by EA Hunt
“Why would you do all of this for us?”
Theo smiled at her. “Because, Mrs. Hart, you are my mate,” he replied as he began to tell her the story of his family.
EA
“So I was his wife before we were married?” Lucy asked Amanda two weeks later as they sat in Theo's kitchen, sipping tea while Aviva and Anastasia were napping in the living room.
“Basically,” Amanda replied. Lucy had been working at the diner for a week when she approached Amanda, asking if she could come over to Theo's sometime and explain everything to her because Lucy was having a hard time putting all of this together.
“If I’m already his wife then why the wedding?”
Amanda had asked the same question, then she had remembered the bruises on Lucy. Theo wanted her protected, and since mating was not a legally-binding document in the state of Georgia, Theo needed to marry Lucy to keep her safe. “Do you really need me to answer that?”
Lucy sighed, “no.” She bit her lower lip. She knew why Theo had married her but she wanted him to tell her, not have her guess or ask someone else.
“Honey, you need to tell Theo what you are running from. He let the incident at the rest stop slide because of the baby and getting married, but in order for him to protect you he needs know what he is protecting you from.”
Lucy nodded. She had wanted to tell him the day of the wedding but he’d looked so happy. Then when he had brought her home from the hospital, he’d been so attentive to her that she hadn’t had the heart to tell him. “I know I need to tell him, but I don’t really know how.”
Amanda placed a hand over hers on the table. “Oh honey, just be honest with him. Keeping secrets isn’t good for any mating or marriage.”
Lucy looked at Amanda, “speaking from experience?”
Amanda sat back. She placed a hand on her small stomach mound. “Trevor and I were mated after I left him.”
“You left Trevor? You two seem so in-tune with each other.”
“Not at first. I had some issues; Tyson got into some trouble and then Tyson's biological mother came back into our lives, piling on more than we already had going on, so I walked away.”
Lucy shook her head. “How did you get over it?”
“It takes time, but talking to each other, being honest with each other, is the only way to make a relationship work.” Amanda smiled at her, “trust me.”
Lucy nodded. She did trust Amanda, that was the reason she’d asked the woman to come to the house and speak with her.
“Mom? Aunt Lucy?”
Amanda looked towards the living room. “Tyson Hart, keep your voice down. The babies are sleeping.”
Tyson nodded as he walked over to his mother. He bent and kissed her cheek, then he turned and kissed Lucy's cheek. “Sorry Mom.” He straightened. “Dad and Uncle Theo are helping Uncle Atlas with some repairs to one of the pack's houses, so I was sent to bring Mom and Viv home and tell Aunt Lucy that Uncle Theo would be home in a few hours.”
“Your dad knows I have a cell phone, right?” Amanda asked. Since her little excursion with Keenan, her mate had gone to driving her almost everywhere she needed to go. If he wasn’t driving her then one of the other Hart men was.
“Yeah, but I’m to give visual confirmation that you are all right,” Tyson said as he ignored his phone buzzing in his pocket. He was going to ignore Rhea. Every time he talked with her all she wanted to talk about was how she could give him a better life than Amanda and Trevor. He didn’t want a better life, he wanted the life he had. She may think his life wasn’t good but it was.
Amanda shook her head. “Your father is getting on my last nerve.”
Tyson chuckled. His parents were always bumping heads but it was all with love for the both of them. “I know.”
Amanda sighed. She and her mate needed to talk. “Where is Taylor?”
“At the high school. She wanted to run through some of her ROTC drills before the meet,” Tyson said.
Amanda nodded. Her daughter was all about being the best ROTC cadet she could be. She was also trying to be the best tracker for the pack that she could be. Sometimes Amanda wanted her daughter just to be a teen. Amanda stood. “Think about what I’ve said, Lucy, and I will talk with you tomorrow?”
Lucy nodded. Amanda had given her a lot to think about. “I will.” She looked at Tyson. “Thank you for telling me where Theo is even though he could have called me.”
