Kyle forced a growl of frustration down. “You’re the one that wanted to talk, so just pick a starting point and go with it.” It took Jason openly staring at him for Kyle to realize how harshly he’d spoken. The growl he’d forced down spilling into the words and deepening his voice. “If you’re trying to tell me about Tay being pregnant, you’re too late. She told me this morning.” It didn’t make much scene for Jason to interrupt him for that, but Kyle threw it out there to see.
“Fuck,” Jason hung his head and grumbled, “She really does tell you everything.”
“Mostly,” Kyle responded. He had no reason to deny how close he and Tay were and had always been.
“No, it’s not about that…” Jason’s words trailed off, a frown worked its way into his expression. His head jerked toward Kyle. “This morning? She told you this morning?”
Kyle nodded, frowning back. “What does...”
“She told you, before she told me?” Jason’s frown deepened.
Kyle remained silent; there wasn’t anything to say really. If he had issues with who Tay told first, he needed to take that up with her. A minute passed, then another. “So if it wasn’t about that…” he prompted.
Jason shook his head. “Yeah, umm, it’s about the girl you brought home.”
“What about her?” Kyle turned fully toward Jason, looking him right in the eyes. He could hear the warning in his own voice.
“It’s…she’s…” Jason stuttered over whatever he was trying to say.
Kyle shook his head, willing himself to calm even as his blood fired through him. Jason wasn’t seriously calling foul…on this? Before Jason and Tay had started dating there was a new girl waking through the house every week. Most of them had dorm rooms so it was easier to come back to the house were at least they had a room to themselves and Jason had made no attempt to hide his sleeping around. The word Hypocrite blasted through his mind and nearly spilled out his mouth. Kyle hadn’t had a girl come home with him in three years.
“She’s what?” Kyle asked.
“Kyle look,” Jason sighed and acted as if he was bracing himself for something. “Everything isn’t entirely what it seems tonight, she’s not entirely what she seems.”
“What are you taking about?” Kyle asked in frustration. “You’re not making any scene tonight.”
“I know… I just… I don’t think you should, ya know…be with her.”
What the fuck? “Why is that?” Kyle shook his head and stood. “You know what? I don’t care. I’ll see you tomorrow Jason.” Well, I might see you tomorrow. Abby’s Heat could last for more than three days.
Jason grabbed his forearm as he started toward his door. Kyle ground his teeth together to keep from snapping at him. Jason didn’t understand and he never would. As a human he’d never know the pull, the demand, of a female’s scent in Heat. He envied Jason just a bit for that, not having to deal with all this.
“Unless you have something to actually say, I’m going to my room, where a very pretty platinum blonde is waiting for me.” He held his hand up as Jason opened his mouth. “And what goes on on the other side of my door is none of your business, just like it’s none of mine what happens behind yours.”
“Kyle, this is more important than getting laid,” Jason huffed.
“Says the guy that gets laid almost nightly,” Kyle pointed out.
Jason scoffed. “From what Tay said you don’t have a shortage of pussy available to you either.”
Kyle leaned close to Jason. “Fuck you. This is the first girl since— “
“Since Tay, yeah fucking right,” Jason interrupted. There was true anger behind those words.
“Tay…” Kyle had to think for a moment. His anger eased as he realized why Jason was so pissed at him. Kyle shook his head. “That’s what this is about. Tay finally told you about us?” It’s an odd time to tell him about it. Maybe she didn’t want to keep it from him now that they were having a kid.
“No.” Jason’s hand fell away, but the word didn’t ring true. “That’s not what this is about…and…Shannon dropped the bomb about you and Tay. Tay just confirmed that it was true, but— “
“Then you know that it was never a real relationship and it ended…years ago,” Kyle pointed out taking a step away from Jason. “I would never have left you two alone at that Halloween party if I’d still had any interest in being with her.” It took him aback that he’d said that…and meant it, but it was true, he and Tay were just friends and had been that way for three years. It had just taken this talk with Jason, and the one with Paul, for him to truly realize it.
