Chapter Seven #5
“Nate is one of your Pack,” she said, trying to remember the names of his Pack members he’d listed on the way here.
“He’s my Second.” Liam grabbed her hand and led her toward his truck, not rushing, but not wasting time either.
“Second Pack? How many Packs are you in?”
“I’ll explain later,” he gritted out as he opened her door for her.
A white pickup truck was heading right for them, and she nearly screamed as he slammed on his brakes and skidded sideways toward them, spraying dirt. A plume of dust enveloped her and Liam, and he was just…gone. Liam had disappeared.
Through the dust, she could see two men fighting. They were yelling something she couldn’t understand, and the roaring in her ears was overwhelming as she looked at how close Nate’s truck was to her. It had settled just a couple of feet away.
She’d almost just died.
“Have you lost your mind?” an unfamiliar voice wrenched up. “You’re in the middle of Arrangements, man!”
“Stop. Talking!” Liam roared, then grabbed the man by the back of the neck and dragged him toward Nory and shoved his face near his truck. “If you ever come that close to her with anything again, I will kill you!” His yelling echoed across the woods.
He shoved Nate forward and placed himself between the dark-haired, gold-eyed stranger and Nory.
Nory peeked around him to the truck, where she’d seen movement. There was a woman in the passenger’s seat, and her glowing green eyes were wide, and steady on Nory. Nory gave a little wave. The woman didn’t move.
“I can go,” she said softly.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Liam snarled. “If he has a problem with it, he can take that problem and fucking eat it!” Liam sounded terrifying right now, and when Nory slid her hand to his forearm, his skin was burning hot, like he was running a fever.
“She’s not staying in my den,” Nate gritted out, gold eyes fiery on Liam. Around the side of Nate’s truck, a man appeared. A muscular, bearded, very naked man.
“Snitch,” Liam spat out.
“I wouldn’t have to snitch if you didn’t do dumb shit, such as but not limited to bringing a human woman into our territory. Nate is right, Liam. You are in the middle of Arrangements. We said pick an Arrangement, fuck the human. Not bring her here!”
“She’s not staying in my den,” Nate gritted out again as he paced back and forth. “Hell no.”
“No one is asking you to open your den,” Liam gritted out. “I’m getting a room at the Lodge.”
“It’s full, Liam. It’s full of Rogues. She has a home. A nice home, in a human apartment complex.”
“She’s got a guy stalking her—”
“So, this is the better option?” Nate demanded. “We earned our reputation, man. She isn’t safe here.”
“Delta is safe here,” Liam said, calmer now. More patient now.
“Delta is a werewolf!”
“I’ve never seen her Change in need of defending herself. I’ve never even seen her Change,” Liam pointed out. “She’s been in human form for weeks and no one has messed with her.”
“Wrong. Everyone takes shots at her,” Nate barked. “Why do you think I’m constantly with her?”
Liam huffed a sigh. “Nory’s stalker got me kicked out of the apartment complex. I can’t be there to keep her safe if she’s there alone. You have that instinct to be near Delta when she is under fire, right?”
Liam waited, and slowly the fire faded from Nate’s eyes, and the color morphed to a whiskey brown. “It’s not the same. We are werewolves. We have a bond.”
“I don’t know what it is. I don’t have a name for it,” Liam said.
“But I can’t keep my wolf away from her when she’s scared or hurt.
I can’t keep him away from her when she’s happy.
I want to soak it all up. I’ll chase off one of the Rogues and get a room.
That was the plan. I’m not asking you to understand. ”
“What about the Arrangements?” Nate demanded.
“I can’t.”
“What about the Pack?” he yelled. “All you have to do is pick a she-wolf and we can all stay together.”
“Is that even what you want?” the naked guy asked.
“Vic, stay out of it.”
“Oh, shit,” she muttered on accident.
Vic frowned. “It speaks.”
“You’re the wolf,” she said, pointing at him.
He narrowed his eyes at her pointed finger, and she apologized and shoved her hands into her pockets. “That was so cool.”
Vic’s eyes narrowed a little more. “You think my wolf is cool?”
