by B. L. Dawn
Standing up, he led Tatum out of the house. As she passed the other males on the porch, she pushed out her hand, ordering them to stay. Merrill went in between two small houses and down a little path. After a five-minute walk, Merrill stopped. “Adina, sweetie, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Her name’s Tatum. She’s the one who’s been bringing us food. I want you to go with her.”
Tatum had to bend around Merrill to see who he was talking to. A small girl was sitting on the ground. In the dried dirt, there were images made with swirled designs in front of her. The images were so beautiful that Tatum had a hard time looking away. Adina’s finger was a claw. As Adina listened to her father, the claw turned back into a finger. Wow, I have never seen anyone do that before.
“I’m sorry I’m such a burden on you, father.”
“You’re not a burden, Adina. It’s my old body that has let you down. I’ll see you again, but I need you to be safe and healthy. Can you do this for me?”
“Yes.”
The thin female stood up, and she was much taller than Tatum first assumed. She was a skeleton. Her ribs showed through her dress, and her cheeks were hollowed. When the little girl stared toward Tatum, she smiled.
“Hello. My name’s Adina.”
“I’m Tatum. I want you to know that I’ll take good care of you.”
Adina had the clearest jade eyes that Tatum had ever seen, maybe from not being able to see well. Her hair was coal-black, long, and thin down her back. She had pale skin with visible blue veins.
Adina twisted her fingers together. “I appreciate what you’re doing for my father and me.”
“It’s no big deal. Let’s gather your things. I have some more business to take care of in the other territories. There’s food in my car. You can eat as soon as we get there. If you need anything or want anything, I want you to tell me.” Tatum didn’t pose it as a question. It was a demand.
How could the other pack members let this girl starve like this? Were they so bad off they couldn’t share food with her? That might have been the case, but it still pissed Tatum off.
Merrill led them out of the woods, and Adina had her hand on her father’s back, letting him guide her home. Once inside, Adina gathered what she owned in her arms, kissed her father, and came out to the porch. When Adina stood beside the males on the porch, she looked scared and shook ever so slightly.
“Adina, these are my good friends. They are protectors, my guards, and now that you’re with me, they’ll protect you as well.” Tatum looked every male in the eye. Without words, she gave them the silent order. They all nodded. “Leo, Adina has trouble with her vision. She’ll need you to guide her to the SUV.”
Leo hooked his arm under Adina’s and rested his hand sadly on hers. Shaking his head, he looked at her with his brows pulled tight together. The same image was on all the males’ features. It was disheartening to witness a fellow shifter in this shape.
He guided her down the stairs and all the way back to the car. When they reached the SUV, the males opened the front door for Adina, pampered her with attention, and gave her food with some fresh cold water. They were treating her like a princess. It made Tatum proud of her male guards. These males would never let this happen to a female in their pack. Never.
Tatum visited the other outskirt packs but left Adina and Leo with the SUV. He was to guard her with his life, and he took his job seriously. He tried to feed her and make sure she kept hydrated. Leo walked around the SUV while the others were gone. A day and a half went by, and it was time to head back to Green Lagoon. Tatum had already wanted to take a dip in the lagoon water, to escape the constant heat. But now, she wanted to grab some soap and scrub Adina down. She was dirty from head to foot.
Chapter 28
They pulled up to Enoch’s house, which had been sanded smooth. Nothing like a little shifter elbow grease to get the job done. There was a small firewood building already built. Eli, Oliver, and Lilly ran over to say hello and to get the latest on the outskirt packs. After introducing Adina to them, Tatum let them know about their trip.
Her hand ran along the smooth porch railing. “It looks great around here. You guys must have been working yourselves to the bone.” They all beamed at her. Their chins rose, and their chests puffed up. “Adina, I would like to take you and Lilly to the lagoon. We can clean up there.”
Adina leaned in the direction of Tatum’s voice like she wanted to say something. Tatum walked closer, putting her ear up to Adina’s mouth. “How far away is it? I don’t know if I can walk far.” Adina sounded embarrassed by her weakened state. But her pack should be embarrassed for not taking care of a fellow shifter.