“Yeah she said that, but this is about you sleeping— “
“Jason, I promise we’re over, long over.” Kyle told him. He was glad he finally knew what all this was about. “Truthfully we never even were, if you really think about it.”
Jason sated at him then blinked and shook his head. “We’ll have to talk about you and Tay having sex later— “
“Hello?” a female voice asked from just inside the door.
“I can’t even get a sentence out,” Jason sighed.
Kyle did a quick glance over at the door. He couldn’t be hearing right? But he was. “What is Taylor doing here?” He asked as he turned back to Jason. Things were staring to skew into the ridiculous again. Why have her here when she’s already told him? To humiliate her?
“Don’t look at me like that,” Jason scolded, which nearly shocked Kyle. Jason may have been a great football player, popular and alpha-ish in appearance, but authority was something he’d never shown toward Kyle. “I was on the phone with her, trying to find out where you were, when you and that girl came barreling through the door.” Then Jason turned his head and raised his voice enough for Taylor to hear him at the door. “In the living room.”
“Why would you have her…” Kyle sat down quickly as Tay entered and strode across the room. For some reason, he didn’t feel right standing there, before his brother’s pregnant girlfriend, sporting a hard-on that wouldn’t quit; even if said girlfriend was an ex-lover of his.
“I told her I’d call her back when I figured out what was going on with the dramatic entrance, but when you got agitated about me being near the girl I thought I might need a woman to help me,” Jason explained in a whisper.
“Agitated?” Kyle questioned and shook his head. You have no idea how agitated little brother, he thought. He needed to get to Abby before her Heat got any heavier. The scent wasn’t clouding his mind as much, but that was because there was a door between them, it mellowed the scent contained it in the room. He needed to mate with her.
She has a mate, remember? She told you she was looking for him, a tiny voice in the back of his mind reminded him. How had he forgotten? A wave of sadness broke over him as the thought went through his head. He couldn’t go into that room; he couldn’t take what wasn’t his. Tonight she belonged to her mate. Kyle needed to stick to what he’d told her, let her get cleaned up and show her the door.
Kyle glanced up to see Tay and Jason standing side-by-side staring down at him. “Hey Tay,” he managed to sigh.
“Hey,” She returned his greeting. “Heard you and some girl made quiet an entrance a few minutes ago.”
Kyle gave her a half hearted smiled and nodded. “Can one of you go tell her to help herself to the bathroom and…that she can pick any of the clothes to change into.”
Tay frowned and looked to Jason. Jason just stared at him, a look of disbelief on his face. “I can,” Tay finally said. “Is that why you brought her here? A change of clothes?”
Kyle nodded and rested his head in his hands. “She got attacked a few blocks from here, while she was waiting for…someone. I heard them down a side street and went to see what was happening. I was going to call the police as soon as I knew what was going on, but I couldn’t find my phone.”
Jason reached into his pocket and pulled out the flip phone. Kyle sighed and took it.
“Guess I left it huh?” Kyle
asked.
Jason nodded.
“Anyway they saw me and ended up taking off but not before they roughed her up a bit and threw her in a mud puddle,” he explained and tried to hide his grin as he lied.
“But…no. You two were making out when you can through the door,” Jason stated, sounding more confused then even.
“Hmmm,” Tay pressed her lips together. It was an expression Kyle knew well, she knew he was lying about something but couldn’t tell what it was. “So where is this girl now?”
Jason turned and nodded toward Kyle’s door. “In there. She seemed kinda scared when she saw me, so I’m not sure she’s still there. She might have taken off.”
Abby wouldn’t run off on me. Not after I proved myself in a two on one fight, Kyle’s tiger roared at them. Luckily, he was able to squash it before it came out as more than a grumble.
“Okay, let me go talk to her,” Tay said with a sigh, then turned to Jason. “Have you explained it to him yet?”
Jason became flustered. “I was going to but…we got off topic when I found out you told him you were pregnant first.”
