Chapter 15
15
W e spend another day together, mostly in bed napping, talking and getting crumbs everywhere because we don’t eat at the dining table like we should. It’s nighttime when I let Nathan bully me into going to his pack’s run.
“We can go together,” he says.
“Nope. I missed Martha’s call, so I want to speak to her first. Oh, and you keep forgetting your phone here,” I remind him.
He kisses me. “I don’t forget it. You need it more than I do.”
I smile. “Thanks.”
“I can hang around and we can shift here together,” he offers.
I poke him in the chest. “You just want to see me naked. I’ll see you there.”
“Or we could stay?” he suggests.
“Now, who is the sex-crazed monster?” I quip.
“We’re meeting by the lake.” He flashes me a grin, and I laugh when he nearly walks into a wall as he leaves.
I watch him go, and I don’t realize I’m smiling until my cheeks hurt.
After lying in bed for a bit, I drag myself out of bed to call Martha, who does not pick up, then have a quick shower before I join the Blackshaws for a run.
I shift before I leave, arriving to find a pack of wolves relaxing beside the lake. Everyone gets to their feet and angles their head toward me, a sign they were waiting for me.
I’m not sure I would have volunteered to come to this pack run if Nathan hadn’t insisted, but after a two hour run through their forest, I’m glad I did.
It was more fun than I thought I would have.
I retreat a little further away from the Blackshaws to shift back, taking the shirt that Nathan presses into my hand. He’s in a pair of board shorts and I’m trying very hard not to be caught staring at his chest. “You can wear this, if you want.”
I have a feeling it’s less about covering up my nudity and more about him wanting me to smell like him.
But I slip the shirt over my head. “Thanks.”
After everyone has finished dressing, Talis suggests we go to the house for a snack.
Marshall and Jenna missed the run, opting to watch the twins since she’s so close to giving birth now. She won’t shift again until after her baby is born.
I’m walking toward the house with Nathan when Dayne calls out my name.
“Yeah?” I twist to face him.
“Can I have a word?” Dayne asks.
Instantly, I assume I’ve done something wrong. When the pack alpha requests a word with you, it’s hard not to think you’ve messed up. “About what?”
Nathan hangs back, frowning. “Dayne?”
Dayne glances at him. “I need five minutes with her, Nate. You can go ahead.”
Nathan hesitates.
“That was not a question.” Dayne looks at me. “That okay with you, Clara?”
I bounce my gaze between them and nod. “Uh, sure.”
As long as it doesn’t end with me being chewed out for something.
“Come on, Nate.” Talis loops her arm around his waist and urges him toward the house. Either Talis and Dayne discussed this conversation before the run, or I’m witnessing the result of the mental communication that results when shifter's mate.
Nathan and Talis walk on ahead, Talis’s voice slowly fading. Nathan is so silent, I imagine he’s doing his best to eavesdrop. Dayne must be thinking the same thing because he waits until Nathan and Talis must be near the house before he speaks.
“How are you finding Hardin?” he asks.
I eye him warily. “Okay, I guess. Why?”
Is he about to ask me to leave?
“Come here for a sec’. There’s something I want to show you.”
More curious than alarmed, I trail Dayne away from the lake where we ended our run, and into the forest.
“Regan said you weren’t happy in Dawley.”
“No,” I confirm. It’s why she suggested I come to stay in Hardin and see if I might be happier here. “That wasn’t where I was supposed to be.”
It’s weird to say it out loud, but that’s how I feel.
Dayne nods as he walks for a short while longer, stopping feet from a two-story wooden cabin. The top has a balcony that faces mountains in the distance. It’s too dark to see much mountain, but at sunrise or sunset, I imagine the view from up there would be amazing.
He crosses his arms, looking at the cabin as I wait to find out why he brought me here.
“Building a cabin is significantly more straightforward than building a pack, even though this one turned into one of the biggest headaches I’ve ever dealt with. I hated building it. Hated that everything about it went wrong. It cost an absolute fortune, and I constantly worried it would fall down.”
The solution seems easy.
“So, why did you build it?”
He aims a wry smile my way. “It was for Talis, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my mate.”
That’s sweet.
“And you wanted to show me this because?”
“I want you to understand that each member of my pack has to fit. Just like a building with structural issues can collapse, a pack with the wrong member can cause lasting damage. Years ago, we had an alpha who threatened to destroy the entire pack.”
I think I know what happened to him. Rumors led me—and Martha—to believe that Dayne was dangerous and potentially crazy. Martha hadn’t wanted me to come to Hardin at all because of those rumors. Rumors I now believe were false.
“You killed the alpha. Didn’t you?”
He nods. “I did, though I should have done it before he killed most of my family. Because of the harm he caused, I’m very protective of my pack. They’ve hurt enough for a lifetime. I don’t want them to hurt more.”
“And you think I’m here to hurt them?” I’m strangely hurt by the accusation. “That’s why you wanted us to have this talk away from them. And Nathan.”
