Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
TALLY
I finish eating at the same time Keegan throws his phone against the wall.
Although I was slowly relaxing around them, after him sounding off, I’m like a cat on a hot tin roof again.
My nerves are understandably shot, but I wasn’t expecting a deep ache and need to comfort him.
I’m getting lost in the push and pull of our designations, which is a sign of how tired I am and how scent matched we are, but I can’t afford to show them any weakness, either.
It’s a balancing act, one I’m currently doing a shit job at.
I tuck into a small ball, wondering how I can sneak past Keegan when Tynan breaks the spell for me.
“Go work it off.” Tynan’s voice is like a clap of thunder aimed towards Keegan.
The Alpha responds in an instant. It takes me a second to catch up, because I was expecting the shit to hit the fan after Tynan telling Keegan what to do. I’ve worked with lots of different Alphas and had to endure their endless mood swings, but it’s different seeing pack dynamics firsthand.
I think Tynan realizes I’m thrown, and not only by Keegan’s tantrum. He lets me have the space to catch myself and doesn’t look directly at me when he takes the tray back to the kitchen. He cleans up without talking, then he squats in front of me. “Can I look at your side now?”
“Keegan did before. It’s fine.”
Tynan rests a hand on my leg, and like burn cream, it smooths away my fraying nerves again. “We all see things differently, Tally.”
“And I usually act differently than what you guys are seeing,” I offer, experiencing a sudden need to explain myself.
He hums, his only response, before I shuffle forward and lift my top. Watching him is interesting. He approaches checking the wound differently than Keegan did. His entire energy is different, really.
“I’m not an invalid.”
Tynan doesn’t argue. He doesn’t say anything as he checks it over, pushing it gently. Without another word, he goes into the kitchen, opening one of the overhead cupboards and pulls out a medical kit.
“If you let me wrap it, I’ll let you do a light workout.”
He goes to stand, expecting me to follow, but I grab his hand.
And then realize I did, dropping his hand quickly.
“Thank you. For the food and looking after me, and it’s all nice and everything, but before anything else happens, I want to speak with everyone.
We need to set some ground rules and all get on the same page. ”
“Same page?”
“Yeah.”
He looks stumped, and I don’t want to be a bitch, considering how nice he’s being, but they’re all acting like I’m here of my own free will.
Which I’m not. Technically. I mean, my change of heart is a means to an end, and they don’t need to know that, but they do need to know what’s going to fly and what I won’t allow.
I double-check the clock on the fridge to make sure I have the time right, considering it’s already dark out.
“I’m working tonight. I’m sure there’ll be someone here who’ll want to argue about it, so I’d like to save my energy for that before I decide if I want to train or not.
And the deal was wedding ring or guns, and surprise, surprise… the door reopens.”
I finish with a large, put-on smile, which makes the subtle lemon of his scent get tart enough to make me want to squint my eyes. I fight against it, because he’ll see it as a sign of weakness. Or me not being at my best.
“You don’t need money,” he states rather than asks.
“It’s not about money.”
“Then, what is it about?”
I stand, forcing him to take a couple of steps back. “Being me. You can’t take away my independence. If you force the issue, any hope of us becoming a real pack and actually being a real married group will vanish.”
“That’s a threat?”
“No. It’s a fact of life. What’s something you hate?”
He doesn’t answer, although his lack of words doesn’t mean he's disengaging, plus I don’t really give him a lot of time.
“Imagine if I took away your access to all gyms in the entire world. You don’t need to work out—I mean, look at you. Are you good if I ask you never to work out again?”
The stare I get reveals his thoughts on the matter.
“Or how would your twin feel if I asked him to never say your name again? It’s ridiculous, right?
He’d do it, though. Being an Omega, he’d do it just from knowing it would make me happy.
You’d do it, too, the workout thing, I mean.
But how long would it take before you started missing working out so much that it would make you snap at me?
Your irritation would turn into frustration, then it would fester until one day you’d look at me and wonder who the hell I think I am asking you not to do something you love.
Right this second, you think you wouldn’t hate me because of it, but you would.
