by L. P. Maxa
Pen sent the group a wave. “Penelope. But you can call me Pen.” She glanced to Baze, gauging his reaction. He’d been the first person to ever call her Pen, but it’d stuck even after they’d been separated. Maybe it was her way of keeping him with her, even when there were oceans between them.
“You can call me Dom, and that skinny guy over there goes by Linc.” The man who’d addressed her stood, holding his hand out.
She looked at it but took a step away. “Sorry, I um…” She let her words trail off. She was normally a friendly person; she was a hugger. But she believed Baze when he’d said he was on edge and he didn’t want anyone to touch her. She may not be one hundred percent certain what the future held for the two of them, but she didn’t want to make the present any harder than it needed to be.
“Don’t touch her, any of you.” Baze grabbed her arm and gently hauled her behind his body and onto a vacant chair that looked like it had been pulled in from an unseen dining room. “I can’t handle it.”
Dom held his hands up in surrender. “No problem, man. I know how that feels.” He sat back down beside his mate, who was beautiful and obviously pregnant.
All the girls sitting in the room were gorgeous, but Pen didn’t feel threatened by them in the least. They all wore easy smiles, and they were all clearly bonded. The men in the room, Baze’s friends and coworkers, were all handsome. They didn’t give her butterflies the way Baze did. They didn’t make her long for stolen touches and nights spent dancing under the stars.
But, by any standards, they were hot.
Penelope ate her food, barely tasting it at all. She was so hungry, and so out of her element. She didn’t know where she and Baze stood, and she didn’t know what was supposed to come next. He was jealous, but jealousy wasn’t a declaration of forever. It was a symptom of his shifter DNA. She’d been held prisoner and slapped around for five days straight. Her brain felt foggy, and everything seemed to be happening in fast forward mode at the moment.
“So. Can we, like, discuss the elephant in the room, or are we going to act like all of us shacking up in our underage packmate’s mansion is completely run of the mill?” The one who’d been pointed out as Linc propped his feet on an ottoman, beer in hand.
“Are we pack now?” One of the younger ones, one of the twins, fist pumped the air. “Hell yeah, only took a few beatings and a whole damn summer.”
“Jace is pack, you’re still a pain in the ass.” Linc smirked at the kid, grabbing a crab rangoon off his plate and popping it into his mouth. He chewed with a big grin on his face.
The other twin, the quieter one, stretched his legs out in front of him. He was sitting on the floor to her right, his expression a mask she couldn’t read. His brother seemed light and fluffy, like cotton candy flavored with Axe body spray. But Jace, the one whose house she was currently being held in, he seemed more like stone. Stone wrapped in expensive leather to hide all its rough edges.
“You’ll go to work every other day, each group alternating. Jasper, Riley, and I will go to school all week. But we won’t be driving by ourselves and we won’t be staying after for fall practice.”
“The fuck you say?” Dominic cocked his head to the side. “How are we supposed to justify three of our varsity players punking out on mandatory practices?”
“No one besides you four knows I was even planning on playing this year.” Jace shrugged his shoulders. “As for Jasper and Riley, we already thought of that. Tell the rest of the team they’re failing a class. It’s fall practice, not spring. If a player is failing, they go to tutoring instead of practice. It happens all the time.” Jace smiled, instantly transforming his whole demeanor. “No one will have trouble believing Jasper is flunking.”
Jasper flipped his twin the bird. These kids were entertaining, and they brought a certain flare of youth to the room. Penelope found herself enjoying their back-and-forth. “I’m really starting to get tired of Jace acting like he’s the boss of everyone,” Jasper groused.
“I second that.” Riley, the boy with the adorable freckles and red hair, raised a hand in the air.
“I don’t care what either of you think.” Baze’s hands were resting on the back of the chair she was sitting on. She could feel the power coming off him. Was he the alpha? “Jace knows the plan, he knows the schedule. Don’t give him any trouble.”
She surveyed the room, taking in everyone’s response to his demands and his tone. She filed it away, planning to ask him about their pack dynamic when they were alone.
“What about me? When do I get to go home?” She leaned forward, setting her plate on the edge of the large coffee table. “I was taken from an airport in the states. I live in South Africa. I doubt he’d come after me there, or he would have done it in the first place.” She wasn’t too sure if she actually wanted to go home, but it seemed like a good question to ask. She needed to know her place, her role.
“You don’t get to go until Franklin is put away for good.” Baze’s voice came from the back of the room, farther away than he had been a moment ago. He’d moved away from her, and the thought made her mildly upset. She wanted him closer, and she hated herself for it.
She’d survived, and then thrived for ten years, living her life the best way she could. And now three hours with her first love and she was craving his nearness? No thanks.
“It’s not safe for you to leave right now,” Baze told her. “But once he’s caught, you’ll be free to go.”
So he did plan on letting her leave at some point. She tried not to feel disappointed. Hell, what did she want him to do? Throw her over his shoulder and claim her? Demand that she truly be his, once and for all? She’d told him, less than an hour ago, that she didn’t want to be manhandled. That she needed some space and some time. Why was she being so damn indecisive? That wasn’t who she was.
