Chapter 29 Hunter
Hunter
Iarrived home, determined to take at least a modicum of a break.
My work wasn’t finished, by any means, but at least I could do a decent chunk of it from home, which made it much easier to slip away for food and illicit naps.
The others were always after me to delegate better, but that would require me to be a lot less of a control freak than I was.
Blessedly, the fridge was fully stocked, and I sucked back an energy drink in record time, then stood, waiting for the caffeine to infuse my bloodstream.
Avery came barreling into the house. “Angel arrival!”
I moved near enough to the garage door entrance to see what he was yelling about and froze instantly at Logan princess-carrying Clover into our house.
“What the fuck is happening?” I rushed over. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? When did you get back?”
Logan walked right past me and up the stairs, forcing Avery and I to follow. Clover’s scent lingered in the air and woke me up far better than the caffeine was capable of. Logan disappeared into his room.
“Dude, what is going on?” I asked Avery as we practically sprinted after them.
Parker peeked out of his office. “I’m on a call. Why are you all being so loud?” His eyes widened, pupils dilating, and he quickly ended his call. “She’s here?”
I didn’t bother responding, diving straight into Logan’s room where Clover was settled on his bed with all of his blankets bundled up around her.
“Is someone going to explain?” Parker demanded as he filtered in behind us.
Now that I had a good look at Clover, it was obvious she was in rough shape. Why was she here, though? She was supposed to be in Seattle, and if she was sick, shouldn’t she be at home?
“Strip,” Avery ordered.
Parker bristled. “Excuse me?”
“Why are we stripping?” I blinked at Avery, utterly baffled by the command. “She’s not in any condition for an orgy.”
Avery barked a laugh. “Maybe later for that part. We’re looking for a bond mark.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m not taking off a stitch,” Parker groused. “What the hell do you mean, we’re looking for a bond mark?”
“Clover is bonded to someone in the pack, and we don’t know who,” Avery said as casually as if he were announcing the newspaper had arrived.
Too many emotions tumbled through me and crashed into each other until I was internally a hot mess of excitement, anxiety, desire, fear, and panic.
If Clover was bonded to one of us, that meant she wouldn’t be able to—and hopefully wouldn’t want to—hide her growing relationship with me from Meadow. She was pack now.
Excitement and desire won out. I eagerly stripped off my shirt, letting Avery examine my exposed skin. I didn’t feel like I had a bond, but maybe her being gone for so long when it would’ve been fresh had tempered things.
“Nothing,” Avery announced. He turned his head to Clover. “Do you think you’d have bitten anywhere near his dick? I’ll check if I have to, but I’d rather keep a little mystery.”
Clover only shrugged, unsuccessfully hiding her giggles behind her hand. I stripped off my lower layers while Logan peeled off his shirt. Avery did a quick sweep, avoiding my intimate areas as much as possible.
“Well, unless you bit him on the taint, I’m gonna say Hunter’s probably not the one with the mark.”
Clover laughed, the bright sound of it ringing through me. I double- and triple-checked areas Avery had glossed over in Logan’s mirror before pulling on my underwear.
Avery yanked off his own shirt and angled so I could check his back while he checked Logan.
“This is ridiculous,” Parker snapped. “How does she not know who she’s bonded to?”
I caught Clover’s sharp glare a second before Parker shrank.
“I notice you’re not asking the same of you and your pack. How does one of you not know you’re bonded to me?” she snapped back. “I know it’s not you, because I’m not full of self-fucking-loathing right now.”
Parker withered under her ire, but frankly, he deserved it.
I found nothing on Avery, and he found nothing on Logan. That had Avery’s eyes gleaming as he turned to Parker.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Parker warned.
That did absolutely nothing to dissuade Avery from getting Parker in a headlock and successfully removing his shirt when Parker wriggled out of it to free himself.
“Hold still,” Avery demanded.
“No.” Parker danced away from him.
“You don’t want to know?” I asked Parker. I couldn’t fathom why he wouldn’t want to, but Parker was his own beast I often struggled to understand, even after all of these years being in a pack with him.
“You have to let us check,” Avery insisted. “If it’s not on one of us, then it has to be on you.”
“I’d rather live in ignorance, thank you.”
“That’s not fair to Clover. Let Avery check, or Logan and I will hold you down.”
That seemed to spook him into cooperation. It was an extremely rare occasion we needed to get physical for anything, but we couldn’t leave this hanging in the air.
“I’m not doing it in here. We can go to the office.” Parker turned on his heel and left the room, Avery following after him.
