their Sanibel Island property. Mike turned her to face him. He’d removed his shirt without her knowledge, her eyes instantly dropping to his pierced nipples, one piercing resembling a tiny dagger, the other a thick hoop. He had no hair on his chest, not even a happy trail. But his markings were plentiful, some tribal, some resembling tattoos humans bore.
“Why so much ink?” She asked, spying the only familiar piece of furniture left in Granny’s room, a four poster bed. She heard the door lock behind her, the tumbler turning ominously from his mental directive. This didn’t scare her. All werewolves could manipulate their surroundings to a certain degree, and locks were child’s play to them. Besides, she could call Bren, even this far away from the main house, if she wanted. “Why so many piercings?”
“My marks I earned, whether from bravery or from punishment. Doesn’t matter now, since they are a part of me.” He held the shirt he’d worn by the collar and elongated his claws. In blurring speed, he shred it in four long pieces. “My piercings are another matter all together, My Mate. I was denied my Tribal Inflixx as a Youngling, yet I still craved my due. I started with these” — he waved as hand over his face and chest — “after you asked Gage to keep me in Scotland.”
“I refuse to feel guilty over that.” However, she felt a strange static under her skin when he walked to the first post and secured a strip of fabric.
“After I helped female after female rejoin life on the topside, killing those Habalines who came after them, and then also helping their Youngling bastards learn how to make lives for themselves while living in their new Pack, I demanded my Tribal Inflixx from Ciaran and my clan, ’tis my due.”
“Tribal Inflixx,” she repeated, remembering Rebecca and Renee describing the multiple, tribal piercings boring a werewolf male’s penis for nothing short of bravery and honor. They usually started with their first in their upper teen years and when they past adult status, had many borings in their oversized cocks. Over the months Jude had protected her, she’d spotted a glimpse of his now and then.
“I take it Jayce and Bren never persuaded Ardan Senior to reconsider their punishments.”
“What punishments?”
He stopped on the third post, securing the knot. “They never told you our tale, did they?”
Tatum saw Mike’s luggage in the corner, with one small carryon opened wide atop the largest suitcase. “They’ve told me many things, why?”
“Not everything,” he said with a laugh. “A tale for afterwards, though.”
“If you’re trying to drive a wedge between Jayce, Bren, and me, don’t bother.”
A curve lifted the corner of his mouth, a mocking smile actuating those silver rings in his lips, as he finished tying the fourth bedpost. “I never want to come between you three again. Unless we’re all enjoying a bout of sex.”
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“You’d better start thinking about something else.”
He stared at her with raw determination. “How confident are you that you don’t want me?”
She tapped her foot. “Very.”
“Are you a betting lass?”
“No riddles, say what you mean,” she demanded, her stomach doing those flips again.
“Forget the two hours, I’ll accept thirty minutes with you alone, completely naked, without you uttering the word no once. If time passes and I cannot change your mind about accepting me back in your life, I will stay here in the guesthouse for the next six months. I’ll be a father to Ardan and simply an overprotective friend to you.”
She knew there was a catch in there. “You would risk six months for a thirty minute shot; you’re that confident?”
He stretched out his thick shoulders, his biceps pumping with his movements, exuding base sexuality. “The fine print is that I get another go at you in six months.” Spreading his legs shoulder width apart, he hooked his thumbs in the back of his jeans, all casual, completely male. “I’m staying here no matter what, since I won’t leave my son or you. I already love him.” His snug-fitting crotch strained over his bulge, not that she was looking, but it was a powerhouse within itself. “And I won’t allow others to gossip about our family.” For a second, Mike appeared haunted.“I won’t allow any more gossip to go on behind Ardan’s back.” He shook his head, some strands of ebony hung beneath his golden-streaked brown. “That shit sticks forever, Tatum.”
She tapped her chin with nervous fingertips. He truly loved Ardan. Furthermore, if she could buy another six months, yeah, she’d do whatever… with certain conditions. “Fifteen minutes,” she started her negotiations.
Pursing his lips a sinful second he nodded. “Agreed.” He jerked his head toward the bed. “Get naked and spread your legs.”
Oh, he’d been hanging around Ciaran and his bygone-century males for far too long. “Back to where it all began,” she said, eyeing his restraints while crossing her arms, “with me manacled on a bed at your mercy.” Nonplussed, Mike reached for a few items in his unzipped bag. Some of the stuff she was familiar with, especially the items Jayce and Bren had used on her before her pregnancy, but most of what he brought appeared to be hardcore bondage. “This isn’t going to fly with me, not today, not in a million years.” She waved her hand at his bag of tricks.