She didn’t even know Baze anymore; the kid she’d fallen for was long gone. And in his place was a man, commanding and strong. She needed to get her emotions, and her thoughts, in check. And fast.
“I assume Dom and I are going to St. Leasing on the same days? And Linc and Madden?” Corey rubbed her hands on her rounded belly, almost like it was a habit.
“Mates will travel out of the house together. Dom and Corey will work Monday and Wednesday. Linc and Madden will work Tuesday and Thursday. Keller, you’ll be on campus the days that Molly has classes at the gym, including her weekend schedule.”
Baze’s voice was floating closer; she could feel him coming up behind her. She fought chills, she fought the urge to turn and drink him in.
“I’ll be on campus every Friday, but most of my week will be spent working on Ox or running security for the house.”
“I thought the Feds were on that?” Keller crossed his arms over his chest, his muscles bulging in a way that was hard to ignore. “Isn’t that what you said this morning?”
“The Feds will monitor the surveillance cameras at night.” Jace pointed to the blinking green light in the corner of the twelve-foot ceiling. “I’ll switch over the feed for them once everyone had turned in for the evening.”
“Um, are there cameras in all the rooms?” Linc pursed his lips and glanced over at his mate.
“No.” Baze was right behind her now, his scent crowding her. “There aren’t cameras in any of the bedrooms or bathrooms.”
“Only the main rooms, and all the hallways. There are cameras all over the outside of the property as well as all the gates. No one can come in or out and not be seen, it’s impossible.” Jace got to his feet, coming to stand by Baze’s side.
She expected Baze to push him away when he got too close to her, but he didn’t. Was Jace his beta? Did anyone in this group even know who was who in the pecking order?
She’d gone to one of the premier shifter schools in the world. It was an all-girls school, but every female there came from a shifter family. You had to have pedigree and generations of shifter breeding to even get accepted. The classes she took taught her far m
ore than she’d ever even wanted to know about her culture. But this pack, they seemed so unaware.
“Does everyone have their own room? Because Linc said Riley and I have to share. Exactly how big is this place?” Jasper was lying flat on the floor now, tossing a baseball into the air and catching it seconds before it smacked him in the face.
“You two do have to share.” Jace looked like he wanted to smile again. He was cold ninety percent of the time, but giving his twin a hard time seemed to make him happy.
Penelope cleared her throat, speaking for the first time in what felt like an hour. “Do I have a room? If not, I can sleep on the couch, I really don’t—”
“You’re staying with me.” Baze’s tone brooked no room for question or argument. Even though she wanted to challenge him, wanted to push him until he broke, she kept quiet. She didn’t like that she felt so out of sorts, like she was walking on shaky ground and could fall at any moment.
She didn’t not want to stay with Baze. But the fact that she was craving his closeness wasn’t a good sign.
It pointed to the bonding instincts coming back, for both of them.
Chapter Thirteen
Baze
He shut the bedroom door behind him, locking it for good measure. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep Pen safe. If he had some steel and a welder, he’d put bars on the bulletproof glass windows too. He cared about his pack; he truly did. But the way he felt about Penelope? There were no words. It was as if everything he’d ever felt for her was coming back tenfold. Like his shifter side had simply been lying in wait for her return.
“You were quiet down there tonight.” He moved to the dresser and took his wallet and cell out of his pocket, when what he really wanted to do was pick Pen up and start making out with her against the nearest wall. “The Penelope I remember never shied away from conversation.” She’d been so full of this fiery light, and he’d been drawn to her like a moth to a flame.
Her voice came from the bathroom, muffled. “I’ve been held prisoner for five days, reconnected with the man I thought I was destined to spend eternity with but haven’t seen in a decade. And then met nine new people, six of whom were shifters.” She came back into the bedroom, a toothbrush in her hand. “Sorry if I wasn’t the life of the party you remember from high school.” She rolled her eyes and disappeared again.
Baze chuckled quietly to himself. Now there was the Pen he’d fallen for. Part of him loved that her spark was coming out only around him. But part of him wanted the rest of his pack to see how amazing she was. Wait. The man she thought she was going to spend eternity with?
He strode into the bathroom, crowding her space as she rinsed her mouth in the sink. “I am the man you are going to spend eternity with, there’s no doubt about it, bumblebee.”
She stood tall, meeting his dark gaze in the large silver framed mirror. “We don’t even know each other anymore, Baze.” She shook her head slightly. “My body responds to you, I won’t deny that. But I don’t know the man you’ve become. I know nothing about who you are now.”
“Your body wants me.” That was all he needed to know; in his eyes that was all that mattered. “And mine is screaming at me, demanding that I finally finish our bonding.” He lowered his head, taking a few deeps breaths to try to calm his need for her.
She wanted him and he wanted her; they had a locked door and a bed. And his shifter side was more than ready to finally claim what was rightfully his. He took a step toward her, his hands reaching for her hips.
She took a step back, a haughty look in her eyes. “You think it’s going to be that easy? I get dropped on your doorstep and that gives you the green light to make me yours?” It was like she’d been reading his mind. She shook her head, a laugh in her throat. “Nope.”