The two returned a minute later, Parker with a folder in his hand, both looking thoroughly confused.
“I didn’t find one on him either,” Avery told us. He turned to Clover. “Did you bond someone else?”
The question had ice gathering in my stomach.
“I don’t know how I would have,” she replied, chewing her bottom lip. “I’d been in a dry spell for months before I started fucking you guys, and I didn’t sleep with anyone when I was in Seattle.”
Logan’s eyes widened, staring down at his hands. “It’s me.”
“What do you mean, it’s you?” I asked. “We just checked.”
He held out one hand, pointing to the base of his first two fingers, where neat silver scars intermingled with his tattoos and numerous other tiny scars.
“I fuck my hands up all the time working on the bike. I didn’t notice.
Fucking hell. Guess that explains why I’ve felt like absolute shit since she left. ”
Avery snatched up Logan’s hand, and I bowed my head down next to his, examining it a bit more closely. Flipping the hand revealed the same neat dashed line that matched up with a bite mark. Of course, upon that realization, my brain instantly filled in how he would have gotten a bite mark there.
I grinned. “It looks like you were a very good girl for Logan to bite him in that spot.”
Clover’s cheeks flushed. “I like to think I’ve been very good for all of you.”
I might not have her bite on my skin, but I could certainly have her lips on my mouth. Her sweet peony scent erupted as I stalked closer and drew her in so I could drown in everything Clover. She kissed me like I’d just come back from war.
Parker cleared his throat, all four of us turning to him. “I feel this is even more imperative now. I’ve had it printed and ready.” He passed the folder to Clover.
Her brow furrowed as she took it, and I stared down as she opened it, revealing the contents.
A quick scan had me snatching it away, fury filling me up as I spun to face Parker. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“If she has no ill intentions, she should have no problem signing it.”
“Wait, what is it?” Clover reached for the document, but I wasn’t letting her anywhere near it. “You took it before I could read hardly anything.”
“It doesn’t matter, because you’re not signing it.”
“Hunter, be reasonable.”
As Parker tried to reach for the paper, I held it aloft. “You be reasonable. She’s bonded into the pack.”
Avery leapt up and grabbed the contract, hustling over to hide behind Logan while he read. “Parker, what the fuck, man?”
“Will someone please let me see what it is?” Clover crawled over Logan’s bed toward them, holding out her hand, but Avery hastily shook his head.
“Hunter’s right, you’re not signing this.”
“Not signing what?” Clover growled. “Why are you all being so weird?”
Avery whispered in Logan’s ear, wisely holding on to our pack mate, because once Logan knew what it was, he looked like he was about to throw Parker straight through a window.
I advanced on Parker, doing my damn best to keep myself calm. “How dare you do this without discussing any of it with us? We’re a pack. You can’t pull shit like this.”
“I’m the only one thinking clearly about all of this. Now that she’s bonded and pregnant, we have assets to protect.”
“Pregnant? What the fuck are you talking about?” I spun to Clover, her expression falling and her scent charring.
“You knew? How did you find out? I just found out.” She leapt toward Avery and got her hands on the contract, wrestling it away from him and sprinting down the hall, and from the sounds of it, down the stairs too.
We were a stampede following her.
Clover locked herself in the guest bathroom on the main floor. Even without a bond, the acrid burn of her scent filtered beneath the door. When she finally opened it, her cheeks were streaked with tears and she was staring directly at Parker.
For the first time in this whole interaction, Parker looked like he understood he’d made a mistake, but he was stubborn as hell.
“Is this really what you think of me?” Clover asked softly. “You found out my whole world was turned upside down, and you decided to put me on a fucking leash? I can’t believe I slept with you.” She crumpled up the contract and hurled it at his chest. “Fuck you.”
I tried to reach for her as she marched past and almost got my fingertips taken off.
“Don’t touch me. None of you touch me. You’re in a pack with an asshole, and I can’t be here right now.”
“Clover, please…” I began, not even sure where the sentence was going.
She was pregnant with our pack baby, and Parker might’ve made her hate us all. “Please don’t. I’ve been through enough today, and if you’re going to make excuses for him, I don’t want to hear it.”
I couldn’t breathe as she went straight out our front door.
“Maybe this is for the best,” Parker suggested, as if he didn’t like his nose unbroken.
My growl had him stepping away. “She’s the mother of our fucking child. She’s Logan’s bond mate. You’d better get your fucking shit together about it, because if you cost us a life with her and our kid, we’re done.”