Honesty (3 page)

“Is that a food?”

Taylor nodded. “Yeah, it’s one of my favorites.”

Lark’s eyes widened with delight. “We can plant them in the garden outside the cabin.”

“Yeah,” Taylor said, grinning. The strawberries were great, but after only a day she was already getting tired of them. That, and she doubted that they were enough to sustain a healthy diet.

Lark sat down on the grass, her shoulders slumping. “But you probably won’t be here long enough to grow them.”

Oh, there was that
.

Taylor sat down next to Lark, resting her chin on the heel of her palm. “I don’t know if I’ll be leaving or not. Alder seems pretty adamant about it, but…”

But would he even want to leave with her after what she’d told him this afternoon? And if he did, would she really be able to accept him leaving everything behind for her?

“It’s just so much pressure,” Taylor said, lying back on the grass. “I mean, what if he decides he doesn’t want to be with me after all? He’ll have left his home for nothing.”

Lark lay down beside her. “
I don’t think Alder would ever leave you once you were carrying his pups. He’s not that type of male.”

Taylor turned her head, giving Lark a quizzical look. “What do you mean, carrying his pups?”

“Babies, ya know? That’s what the wolves call them, at least, the ones who were raised in the mountains.”

Taylor laughed. “Who said anything about having kids? I’m not even sure if I’m ready to live with Alder, let alone procreate with him.”

“It’s not really a choice,” said Lark. “I mean, you always have a choice of which male you want to sire your pups, but the rest of it sort of comes with the territory of taking a mate.”

Taylor sat up. “
Are you saying Alder will expect me to have kids with him?”

“Well, yes. Didn’t he tell you that?”

“No,” Taylor said, feeling queasy. “I really don’t think he’s interested in that sort of thing, and I’m definitely not.”

Her life was already a disaster. The last thing she wanted to do was add a baby into the mix.

“It’s instinct,” Glenn said, emerging from the mouth of the cavern. “Doesn’t matter what Alder wants, though he’s always liked kids.”

“Instinct?”

“Birds fly south for the winter, squirrels hoard nuts, alpha wolves take human mates to breed with. Instinct.”

The queasiness in her stomach evolved into full-on nausea.
She tried to reassure herself that they were probably generalizing. After all, that was a pretty huge thing for Alder to leave out.

The thunder rumbled again, this time sounding closer. Almost immediately, it was followed by the howling of wolves. No matter how long she lived with wolves, Taylor was certain she would never get used to that eerie noise.

“Sounds like it’s cleanup time,” Lark said, sitting up. Taylor recalled that the wolves hunted each night, leaving the pack members who didn’t hunt to strip the carcass. She hadn’t seen the grisly affair herself, but judging by the woeful note in Lark’s voice, it wasn’t a good time.

It was the lack of anything better to do and not morbid curiosity that had Taylor following Lark and Glenn to the river. Both of them were sullen and dragged their feet the whole way.

Unlike the river Taylor and Alder had followed in the foothills, the river that ran through the forest didn’t seem to have any shallows. After about an arm’s length in, there was a steep drop-off and the water became ominously dark. According to Lark, they swam in the southern end from time to time, but the north was riddled with hidden currents that could suck you under.

Beka and her companions, Kale and Quinn, were already waiting by the river when they arrived. Just like the only other time Taylor had met Beka, the tall blonde was giving her the stink eye.

More amused than annoyed, Taylor arched a brow at her. “Problem?”

Beka’s jaw slackened. Clearly, she
hadn’t been expecting that.

Taylor rolled her
eyes. She’d never had patience for bitches. Beside her, Lark snickered, but Taylor’s attention was drawn back to the forest as the hunting party arrived.

No less than a dozen wolves emerged from
the tree line, some carrying small game, mostly birds. They were all different sizes and colors, but only one stood out among them.

It was the first time she’d seen Alder in the light of day. He looked majestic in the fading sunlight. His coat was a seamless blend of colors, white on his head and back that slowly tu
rned into a light, tawny brown beneath his neck and on his stomach. She was once again taken aback by how big he was and would have marveled at his beauty, were he not carrying a rather large deer carcass in his mouth.

He held it by the neck, its blood running down his chest and matting his fur.
It was almost cute, the way he pranced up to them, proudly holding up the kill.

With hardly a sideways glance, he walked past Taylor and dropped the deer in front of Beka and her friends. She was glad he didn’t put the deer in front of her, but the way he’d regarded her, or rather
hadn’t
regarded her, made her feel uneasy. Was he still upset about earlier?

Alder shifted, and Taylor watched the wolf’s bones twist and pop as his muscles compressed into the shape of a large
human male. As he flexed his arms, Taylor cautiously approached him.

“
Get this done quickly,” Alder said. “I’m starving.”

When she neared him, Alder’s gaze flickered to Taylor. She immediately stopped, taken aback by the coldness in his eyes. For a moment, she felt sick with anxiety. Then, she recognized what was wrong and schooled her expression into apathy.

Turning his body to face her, he smirked and said, “I see you’re learning to tell us apart.”

She didn’t like Hale’s stupid smirk and she didn’t like the way he looked at her as if she was beneath him.

“It’s not hard,” she said, squaring her shoulders.

Hale’s lips flattened. “Have you ever portioned meat before, human?”

It irritated her that he wasn’t calling her by name, but she wasn’t going to press the issue. This guy was not worth her time.

“I don’t eat meat,” she told him.

“Taylor’s a vegetarian,” Glenn supplied.

