“Is that what’s got your fur in a knot? Well you couldn’t, and it was only a pair of rubber flip flops. You see you are possessive.” Hunter held his breath. He wanted to say something to Haley but he didn’t. But most of all, he wanted to paddled her behind. “I think you felt intimidated because he’s a human and you’re not.” Hunter’s eyes narrowed. Haley had pushed a few too many buttons and she wasn’t done yet.
“I think you don’t want anyone to have me, but you don’t want me either. You’re still obsessed over Katie. But she’s pregnant. You’re wishing she was pregnant for you, aren’t you?” Haley watched at Hunter’s face for a reaction. Hunter knew how to hide his emotions. He had time to learn that.
“You’re still living as if you haven’t changed and Katie is still waiting for you. But she isn’t. Why don’t you share her with Devin? Then maybe I can be free of you,” Haley said her voice harsh and exact.
Turning to meet his gaze, she wished she hadn’t said that and she wished she hadn’t looked into his eyes because she saw what he was trying to hide—that he was still drawn to Katie. Katie was his first.
No matter how Haley tried to separate herself from Hunter, she would endure the same agonizing pain of loving him because he was her first.
“I don’t share what is mine.” Haley didn’t like his answer. “Let’s go,” he said. He climbed on the bike and revved up the motor as Haley stood gazing at him with a blank look. Then she climbed on behind him. He noticed that she didn’t hold him as tight as before.
It was twilight when Hunter and Haley pulled into the mile long driveway straight to the entrance to the ranch. Hunter observed that there were a large amount of cars parked on the outside. There were fewer than fifty cars, but still enough to crowd out the parking space to the right of the ranch.
Hunter hadn’t been in touch with his father for a week. First he thought that something may be wrong until he heard voices of children laughing. Maybe Adrienne had convinced Lycell and Drayton to give the pups a birthday party.
When Hunter spoke to Lycell he never mentioned a party.
He remembered hearing his mother argue with Wilder about a birthday party for them, and as usual his mother won out, and she gave them one. He barely remembered it because he was a pup, but from the pictures of him and Devin with the neighboring children, playing with animals in their petting zoo, and pictures of him and Devin riding on ponies, it had to be a lot of fun and a success.
It drew a big smile on his face when he thought about it because the party was more for his mother to meet the women in their small town. That was her way of holding on to her past life—that of being a human with all the desires and traditions that came with it.
Instead of going to the front he swung his bike around to the right of the house. He climbed off and stretched his hand out to Haley. She glanced up at him when she took his hand. He wasn’t looking at her.
Not seeing her, his eyes facing front watching the parade of people smiling and dancing. He stopped in his tracks when he saw his mother. She was dancing with a stoic Wilder. His steps appeared to be like a wooden soldier. He looked up embarrassed that Hunter had caught him dancing even if he was just dragging his feet along.
When Adrienne scanned the room, she locked gaze with Hunter. Tearing away from Wilder’s arms and hands, she rushed into Hunter’s arms. She said, “Why have you come back?”
“I thought you would be happy to see me,” Hunter said to his mother.
“I am but with all that’s going on in this town, I thought it would be longer before you came back home.”
“What’s the party for?” Hunter asked smiling. “Did Lycell agree to give that wolf pack a birthday party?” he said with a wide smile.
“They’re not that bad, Hunter,” Adrienne said looking at Haley. “It took you to bring my son home.” Haley shot her a thin smile. Adrienne may have wanted to avoid the question, which would be answered in a matter of minutes.
Hunter glanced around and noticed a large cake with tiers setting on a pedestal, and at the top, stood two plastic miniature statues of a bride and groom. It wasn’t a birthday they were celebrating, but a wedding. Deep down he knew that Katie would get married considering she was pregnant, but he didn’t expect it this soon.
He didn’t expect to be the best man or maybe he did. He didn’t expect he would be around to see it happen, but now he is, and he didn’t like what he saw.
He raised a thick eyebrow and his forehead tensed.