“Don’t worry about it. Eli is going to drive you there.” Tatum looked at Eli and dared him to say otherwise.
He nodded and ran inside to get his keys. Eli came back out and jumped on his motorcycle. “It’s going to get noisy, but don’t be scared. Okay?” He started the motorcycle.
Tatum helped her on the back. “Hold on tight.” She glanced at Lilly. “Will you grab an extra pair of clothes, some rags, and soap?”
Lilly went inside and came back out, holding the items in a plastic bag. Tatum took the bag, hanging it on Eli’s handlebars. She winked at Eli and signed, Thank you.
Tatum jogged over to her little house and undressed. After she shifted, she met Lilly outside. Lilly’s fur was a light brindle fade, with white, gray, and reddish colors. They both took off running toward the lagoon with Eli close behind.
It wasn’t long before they were helping Adina off the motorcycle and into the cool emerald water. Lilly was shuffling around in the soap bag on the lagoon’s edge.
Adina dipped herself in, bobbing up and down. Her smiled revealed her white teeth. “This feels nice.”
“Good. Enjoy it.” Tatum took a rag and got it wet, soaping it up for Adina’s use. “I’m going to clean your face.”
Stepping forward, Tatum raised the rag to Adina’s face. Adina flinched away. Tatum scrunched her eyebrows, and then her eyes widened in understanding. “I’m not going to hurt you. Okay? I’m just cleaning off your face.” Tatum reached up again, and Adina let her wipe the dirt away. “Who hits you?” She acted like it wasn’t an important question and someone might not end up dead during her next visit to Tall Elm.
“Oh.” Adina chuckled, shaking her head. “No one hits me. It’s just that…well, sometimes I can’t see the meat when he throws it at me.”
Tatum fumed, feeling heat travel up her neck and inflame her ears. Her teeth ground until a sharp pain bolted up the side of her face. “Who throws meat at you?”
“It’s not a big deal. My father shouldn’t have burdened them with feeding me. I’m worthless to the pack.”
Lilly was standing in the lagoon behind Adina. Her hand flew over her mouth.
She was most likely looking at Adina’s skeletal back.
“Adina, a pack is supposed to take care of one another. Who throws scraps at you?”
“I don’t want to say.”
“Why? You don’t have to protect them.”
“Because my father asked the young to feed me. If the male hadn’t thrown meat at me, I would have starved.” Adina’s body shook as red splotches broke out on her skin.
“Calm down.” Tatum put more soap on the rag and handed it to Adina. Her voice was low and to the point. “You’ll never be treated like that again.”
Adina nodded.
“I’ll wash your hair.” Lilly’s voice cracked, but it was soft and gentle. She went to grab the shampoo.
The females washed themselves clean and helped Adina dress in her new clothes. Eli came back to pick Adina up, and they all headed back to the village. Tatum showed Adina the bed where she could sleep and went to sleep across the hall.
On the first day, they all teamed up on Enoch’s house. Eli, Oliver, and Lilly painted it with a fresh coat of white paint. The rest of them went inside, opened all the windows,
and sanded the interior walls and floors. They replaced the rotted boards when they found them.
Adina was sitting on a stool in Enoch’s kitchen. An old WWII sink drained into the back yard. The sink had a plug, and Leo filled it up with buckets of water for Adina. She was cleaning dishes and whatever else Leo could find from the other houses. Adina was happy to help. Everyone made sure to talk to her as they passed by, asking if she was thirsty or hungry. Tatum encouraged Leo to walk with Adina around the village to show her where the bathroom was. The thin girl had terrible muscle tone. It was probably from being starved. The body eats away at good muscle to stay alive once starvation starts to occur.
Everyone took breaks and ate when they needed to. The work on the house continued long into the evening. Anything broken or unusable was stuck in large black bags and set out on the porch. By nightfall, they had painted the inside of the house a light baby blue. Tatum planned on all the smaller houses’ paint jobs being the same way.