She was surprised that he knew the term when even Alder hadn’t. Thinking back,
she realized Glenn didn’t quite speak like the others and whenever she spoke about human things he never needed explanations like Lark frequently did.

“What the fuck is that?” Hale asked, tearing her from her musings.

Taylor cringed. She was guilty of using light profanity from time to time, but she’d never been a fan of the word ‘fuck’.

She drew on her reserves of patience. “Like I said, I don’t eat meat.”

Hale stared at her, looking remarkably similar to the way his twin had looked at her when she’d told him the same thing. His lips parted, and she thought he was going to ask her something, but instead he shook his head.

“Whatever. Beka will teach you how,” he said, motioning towards the carcass. Blood had pooled around the deer’s exposed throat, emptying from its body too quickly to be absorbed into the ground.

Her temper flared. “I don’t eat animals. What makes you think I’d be okay with cutting one up?”

Hale’s chin rose. “Because I said so.” His voice was cold and arrogant. “Now wipe that look off your face and get to work.”

He turned to walk away. She heard a noise from behind her and looked over her shoulder to see Beka and her friends quietly laughing and muttering amongst one another.

“No,” Taylor said to Hale’s back. When he ignored her, she stalked forward, catching up to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t make me—”

Her breath caught as Hale grabbed her wrist. In one motion, he jerked her so that she was standing in front of him. Half of his face was shadowed as he glared down at her.

For a moment, Taylor forgot herself and what she was doing. It was so strange to see a face she associated with so many positive emotions staring at her with anger
, and something else…

Resentment. It was something that she was all too familiar with. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? And what had she done to make him feel that way towards her?

“I am the alpha of this pack,” he said in a humorless voice. “You’ll do whatever I say you’ll do, otherwise you can start walking.”

“Alder said I could stay,” she retorted.

“Alder’s gone. It’s just me and you, sweetheart.”

She blinked at him. “Alder’s gone?”

Looking around the area, she could see many of the pack members, in both human and animal forms, had gathered to watch the spectacle. Alder wasn’t among them.

“W
here is he?” Taylor asked, suddenly feeling insecure.

“He didn’t tell you?” Hale asked, releasing her wrist.

Taylor looked back up at him. The anger was gone from his face, but he looked no less intimidating. She shook her head.

“He left earlier.
He has business to handle in the north,” Hale said. “He should be back tomorrow night. Until then, you’ll be answering to me.”

He stood there for another moment, his eyes running the length of her body.
They lingered around her chest and she was annoyed until she looked down to see that the top half of her scar was exposed. She shifted uncomfortably, but made no move to cover herself. The last thing she wanted was to give away another insecurity to the obnoxious predator before her.

Finally, he turned to walk away. As she watched him retreat into the forest, she realized that she’d just lost the confrontation. Without Alder by her side, she was powerless against his brother.

“Take these to Hale,” Beka said, hefting the wooden bowl into Taylor’s arms.

Taylor looked at Beka and then the bowl. Its contents were, according to Lark, the choicest cuts of venison. Many of those parts Taylor had cut out of the deer herself.

It hadn’t been Beka or her friends who had forced her to take part in stripping the carcass. In fact, Taylor had been completely uncooperative, outright refusing to so much as pluck a turkey. In the end it had been seeing Lark and Glenn, elbow-deep in guts and looking miserable, that had made her come around. They were sort of her friends now, and she hadn’t been able to sit by and do nothing while they worked.

Too inexperienced to take on any of the smaller prey by herself, she worked w
ith Lark to strip the deer carcass. Deer had always been a favorite animal of hers. She’d thought they were beautiful, graceful creatures and even now that the work was done, she still felt sick with herself for having hacked one to pieces. She took some solace in the fact that they didn’t leave so much as a scrap of meat behind.

“Why me?” Taylor grumbled, pushing
the bowl back towards Beka.

Leaning away, Beka asked, “Why do you complain so much? You should be grateful you have a place to stay, considering what you did.”

Taylor was genuinely surprised. “Who told you?”

“Lark,” said Beka. “Hale is in the back, near the
fifth bonfire.”

As Beka strutted away, Taylor called out, “But I’ve been with Lark all day.”

Beka didn’t turn back.

Sighing, Taylor looked around the central cavern, hoping to see a familiar face. When they’d arrived back
a few minutes ago, Glenn had gone to help one of his male friends with something and Lark had disappeared as well, not intuitive enough to pick up on Taylor’s silent don’t-leave-me-alone-with-this-bitch plea.

Not recognizing the group of men gathered around the nearby bonfire, she shifted her gaze farther back. The expansive cavern was really like a giant tunnel that went through the mountain. Walkways carved into the stone floor led to various passageways, which in turn led to smaller caverns where most of the rooms were.

Aside from during the mornings when the pack slept, most of the shifters seemed to prefer spending their free time in the central cavern, where they ate and socialized with one another. It was strange to see naked people hanging out by fires, laughing, chatting, and telling stories with one another. Whenever she hung out with her roommate and their friends, they were all on their cellphones, watching television, or smoking pot.

She could see four bonfires surrounded by various pack members. Squinting, she noticed a flicker of light far back in the cavern and knew it had to be the fifth.

Struggling not to hobble on her bad foot, she carefully made her way towards the other end of the tunnel. People stared at her as she passed, but no one bothered to otherwise acknowledge her, which only increased her sense of being out of place. Fortunately, that was something else she was used to. She held her head high and kept her eyes on the path in front of her.

The fifth bonfire was on an elevated section of the cavern. By the time she climbed the stairs leading up to it, Taylor was nearly out of breath. Her breathing
almost halted entirely when she laid eyes on Hale.