Every Blissful Moment (Hyena Heat Book 4) (10 page)

With Brierley’s help they were off the mountain in less than an hour, and Bliss and her mates breathed a sigh of relief.  At the first gas station they saw, Memphis pulled in for gas, and Bliss and Brierley went inside to use the restroom.  Although her mates had cleaned her skin with the vanilla-scented water, she desperately wanted a real shower.  She felt dirty from head to toe.  Her body still ached, but she knew once she got a good night’s sleep she’d feel much better.

Using her finger, she scrubbed at her teeth and rinsed her mouth out several times.  “I’d kill for a toothbrush,” she said while Brierley washed her hands in the next sink.

Brierley smiled at her in the mirror but didn’t speak, and Bliss turned off the water, grabbed some paper towels, and dried her face and hands.

“Are you okay?”

Brierley blinked and tears rolled down her cheeks.  “I just realized how alone I am.  When we get to your home, I’ll have to leave, and I don’t know where I’ll go. I have nothing.  I left everything behind.”

“Why didn’t you pack a bag for yourself when you were stealing Memphis’s keys?”

“I was afraid to get caught if I stayed too long.”

Bliss put her hand on Brierley’s shoulder.  “How old are you?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Did you go to college?”

“I was home-schooled in the nest.  I wasn’t supposed to be anything but a mate and mother, so more schooling was unnecessary.  I can cook and clean and take care of fledglings, but aside from my hobby, I have no other skills.”

“What hobby?”

“I like to garden.  I’ve got a knack with plants.”

“Well, I have a total brown thumb.”  Brierley’s gaze darted down to Bliss’s hands, and she laughed.  “I just meant that I have the opposite of a green thumb, because all my plants die.”

“Oh,” she said with a laugh.

Bliss said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re not just going to drop you off somewhere.  I feel like it was fate that we got trapped in the nest; that we were supposed to be there to help you.”

“Your mates don’t like me.”

“Well, they’re suspicious of new people, and they aren’t exactly fans of owls right now, but it doesn’t matter at any rate.  I won’t leave you to fend for yourself.  The pack is really welcoming, and I’m positive that I can find someone you can stay with for a while until you figure out what you want to do.”

Brierley hugged Bliss and said, “You’ve been more kind to me since we met than most of the people I’ve known my entire life.  Thank you for setting me free and giving me a fresh start.  I’m forever in your debt.”

“That you’re able to make your own choices for your life now makes me so happy.  There’s no debt between us.”

Brierley smiled and shrugged, and Bliss had a feeling that the petite blonde was going to continue to believe there was some kind of debt between them for a long time.

After exiting the bathroom, Bliss found her mates and asked Lincoln to sit in the passenger seat in the front row with Memphis so Brierley could get out of the back.  Lincoln wasn’t happy about it, but then again he hadn’t been happy about Brierley sneaking along for the ride in the first place.  Rome was the most accepting of her three mates, but Lincoln and Memphis wore nearly identical frowns and stared at Brierley with suspicion.

They drove a little while longer before stopping at a drive-thru for breakfast.  Once Bliss had satisfied the empty ache in her stomach, she was unable to keep her eyes open and slept for the remainder of the drive, leaning against Rome.

* * * * *

“Hey Angel,” Bliss said when Angel answered her cell.

“You’re back, yay!  I missed you.  How was your honeymoon?”

Bliss had no intention of telling her best friends what had happened in the mountains anytime soon.  “It was great.”

“I’ll bet, you lucky duck,” Angel said.

“I have a favor to ask.  Can we come over later on, like at dinnertime?”

“Yeah, of course.  But I thought you guys weren’t leaving the den once you got back from your honeymoon, except for Fridays?”

“Normally we wouldn’t, but I’ve got a small problem and I need your help.”

“You can come over now if you want, I’m not working today.”

“I’m going to take a nap, actually; I’m freaking exhausted.  How about five?”

“Five is good.  Rest up, B, see you soon!”

Memphis leaned against the closed door of their master bedroom.  He’d been extremely unhappy to have Brierley in the den and, with Lincoln’s help, had dismantled the covering over the stairs to the second floor so she could have a place to hang out without being in their space.

“I’m not happy about this one bit,” Memphis said.

“I know you’re not asking me to just leave her on a street corner somewhere.”

“What about Mack?”  Lincoln asked.  “He’s the alpha, he should know what’s going on.”

“I already called him before I called Angel, when you guys were taking the stairway cover apart.  He said that having Brierley live with Angel for a while was a good idea.  He’s also coming to Angel’s tonight, so he’ll meet her then, too.”

She tossed her phone onto the bed and walked to her mates.  They surrounded her in an instant, and she loved that about them.  Even if they weren’t happy, they still wanted to be with her and comfort her.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I think that we rescued Brierley for a reason, and I think Angel is part of it, too.”

She could tell that Lincoln and Memphis were still unhappy with the situation, but Rome seemed to take her feelings into account more easily, and he gave her a smile before kissing her briefly.  “Just so long as you’re safe and we come back here tonight
alone
.”

