by Eva Harper
“Would you care to explain?” Rush asked calmly, behind his back, his muscles clenched, and I stopped my arm from reaching out and stroking his skin.
“Our children are scared to go outside,” he said, eyebrows raised like he was surprised. “You’ve been coming into town, into our parts, and that can’t happen anymore.”
“Your children being afraid is not a fault on us,” Rush snarled. “It’s you who has told them we are monsters, human.”
“Call me Harrison, please,” he grunted, peering past Rush. “And this little one.” His finger pointed at me. “You were with my daughter last week, weren’t you?”
I didn’t say anything, just stared blankly at him.
“You need to stay away from us,” Harrison warned, stepping back between the men.
“The same goes for you.” Rush stepped forward. Three men raised their weapons at him, which stopped his advance. “Now, get off our land.”
“Absolutely.” Harrison grinned, stepping farther back into his army. “And just a warning in case you do decide to come into our towns again…” He never finished his sentence, turned, and disappeared in the mass.
The men standing behind the border guards took one step back with their right foot and lifted their weapons a few inches. The last human’s hands shook, the young boy who ran in the woods, his eyes searched for mine in the crowd.
Leaves rustled, and other than the deafening sound of the gunshot’s echo and Kenna’s screams, the world stopped moving.
The Border Guards fell to the ground, face first, and the human army began moving backward. Rush, Beckett, and Jonah moved forward; the Pack Warriors braced themselves. I grabbed onto Kenna’s arm, holding her in place.
As the brigade of wolves stepped closer to the humans, the men raised their weapons against them. Rush stopped and considered the number of humans. We were outnumbered and without weapons.
The humans continued to walk backward, weapons raised, until they were gone. Frustration and anger pulsed through us, bodies shaking, tongues panting for death.
Kenna pulled her arm out of mine and shoved me away.
“Are you happy now?” she yelled, shuffling sideways and then running to the body of her father. Rush turned to me and pulled me into his chest, head looking over me, jaw clenched.
“This isn’t your fault,” he told me lowly.
“You have to do it,” I spoke into him, knowing it was the truth even if I didn’t want it to be.
He took one deep breath and stroked my hair. “Yes.” I bit my lip as he confirmed what I already knew was true. I felt his head turn above me. “Casey. I need you to tell the Warriors and guard I’m giving an order to kill any human who approaches our borders or that you deem as a threat to this pack.”
My body wavered, quaked in his hold. Casey understood, and he stepped back to the rest of the Warriors. I grabbed onto the outside of Rush’s arm wrapped around me, clutching him close to me. Kenna’s broken scream had reminded me so much of my own, watching Isla desperately grab at her throat. I didn’t cry, I kept telling myself if I didn’t cry it wouldn’t be true.
Without warning, Rush bent down and picked me up, arms under my knees and shoulders. I jumped slightly and scrambled to hold onto him. His face was unmoving, jaw clenched, eyes set straight on the packhouse.
He walked forward, silently, and kicked the door open as soon as we got to the house. Cordelia sat nervously on the couch, wringing her hands together. Rush didn’t say anything but looked at her harshly. He climbed the stairs with haste, leaned his elbow against the doorknob to our bedroom to open it, and walked me to the bed.
He sat on the edge and laid me down softly. Rush’s hands immediately were weaving into my hair and under the back of my shirt. His hands were fast, face still set in anger, and I tried hard not to be attracted to him in such a domineering state.
“Rush,” I whispered against his mouth, fighting the strong pit of melancholia that was forming in the pit of my stomach. “What are you doing?”
His lips left my neck and bit the collar of my shirt, angry that it was in his way. His hands lifted from their positions on my body and gripped the top of my shirt, ripping the fabric in half. I jumped as he slipped the shredded garment off my arms.
“Rush,” I breathed, feeling his unshaved cheek against my shoulder.
“Let’s make a baby.” His words were sharp and deliberate.
