Talons

Chapter 103: The Step

Rhea’s POV

After taking yet another shower, Mandy brings me a dress to change into. She is taller than me, and while we wear similar sizes, she has gotten a lot of her things custom fitted. She told me that Alpha Stone is big on appearances, so he insists that she always looks her best even when she has no plans for the day.

I know from past conversations with my cousin that she acts as the pack accountant. She also sells her services to pack members, and other smaller packs who are in dire need of ways to make more money.

As a result, she is one of the top earning pack members, and she and Carter are financially secure. She’s already promised to buy me anything I need, but I asked her if my wallet was brought with me, and after confirming, she told me that it was.

I don’t need my cousin's money. She may be comfortable, but I am quite literally a millionaire. I guess no one pays enough attention to me to know that I have stopped receiving a pack allowance from when I was sixteen, and I haven’t ‘consulted’ with my brother about the fields since General put an end to me working. 

At the time, he said that he wanted to take care of me, and that he didn’t want me to tire myself out, but I now know that it was just one of the ways he was expressing his dominance over me. He wanted to make me dependent on him, but that would have never happened, even if he were my mate.

“Did you know?” I ask Mandy, who was silently watching me comb out my hair again. She intuitively knows what I’m talking about, and she shakes her head at me.

“I heard a different version of that story and Colt wasn’t involved.” I nod at her, put my hair back into a high pony and stand from the chair I was sitting in. “B, what happened to you?”

I stare at my cousin, unsure what she is asking. If she wants to know why I’m so terrified of Colton, I will retell every account, but if she wants to know what happened between General and I, I'm not ready to talk about it.

“An omega tried to force himself on me, and Colton stopped him.” I finally say and my cousin shoots to her feet, pulling me into a hug that’s so tight it hurts.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She whimpers. “Why do you always hide things? It isn’t healthy.” I stare at my cousin who I know is right, but Sylvia and I have always only had each other.

"We are fine," my wolf says. Her voice sounds weak, almost sleepy, and I begin to worry. "Stop thinking so much," she says again. "Three months and we can walk away." I find my lip quivering because I can feel the hurt my wolf is experiencing. 

The mate bond is stronger for wolves than it is for humans, so when it’s broken or damaged, they experience the pain more intensely.

"I will be okay," she whimpers. "Just… sing to me." Without delay, I began to sing out loud, startling Mandy, who wasn’t expecting me to break into song. 

When I feel my wolf relax, I stop singing, and tell her to rest. I can tell she isn’t ‘okay,’ and I want her to recover as soon as possible. She didn’t retreat when Colton revealed himself to us, and to me, that is already a big step toward healing.

“I’ve forgotten how beautiful your voice is,” Mandy says, and I smile, remembering times when she would ask me to sing while we colored. 

She used to love color by number books, and she would bring them when she visited for the summer. It was on one of the times that we were coloring outside that she saw Carter for the first time, and that was the same day she had picked out the names for her future children.

The very next year, Mandy started secretly seeing Carter, and less than two months after they became ‘a couple’ she was already having s*x with him.

I know she wasn’t feeling a pull toward him, nor was it solely her urges. Carter was a handsome boy with a charming smile that even I had to appreciate. He did things for her that always sounded like lies, especially since he was only fourteen or fifteen at the time.

Without thinking, I find myself asking my cousin what she would do if she were in my position, but I withdraw my question when I see how uncomfortable it made her. She also wasn’t a huge fan of the mate bond. 

Within her home pack, she had seen many ill-fated couples who physically fought one another, and she disliked the complexity. Her own parents chose one another and have a better bond than a lot of the fated individuals she grew up around, and that was what Mandy wanted; security.

Since I’m ready to go, my cousin and I leave the suite, but we are intercepted by Miracle and Holly. 

They are angry that they weren’t invited to go shopping with us, but I’m not the one they need to speak to, so I throw up my hands and tell them that I would rather order clothes online, which is what I had been doing in Miami.

“If you go, then I’ll have no one to stay with Carly,” Mandy whines, and Holly laughs mockingly.