Hunter forgot about Haley standing on the side of him. She glanced up at him not expecting him to react in such a heated manner. She saw his fist clench to his side as if he was trying to control himself from lashing out at something. Then she looked to Adrienne. Her expression was tense. She closed her eyes and shook her head over and over.
Hunter’s mouth dropped into a hard line. He was sweating and it was cool. His breathing was erratic. His muscular chest up and down to a perfect rhythm. “Don’t ruin it for Devin and Katie,” Haley whispered touching his arm. Then Adrienne turned to Hunter.
He looked at Adrienne with a small smile. “I wouldn’t do that, mother. Where are they? I want to congratulate them.” Adrienne pointed to the dance floor. Hunter watch them kiss and then Devin passed his hands over her stomach. Hunter’s heart raced. Haley gazed at him and then she looked at Adrienne as Hunter ambled over to Devin and Katie’s table. His footing was uneasy. He couldn’t control himself because he was too distraught at seeing them together.
When will I get used to seeing them together and like this? He asked his mind.
“I don’t think Hunter is ready to face Devin and Katie. He’s still infatuated with her,” Haley said to Adrienne.
Haley didn’t want to admit it, but she had to face the facts, too—that she would never have his heart unless he would be free of Katie. And he wasn’t free of her no matter how much he protested, and pretended he was over her. Haley knew it and Adrienne knew it and that’s why Adrienne followed him to the tent where they were dancing and kissing.
Adrienne stopped and whispered to Wilder, Lycell, and Drayton. Lycell jumped to his feet and cut Hunter off.
“When did you get back?” Lycell held on to his shoulders. “Let me take a look at you.” Hunter’s eyes eased passed Lycell, and he looked as Robert asked Devin to let him have a dance with Katie.
Lycell glanced at Hunter. He wasn’t there. Not all of him. His body was standing before Lycell, but he was far away and his face showed furrows in his brow when he was concentrating on one thing too long, and that one thing was Katie.
“She doesn’t want you, Hunter.” That caught his attention and he focused on Lycell’s face.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. If I have to repeat it, it may be too painful for you to accept.”
“How do you know that she doesn’t want me? How do you know how I feel?”
“I felt that way once, when your mother first came to this house to be our mate. I thought she didn’t love me. I thought she would forever be devoted only to Wilder, but your mother was different. She knew how to love all the brothers and not make one feel unloved and insignificant. That is a rare quality. She’s a rare woman, and I hope you will find what you want one day, but it’s not with Katie.” Lycell turned looking at her.
“You don’t know me uncle Lycell,” Hunter said his voice rising and falling.
“I know you like you’re my own. I’m your father’s triplet remember.” Hunter became silent and a smile crossed his lips.
“You probably could have been my father.” Hunter nodded his head in agreement. “We do look alike and I do behave like you. I’m stubborn and sometimes inflexible like you. Speaking of that, where are those sons of yours? Lycell pointed to a table. It was surrounded by young girls giggling and making over them.
“Just like their father,” Hunter said smiling at Lycell and turned in the direction of the wedding table.
The music stopped and Robert led Kat
ie to the table. Devin was sitting watching everyone.
“Don’t fool yourself. You can’t change her mind and Devin is not going anywhere. He’s your brother and you will make your mother unhappy if you cause any trouble at their wedding. There is more to think about than just yourself. And if you make her unhappy, then you will have to answer to me, your father, and Drayton.”
Hunter pulled away from Lycell tucking his shirt in his pants. Then he wandered over to the table where Katie and Devin sat looking lovingly at each other.
“Let me congratulate you on your wedding.” Devin glanced up surprised. His blue eyes wide and his forehead creased. Katie lowered her eyes and didn’t meet Hunter’s eyes.
He walked around and stood to the side watching Devin extend his hand to him, but Hunter pulled Devin from his seat and hugged him.
“Why are we shaking hands? That’s for strangers.” Devin leaned back and stood locking eyes with Hunter. Hunter’s eyes turned dark and cold. Hunter’s voice was warm, but his hug was cold and Devin felt it. Then Hunter walked over and stood over Katie.