“Excuse me?” I asked, pushing him off my chest. His hands found my waist and clamped down. He rested his head against mine and smiled softly, the first break in twenty minutes.
“I want to make a baby with you,” he told me.
“That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” I asked incredulously. “Our pack members were just killed, and you’re thinking about knocking me up?”
“Sloane, if something happens to me, I don’t want you to be alone,” he admitted.
My right hand lifted and touched his cheek, forcing his eyes to look into mine. “Nothing is going to happen to you,” I vowed.
“If something does, I want you to have someone. I want to have babies with you.” He smiled, eyes lighting up like he was talking about his favorite thing in the world. “I love you; I want to start our family.”
“We just yelled at each other all afternoon, and you want to make a baby now?”
“Sloane, we’re going to fight and makeup, we’re going to get angry, we’re going to scream. I know that no matter what happens, we will always have each other. You are perfect for me; you don’t shy away when I get loud and angry, you get loud and angry back. I know that you’ll be a wonderful mother.” He kissed my cheek.
“I don’t know if I’m quite there yet, I’m still young, Rush. I’m only twenty-three,” I said, shaking my head. “And besides that, I’m not even in heat yet, I can’t get pregnant.”
“Well, then we should practice,” he said earnestly, pursing his lips. “I want to do this right, and if you want to get good at something, you need to practice. And never mind being young, half of the females in this pack your age are pregnant or have already had their first child.”
“Rush,” I warned.
He laughed a little and kissed my other cheek, hands gripping the waist of my pants tightly. “Not until you’re ready,” he promised, pouting his lips. I lifted my hips, and he pulled my pants down my legs, kissing my thighs as his fingers skimmed them. “So, I think we owe it to our future children to get really good at this whole lovemaking thing.”
“I might have to agree,” I said happily. His lips caught mine again, smiling against each other. “You know, I’ve heard that the more times the girl, you know, finishes, the higher chances she has of getting pregnant.”
He leaned back and smirked. “Is that so?”
“It’s just what I’ve heard,” I said casually, avoiding his eyes.
“Well, for practice’s sake,” he sang as his fingers touching the lace of my underwear. “Let’s see how many you can, you know, finish,” he teased me. My eyes went wide, and my legs clamped shut. “Oh, no, open up, sweetheart.” I shook my head rapidly. “Don’t make me spank you.”
“Rush!” I yelled, covering my mouth with my hands.
He smiled, enjoying my discomfort. “Come on, Sloane, the moment I met you, I knew you were going to be trouble. So, tell me, have you been a bad girl?" He smirked, biting his lip.
“Stop that,” I scolded, glaring at him as he continued to laugh at me.
“I’m just trying to abide by my girl’s wishes.” He smiled impishly.
I blushed and grabbed a pillow, forcing it over my face. “Okay, continue,” I yelled through the pillow.
Rush grabbed the pillow and threw it off the bed. “How am I supposed to know if I’m doing a good job if I can’t see those pretty eyes and those gorgeous lips?”
“I think you’ll manage.”
“No more talking,” he told me, finger hovering over my lips. His hand stayed hovering in the air in a warning that he w
ouldn’t hesitate to cover my mouth if I didn’t listen.
“Yes, sir.”
Promises
I stumbled out of the room, slipping my belt back into place. Rush exited after me, snickering as he tucked his shirt back into his pants. I turned and motioned for him to be quiet, but my own giggles made it difficult.
I nearly ran into someone as I turned back around.
“My father gets shot in the head, and you two are off having sex?” Kenna asked, tears covering most of her cheeks and neck.
I let go of Rush’s hand, and I could feel my eyes go wide.
“Kenna,” I said in a whisper.
“What, you’re not even going to try and deny it?” she said bitterly.
“Kenna,” I pleaded.
“No, it’s good to know what kind of friend you are. And don’t think I forgot that you used me and my brother to get a ride into town and that you took my car to meet with that little human girl,” she sneered.
