Wiatt put the apple down and walked over to her suddenly. Totally attracted to her ferocity and truth. “I’ve never been more attracted to a woman than I am right now, hearing you say that. No doubt.” He said kissing her hard on the mouth. “That’s my wolf. My girl.” He said resting his forehead on hers. “That’s the plan.”
“That’s the plan.” Tatum re-affirmed back at him as Wiatt brushed her hair back and rested his hand on the back of her neck.
“You’re amazing Tay, amazing.” Wiatt said kissing her again. “Our girl is going to be amazing too, because she’s part of you. Think of how much awesome you are going to pass on to her.” Wiatt smiled down at her softly.
“Think of how much awesome she’ll inherit from you.” Tatum replied back at him, pressing her stomach up against him. “The best guy in the world to raise her strong, raise her right.”
“I can’t wait to meet her.” Wiatt replied smiling.
“Right, so let’s make sure we get this right and we don’t need to revisit this place, these wolves again, for her sake.”
“I got you back momma.” Wiatt said straightening up.
“Good, cause we got hard business ahead. And I can’t say I won’t fall to pieces when it counts. I already feel myself dragging my feet to get out of here. The panic rising in me.”
“It’s different now Tay, you’re different, you’re more than he ever took you for and I’m right here with you baby. Right here. By your side through it all, thick and thin and ugly. Not going anywhere without you.”
Tatum nodded her head and let out a pent up breath loudly. “Right, then let’s do this. Robbie’s already taken up enough time in my life, I don’t want him in it any longer than he needs to be.”
20
It was almost like auto pilot took over as Wiatt moved with her, mostly in silence, into her old child hood neighborhood. The place she’d run from, crying and bleeding and barely alive. She’d never thought that was how she would leave her home ground. Ever. But then who ever thinks they’re going to be the victim of what could only equate to an attempted murder in their lifetime? It was surreal to look back on something that seemed so monumental in her life, a place that held memory like a blanket that coated her. But once she left, the blanket could be taken off and the world could touch her. Tatum stood outside a weather board house in cream and grey, with green awnings. A matching cream coloured, small picket fence and front gate that lead out on to the sidewalk before her.
“Tay?” Wiatt said softly looking at his fiancé. “Tatum,” He tried again snapping his fingers in front of her face.
“Huh?” Tatum said turning her head to look at Wiatt, wide eyed.
“You’ve been kind of quite for most of the walk. Especially since we stepped onto this street. You alright?” Wiatt asked not sure what he really could do for her if she said she wasn’t. Other than wrap her up in his arms, hold her tight and take her back to New York, far from the horror that Boston represented to her now.
“Uh, yeah. No. I guess. I feel kind of uh, mixed up.” She said back at him, her hands firmly in her jacket pockets.
“Oh baby,” He said putting his arms around her shoulders and standing behind her, “You do not have to do this. You’ve already done enough in just getting yourself here.”
Tatum shivered and looked at the house, allowing herself to relax into Wiatt’s hold. “Yes I do. I got this far, and if I don’t go through with this now, and I back out, I’ll hate myself even more than I already do.”
“What?” Wiatt said kissing her temple. “Oh no, Tay, no, don’t say such things.”
“Don’t worry this isn’t his place. This is just a trip down memory lane. Kind of like where my life first started to fall apart. This was my family home.” Tatum said as Wiatt rested his head on her shoulder. “Where I grew up as my family fell apart. Where I tried to hold onto everything I could, but found out I couldn’t hold on to anything.”
Wiatt wanted to take her pain from her, he could hear it in her voice, let alone her words. “But yourself. You’re still here Tay and for that I’m grateful.” Wiatt whispered into her ear and rocked from side to side in his embrace.
“Right. I guess I don’t get to bring a boy home and show him the charm of where I grew up, or introduce him to my family. That’s not how things work for me.” Tatum said turning her head to look back at him.
“Meeting families is over rated.” Wiatt joked placing a kiss on her temple. “And homes are just houses that people turn into nostalgia for personal reasons.”
