Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
He smiles at the thought.
“How many days have I been out? You never did say.”
“Only two days, one night. It was more like you needed sleep, not like anything was wrong.”
Oliver says, still behind me. “But, with your history, it didn’t stop us from worrying. I’m just glad that you can’t shut us out anymore, but you have some weird ass dreams.”
“What do you mean ‘I can’t shut you out?”
“You were always able to hide what you were really feeling. Now we can all feel it and when you’re particularly emotional we can hear it. Who were you talking to?” Oliver turns me to look at him. My body is starting to wake up, but the heaviness is still there.
“What makes you think I was talking to someone? Maybe I was just talking in my sleep.”
I shrug.
“I could hear your side of the conversation, but not the other. And when you tell someone ‘F*ck you! You can take your disembodied voice and f*ck right the f*ck off.’ and ‘Are you going to tell me how to win in this war that we have been flying blind in for years. Or do I just get to keep making things up and finding out what works?’ I’m inclined to think that you were actually having a conversation. I thought maybe it was your wolf telling you something else stupid that you had to do, but I don’t get the feeling you would tell your wolf to f*ck off.”
He smiles at me and I can’t help but smile back. Then I turn to Cam and Kota. “Did you guys hear it too?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t catch everything that you were saying. Maybe it’s a proximity thing, since Oliver was lying with you.
Dakota was keeping watch and I was downstairs with the team.”
Hearing that, my body naturally wanted to shoot up to a sitting position, but I didn’t do more than flail a bit in Oliver’s arms. “Wait! Did something happen while I was asleep?”
“No, Sweetness, relax. Nothing like that, but we figured after all the bullsh*t that that Mike clown threw at us we should be ready for something to happen either on your birthday or after you were fully mated to us. We’ve been taking turns resting with you, keeping watch and working with the team. We finally got a report from Gwen too. The pack members are getting antsy with the Alpha King, feeling like a burden, but Mina seems to be making their comfort and care her personal responsibility. Osiston thinks she’s nesting.”
Dakota smiles at my friend’s antics. “She has been taking personal care of Lily and Sebastian and the other kids who have parents here still fighting.”
“I think they all feel helpless and useless. They want to contribute to the pack while they are there, but no one will let them, viewing them as victims.”
Cam muses. “I know Xander has tried to intervene, but he has his own duties and a very pregnant mate to take care of too. We haven’t gotten a lot of information from the Royal Pack, but I think that is still Adrielle. Gentry thinks she might be getting weak, maintaining all of the different magic that she has been casting. You put a pretty big damper on her forces when you took out Mike and the other fighters she had to maintain her control spell.”
“Okay. I’m sure this is too much info, but I really need to go to the bathroom and I can still barely move. Can someone help me please?” I look between the three of them, embarrassed that I had to ask a question like that.
“Love, why didn’t you say anything sooner? Don’t be embarrassed. This is what mates are for, and let’s be honest we’ve explored a lot of your body. Let us help you.”
He rolls his eyes as he picks me up effortlessly and carries me to the bathroom.
Cam runs me a bath and they all help me clean up. By the time I am ready to get dressed I can move freely again, but I still feel heavy. It’s not until I step in front of the full length mirror that I notice I come up to Dakota’s shoulder. What? I have always had to strain to look at all of them, barely reaching their chests, and they have all gotten bigger, but I guess that extended to me too. I mean next to them I’m still small, but maybe, I’m a little closer to average now. I will only know when I stand next to my girl friends.
The guys and I ate in our kitchen and they filled me in on what’s been happening more in depth. Osiston paid a visit and didn’t notice anyone hanging around our perimeter, but he wasn’t able to mindlink anyone, even Nickolas until he crossed into our borders. I thought that would have been solved with the breakdown of the pentagram, but I guess we still have work to do. They did find out that cell service and other forms of communication could cross over, so our wolves and their link were being targeted. I tucked that thought away because they were either underestimating us or thinking too small. Which, neither option sounds right, but I don’t know why they would only want to separate our wolves.
We come up with additional things we want to check on and work through with our team, but to be perfectly honest the whole team knows us well enough that the list isn’t very long. The biggest thing is the magic part. The guys haven’t had any experience with magic beyond what I have brought here. My team and I saw plenty while we were out on missions, but avoiding being affected by magic is completely different than having it and learning how to use it against our enemy on the fly.
We head downstairs and I don’t make it two steps off the elevator before being assaulted by Sierra. She jumps into my arms, knowing I can handle her loving aggression, but she jumps back quickly to hold me at arms length.
“Holy sh*t! Sky! You look amazing! Why didn’t I have a growth spurt when we mated?” She looks accusingly over her shoulder at, I assume, Sam who I can’t see from here. Yep, still smaller than everyone, just not as noticeable now. No tattoos like your boys though.”
She pouts. “I thought maybe all four of you would match.”
“Yeah, cause that’s what we needed, four of them to tell apart.”
Sam laughs, wrapping his arms around her waist and smiling at me. “I’m glad you were able to join the land of the mated, even though you cheated and got yours early.”
He sticks his tongue out at me and on impulse I move to snatch it and to my surprise I do.
Everyone around me goes still as I stare at my pointer finger and thumb holding his tongue over my friend’s shoulder. Sierra looks from my hand to me.
“I didn’t even see you move.”
“I didn’t make a conscious choice to move, my body just did it.”
“Don’ ell ee or asser ow.”
Sam mumbles around my fingers.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.