“I think we can work that out,” she said, kissing him, then Memphis and Lincoln.  “Now I need a nap.”

* * * * *

Brierley Pine shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she waited with Bliss and her mates in front of Bliss’s friend’s apartment.  Angel’s was the end unit on a row of townhouses with a view of what she’d been told was the Mullica River.  Brierley looked down at her clothes and sighed inwardly.  She was wearing Bliss’s clothes; they were bright colors, and Brierley was used to wearing muted earth tones.  She felt like she really stood out in Bliss’s royal-blue top and her faded jeans, which were nearly white.  Although Brierley had some clothes from stores, she’d grown up making most of them because her people didn’t have much money as a whole.  They sold or traded goods in a few of the mostly human towns around the base of the mountains, and she’d made some money selling fruits and vegetables from her gardens as well as some homemade jams and baked goods.

She chewed on her thumbnail.  She hadn’t planned her escape well at all.  If she’d thought for even a millisecond that she’d be freed that night, she would’ve packed a bag and grabbed her coffee tin of money.  She’d expected at this point to be tied for the rest of her life to a male who was known for not treating females well.  To have the world open for her was both exciting and nerve wracking.

The door swung open to reveal a pretty woman with long blonde hair, who grabbed Bliss in a big hug.  “Missed you, B!”

Bliss’s voice was muffled by the woman’s shoulder.  “I missed you, too.”

“Come on in before you catch your death.  Mack and Kayne are here. You didn’t tell me they were going to come here, but like I can tell the alpha to wait on the porch!”

“Sorry, I forgot.”

“Bullshit.  You probably figured I would freak out.  Which I totally would have, so I guess I’m glad you didn’t tell me.”

“Still love me?”

“You know I do, you loon.”

Angel opened the door further and Brierley followed Bliss and her mates inside.  The scent of cinnamon rolls filled the air, and Brierley’s stomach rumbled loudly.  She’d been too nervous to eat earlier.  An embarrassed blush heated her cheeks.

Bliss moved into the living room and hugged an older male and a guy who looked to be in his late twenties, then motioned for Brierley to come forward.  “Alpha Mack, Kayne, and Angel, this is Brierley Pine.  We met her on the way home from our honeymoon, and because of her family life she had no place to go.  Brierley, this is Mack Callahan, the pack alpha, his son Kayne, and my bestie Angel.”

Everyone said hello, and Brierley felt like a big, hot spotlight was on her.  She shook hands, worried that her trembling would make the wolves want to eat her.  She’d always been told that wolves loved to hunt owls.

Mack tilted his head.  “You’re an owl?  I don’t think I’ve ever met an owl shifter before.”

“I didn’t know there
were
owl shifters,” Kayne said.

“H-how can you tell I’m an owl?” she asked.

“You smell like snow and your eyes are blue and pale gold.  My father told me that female owls had blue-gold eyes in their human forms.  Bliss has enlightened me to your situation.  As alpha of the Beyton Pack, I’m offering you sanctuary here until such a time as you figure out what you want to do with your life.”

Brierley blinked in surprise.  “Thank you.  I wasn’t expecting that.”

Mack shrugged.  “It’s no hardship.  Bliss has vouched for you, and as long as you don’t cause trouble, you’re welcome.  Now the next order of business is to find a place for you to live.”

Angel said, “I have a spare bedroom.”

“Duh, that’s why I brought her here,” Bliss said, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly.

Angel groaned.  “You’re such a bitch.”

“No, I know you and your big heart.  And you do have that empty bedroom.”  She brushed her hands together and said, “Now that our issue is solved, I smell cinnamon rolls.”

Brierley watched as Bliss and Angel walked into the kitchen, their arms linked and their heads together as they laughed.  Her heart ached a little.  She’d never see her friends Klegna and Felora again.  Blinking away her fresh tears, she looked at Bliss’s mates who had remained in the room with her and the two wolves.  The alpha cleared his throat.

“I didn’t tell Bliss this, but I’m giving you until the full moon this month to make a decision.  If you want to stay here in Beyton, you’ll have to have a job and a place to live.  If Angel wants to make you a permanent roommate, that’s fine; otherwise you have to have a home of your own.  If you don’t have both of those things by the full moon, I’m going to drive you to the edge of town and watch you walk away.  Are we clear?”

Fear struck through her like lightning, but she pushed back against the feeling.  She was a stranger, and the alpha was being more than generous.  “Thank you, Alpha.”

He hummed and straightened, looking at Bliss’s mates.  “I know that something more happened on the trip than Bliss said.”

Memphis frowned.  “She asked us not to say anything.”

“Don’t leave my hands tied by not telling me what’s up.  Something’s clearly going on with that girl.  I think there’s a good reason why owls aren’t well-known shifters, and the fact that there’s one in our midst now tells me something’s up.”

Memphis said, “I’ll tell you, but we need to keep this between us.  Bliss is adamant about that.”

“I give you my word,” Mack promised.

Rome smiled tightly at Brierley.  “Come on, let’s go see the girls.  They get so busy talking that they forget that there are other people in the room.”