He glanced at Devin. “Can I have a dance with your wife?” Devin looked down at Katie and she stood gazing into Hunter’s cool eyes. She nodded to Hunter, he held out his hand as she stood and took his hand. He led her to the floor. Everyone at the table and in the tent grew quiet. It was as if they knew the story. Perhaps it was all around town.
Perhaps the maids and kitchen staff had passed it around. Perhaps they said how Hunter had come home after being away for two years expecting to marry Katie, but she was with his twin brother. Perhaps they said how Hunter had turned into a raving animal after being in the wild for two years. Maybe they said that Hunter had fought his brother after finding out that Katie was pregnant.
But that was just gossip, and no one knew for sure what went on, but the gossip had been all around town and it traveled as fast as Lycell’s black stallions.
Hunter looked at Katie and took her in his arms. She trembled. “Why are you trembling?”
“I don’t know,” she said. But she did know. She discovered that she felt the same for Hunter as he felt for her. She knew that she enjoyed being in his arms and that she prayed for him to hold her close one day, but when Hunter came back, she had fallen in love with his look alike. But Devin just looked like Hunter. Devin was nothing like Hunter. He was inattentive to Katie. Any woman shifter or human could send him off for a few nights and she wouldn’t see him for days. Then he would come back to her and she said nothing.
Hunter was no longer that inexperienced shy werewolf she first laid with in the shed and who filled her for the first time. Hunter was nothing like Devin. He was warm, caring and he needed her as much as she needed him now.
Katie thought she never would see Hunter again so she made herself happy with the womanizing, drinking, and all night partying Devin, who had many sexual experiences before her and he can’t seem to be content with one woman. Women were on Devin’s mind all the time, that, and fucking.
She looked up in Hunter’s face and said, “We wanted something we couldn’t have. I wanted you when you went away, and you thought I would be yours forever. That isn’t the case. You stayed away too long.”
“It wasn’t my choice to leave and it wasn’t my choice to be away from you for as long as I did.”
“I have moved on.”
“That is obvious.”
“Why are you so cold, Hunter?”
“I wasn’t aware that I was,” Hunter said calmly.
“Why do you have to put on a façade for me? I know that you love me.”
“Do you now?”
“Because I still love you.”
“Then why did you marry my brother?”
“Because I’m pregnant and you’re different. You’re a wanderer and a loner. You can’t be happy in one place.”
“But I could have been happy with you,” Hunter said. “We didn’t have to be in Samsaville to be happy.”
“If I could, I would leave with you tomorrow,” she said gazing into Hunter’s heated eyes. His brow flickered in surprise. Taking in his sculptured face, his narrow nose, she saw his rugged face for the first time. It was different. His high cheekbones, his stubborn elegant face brightening, and staring down at her, losing himself in her eyes and face.
“I don’t think Devin and Hunter’s family would like that,” Haley said leaning over Katie’s shoulder whispering to both of them as she smiled broadly at Hunter. “Don’t you think you should be with your husband on your wedding day and not with my Hunter?”
Hunter’s eyes grew wide. “Go sit with Devin, Haley. I will be there with Katie shortly,” Hunter said. She glared at him with stubborn interest and didn’t move.
“If you want to keep peace in your family, I suggest you take her back to the table and ask me to dance,” Haley said. Hunter and Katie stopped and glanced at Devin, whose head had slumped to the side. His eyes opening and closing. Devin was clearly drunk, and when Hunter and Katie turned they saw a room of eyes staring at them waiting to see what Hunter or Devin would do.
Hunter didn’t want to do the right thing. He was compelled to do the right thing. He wanted to take Katie in his arms, take her to his bed and make love to her. Devin had already said that he would share her if Katie agreed. But then there is the matter of Haley.
What would he do with her? He would soon discover that she would not go easy.
She knew what she wanted and she wouldn’t let Katie have Hunter. Besides Katie already had the likeness of him. She couldn’t have both because Hunter was far better than Devin in Haley’s eyes, and there was no way Katie’s greedy heart would take Hunter from her.