“You are mine.” His shifter side was getting agitated. His mate was standing in front of him. He’d felt the need to claim her for the past ten years. One hundred plus months of longing and desire. Unfulfilled by anyone else. He’d felt empty and lonely every day they’d been apart. But she was here now, standing right in front of him.
His eyes drank in the way she looked in his shirt, the way her long blonde hair fell across his name on her back. His pulse quickened, his spine starting once again to itch and tingle. The longer he stared at her, the harder it was becoming to breathe. He had to have her, he had to. “I have to finish this, baby, I have—”
“Stop.” She spun around and put her hand on his chest, and his heart immediately slowed to a more normal beat. His fists unclenched at his sides, and his jaw relaxed. She shook her head, meeting his heated gaze head on. “I’m not like those females downstairs. I grew up in the shifter world, in your world. I’m not ready for you to claim me, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that you won’t push me, no matter how loud your instincts are yelling at you.”
She was right. He’d never hurt her; he’d die before he let that happen. And if she wasn’t ready to be with him, to let him take her, then he wouldn’t.
He sighed, hanging his head as she walked past him and out of the bathroom. His need for her was consuming him, his brain and his body. Maybe if he could make her see how distracting it was.
He needed to be clear-headed and focused if he was going to keep the pack safe. He needed his wits about him if he and Jace were going to crack Ox.
“Pen, things around here are tense at best.” He shut off the light and followed her. “The pack needs—”
“The pack needs to learn how to function like an actual fucking pack.” She was standing on the side of the bed closest to the door. Still wearing his shirt as she peeled back the covers and climbed in. “You guys are a mess.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, desperately trying to ignore the fact that she’d removed her bra at some point. She wasn’t making things any easier on him.
“What do you mean? Who’s to say how a pack should operate?”
She scoffed. “History. Culture. Nature. Take your pick.”
“Are you part of a pack? How would you even know?” He was stock-still, waiting for her answer. If she belonged to another pack, his shifter side would lose his fucking shit.
“To get into the school my father banished me to you had to be at least a fourth-generation shifter family. There were no girls there who weren’t raised in a shifter household. I took more specialized classes than you could imagine.”
“And you learned about packs?” He sat down on the bed, closer to her than polite, and involuntarily inhaling his scent on her perfect skin.
“I learned about all kinds of things.” She scooted farther away from him, turning to face him and crossing her legs under the blankets. “Pack life was one of them.”
“Tell me everything.” He hated how eager he sounded, but he needed to know. The more knowledge he had, the better prepared they would all be. Things were strained right now. No one loved Jace giving orders and they were all stuffed into one house. Baze knew that eventually, if they weren’t careful, things would come to a head.
“The problem with you guys is you’re trying to treat the pack like a democracy. It’s not.” She sent him an apologetic shrug. “That’s not how packs operate, and trying to run things that way will only cause more problems in the future.”
Baze let out an annoyed sigh. “We need an alpha?”
“Uh…” Penelope pursed her lips. “You already have an alpha.”
“Dom? Is that why he’s giving me so much shit about following orders?” He thought it was mostly fear for Corey and the baby that was making him act like a prick, but maybe it was because he was the alpha and Baze giving him orders was unnatural.
“You’re the alpha, Baze.” His eyes flew to hers. “You’re the alpha and Jace is your beta.”
“He’s a kid. And me? I can’t be the alpha. Dom was the first bonded male, he’s been at St. Leasing the longest.”
“Age has nothing to do with determining pack rank. Neither does timeline.” She grabbed one of the p
illows from his side of the bed and put it behind her back. “It has more to do with personality and DNA.”
“How can you tell? How did you know I was alpha and Jace was my beta?” Was there something he was missing, something they were all missing?
“Uh, there were a couple of things that I noticed when we were downstairs.” She started to tick off points on her fingers. “You stand when everyone else sits. Your tone changes when you give a command. When that happens all the other males look at the ground, they don’t meet your eyes.”
“They do?” He’d never noticed that before, and he certainly wasn’t aware that he could change the tone of his voice enough to affect his friend’s personalities.
“St. Leasing must really be lacking on an educational level.” She rolled her eyes. “Glad you guys have four overqualified baseball coaches though.”
Baze ignored her jabs. “And Jace? Why do you think he’s second?”
“Well, for one, he’s bossy as fuck.” She licked her lips, hesitating momentarily before continuing. “You told everyone else to stay back, to not come close or try to touch me. But Jace came and stood beside you without even thinking about it. You let him approach me, and you didn’t growl or try to rip his head off.
“Jace is commanding in a way that was earned. It’s easy to see when you know what you’re looking for. You trust him more than you trust any other male in your pack. You trust him with my life, like the others trust you with theirs.”
He snorted. “I get growled at every damn day. Those males do not tolerate anyone touching their mates.” His friends’ snarls were like the soundtrack to his life.
“That’s for touching them. Jace hasn’t touched me.”
That was true. What would have happened if he had though? Would Baze have growled at him like he did Dom? Or would he have let it go because he’d come to trust Jace in a way that he didn’t have with his other packmates?