“You sound cynical.” She shivered.
“Just trying to shift you’re thinking gorgeous, hate seeing you sad.” Tatum moved to lessen Wiatt’s hold so she could turn around and face him.
“I love you just for trying.” Tatum said back at him with a half smile. Tilting her face up to meet his.
“I just love you.” He replied his lips meeting hers in warmth and assurance.
21
The neighborhood looks like a neighborhood anywhere, but in Tatum’s mind there are ghosts running around, playing out scenes in her mind that are like a film of her life. She remembered them so clearly it was like she’d been young just the day yesterday. Not like now, her hand automatically go to her lower stomach, and the bump there. As she looked up at a house familiar to her as her own. For awhile there, it’d been a welcome place of escape. The Harkness family home. Wiatt’s arms slid around her and pulled her into his chest. His own hand sliding down to her stomach onto of hers.
“This is,” Tatum coughed at the sound of how faded her voice was as she shook. “The Harkness family home. Or you know, it was the last time I checked it was. If anyone’s still here they should be able to tell me where Robbie is. And if there are new tenants maybe they’ll have forwarding details we can use.” She said turning around to face Wiatt.
Wiatt’s hands moved up to her face and he cupped it. “Just one more time for the record, because you’re alright by me. You don’t need to prove anything to me. I think you’re amazing and you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” He kissed her then. Wiatt’s lips melting with hers and easing all her anxiety back down as Tatum remembered, she was in a good place now in her life, with a good wolf who loved her deeply. Tatum broke for air and looked softly at Wiatt, a look that informed me that she was still going ahead with her plan. Turning back to the house she stared at it and wondered what was ahead for her. Being stubborn, could be a bad move as much as a good move at times.
“Can I help you folks?” A hidden voice said from behind a dark fly screen door. Tatum stepped forward to the front gate.
“I’m looking for one of the occupants of the house. Robbie Harkness?” She answered the voice. Wiatt stood back watching her.
“Is that you Tatum Lee?” The voice asked her again as the door began to creak open. “Oh my, you’re so grown up now.” The door opened and a woman stepped out and onto the front porch.
Tatum smiled back at her. “Yeah, that’s right, Robbie and I went to high school together.” Tatum continued as the woman came down the steps towards her. “I was back in the old neighborhood and I wondered if, Robbie was still around.” Tatum said hoping her voice wasn’t betraying her as she walked down the front path towards Robbie’s mother, Mrs Harkness.
The two women met in the middle of the path and Mrs Harkness smiled at Tatum, before putting her arms out wide in an all encompassing hug and pulling Tatum, surprisingly close to her in a tight hug of affection. Tatum, taken by surprise, surrendered to the hug, she’d never been this close with Robbie’s mother before.
“Oh, my,” Robyn Harkness said pulling back and putting a hand on Tatum’s lower abdomen. “A bun in the oven?” Wiatt saw the change in Tatum’s body language as her shoulders tensed immediately. He began to walk over to the women.
“Yes, Wiatt and I are very excited about becoming parents.” Tatum replied stepping back out of Robyn Harkness’s prying hand’s reach. She watched as Robyn Harkness’s
eye line shifted from her abdomen to over Tatum’s shoulder and onto Wiatt.
“Well I’ll just bet you are,” She replied, smiling back at Tatum. “Not very far along are you dear?”
“Um, is Robbie around?” Tatum tried again as Wiatt slipped his hand into Tatum’s by her side. Robyn Harkness’s eyes narrowed again as they fell onto Wiatt beside Tatum.
“Wiatt D’arenberg ma’am.” He said politely, holding out his right hand for her to shake.
“Robbie’s mum, Robyn Harkness.” There was a moment of hesitation but Robyn Harkness shook Wiatt’s hand before turning her attention back to Tatum and turning on another smile of warmth. “Well, he doesn’t live here anymore dear, let me just go write down his address for you, his details are inside the house,” Robyn said moving quickly back up the path. Wiatt and Tatum watched her disappear back into the house.