Tay rolled her eyes. “I had that night planned around telling you, Jason. Kyle I told at the car after class, would you rather I’d delivered that kind of new to you like that?” Her hands went to her hips.
Jason looked at the floor, then at Kyle, and finally back to Tay. “No, I think I liked being told over dinner better.”
“I thought you would,” Tay said, a smile in her voice. “Now, you need to push that to the side and tell him what he needs to know or he’s really going to freak out.”
Kyle felt himself frown. So Jason did actually have something to tell him, other than that he’d found out about Tay and him?
“I know I have to, but I’m not even sure how to begin explaining something like this,” Jason told her. “This is something Mom and Dad should have just told him, us, when we were young like your parents did.”
Taylor sighed. “That doesn’t change the fact that you have to tell him, and you have to do it soon before— “
“Okay…okay,” Jason said, he huffed and sat back down beside Kyle.
Tay nodded, having won the battle and started for the door.
“What all are you going to say to her?” Kyle asked. Something about the way these two were talking had him worried. Something was off.
Tay stopped, but didn’t turn around. “What you told me to tell her. Maybe see if she’ll talk to me about what happened to her, see if she’ll file a police report.”
Again, something wasn’t right with her words. Was she lying? To him? “And that’s it?” He asked.
Taylor glanced over her shoulder at Jason and they shared a glance. It reminded Kyle of the look a parents share when they’re trying to decide how much to tell their child.
“Okay, what is up the mystery man routine?” Kyle asked, his tiger and his anger edging close to the surface again. He was not a child. Fuck it, he was older then both of them and he’d be damned if they’d treat him like the youngest.
Jason dropped his gaze and hung his head. Tay huffed. “Fine, do what you want Jason,” she said and then turned those anger heated eyes on Kyle. He’d never seen Tay as mad as she was at Jason right then. “No, I’m not just going to tell her what you asked us to or about the attack.” The words were choppy and full of her anger.
“Tay be fair,” Jason jumped in to save him. Tay folded her arms under her breasts and glared at him. “He has no idea why you’re mad at me; don’t take it out on him.”
“Then start explaining it to him, like you need to so I don’t sound like a bitch,” she turned her attention back to Kyle. “I’m going to explain to the girl what is going on and remind her that because of it she can’t be with you tonight, no matter how much she wants to.”
Kyle frowned harder at Tay. Did she really think she had a say in this? His tiger churned inside him, rebelling. “You don’t get to make that call,” he said to both of them. After all the looks, Jason had to be in on it. “You aren’t my parent, my wife, my girlfriend, or even my lover anymore; you’re just a friend Tay. I can be with whomever I want to.” He stood, no longer caring what Tay saw, and turned on Jason. “If you don’t like me having her here go sleep at Tay’s.” He couldn’t believe that his brother, his younger brother, and his best friend were trying to interfere with this mating.
When did I start thinking about me and Abby having sex again? He asked himself as what he’d said registered. Kyle shook his head and headed for the door.
Tay rushed passed him and opened the door. “I’m really sorry Kyle but not this time, not tonight,” she said and slipped into the other room.
Chapter 17
Taylor closed Kyle’s door and pushed her weight against it, ready for Kyle to attempt to barge in. Instead she heard someone hit the hardwood floor just outside the door with a heavy smack. She cringed as an image of Jason and Kyle fighting entered her mind. Everything they’d ever told her said they’d never been physically violent to each other. Taylor didn’t want that to end now, but Jason had to tell Kyle what was going on no matter how badly that turned out.
Someone let out a grunt as something else hit the floor. For a moment Taylor was tempted to stick her head out the door and remind Jason that Kyle was still on the edge of shifting. He wouldn’t have the strength or physical durability that came with being a shifter yet. If Jason didn’t watch it, he could easily do major damage to Kyle.