“Way cool.”
There was this loaded minute, and then Vic turned and threw a hand up in the air. “I like her, she may stay.”
“You’re the bottom of the Pack, Vic, you fucking dickhole. You have no say!” Nate yelled after him.
Liam had been quiet, just watching it play out, but at that, he said, “I chose you as Second to be the voice of reason.”
“That’s what I’m doing. You chose well.”
“I think we need to revisit ranks.”
“What?” Nate demanded.
“The fact that you think you have any pull to talk to me like you have been is wild. It is taking every ounce of my self-control not to give your throat to my wolf right now.”
The anger disappeared from Nate’s face, and she could see fear there now. He hunched his shoulders and backed off a few steps and exposed the side of his neck. “I’m sorry but I cannot give sanctuary to someone like her.”
The door to his truck opened, and the woman stepped out. She was tall, with brown curls, and green eyes that darted between Nate and Liam. She hung her head and slunk past Nate.
“Delta, what are you doing?” he asked as she came to stand right beside Nory. Right. Beside her.
Wow, she was really pretty. Like an woman and a model all in one.
“Get in the truck, Delta,” Nate murmured.
“I’m going with them,” she said in a small, shaking voice.
Oh, that got Nory’s heart. She recognized that voice. She had trouble speaking up. So did Nory.
She wanted to grab her hand and tell her everything was okay, and that she was just going to leave, and go stay in Boise with her mom. She hadn’t meant to cause all of this drama.
“You’re going to stay with them?” Nate repeated.
“You’re wrong for not offering to help. He is your Alpha. I think you have forgotten what an Alpha shoulders. If Liam says she needs sanctuary, you help her. What’s his is ours to care for.”
Liam was looking at Delta like she’d grown an extra head right now. He blinked hard and returned his attention to Nate.
The Nate in question sighed and hooked his hands onto his hips. “You’re not being fair.”
“I’ve never asked you for anything,” Delta said. “I’m asking now. I want her to stay with us.”
“Why?” Nate gritted out.
“Because it’s the right thing to do. She’s being stalked. Liam said it. She might be scared—”
“Delta—”
“I’m lonely!” Delta gasped and looked down at the ground, and ooooh Nory knew this feeling. It was the lash-out every shy person had when they got overwhelmed and couldn’t take it anymore, and got to a point where they just blurted out a feeling, and then instantly regretted it.
Nory didn’t know why she did it. She really didn’t know. But she slid her hand around Delta’s and squeezed it. Everything’s okay, fellow shy person.
Nate stared at Delta in shock before he paced away, muttering a curse. He paced back and looked at Liam. “You can have the spare bedroom until the Lodge clears out.”
“I wasn’t asking—”
“Well, now I’m asking,” Nate ground out. “Delta really hasn’t asked me for anything until now. It’s for her.” Nate’s attention dipped to Nory before he said, “Not for you.”
And with that, Delta glanced over at Nory wide-eyed, squeezed her hand back and walked directly to Nate’s truck and climbed in, then sat there frozen, just waiting.
“Pair up, they said,” Nate muttered to himself as he walked around the front of his truck. “It’ll be fun, they said.”
When Nory looked up at Liam, he was biting back a smile.
She had no clue what had just happened with the insane dynamics here, but whatever it was, Liam clearly approved.
Nory walked around Liam’s truck and scanned the edge of the charred rubble, then picked up a tiny sliver of burned wood with a bent nail hanging out of it.
“What are you doing?” Liam asked from where he was watching her.
“For the memory box,” she said, holding up the little piece of wood. “Can I have this?”
“I thought the memory box was for good memories,” he said softly.
“You let me in, and showed me your home, and told me the plan for the rebuild, and I met some of your Pack, and you stuck up for me, and Vic was kind of funny, even if he was super-naked, and we have a place to stay tonight, and Jackson can’t reach me here, and you kissed me in the truck, and you held my hand two times today, and maybe I found a friend. Who says this can’t be a good memory?”
The very corners of Liam’s lips curved up into the slightest smile, and he nodded. “Well, I guess you can keep it then.”