“Did you see that?” Tatum whispered at Wiatt.
“Which part?” He whispered in a low voice back. “The part where she wanted to throw daggers from her eyeballs at me, or the way she reacted when she hugged you and felt you’re pregnant belly?”
“Yeah,” Tatum muttered. “The second one.”
“Yeah I caught that loud and clear. The hug seemed like a deliberate move on her behalf.”
“It was, I’ve never been hugged by her ever before in my life. And then she put her damn hand on me!” Tatum whispered unhappily. “She knows, I mean, she knew about the rape! She wasn’t surprised to see me pregnant at all.” Tatum whispered back at him fiercely.
“Yeah, I kind of picked up on that too.” Wiatt said back at her softly.
“She either knew Robbie was going to do what he did, or he told her about it. Nobody tried to help me, nobody came looking for me. So if she knew about the rape then she either encouraged it or sees nothing wrong with it!”
“I’m sorry Tay, people can be ugly sometimes. Especially when they deliberately let you down.” Wiatt said rubbing a hand up and down her back quickly. “But we won’t be hanging around here long enough to see much of their ugliness.”
“What the hell is taking her so long to get that address?”
Wiatt looked back up at the house. “She’s probably alerting someone in the pack to our presence or Robbie, about you being here and pregnant.”
“Shit.” Tatum muttered softly starting to shake.
“Hey, hey,” Wiatt said walking around to the front of her and holding her by her shoulders. “Baby, look at me,” He said waiting for her to lift her gaze to his face. “No one is going to harm you, no one. Not while I’m alive and breathing and not while I’m by your side. Robbie if he’s got any smarts about him, will practically guarantee us safe passage through the streets till we get to him.”
“Why the hell would he do that, that doesn’t sound very werewolf like?” Tatum pouted back at him.
“Going by the scent of his mother, I’d say he’s not a werewolf. But putting that aside. He’s going to let us walk around unharmed because you’re pregnant. And all wolves know how hard it is for a female wolf to fall pregnant. Let alone carry a pup to term.” Wiatt replied turning around at the sound of the screen door opening again.
“What?”
“Here it is dear,” Robyn Harkness said waving a piece of paper around as she walked back towards them. Tatum smiled back, returning her attention to the other woman.
“Thank you Mrs Harkness, I look forward to seeing Robbie again.” Tatum said keeping eye contact with Robyn Harkness as she took the paper from the other woman. Tatum glanced at it before clamping her hands over it and turning to walk away and handing the paper to Wiatt.
It wasn't until they cleared the block that Wiatt and Tatum started speaking to one another again. “So what was she then if she wasn’t a werewolf?” Tatum asked looking over at Wiatt.
“Come on Tay, you were closer, you have to learn to use your nose. You would’ve picked up on it. You tell me.”
Tatum frowned in thought. “I didn’t get anything like back at the park, when I scented those other wolves. She just smelled like soap and water and human musk.”
“Which means?” Wiatt prompted her.
“Robyn Harkness is just a human?” Tatum said watching Wiatt nod his head in agreement.
“Correct.”
“Hmm, so it’s likely that Robbie is a lycan, right? Which is odd. If Robbie is a lycan, and his brother too and they’re running the packs around Boston, how the hell did that come about?”
“Questions for another time Tay, we’ve already got our mission.” Wiatt said waving the piece of paper at her.
“And what did you mean back there at the Harkness house, about female wolves not carrying pups to full term?” She asked stopping and looking up at Wiatt. He sighed heavily and looked back at her, hesitating.
“It’s just, it’s common knowledge, that werewolf birth rates have been declining in the past decade because female wolves are just finding it harder to carry a pup to full term. There’s no explanation for it that anyone can find. It’s just it’s a hard pregnancy to achieve.” Wiatt said softly.
“Oh.” Tatum replied sounding shocked.
“And human women, find it even more impossible to carry a werewolf pup to term. So the likelihood that Robbie is a werewolf, is slim to none. But I don’t want you to focus on that Tay, I want you to think about looking after yourself and our pup. That’s you’re only job.” Wiatt said leaning towards her and placing a kiss on her forehead.