“Kenna, let me explain.”
“Don’t talk to me,” she warned. “Ever.”
“Please,” I reached for her arm. Before I could touch her, she twisted my arm and pushed my back up the wall closest to us. She leaned close to me, her small frame not nearly covering enough of me to keep me there with force. I didn’t want to move her, though.
“You’d do good to keep the hell away from me, Sloane.” Her eyes were dark. “You are not my friend.”
“It’d serve you to step away from your Luna,” Rush growled behind her. Her rough grip loosened around my wrist, and she pushed off my body, propelling herself down the hallway. “Sweetheart,” he soothed.
“She’s right.”
“She’s upset,” Rush reached for me.
“That may be true, but it doesn’t mean she’s wrong. I’m not being a good friend to her.” I leaned against the wall.
“Well, she’ll need a friend now,” he whispered.
I nodded and let him put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me downstairs.
The next days passed slowly, agonizingly bland and unchanging. Rush, Beckett, Hollis, Casey, and I cramped into Rush’s office; I sat on the couch against the wall, trying to catch bits of the screaming conversations they were having.
Hollis glanced over at me and smiled thoughtfully. He stepped away from the three angry men and sat next to me. “How are you holding up?” he asked. I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at my hands, fiddling in my lap. “I heard you kicked my mate out of the packhouse.”
I coughed on my saliva and breathed in quickly.
“I’m surprised you didn’t have to drag her out,” he said, chuckling.
“You aren’t mad?” The surprise was difficult to hide from my voice.
“No,” he sang. “This house is now yours and my son’s amd you should be able to walk around here with your head held high.”
“Sloane!” Rush yelled across the small space. I smiled apologetically to Hollis and walked to Rush. His arm grabbed my wrist and pulled me down on his lap. I yelped and pushed on his legs to put myself in an upright position. “Please tell these morons that I’m right.”
“About what?” I asked, trying not to get distracted at the way Rush’s fingers traced a pattern on my thigh.
“He thinks that we should put an electric fence around our borders to keep the humans out,” Beckett moaned.
I turned my head slightly, face to face with Rush. “You know humans have ladders, right?” He grimaced and squeezed my thigh. Casey snickered, and I shot a look at him and Beckett. “Oh, so what did you visionaries come up with?”
Their faces fell flat, and they avoided my gaze.
“We have to do something,” Rush declared. “You said it yourself, the humans don’t know what boundaries are to us.”
“Dig a hole,” I told him. He smiled and laughed softly and turned his head to his father. “No, I’m serious.” They looked at me skeptically. “If the hunters insist on treating us like animals, why shouldn’t we do the same to them? If you set secret traps, they won’t know where they are or what to do to evade them. Only those who cross the border are going to be injured, and we will mark the boundary.”
“That’s not actually a bad idea.” Casey’s eyebrows raised.
“What kind of traps would be set, though?”
“Do you know effective a big hole in the ground is?” I laughed and tried to stand up from Rush’s lap, but his arms wound around me. “I mean, there are so many simple things we can do. What are those big net traps in the movies? Or bear traps!”
“You know,” Hollis interjected, leaning over the arm of the couch. “She might be onto something.”
“It’s difficult for your enemy to attack you if they can’t reach you,” Casey said, his grin growing wider as he spoke.
Rush kissed my cheek sloppily, leaving behind an imprint on my cheek. “I have the smartest, most beautiful mate, in the entire world,” he bragged, smirking at the unmated mates in the room. Beckett rolled his eyes and pivoted back, strolling closer to Hollis. Casey simply grinned and look down at the desk.
As I made myself comfortable, I bit my lip to hide a smile and leaned next to Rush’s ear. “And I have the horniest mate in the entire world.” Rush’s eyes grew wide, and then he realized what part of his anatomy was currently pressing against my legs. He smirked and kissed my cheek again. I grinned happily and tried to stand, but Rush pulled me on top of him.