Amanda chuckled. “The Hart men don’t call, honey, they just send someone looking for us. It’s annoying but wonderful at the same time.”
“Hey Mom,” Tyson started, “I take offense.”
Amanda looked at her son. “Really? Did you go see your sister before you came here?”
Tyson blushed. “No, I called someone.”
“Like I said,” Amanda bent and hugged Lucy, “see you later.”
Lucy nodded and watched Amanda and Tyson leave. Now that she was alone she needed to figure out what she was going to do about Theo and the situation she was in.
EA
“Lucy I’m home,” Theo called as he walked into the house. He was beyond tired. He rolled his right shoulder as he walked into the living room of his home. He’d known the Palmer house was run down but he hadn’t thought a wall would clip his shoulder because it was crumbling. He released a breath. If he hadn’t used his shifter strength, he would have been hurt seriously—then he wouldn’t be home to see his little Princess or Lucy. Theo checked the kitchen; Lucy wasn’t there. The last two weeks when he had come home Lucy had been in the kitchen cooking dinner while Anastasia was in the bouncer Amanda had given them, sleeping. He had thought it was a beautiful scene.
Theo turned and headed towards the bedrooms of the home. For the last week he could feel Lucy wondering why he’d married her but hadn’t mated her. He had married her so Anastasia and Lucy would be Harts and no one could hurt them. The reason he hadn’t mated her was because he wanted to know who Lucy was running from. He had let the scene at the rest stop go because of the marriage and baby but now he needed to know what was going on.
“So Stacia, tell Momma how we are to tell Theo our secret? Hmm. He has been so good to us but he needs to know who your father is.”
Theo stopped in the entrance to the bathroom. He knew he should tell Lucy he was there but he wanted to hear what she had to say.
Lucy finished with her daughter's wash-up and wrapped her in the baby towel Martha had given her. She kissed her daughter's temple. Theo's family had thrown her a baby shower two days ago and brought her so many things that Anastasia's closet was overflowing with clothes, shoes, and anything else her daughter needed. She cradled her daughter in her arms. “If we tell Theo we may place him in danger and despite him being a beautiful and strong person I don’t want to place him in danger. I don’t want him or his family to suffer because of me,” Lucy sighed. “We could leave. We could pack a bag and leave here.”
“You could but I would stop you.”
Lucy turned. She licked her lips. “How—”
Theo walked into the bathroom. “Long enough,” he replied as he stopped before her. He reached out and placed a hand on her cheek. “Please talk to me.”
Lucy sighed. “Time to tell you my story.”
Chapter Five
It was getting cold. Taylor zipped up her jacket as she headed towards the trail which would take her home. She could've called her brother to come and get her, or her parents, but it felt good to walk. Plus her mom and dad had been really into each other lately and the last thing she wanted was to interrupt them. Especially after the last time she had walked in on them. She chuckled. Her mom had been in the kitchen making dinner and her dad had come home from the restaurant. Taylor had wanted to talk to her parents about the ROTC camp in a few months but when she walked into the kitchen all she saw was her dad's pants undone and her mother's dress around her waist. She had hurried out of the kitchen, wanting to never see her parents like that again.
Taylor stilled on the path. There was someone or something following her. She could feel it. She wanted to look around her, see if she saw anything, but that wasn't what she was taught by her Ganpa. Taylor started walking again, making sure to keep her senses open. She could hear the crunching of leaves and if she inhaled deeply she could swear she smelled wet dog. She upped her pace. She was not going to run from the wolf following her. She swallowed as she held on tighter to her bag. If the wolf following her was someone from her family they would have let their presence be known, but this wolf didn’t want its presence to be known. No, it was stalking her and she had no clue why.