With a sigh, she pushed away from the door and the sounds of a fight to scan the room. Not much had changes since she’d been in the room last. The photos on the dresser were a bit of a shocking new addition. Kyle hadn’t brought many with him that first year of school and hadn’t bothered to add to them for the first few years. After his parents died he hadn’t wanted to look at them so he’d packed them up and set them in his closet. Now the dresser was littered with them. Photos of Kyle and Jason as small children, a family portrait where she got her first look at their little sisters, some other odd and end photos and one from her and Kyle’s college graduation.
But as she continued to look around the room she frowned, her hands going to her hips. Taylor was alone in the room. Maybe Jason was right and she went out through the window, she thought. Then she saw the thin line of light from around the bathroom door. Priming for him, are we?
Taylor made her way quietly across the room. It made sense that if half of Kyle’s story was true, because she knew he was lying about something; for this female to have taken off to the bathroom. Poor girl, she thought. First she got attacked by two males, most likely two shifters eager to mate with her forcibly even, from Kyle saying roughed up. Now Taylor was about to tell her she wouldn’t be able to mate with the male she’d gone home with. Tonight just wasn’t this female’s night. But Taylor couldn’t just throw her out and say that was it. As much as she would like to after having to deal with Abby’s Heat hormones, she needed to talk to this female. Something in the last few days, or weeks, had brought about Kyle’s ability to shift and she was betting it had something to do with this female. She was very possibly his Soul-bonded mate, if the stories of late first shifts were true anyway.
Taylor shook her head and knocked on the door as she kept her eyes on the hardwood floor. The water shut off and she heard the female curse as something clattered on the floor or counter. Taylor smiled. Jason had said she was young, maybe this was her first Heat like Abby’s was. That would explain her nervousness around another male; she didn’t want to see a fight break out.
The knob rattled and the door finally opened, light from the bathroom hurt her eyes so that she couldn’t look at the female right away.
“Tay? What…what are you doing here?”
Every muscle in Taylor’s body tightened and her blood went cold at the female’s voice. With so few tiger shifters in the area, she knew most everyone on sight. Tay had known which females were single and which of them might be nearing a Heat, but no one she’d th
ought of stood there. This was the last person she’d expected
Her baby sister stood there in a very see through tank top and a skirt so short that if she turned around Taylor would see her ass cheeks peeking out form under it.
Someone had smudged dirt down the side of her face as if they’d run muddy fingers from her forehead down her cheek to her chin. Red marks were giving way to black, purple and blue on her upper arms and around her wrists were someone had grabbed and held her. Abby had obviously struggled to get away from that person. The forming bruises easily showing the offender handprints.
Taylor stood there staring, shook her head, and opened her mouth, but the words died as a sticking spot of red on the counter caught her attention. A simple pair of lace underwear lay there, ripped at one of the seams of the crotch. Kyle’s words about the female being roughed up came flooding back. Just how rough had they managed to get with her before Kyle had shown up? Male shifters weren’t known for backing down. She glanced back at the door leading to the hall. What the hell had happened in that alley?
Chapter 18
The little time Abby had to herself had cooled her anger towards Tay. There really was no way Tay could’ve known that Kyle was or rather might be her Soul-bonded mate down the line and Abby fully believed that if she had known Tay wouldn’t have slept with him. The time alone hadn’t been all good though, she was starting to worry about Kyle. It’d been a while since she’d left him in the hall and he hadn’t come to get her yet.
The hairbrush she’d found in the top drawer dropped from her shaking hand and landed loudly on the counter as someone knocked on the door to the bathroom. “Damn it,” she cursed her nerves and her Heat. She should’ve heard someone come into the bedroom even over the water running in the sink.
Taking a breath to calm her heart, she shut off the water and opened the door. Abby stood there in the doorway and blinked a few times. To make sure she was seeing this right, she was. “Tay?” she asked and knew her voice sounded confused. “What…what are you doing here?” Some of the anger from before her talk with herself in the bathroom came rushing back and her tiger screamed. First she mates our mate, now she has the nerve to show up in his bedroom, her tiger fumed and bared her teeth.
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