Page 48 of Hayden's Haven
It had been years since Mila had seen the alpha, so she didn’t remember his face too well. “So many here call Hayden a traitor. I thought perhaps you were just of a similar mindset.”
“Hardly. Just the trauma of my time w-with Drake. I’m working to get past it. I considered going to a therapist in Devil’s Peak, but. . .”
“You’re afraid talking about Drake would cause a therapist to break doctor-patient confidentiality just so he or she could tell the authorities about a shifter who in all honesty should be put down?”
Anna sucked in her breath.
“What?” Mila said, confused by Anna’s shock at her suggestion. “You wouldn’t want to put Drake down if you could?”
“I would, probably, maybe. It’s not something I want to think about. I didn’t think you’d be the one to suggest that so readily. Or is there no future between you and Hayden?”
Hayden? What did this have to do with Hayden? “What I meant was, exposing crimes or problems in the shifter community to humans violates that unwritten rule that all packs seem to agree on. My alpha, Truman, would have his enforcer hang a shifter up by his feet and claw him until he begged for his life if he ever went running to the humans for anything that could make shifters look bad or draw any type of attention. Male, female, doesn’t matter. I’ve seen it done.”
Anna sucked in another breath. “Your alpha did that? Damien would never do that. Or Callen I mean. Though, no, I don’t want to think about what Callen has to do as part of his job. It’s hard to reconcile the job with the shifter sometimes. My point is Damien doesn’t fear the humans, not like that. Hey, look at me talking about humans as if I’m not one! I forget sometimes.”
Mila smiled at that. She had forgotten there for a moment too. Anna had slipped into life here so seamlessly it was hard to remember she wasn’t shifter, even if she never shifted. That’s what Mila wanted for herself, to simply live with a pack and not be reminded of who she was.
“You could still get help from a therapist. Just make it sound like the attack was by a human.”
“They’ll want to tell the authorities.”
“Of course, but they can’t without your consent. And if they think Drake is human, they won’t be as inclined to break confidentiality.”
Anna considered it as they headed back up the hill. “I think you’re right. I’ll go to town on the next supply run, try to find someone.”
“And add folic acid to the list. Never mind, I’ll do it myself. I have a few other supplies you’re going to need when the baby is born.”
“We’re months away from that. And I plan to go into town to give birth, not here.”
“We should be prepared, just in case. Early labor, rockslides.”
“Seeing as how you’re planning to be here for the baby’s birth, I guess that means things are going well with you and Hayden after all,” Anna said, her smile wide as ever.
What was she saying? Stay here, live with a pack that didn’t string people up for talking to humans, work alongside shifters who built labs and went out of their way to help her be who she wanted to be? That all sounded so wonderful until she remembered she’d have to live with seeing Hayden all the time. See him, but not touch him. What happened two weeks ago couldn’t happen again, not if she wanted to stay and make a life here.
“Hayden and I aren’t good together.” When had Mila become so proficient at lying? Was it before or after Vance forced his way into her life and her bed? Her mother would wash her mouth out with soap for lying. Then her mother would tell her Hayden was too good for her.
“I didn’t even think you’d noticed anything between us.”
“Sure, I did. His eyes follow you everywhere, and you sneak glances when he’s not looking. I wouldn’t give up on him so easily, not if you like him.”
“Doesn’t matter how much I like him. If I can’t blood-bond him, what’s the sense?” She looked at her friend and realized what a stupid thing that had been to say. “I’m so sorry, Anna! I forgot you never blood-bonded Blade! That was so insensitive of me!”
“What do you mean? We blood-bonded. That night is when this little one was conceived,” she said, patting her baby bump. “Almost four months ago.”
That made no sense. Blade had his shifter abilities. “How in the hell did Blade keep his abilities after blood-bonding? He’s a strong shifter. I’ve seen him shift, he’s fast, almost as fast as Damien.”
“Genetic manipulation on my end. I injected his code into the genes affected by the blood-bond so when the copying occurred during the process, it copied his information back onto itself.”
“Brilliant.” Mila stopped dead in her tracks.
“What’s wrong.”
“You just gave me an idea. I’ll need to access the origination virus, though. Do you think I could get access to it?”
“How did you know we—” Anna bit her lip. “Very sneaky, Mila. Now you discovered two secrets. We have a sample of the origination virus, and I’m easily tricked. Never tell me any deep dark secrets. I can’t promise I won’t be tricked into revealing them.”
Deep, dark secrets. . . yeah, Mila had her share.