The big oak in the middle of the path would allow her to hide for a little bit, but she needed to climb the tree in order to get a better advantage on the animal that was trying to scare her. She slid behind the oak, turned, and tried to climb the massive trunk. She was halfway up when someone grabbed her. “Oww!” Taylor screamed as the wolf's nails dug into her back and pulled her down the trunk. She inhaled sharply as the bark from the tree cut into her front. “LET. ME. GO,” she screamed as she struggled to get away from the wolf…no it wasn’t a wolf anymore it was “Garrett!” she said as she smelled his familiar scent.
Garrett pressed her against the tree, making sure her front was plastered against the tree. “You think you're something special because of your family.”
“No,” she tried to shake her head, “I don’t.”
“Yes you do,” he said to her. He sniffled her neck. “Because your dad is the next Alpha and your uncle is the current Alpha, you think that you can take from the rest of us what we are entitled to by birth.”
“Please,” Taylor swallowed. She was scared. Garrett’s breath smelled of weed and something she couldn’t place. “Please don’t do anything you'll regret.”
Garrett ran his hand up her side. He cupped her breast. “Oh I won’t regret this.”
Taylor sniffled, then closed her eyes. This was not happening to her. She was not about to be raped by someone who detests her. “Garrett…” She could fight, she could, but if she did she could get hurt—and her parents had been through enough without another child getting hurt. “Please think about this. Please.”
He turned her to face him. Garrett ripped her t-shirt and bra. Damn, he knew her breasts were impressive but he didn’t know they looked like this. He licked his lips, wanting to suck her nipples so bad he could taste it. He looked at her. “We are going to have some fun.”
“No,” Taylor lifted her knee and connected with his groin. When he went down, she ran around the tree and headed in the opposite direction. She could make it to her Uncle Willie's house if she ran fast enough.
EA
Who in the hell was banging on his door at this time of the night? Willie walked to his front door, pulling it open. He was about to curse out the person in front of him when he saw his niece, battered and bruised. “Who the—” he growled as he pulled her into his arms. Willie bent and scooped her up. He carried her into the bathroom off his living room. He placed her on the floor. “I’m going to call your parents.”
Taylor nodded, as she tried to keep her t-shirt closed.
“While I’m doing that I will get you some clothes.” Willie placed a hand on her cheek. “Ok?”
“Uncle Willie, I—”
“Shh. It’s going to be ok.” He gave her a sad smile, turned, and headed out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Willie released a breath as he pulled his phone from his pocket. His niece needed help and he needed all of his brothers together in order to keep Trevor from killing whoever's scent that was all over Taylor.
EA
“I met Duncan while working at the diner when I was eighteen,” Lucy started as she sat on the couch with Theo. While he had showered, she had dressed the baby, fed her, and placed her in bed. She wanted her daughter to feel safe for the evening if Theo decided he didn’t want to have them in his home anymore. “He was a smooth talker. He told me everything I wanted to hear. That my mother was wrong for what she had done and how she treated me all my life. He said if he was in my life he’d take care of me. It was everything an eighteen-year-old girl wanted to hear.” She gave a sad little laugh. “For two months he came to the diner every day to talk to me, to check up on me, and one night I was walking towards the bus stop and someone attacked me.” Lucy reached out her hand at Theo's growl. She squeezed his hand “I was taken to the hospital. When they asked me if there was anyone to call, I gave them Duncan's name. They called him and he came running. He stayed with me while I was at the hospital, then took me to his house when I was released. He said that he was going to take care of me. And for someone who’d never had anyone truly take care of her, it was music to my ears.”
Lucy removed her hand. “It was a month before we became intimate and three months before I realized who he was. The first time he hit me, he apologized and promised never to do it again. And he didn’t until…” she turned her gaze from Theo's. “We’d been together a year when my first pregnancy happened. Duncan wasn’t happy. He wanted me to get rid of it. When I refused, he pushed, kicked, and punched me. By the time I came to from my injuries, there was no more baby.” She wiped at her tears. “Before you ask, I couldn’t go to the police. Duncan works for the GBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. There the local FBI.” She looked at Theo. “Anything I would’ve said or done he would’ve known about it before the ink was dry on my statement.”
