Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
Steff still looked uncomfortable. “I think she’s right.”
“Me, too,” Blayne added.
Tate looked beyond angry at all three of us. “What are you talking about? Harley, what if I claim you and something bad happens to the baby? How can you… shit, how can I live with myself if that happened?”
“I have the necklace Emily gave me. I won’t take it off. I know she meant it to protect me. I’m sure it will protect the baby.”
Tate, unmoved, shook his head. “No, not happening. I’m not giving you my bite. Too much could go wrong.”
I couldn’t be there anymore. He wasn’t listening to reason, and I needed to get out of the room to cool off. I stood, but before I walked away, I pinned him with my gaze. “You’re being selfish. You need to think about your pack and your family. If you aren’t
at your best, if you’re too stressed or preoccupied with the desire to claim me, then you’re putting all of us at risk. Miles almost died. What if Steff dies next time because you were too slow? What if…” My breath caught in my throat, but I pushed forward. “What if the hunters kill Mariah or Jordyn because you’ve gone feral and can’t do anything to help them? You need to think long and hard about whether
that is something
you can live with?” Without waiting for his answer, I stomped out of the room.
THIRTY-FIVE
TATE
My anger rose as I watched Harley leave the room. It wasn’t directed at her. It was at myself, it was at Emily, it was at the hunters and Luis. Everything was fucked up, and I couldn’t get my head to stop spinning to make a good plan. I stood and paced the room, trying to expend some extra energy.
Blayne shook his head in exasperation. “Tate, dude, you have to admit Harley has a point. We’re going into battle with these hunters, and you are definitely not at peak performance. You see that, don’t you?”
I heard him and bit down on my tongue to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t want to spout some retort at him without thinking. I needed time to think, but shit kept happening that prevented that.
“You realize that if you get killed because you’re too busy worrying about this curse, you’ll leave Harley and your unborn son totally unprotected,” Steff said.
I spun on him and snarled, releasing a deep throaty growl. Instead of flinching back, Steff merely raised his eyebrows, looking more irritated than afraid.
Blayne scoffed. “Again, you’re making our point for us.”
The snarl on my face slipped away. They were right. I wasn’t at my best. It wasn’t even that I was angry. I was terrified. I was trapped in my own skin, ready to tear free. I wasn’t scared of the hunters. I was scared at the thought of losing Harley or losing the baby. I couldn’t imagine the pain I’d feel if I took the girls’ mother from them. This fear was all that was stopping me. There’d never been a human that turned into a shifter. There was nothing to go off of. No case study, no legend, no text books. Nothing. We were going in blind. I had no way of knowing if I should jump off the cliff or walk away.
Upstairs, I heard murmuring. Miles was talking. Without a word to Steff or Blayne, I walked up the stairs and rounded the corner. I’d assumed that Miles was talking in his sleep. Instead, I found him awake, speaking with Harley. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, away from the bloody portion.
Freezing where I was, without them seeing me, I listened to what they were saying.
“I like the paint job too, by the way,” she said, gesturing to the blood stains all over the bed.
Miles smiled, even though he was still obviously in pain. “Yeah, sorry about that. I told them to put me in the bathtub, but they wouldn’t listen.”
“It’s fine. Tate already said he’d buy me a new mattress. Between you and me, I’m going to work him over and get one of those really expensive, top-of-the line, heated and cooled ultra-lux beds.”
Miles chuckled, then winced. “Take him for all he’s worth. I do his taxes for him, I know how much he’s got.” The smile fell from his face. “Harley, I’m very thankful for you.”
“For what?” she asked, her brow furrowing.
“You’ve made Tate happy. You can’t understand how grateful I am for that. He’s my best friend, but I really can’t remember him ever being truly happy. You and your girls have broken
through that armor he’s built around himself. He’s actually living a life. He’s not just slugging his way through it anymore. He’s a great guy, the most loyal friend I could ever imagine. He deserves happiness. He deserves peace, and you gave him that. Thank you.”
My eyes burned, and I put a hand to my mouth, holding back a sob. I’d never heard Miles talk about me like that. I never knew he was so worried about me. Sometimes I forgot that other people were watching. My friends were invested in me as much as I was in them.
Miles added, “I know he’s not been himself lately. I’m still worried about him.”
Harley took his hand. “I’m doing all I can to help ease his mind. The problem is, Tate is a stubborn bastard.”
Miles laughed then, actually laughed. It was cut off by a wince and hiss of pain. He dragged in a breath. “You aren’t wrong. But I think if anyone can ease his mind, you can.” Miles’s eyes fluttered closed. As he slipped off to sleep, he murmured, “I can’t lose him. I can’t lose my brother.”
My chest was aching as I watched Harley lay Miles’s hand gently back on the bed. This was the hardest decision I’d ever had to make. It was like my whole life was culminating in what I was about to choose. Harley turned and saw me standing in the shadow of the doorway. She stood and walked toward me with a determined look on her face.
She pressed up against me in the hallway. “I’m not going to let you put us in danger, Tate. I
know everything will be fine. This is the way things were meant to be. I want your bite. Claim me.”
My dragon nearly forced a shift after hearing that. It was going crazy with need and lust. My cock was already getting hard hearing her say those words. I knew what would happen if my instincts overcame me. And that terrified me.