Working hard, she tried to keep her mind off Luke. What would he think of Adina? Would he be holding her in bed right now if they were together? Was he relieved because she wasn’t around? Would he like the way the house was coming along?
Everyone called it a night. They all found places to sleep and crashed the minute they were able.
On the second morning, Tatum worked on the outhouse. She couldn’t stand one more visit to the old putrid commode. She asked Sam to help her move the little wooden building, and they placed it behind Enoch’s house and turned it on its side. Cleaning this outbuilding is going to be disgusting. She used the leftover water from the day before and scrubbed every inch of the little building until it was clean. She let it dry in the sun as she went to grab the post hole digger to dig a long hole into the ground.
Walking across the field, Tatum put her back muscles into every strike until the hole was as deep as possible. Taking the extra dirt, she wheelbarrowed it across the village toward the old hole, which was full of excrement and flies. Tatum covered it with dirt, packing it in tight. The sun was hot, and she was rancid, but she hadn’t finished yet. Walking back over to Enoch’s house, she grabbed sandpaper off the porch and sanded the little building inside and out. Tatum coated it with white exterior paint.
It was clean and fresh, but she didn’t fare so well. She made her way to the runoff from the lagoon and scrubbed herself clean.
When she returned, she saw that Lilly had cleaned all the windows in each house. It made such a difference once you walked into the houses. It looked lighter and fresher, even though the small houses hadn’t had any other work done to them. At Enoch’s house, the males had coated the upper floors with shellac. They started to do the same process on the downstairs floor.
Running around the back of the house to check on the outhouse, Tatum felt the paint. The heat had made the paint dry quickly. She asked Lilly to help her move it over the new hole, where she screwed down the new toilet seat while Lilly grabbed a few toilet paper rolls.
Tatum had a great idea. “Lilly, Adina should paint some designs on the outhouse.”
Lilly looked at Tatum like she had lost her mind.
Tatum smiled. “Trust me, even though she can’t see well, she can create beautiful images. We have baby-blue paint she can use.”
Lilly raised her eyebrows. “If you say so.”
Moments later, Tatum begged Adina to paint the outhouse. Leo encouraged Adina to paint as well, even though he looked at Tatum with a cocked eyebrow. He walked Adina to the outhouse while Tatum grabbed all the supplies and jogged over. Holding a thin, blue-tipped paintbrush, Adina started her design. It swooped and swirled. There were stopping points and lines that had no end. Dots were in random places, and paisley-like shapes made the image dance. Adina looked so relaxed. Painting is what she’s good at. Even with poor eyesight, Adina was an artist.
Tatum left Leo and Adina to paint the outhouse and decided to start moving furniture out of all the little houses. She worked on cramming all the furniture into the last two houses on the village’s left side.
By the time the sun was setting, Adina was finishing up with the outhouse. They all gazed upon her work, in awe, until the last stroke. Everyone patted Adina on the back, telling her how beautiful the designs were. It made Tatum want to hang out by the little outhouse for the rest of the night, but she wasn’t going to do that. It was, after all, an outhouse.
Everyone found a place to sleep, and when they laid their heads down on the pillows, they were asleep instantly after a hard day’s work.
Tatum woke up and stretched. She wished Luke was with her right now. What would Luke be doing today? Would he be patrolling the territory and thinking about her like she was about him? Pushing her curiosity away, she decided to refocus.
In the next four days, they worked on eight little houses in the village. They repaired all the roofs. The houses were sanded and painted, and the hardwood floors were repaired and covered with shellac.
They moved the furniture outside and began to sand the wooden parts and paint fresh coats of shellac on them. Adina helped sand the kitchen tables the best she could. She liked being able to help and being a part of something. It gave her a sense of importance.
She was painting shellac on a wooden chair when an engine sounded in the distance. Tatum set down her brush. “Stop; do you guys hear that?”
Everyone stopped and listened. Setting down their tools, they walked to the end of the village. Lilly grabbed Adina, scooting her off to Tatum’s house. Standing with her brother by her side and the rest of the males behind her, Tatum let her brain get ready to fight. Tatum narrowed her eyes, muscles tense. No one was going to come here. This was Enoch’s property, and by all beta rights, she was going to protect it.