“Hey… You should have thought about that before you created a person.” I find myself suppressing a chuckle. Holly is right, Carly is Mandy’s responsibility. 

“Come on Holl,”

“I’m going too.” Dolton’s voice booms from behind us, and Holly rolls her eyes.

“Make sure Carly has a change of clothes and whatever magic rice she’s been eating. Also, I want mall food.” Mandy hugs Holly tightly and I find myself smiling at their interaction. “Enough, get off of me before your mate starts pounding on my door again.” Mandy chuckles, but Miracle and I are confused. 

She tells us that Carter is jealous of Holly, which once again confuses me, but Dolton explains that it’s not jealousy, it's an effect of the mate bond. He starts defending Carter, and I find myself asking him if he is jealous of any of us.

“I absolutely hate when Miracle smells like any of you. If she wants a hug, she can get it from me.” Holly and I are the only two who haven’t experienced the bond, so we don’t understand it, and when our eyes meet, we burst into laughter.

“That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard. What if Miracle got angry any time you went to the gym? You know the smells in there mix around, especially when sharing equipment.” Dolton’s face takes on a stricken expression, and I arch an eyebrow.

“Wait… did you think-” I never get to finish my sentence because my cousin cuts me off.

“You two may think it’s funny but it’s not. Dolton once smelled so strongly of-” 

“Miracle,” Dolton warns. I can tell that she is about to embarrass him, but as I've said before, my cousin is not the easiest to get along with. “Don’t…” A sinister smirk plays across my cousin's face, and she blurts out what Dolton smelled like in Spanish before running away. 

Dolton’s nostrils flare, but he doesn’t know what my cousin said, and Holly and I haven’t uttered a word.

“Why is she so… so…” I think Dolton is going to say something bad, but he takes a deep breath. “Perfect,” he continues, walking in the direction Miracle ran. 

I think it's safe to assume they aren’t coming, so I ask Holly if she wants to come again, while telling Mandy that I will take care of Carly, but Holly claims not to want to feel like a third wheel.

She leaves, and Mandy and I make our way toward our destination. I don’t know my way around the Packhouse, so I have no idea where I’m going.

Colton’s POV

Trey is eagerly waiting in my office. He can’t wait to see my mate, and while I should be jealous, I’m not. Before any of us, he stopped picking on the girl. We all knew it was his gamma nature taking control, and when she started to come out of her shell, he was among the first to accept her as a normal person.

He used to visit claw territory often and he would come back with such outrageous stories that Carter and I didn’t believe him half the time. Now, I feel like I should have listened to him when he first told me to leave the girl alone. 

Back then, I slammed him against a wall, threatening him to never defy my authority, and he just shook his head at me in what I thought was surrender, but now that I’m older, it was probably in shame.

Shortly after, he pulled away from Carter and I, and while we were still friends, our bond was spread thin. It didn’t start to recover until his first pregnancy scare. That was a hell of a time for us, and because he was terrified to face my father’s wrath, I stepped in to accept his punishment. 

I would never have done that for anyone, but I was inspired by Rhea, who threw something to stop my father from hitting me after I was caught screwing. He may not have seen her, but I did. 

I saw her throw the rock, and I remember being scared, but nothing ever came of that event except me offering support to my gamma, who is once again one of my best friends.

My office door flies open and since Trey is already sitting in front of me, I think it’s Mandy or Carter, but the scent is Jessica’s. 

“Get out,” I growl, but she fights the command by throwing herself to the ground. I was about to get up and make her leave, but in walks Mandy, followed by my beautiful mate.

I’m completely distracted, and I sniff the air, wanting to pull in as much of her scent as possible. I noticed it before, but the scent of my shampoo is strong on her, and that mixed with her natural scent is beyond pleasant to me.

I don’t like what she’s wearing, not just because it carries Mandy’s scent, but because she looks too sexy in it. Her soft legs are on full display, and let Orlin tell it, her breasts are not covered enough.

“Why didn’t you give her a bra?” I link.

“Screw you Colt!” Mandy shouts.