“It’s not my only job Wiatt, there is the small, ugly matter of dealing with Robbie Harkness one way or another.”
“Come on, you need to eat.” Wiatt said pulling out his cell phone. “Let’s fuel up and figure out the next part of the plan.”
22
Wiatt listed to the sounds of what he could only think meant Paris was fumbling for his cell phone and not aware that he’d swiped it active. “Do not stop that.” Paris uttered “I’m going to shred this bed.” Wiatt grinned and laughed before coughing loudly into the phone. More fumbling sounds and then a clear response. “Fuck my life! Baby brother, tell me why I shouldn’t reach through this phone and ring your neck.”
Wiatt’s eyebrows raised and lowered into a deep frown again. “Come again?” He replied at his brother.
“I’d love to but your timing,”
“Oh.” Wiatt said watching Tatum receive her meal of the hotel waiting staff. “Give Bg an apology,” Wiatt chuckled. “But you know, no rest for the wicked and the werewolf.”
“I definitely wasn’t resting.” Paris mumbled back at him. “There was nothing calm and relaxing about what she was doing to me.”
“Okay, you know what? I really just don’t need those details, like you know, ever.” Wiatt smirked winking at Tatum.
“My loss should be shared so you know how much I hate you right this moment.” Paris continued back at him.
“Well if you stop whining about not getting to screw you’re pack mate, and let me update you, you can get back to screwing her faster.”
“Faster would definitely be better.” Paris replied at him. “She looks too smug right now. So go, tell me what’d you find out?”
“We located the Harkness family home, still in the same neighborhood Tay and Robbie grew up in. The mother was there, and whilst we didn’t see any others while we were there, I sensed another person inside the house.”
“Human or wolf?” Paris asked all seriousness at his brother.
“She came across as human, but I’m not sure.”
“So Robbie Harkness is probably a lycan then. Which is bad news.” Paris replied. “Did you pick up on any scent trail at the family home?”
“No, not one. Maybe he hasn’t come by in some time. But I think he still visits mom,”
“Why do you say that?” Paris asked.
“Because she was very closed off to me, and overly familiar with Tatum. Put her hand on Tatum’s belly because she felt it when she hugged Tatum to her. And after that she became cagey,
defensive. Took her sweet time to get a supposedly forwarding address for Tay to reach Robbie at.”
“Mothers are naturally protective creatures.”
“Yeah, Mrs Harkness came across as more like a shark in sheep’s clothing. Like handing Tay this forwarding address is practically like rolling out the red carpet and directing her to walk into the lion’s den.”
“So not good. Trust you’re instincts Wiatt. If you think it’s a trap of some kind and could endanger Tatum, don’t risk it. Pride or need. Just don’t. It won’t be worth it in the end if anything happens to her or the pup.”
“I know.”
“And is she still insisting on going through with this reunion of sorts?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know what else to tell you then. But protect her, from herself if you need to.”
“Right.” Wiatt’s eyes looked over at Tatum, watching her food, waiting for him to finish the phone call and join her in eating. “Baby go ahead, don’t wait for me.” Wiatt said half smiling back at her. “I’ll finish this up and join you after.” Wiatt said pushing out from the table and walking away from the table they were seated out in the restaurant.
“You clear of earshot now?” Paris asked him.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to send some werewolves up to Boston to shadow you two. I’ll text you who they are once I’ve briefed them. I don’t like the sound of this Harkness guy, a lycan who can run a pack, that’s trouble on a whole new level. More than you can handle by yourself.”
“It’s not just running a pack, it sounds like there’s some sort of class system here, that Harkness is in charge of, like maybe the wolves run everything, even the humans.”
“Stay vigilant.” Paris replied.
“Alright, I’ll phone you again if anything changes.” Wiatt said back at his brother turning around to see Tatum at their table, eating her meal and trying not to glance over at him.
Wolves Bloodlines Page 7
