Page 22 of Wolf Bound

“I thought it would be simple enough for people to grab as they wake up. Do you think Talia will be awake soon? I should probably make her sandwiches if she is,” I mutter, half to myself and half to Alaric.

“I think so, but do you even know what she would like on them?” Alaric raises a single eyebrow, enjoying pointing out the obvious flaw in my plan.

“No,” I grumble, taking my own plate and joining Penn at the long glass table.

Alaric laughs in the kitchen, shaking his head at me. If there’s one thing that the big viking man enjoys the most, it’s getting under people’s skin. It makes him a very good pack enforcer, but an annoying housemate.

Drayton walks in looking fresh faced even though I know he must be exhausted. How he pulls off always looking composed, I’ll never know. He could walk out of an explosion and look like he went for a stroll in the park. It’s fucking uncanny.

I’m surprised I don’t see Talia with him, though. Penn is cocking his head to the side, looking behind Dray with confusion as well. I honestly thought that he wouldn’t let her out of his sight for even a moment.

“Where’s Talia?” Alaric asks the question on all of our minds. “Does she even know how to make it down to the kitchen on her own?”

“Relax.” Dray looks between all of us with a small smile. “She’s fine, she just wanted some extra time to shower again and be by herself for a bit. Forrester said he would wait for her to be ready to come down and show her to the kitchen.”

“Forrester said that?” Alaric glares at Dray, not in challenge but in disbelief. “The same Forrester that tried to run away and let our mate suffer last night. That Forrester?”

“He did what?” Penn shoots out of his chair, all the bleary eyed exhaustion erased from his features in a split second.

“I’d also like that repeated,” I growl, my wolf actually pushing to the surface without my permission for once. Rarely do I let mine or my wolf’s emotions get this high, for good reason. We’re almost feral when provoked.

“I caught him, bag in hand, trying to head out to the garage after everyone had started settling in to sleep. I had a strong suspicion he might try to pull something like that so I hung out on the porch after Penn went to bed,” Alaric explains, leaning against the counter and ignoring his food entirely. “You better believe I told him that he either rejects the bond properly or he fucking accepts it and his place in the pack.”

Drayton lets out a long, drawn out breath before speaking. “Well, I guess we’ll see what he decided when they get downhere. I didn’t realise he was actually considering leaving and rejecting the bond. I thought— It doesn’t matter what I thought. Thank you, Alaric.”

Alaric nods once in acknowledgement before going back to making his food. Dray joins him at the island, but his eyes keep darting back to the entrance of the kitchen. He’s nervous now that Forrester will get the chance to hurt our mate before she even gets to eat.

Penn sits beside me again, his food remaining untouched in front of him. He seems angrier than all of us combined at Forrester’s attempted betrayal. It makes sense as they’ve always been closer to each other than the rest of us. His betrayal of Talia is a double betrayal against Penn.

“They’ll be down soon,” I softly murmur, grabbing Penn’s attention. “He won’t hurt her, you know he won’t. That’s why he tried to leave without anyone seeing him. He couldn’t stomach actually seeing the pain he would cause Talia.”

“You better be right. I don’t care who he was to me before her. If he hurts my mate, I’ll kill him where he stands.” With that, Penn stands up, grabbing the last half of his sandwich and moving back into the kitchen to stand near the entrance. His gaze is focused as he listens for Talia and Forrester.

So much of me wants to join him, or even convince him we should head upstairs and be certain that he doesn’t break Talia’s heart. Instead, I stay in my seat and force myself to keep eating. Alaric and Drayton join me at the table, the silence so heavy it’s almost a living, breathing entity between us.

My wolf is angry with my decision, but I refuse to budge even in the wake of his rage. This will be the turning point in our mate bonds with Talia. We can’t do anything to control the outcome here or we risk creating a rift between us and Forrester that Talia is stuck drowning in.

We all know that right now, it’s on Forrester and Talia to set our future. If we intercede, Forrester will never trust us as we didn’t trust him. He needs to choose whether he’s in this or out, and only he can do that. Every part of me wants to protect Talia from the pain of a rejection, but in doing that, I would force a bond that would hurt her more in the end.

This moment will forever change the dynamic within our small group. For better or for worse, only time will tell.

Chapter Thirteen

Talia

They had an awful shower at the compound that I got to use whenever they deemed me obedient enough. It was nothing like this shower that came right from the human version of heaven. The pressure of the water coming down on me makes me never want to leave. Next time, I’m trying the huge bathtub. Drayton said he would pick up some bubble stuff to add to it. I don’t know what the purpose would be, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

My stomach growls loudly, making my eyes shoot open in fear. My instincts are already trying to shut off my hunger since most of the time, a growling stomach would only prolong the time until I was fed.

It takes me a moment, but I soothe my own fear enough that I can function. My stomach hurts less, the pain dulled by my brain, but I focus on it still so I can actually feel it. I’m not in that prison anymore and I don’t need to hide my normal body signals. There’s no need for fear here. Drayton said as soon as I was done with my shower, we would go get food. He’s my mate and I trust him, so the fear can go away.

Shutting off the water, I step out of the glass enclosure and wrap myself in one of the fluffy blue towels that were left for me after my first shower. Grabbing a second one, I rub it over my hair like Drayton did for me last night, drying it enough that I’m not dripping water everywhere.

There’s a basket of bathroom products on the counter in front of the large mirror. Drayton brought it to me when I woke up since we didn’t have any of it earlier. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I don’t know what most of it does. The brush, toothbrush, lotion, and soap, I understand. Lifting up some of the bottles to read the labels, I instantly get confused and overwhelmed.

“Dry shampoo?” I whisper in disbelief, looking between the shower and the bottle. “What’s the difference between the wet shampoo and this one?”

Dampness, probably.

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