Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
Hailey
I thought I’d feel claustrophobic with so many people in the house, and not just people, but huge creatures that took up so much space, they made normal-sized rooms look like a dollhouse.
I didn’t though. It just felt… right. The guys moved around each other like old friends did, with inside jokes and teasing, offering a helping hand and a laugh. It was nice.
Louis pulled me back against his chest as I watched everyone move around like this was home.
I looked up at him. “I have to wonder, was this in the back of your mind when you suggested this place? Us all here?”
He laughed softly against my throat. “I might have hoped, but I was thinking that maybe they could be for our future pack mates or children.” He must have felt me tense beneath his hands, because he turned my face toward his.
“Or you can buy seven cats and convert them into a catdominium. Whatever makes you happy, sweetheart.”
I knew so little about them, really. I didn’t know their hopes and dreams, and I didn’t know what their favorite foods were, yet we were about to share a home for God knew how long. For some of them, there was an expectation of forever. At least, I hoped so.
“Are we doing the right thing?” I asked Louis. “This isn’t too fast?”
“What does your gut say?” he asked.
“It says this is right. It feels almost too right. I don’t…
” I sucked in a calming breath. “Good things don’t usually happen to me.
This—” I pointed to my face. “This happens. Bullshit and violence and starvation and poverty, those things happen to me. That’s my legacy.
I don’t know what to do with good things. ”
He kissed the top of my head. “I wish we could already be bonded, so you could feel how much I want you and that you’re it for me. My perfect other half.”
I sent a thread of feeling down my connection to Eric, and he sent it back in a wave—love, adoration, and lust. He must have been on his way home from work, and I chuckled softly beneath my breath. What would it be like to have that connection with Louis? With everyone?
The answer was easy. I turned in Louis’s arms. “Let’s do it then. I don’t want to wait. We can do it now, right? Tonight?”
“Tonight?” Louis squeaked. “Hailey, baby, we don’t need to—” I opened my mouth to argue, but he kissed me, stopping the words in their tracks.
“But if you want to bond sooner rather than later, I’d be honored.
I don’t want you to feel like you have to rush into anything.
I’m in this for the long haul. The bond is just a formality. ”
Sucking in a deep, calming breath, I looked up at him. “I want it now, Louie.”
“You can have the world, Hailey.” He paused. “Tomorrow night because first I have to tell Puck, as the leader of the Central Valley Pack, that I’m taking a mate. It’s a formality, and he already knows that you’re it for me, but it’s a tradition thing.”
I could wait that long. “He won’t be mad that I’m human?”
Louis shook his head, flopping back onto the couch and then pulling me onto his lap.
“Nope. Werewolves have been mating and marrying humans for a long ass time. Hundreds of years. We spent so long living in villages, pretending to be human, that people falling in love was almost inevitable, but the pack doesn’t differentiate between species like other creatures do.
Everyone contributes to the pack, and when we bond, you and Eric will be considered pack equally.
And Ilyas, when you choose to bond. And probably Syke too, though the bond isn’t a metaphysical one for demons. ”
I laughed, nuzzling my face under his chin. “I see why you might have to talk to Puck first. I come with a whole host of baggage.”
“We all do.” He held me tighter against his chest. “Ilyas with his flight drama. Honestly, ashing that human was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to shit Syke has done through the years, and Otis has his own trauma.” He did?
I wanted to press, but more than that, I wanted Otis to tell me himself in his own time.
“And me? I haven’t read a book since high school.
I don’t do my laundry until I run out of clean underpants.
I eat meat with every meal like I’m part T-rex.
I struggle to leave things well enough alone, and if we fight, I will badger you to make up before we go to sleep.
We aren’t perfect, but together we could create something perfect. ”
I sighed against his chest. He always knew the right thing to say.
I snuggled further into his arms, and Syke came to sit beside us, turning on the television.
“I took the room below yours and Eric’s so I can listen to you fuck even when I’m not involved.
” I could only laugh as he dragged my feet onto his lap and rubbed my soles until I let out a little moan. He was way too good at that.
I’m glad you’re here, I thought to him. We might never have a bond like I did with the others, but he would know how much I appreciated him with every thought.
He winked at me, leaning into Louis so he could kiss my shoulder. “Me too, Sunshine.”
* * *
I was curled up in bed later that night with Eric wrapped around me like a blanket. We had so much to work out, it almost seemed overwhelming—sleeping arrangements, bonding arrangements, work arrangements, what to do about food, bills, and a million other small minutiae of life.
But not right now.
Right now, I wanted to stay in Eric’s arms as he told me what Officer Nextra wanted.
I could feel the tension in his form as he spoke, almost like the war inside him was a physical force.
I peppered his skin with reassuring kisses as he told me about Buck Nextra’s plan, and I had to admit, it was kind of the ultimate ace in the hole.
I hated that Eric was being blackmailed into it though.
“What do I do?” he asked against the nape of my neck.
I knew enough about Eric to know what he’d choose. An orc didn’t become a creature rights lawyer because he didn’t care about those who couldn’t protect themselves. I also knew he had to come to the decision himself. “What feels right?” I asked him softly.
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what feels right. I have you to think of now, and Ilyas, Louis, and even Syke and Otis.”
I laughed beneath my breath. “They can take care of themselves, Eric. We’ll be careful.
Hell, we’re already being careful. If it means we could save another little Eric from what happened to you, another Freddie, even if he was a douchebag, how would that make you feel?
Because it’s not just the man you are now who has to be happy with the choice.
It’s the man you’ll be in twenty years, fifty years, on your deathbed.
Will you still be happy doing nothing then? ”
Rolling in his arms, I looked up into those violet eyes that were so entrancing.
“Me and those orc kids have a lot in common. We were born into a society that saw no value in our lives. The only reason I’m here today is because two creatures saw the injustice and stood up for me, even at great risk to themselves.
” I kissed him softly. “We could be that for some other kid, for a whole generation of kids.”
He sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. “I fucking love you, Hailey Swoon.”
“I love you too, Eric.”
We both knew he’d do what was right, because that’s what we loved about each other. It didn’t matter that it came with significant risks, because we’d always been at risk. I wouldn’t push him though. He needed to come to the decision himself and balance his mate bond with his morals.
He kissed me again, deeper this time, his emotions so close to the surface I could taste them. I didn’t need the bond to know he loved me. I could feel it in the sweep of his hands across my sides and the gentle press of his lips on the sensitive flesh of my throat.
I could feel it in the way he made love to me in the early hours of the morning and then curled around me protectively while I slept.