“Nathan and Hallee argue a lot. I’d say they were like a cat and dog, but you’d get more peace with a cat and dog than with those two sometimes. They’ve been that way for years.”
“That has to do with me because…?”
He snorts, his lips kicking up in a lopsided smile. “Do you know how many arguments Nathan has had with Hallee since you arrived?”
I shake my head.
“Not one.” He blows out a sigh of relief. “The quiet is bliss. I can hear myself think, and I’m not threatening to drown them in the lake if they don’t shut up for five minutes.”
I squint as I try to read him. “I don’t know if you’re being serious or joking.”
“Joking.” He pauses. “At least some of the time. It was the reason I sent him down to Dawley to get you.”
Ah. A certain conversation I had back in Dawley suddenly makes perfect sense. “Regan said she needed to prepare me for the car ride. She told me that no matter how frustrated I got, could I please not shove him out of a moving car? He would be missed.”
Dayne laughs. “She said that?”
“She did.” I smile, but it soon fades. It’s one of the reasons I took off as soon as Adrian attacked. I didn’t want anyone else hurt protecting me, especially someone who drove miles to come pick me up.
I saw the claw marks on Nathan’s car. If Jackson and the others hadn’t gotten to him as soon as they did, Nathan would have died.
“You look thoughtful,” Dayne says, returning me to the present.
I shake my head. “It’s nothing.”
His raised brow tells me he’s not buying my lie. “The reason I brought you out here, where Nate wouldn’t try to climb a tree and eavesdrop, is to say that his newfound happiness has everything to do with you.”
I blush, looking away. “I haven’t done anything.”
“I’ll have to disagree.” He gives me a probing look. “But I wanted to ask if you’re happy here with us .”
“ Us ?”
He nods at the cabin. “Building a cabin is hard work. It’s stressful, but the results are amazing. Building a pack? Infinitely more rewarding.”
“You want me to stay? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
He nods. “I do. So do the others. Not just because you make Nate happy. You fit with us .”
I look at the cabin and I think about being a Blackshaw, because that’s what I’d be. “Ty is building a cabin for Martha in Dawley.”
“I heard about it. I’ve been pondering if I want to build more here. Marshall and Jenna were going to live in one, but they prefer to be in the house so their little one can grow up alongside the twins. Savannah and Jeremy will probably want to raise their baby at the house as well when they’re ready to tell us they’re having one. But space is going to be an issue.”
I hear the resigned note in his voice and I swallow my smile. “You’re not looking forward to building those cabins, are you?”
“Absolutely the fuck not,” he says, making me laugh.
“It’s different here.”
I feel Dayne look at me as I study the cabin and the love that went into building a structure that would have been easier to knock down or walk away from.
Dayne didn’t knock it down or walk away from it. He saw it through to completion because his mate’s happiness mattered more to him than his frustration with the build. Just like I see him building whatever cabin his pack needs, even though he’s probably dreading it with every bone in his body.
“How so?” he asks.
“In Dawley, everyone came from somewhere different. Lone wolves learning how to be a pack. Being together was hard when everyone had gotten used to being alone, so the cabins were needed more there than they probably are here. Staying would be different.”
Maybe I’ve forgotten how to be in a pack. It’s been years. A long time.
I haven’t had a pack since I lost mine when I was too young to appreciate the safety, security, and comfort of having a place where I truly belonged.
“We’re family. We’ve had years of driving each other crazy, but we’d never choose to be anywhere but with each other. There’s a place here for you if you want it, but you have to want it, Clara.”
He bumps his shoulder with mine. “Come on. Let’s grab something to eat at the house.”
We walk back to the house, and along the way, Dayne fills me in on his plan to extend the house by adding another floor. He’d extend at the back, but they’d lose a big chunk of the backyard and they like to have football games there.
With the way his pack is growing, more cabins are going to be needed eventually.
“Hire a project manager for the builds,” I tell him as we jog up the porch steps. “Pass the cabin builds for someone else to manage.”
He grins down at me as he pulls the door open. “You interested in the job?”
“After what you just told me?” I snort. “Absolutely not.”
His expression is thoughtful. “I’ll consider it. The twins will be walking more soon and I’d rather spend time with them than be dealing with contractors.”
Everyone has gathered in the kitchen. They’re standing around the kitchen island, sitting at the dining table, or kicking their legs on top of the counters, and it is loud .
They pass around chip bags, make sandwiches, and laugh and talk with each other between sips of their sodas.
“Want a sandwich, peach?” Nathan calls out, hopping down from a kitchen counter.
“Peach?” Gavin asks.
I shake my head. “It’s just a nickname.”
No one needs to know how it originated.
“Because?” Hallee asks.
Nathan places me on the counter. “Just because. How about a roast beef and mustard sandwich?”
My stomach lets out a happy gurgle. “Sounds good.”
He places a can of soda in my hand and spends more time making me laugh than making me this promised roast beef sandwich, but that’s okay. I will always take one of Nathan’s smiles over a sandwich.