“Stacia.” Theo questioned, wanting to find Duncan and kill him for all the pain he’d caused Lucy.
“A mistake. Duncan was upset about a case he had been passed over for. By then I’d learned to stay out of his way—to make sure everything he needed and wanted was ready for him when he came into the house. That night he had come back earlier than I expected and nothing was ready. He beat me—then took, like so many other times, what he wanted. This time, though, I hadn’t gotten my prescription filled for birth control. Duncan hated condoms and didn’t want a child. Three months later I found out about Anastasia.” She sighed once again, turning away from Theo. “I was six months pregnant before he noticed. When he did he went after me again. I was able to fight him off a little but I still had bruises. This time I went to the hospital. I had to make sure she was all right. The hospital wanted to call the police. I left before they could.”
“Lucy,” Theo pulled her onto his lap and kissed her temple, “the night at the bar…” He didn’t want to push her but he needed to know everything.
“I had brought some things for Anastasia,” she started as she placed her hand on his shoulder. His comfort, his warmth, was all she needed to finish this story. “I was three weeks from delivery and I had nothing for her. My tips and paychecks from waitressing went to pay the bills at the house. He found what I brought. Destroyed it and went after me. You saw the results.”
Theo rubbed her back. “He works for the GBI. Your—”
“Doesn’t matter. Duncan wanted someone to take care of him and I fit the bill. I was lost. Had no one to turn to. No one to protect me or my baby.”
Theo placed a hand under her chin. He brought her face up to his. “Now you do,” he replied before he placed his lips on hers.
EA
“Trevor!!!!” Amanda screamed into Trevor's neck as she came around his cock. She released a staggered breath. This was their second go-around. It seemed whenever her mate walked into the room, she needed him to be inside her. The only time she wasn’t craving him was when she wasn’t thinking about him.
Trevor collapsed beside his mate. He pulled her into his arms. He was enjoying this new side of her. Whenever he walked into a room he could smell her arousal, feel her need. He kissed her temple. “My God woman, you’re amazing,” he told her as he placed a hand on her belly. He smiled as the babies moved. While his mate had a nine-month terms with Viv and Taylor, she would only be pregnant for seven months with the babies she carried. Heck, his mother had given birth a month early to Willie and Freddie.
Amanda chuckled. “Will I want you every minute of every day until these babies come?”
Trevor rubbed her thigh. “Sorry.” He wasn’t sorry. He loved being inside of his mate. If he could, he would be inside her every hour of every day.
Amanda ground her butt into his erection. “You are far from sorry, Trevor Hart.”
He smacked her ass. “I know.”
“Hmm…do that again.”
Trevor smiled, lifted her leg, and placed it over his thigh. “I have a better idea,” he replied. He was about to enter her when his cell rang. “I’m not answering that,” he replied as he pushed into her. Viv was sleeping, Tyson was out on patrol, and Taylor was on her way home. He was determined to have his wife once more before—he stopped moving when Amanda's and his phones rang at once.
“If we are both being called, something is wrong,” Amanda said as she reached for her phone, wondering what was going on.
EA
Taylor sniffled as she sat on her uncle's couch sipping the tea he had given her. She wiped at her tears while she had changed her clothing in the bathroom. She could hear Willie talking to someone, trying to get them to calm down. Something told Taylor the person he was trying to get to calm down was her dad.
“Hey.”
She looked at her uncle. She gave him a sad smile. “Are my parents coming?”
Willie walked over to his niece. He pulled a blanket from the back of the couch and placed it around her shoulders. “Yes. Along with Uncle Atlas and your Ganpa” he told her. He had called Freddie first, then called Theo. He knew his brother was dealing with his mate and her issues but Atlas and their Dad would not keep Trevor from hurting the wolf that had come after his daughter.