You wouldn’t be able to think of me without this awful taste coating your thoughts.
One day, that hate would grow to such epic proportions, no matter how much you didn’t want it to, that you’d maybe give me a little shove or you’d snap… ”
“Okay, I get it. For the record, I’m not sure I could ever hate you.”
“But that’s the other thing, Tynan—you don’t know me. You’re all caught up in a beautiful dream a little girl left you with.”
Though I don’t want to hurt him, my words have an impact. My hand rushes out to grab his. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t being cruel. If you believe it so much, then respect her, me, and yourself enough and get to know me.”
“You talk as if our pack won’t work out.”
“You guys haven’t given me much to work with, though, have you?
There are heaps of book babes out there who would swoon over the way you guys basically kidnapped me, but I’m more of a romance girly…
I want to get to know people. Surprise dinners, walks at midnight, find out things we share in common.
You know, the whole swept-off-my-feet thing. ”
He doesn’t instantly dismiss me or argue back, which I take as a win.
“I thought we could give things a chance and talk like normal people about me working, which is not asking for your permission, by the way. Perhaps if Keegan knew where I was, he wouldn’t go to such extremes when I go out the next time. If you guys are all busy and don’t have time today…”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
He shrugs. “I’m surprised, is all. We all expected a fight.”
“I’m sure we’ll fight at some point during the conversation we need to have. Keegan’s too hotheaded.”
“He’s actually not.” Tynan stops talking, like he’s carefully thinking over what to say.
“Look, he has a very short fuse if anyone threatens our pack. The event where we found you, was a complete shit show from the get go. Throw on top of that, you and Rafferty were injured, and he’s got a lot of pent-up anger and energy.
But it’s not directed at you, although you seem to know how to push his buttons. ”
“I didn’t say anything, and he threw his phone across the wall.”
“Well, Ronin was winding him up.”
“About?”
Tynan stops talking, and I see his thoughts ticking along loudly, which only proves my point.
“Alright, then, how about I leave my suggestion with you, and someone can get back to me. But I am working at the bar. I gather you know which one?”
The sharp nod is all I get. Interestingly, his subtle scent ghosts away to nothing, which means something about what I said upsets him. I turn around, heading back down to my bedroom, stopping at the door.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got my days right and only slept one day away.
I start at three-thirty today and am working until close, which is eleven-thirty.
So, thanks for the offer of a work out but I won’t be able to today.
Now, you or any of your pack are not coming to sit in the bar while I do a shift, that’s beyond ridiculous.
Besides, I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do, like find out who the guy that snatched Daisy works for. ”
I start to walk back to my bedroom, but stop and return to where he’s still standing. The desire to hug him is strong, but I lock my hands behind my back, not knowing if he’d even want a hug from me.
“Thank you for looking after me, just now. I really appreciate it. I like that I can talk with you, and now I’ve explained why I was so weird at the gym that night, I hope we can spend more time together.”
He’s quiet, and I wonder if I’ve said something wrong, but his scent lets me know I haven’t. It’s back to normal again, driving me nuts with how much I like it. And then, when I think he’ll turn away and leave what I said unanswered, he doesn’t speak, but he brushes my hair behind my ear.
“Thanks again. I am going now,” I whisper, explaining myself for no reason, but he gets me muddled up by how easy and nice and simple it is being with him without the crush of designations.
God, a girl could fall for this pack if she wasn’t careful.
I let the door close behind me, but it doesn’t shut, nor do I lock it. It’s not like either of those things would keep them out. They’d just cut another hole in another wall as an entry.
Grabbing my phone, I sit in the small window alcove, looking over to Rafferty’s room as I check my emails and send a text to Walsh, triple-checking my start time.
He replies almost straight away, but I get a second message asking to work at another private gig the next night. It’s an easy yes, and I let him know.
Next is working through the endless emails that seem to have come from nowhere.
Seriously, I was offline for twelve hours, and it’s insane how many emails I have.
Once I’ve worked through and deleted most of them, I flick over to a new book.
Instantly, I’m transported into someone else’s drama, and I lose track of everything.