Around the bend, a silver truck drove up. Tatum strained to get a better view. Why was Eddie here? “It’s just Eddie,” Tatum said.
Everyone went back to work, and Leo went to tell Adina and Lilly to come back outside. When the truck got closer, Eddie, Cora, and Luke were visible inside the truck. A smile spread across her face when her eyes fell upon Luke. She had missed him beyond belief. Maybe he wanted to be with her after all. The urge to squeeze his cheeks together while laying a big, fat, juicy kiss right on his mouth was strong. They climbed out of the truck and walked toward her.
“Hey, what brings you out to Green Lagoon?” Tatum grinned enough to reflect the sun.
Eddie snorted. “This guy here wouldn’t leave me alone until I brought him out here.”
Growling came from Luke as he glared at Eddie.
Tatum tilted her head, opened up her arms, and waited. There was a smile on his face as he walked over to her. His arms wrapped around her in a big hug and lifted her off the ground. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too.” She pushed her face painfully into his, wishing it was their lips connecting.
When they separated, Tatum gave them a tour of the finished houses and explained the different processes they were going through to renovate.
Tatum grabbed Luke’s hand several times, wanting to hold it, but she had to remind herself that he didn’t belong to her. Eventually, she put her hands in her pockets. Why is this so hard?
Oliver stopped sanding when she walked by. He raised his eyebrows at Tatum and pointed to Luke. Tatum eyed him with wide eyes and mouthed the words, “I will.”
Tatum introduced them to Adina. Luke wasn’t interested in her as an intended mate, which was a relief. After that, Cora took Eddie to the lagoon, leaving her with Luke. Neither one of them said much to the other.
She walked away from him and lifted a table, lugging it to the first finished house. Luke grabbed a couple chairs and caught up with her. It actually made Tatum feel pretty good seeing him wanting to be with her. And he wasn’t acting so depressed right now. She set the table down in the living area. “When are you heading back?”
“I’m staying. I haven’t been able to sleep.
” Luke looked around the shiny floor. “Can I hold you tonight?”
Tatum took in his features. He had dark circles under his eyes. “That’s fine.”
Luke closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Thank you.”
They finished the furniture in the first house and moved on to the next. By the time the second house had furniture, Eddie and Cora were leaving.
Tatum looked over at Luke and laughed. “Someone’s going to have to ride in the cargo area on the way back.”
Luke chuckled. “If I have to, I will.”
The others finished up with the furniture and moved the pieces back into the little houses. They all changed living quarters. They cleared the four unfinished houses of furniture, deciding to work on them tomorrow.
When the evening came, everyone was tired and ready for sleep. Tatum and Luke climbed into a free bed together in a house all to themselves. A great sense of relief swept over her when Luke tucked her into his body. Wrapping his arms around Tatum, Luke buried his face in her hair.
Then, there was that smell again. That sweet smell that Tatum assumed was embarrassment.
In a whisper, she asked, “Luke, are you embarrassed of me?”
Luke jerked up. “Hell no. Don’t ever think that. I’m honored you want to be around me.”
He settled back down, pulling her into him tighter. She rubbed circles on Luke’s arm as his breathing grew heavy. It warmed her neck, and her eyelids bobbed with each one of Luke’s exhales. Soon, she drifted off into a deep sleep.
Chapter 29
In the morning, on the seventh day, Luke and Tatum rolled out of bed with no hanky-panky, and she was disappointed. That’s what Tatum said she wanted their relationship to be like, but on the other hand, she wanted them to be true mates.
Walking over, they grabbed a bite to eat. Oliver walked past, giving her the stink eye. Tatum knew that she needed to talk with Luke, but it was more challenging than it looked. After all, she had just gotten Luke back in her arms. Was she going to ruin that so soon? Hell, she was in pain without him near her. Didn’t Oliver see that? What if she told Luke that they were true mates, and it wasn’t true?