“Don’t get up,” he said desperately.
“What? Do you have a minor problem?” I teased. He growled in my ear and then tugged on my earlobe with his teeth. I don’t know why I was aroused, there was no logical reason for teeth biting my ear to turn me on, and yet I felt my face growing a deeper shade of pink.
“I can’t help it,” he said boyishly, resting his chin on my shoulder. “You’re just so beautiful and sexy.”
“Oo,” I moaned sensuously, leaning into him. “Talk about death traps to me.”
He closed his eyes in embarrassment and sucked his lips into his mouth.
“Is it exclusively death traps or do-” I paused and looked at the rest of the men in the room, still whispering in Rush’s ear. “-security initiatives also get you going? How about weaponry?”
“Stop it,” he growled lowly, playfully. I giggled and folded my arms farther into my chest.
“Would you two like to be alone?” Hollis asked, smirking.
“No,” Rush said at the same time, I said, “Yes.”
The men froze and looked between us, unable to decide who they should listen to.
“Rush is just getting a little turned on by all the talk of big holes in the ground,” I joked, stopping short in my torment as Rush covered my mouth with one of his hands and tickled my side with the other.
“Well,” Beckett stood up. “I’m going to take that as our cue to leave.” Casey shut the door after they all left the room. Rush lifted me around my hips and placed me on the edge of his desk, leaning over me.
“What are you going to do, draw a map of our borders on my body,” I pushed on, giggling at his discomfort.
“You know what?” he growled, standing up and leaning over me, forcing my back flat against the desk. His hand reached for a marker, but I grabbed his wrist in my hand.
“No, no, please,” I begged. I bit my lip as he held the marker above me. He sighed and threw the pen back into the drawer on his desk. “Thank you.”
I slipped off his desk quickly and ran towards the door, yelling, “Casey, Beckett, I have ideas to talk about!” The men stopped moving close to the end of the hallway and waited for me. “Do you really think my idea will work?”
“I mean, we’ll have to try a little harder than a big hole in the ground, humans are a little smarter than we give them credit for,” Casey laughed. “But I think we can incorporate that into our defense plans.”
Beckett noticed my giddy smile and peered down at me. “Why are you so excited? Have you never gotten a compliment before?”
“You did good,” he reassured me. They turned and continued down the hallway where they were headed. I didn’t follow them right away; I just stood by myself for a moment in elation.
“You really did do good, Sloane.” I turned to find Hollis leaning against the wall.
“Thank you,” I said, reaching out to squeeze his hand.
“I know that this is going to be a challenging time, but keeping this pack safe is the number one objective. I don’t know what’s going to happen after the Warriors and Rush go to that town hall meeting but, I have a feeling it’s not going to end there,” he sighed.
“Wait, what are you talking about? What town hall meeting?” My chest tightened, hands shaking.
“Dad,” Rush’s strained voice said from the doorway. He shook his head at Hollis, ordering him to remain silent. I took four large strides to Rush.
“You’re going to the human town? When were you planning to tell me this? What are you planning on doing?” I seethed, more with worry than anger.
“Sloane,” he soothed, his body collapsing in, attempting to pull me to him. I stepped back and placed my shaking palm on his chest, just above his heart.
“Please tell me you’re just going to talk,” I said, staring at the ground.
“We are,” he said, fighting my distance. “I swear to you, that’s all we’re going to do.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Rush gulped, and his eyes became sad.
“Because I know how stressed you’ve been lately, and I just wanted you to be able to be happy for a while,” he sighed, running his hand over his face. “I know that’s not really a good reason, but I was going to tell you. After. There was no reason for you to worry so much about me.”
“Of course, I’m going to worry about you.” My hand thumped once against his chest. “You’re my mate, I love you, of course, I’m going to worry about you.” Rush put his hand over mine and moved it slightly down his chest so that I could feel the pulse from his heart.