“Don’t you think you have overstepped your bounds, Haley? When do you presume to dictate to Hunter what he should do?” Katie said standing with Hunter as he held on to her hand.
“Since he fucked me. Not once but over and over again. I’m not someone that doesn’t know what I want and keep the brothers at odds with each other. You’re tearing their family apart because you can’t decide on Devin or Hunter.”
“That’s enough, Haley,” Hunter said. She crossed her arms as her eyes bore into Hunter.
“Maybe I will take both of them,” Katie said pulling away from Hunter and turning to face Haley. Katie’s mouth settled in a hard line with a raised eyebrow.
“Did you hear her, Hunter? She wants you to share her with Devin.”
“I heard her, Haley.”
“Tell her no.” Hunter glanced at Katie. Haley looked at Hunter. He was silent and he walked away from Haley and took Katie’s hand and took her over to the table with Devin and left Haley standing in the middle of the floor.
Adrienne saw Haley’s sad face and rushed to her side and held her by the hand. Haley appeared in shock when she took her to the side to sit.
“I expected him to say no. He said that he would never share his mate with another. I love him. But he doesn’t love me,” Haley’s words were soft her tone sad.
“He loves you, Haley. He just doesn’t know it yet. Come sit with me.”
“I have to leave here. I want to go to school as soon as possible. I wish I could go tomorrow. Tell Wilder that I want to go as soon as possible. As soon as possible,” Haley said rambling on and looking pass Adrienne as she turned to watch at Hunter take a seat on the left of Katie and Katie giving out a satisfied grin.
Adrienne took Haley into the house where she could talk without distraction. She brought her into the large family room that overlooked the pool. Sitting down on an overstuffed leather sofa she sat close to Haley. Adrienne took Haley’s hand and looked into her fresh young face. A face not much younger than hers.
She placed a stray hair behind Haley’s ear. Haley sat biting her nails on one hand. A nervous habit she picked up when her mother died. Haley held on tight to Adrienne’s hand and blinked nervously.
“Don’t let Hunter worry you. He doesn’t know what he wants. He’s still very young. A yearling his f
ather calls him. And he’s much like his father Wilder and his uncle Lycell. One a loner and the other brash and emotional.” Adrienne watched at Haley intently.
“I’m young and I know what I want.”
“You only think you do. You will have a chance to discover what you want to do with your life.”
“I already know what I want. I want to be Hunter’s mate and have his pups. But now it looks like Katie will have both your sons, and I will be left trying to find someone as good as Hunter.”
Adrienne peering at Haley said, “If he is the man you think he is and he’s what you want, give him time. Let him realize you’re everything he wants and for him to see the difference in you and Katie. The only way that can come about is for him to miss you. Go to school.”
“But I don’t want to leave the country. I want to be near him and near you and your family. I have no one but your family,” Haley said her voice breaking. Her eyes lowered hiding her pain and tears.
“Then let me arrange for you to go to a college in the area. There’s a small private school that I attended located on the outskirts of San Francisco. I can arrange for you to fly out on the Samsas’ jet tonight, and have you in a dorm tomorrow.” Adrienne looked to Haley.
“You can do that?”
“Just watch me. I have a certain amount of influence and money because I’m Mrs. Samsa. We make a large contribution to that private college. I didn’t know it when I met Wilder that his mother had attended it also.” She paused looking around. Raised her hand. “Wait here.”
Adrienne turned and walked to the house phone in the library leaving Haley to look aimlessly out at the pool. Then Haley saw Katie and Hunter leave the tent together and stand near the pool area and then sit in lawn chairs.
Where was Devin, she wondered?
The look on Katie’s face showed her satisfaction. Her smile showed all her beautiful white teeth. She threw her head back and laughed, then she gave Hunter a coy smile and he smiled back at her. It was the first time Haley had seen a wide bright smile come from Hunter. When Haley was with him he appeared sullen, and if he gave her a smile it was a faint one.
Insatiable: Moon Tide Book 6 Page 16