Page 41 of Hayden's Haven
“They need the treatment.”
“I’ll have someone else administer it to them.”
“Maybe.” She looked around the house. The infamous Aloe who everyone loved didn’t even know Mila had taken over her house in her absence. Photos filled the mantel, alongside a score of aloe plants. Oh. . .Aloe. Yeah, she never made that connection before.
Mila smiled for a moment, able to let go of her past briefly. Maybe she could stay with this pack, create new memories. Mila’s finger smoother over a crocheted pillow that had a red heart in the middle with the initial A and Z. Aloe had her personal touches everywhere, like the ones Mila had left behind, but those were simply things. Except for Mila’s diploma on the wall. It was only a piece of paper, but she’d like to retrieve, if possible. Not that she needed proof of all that she had worked for, but sometimes it helped to know she had value—if not in the eyes of her pack then in the form of a piece of paper from a human institution.
Hayden had value too, but his pack didn’t see it. In that way, they were a lot alike. Maybe this could work between them.
Hayden took another step forward and gently held her hand against his chest, his thumb drawing small circles on the back of her hand. His heart was beating as fast as her own. Sex with him had been wonderful, exciting, unlike anything she’d ever had before, and yet so very incomplete. Unless and until she told him everything, it would never be more than sex.
“Tell me what you need, sunshine.”
“I need. . .”I need you, Hayden.Her eyes slowly rose and found his. Then she shook her head. He needed, deserved better than what she could give him. “I need to get to my lab.”
Mila darted out of the house, not caring that she had left her coat behind. The lab wasn’t far, and it was the only haven right now, a place where she could lose herself in her work and not have to think about Hayden, about home, about any of it. If she had to choose between Hayden or her pack, she’d choose Hayden in a heartbeat. That meant leaving here, because leaving was the best way of protecting him.
* * *
HAYDEN
Hayden’s wolf was pushing his way to the forefront, trying to force a shift. Controlling his wolf right now was exceedingly hard. Claiming Mila as he had, had sparked primal urges in Hayden and his wolf both, especially the need to protect her. A shifter in her pack had hurt her, and Hayden reminded her of him.
Or was there more to how she’d withdrawn from Hayden? Had he been too rough with her? Had he hurt her?
A thousand questions went through his head as he followed Mila toward the main compound. His wolf pushed him to close the gap between them. Twenty feet was too far for his wolf’s peace of mind. With the heavy snow falling again, her scent was being forced to the ground instead of carrying on the wind to him. Right now, smelling her was the only hope he had of calming both himself and his wolf. And yet he didn’t dare move closer.
Another wolf hadhurther, his mate, leaving her shaking, confused, and afraid of him. Hayden had failed as the shifter who should have protected his younger brother at any cost, found a way to get him away from their psychotic uncle, even if it had meant being lone wolves. He could not let himself fail as a mate, too.
Hayden had been a coward after the murder of his father and the suspicious death of his mother. He’d feared for his own life, putting himself before Drake instead of protecting him at all costs. Years, he had stood by, watching what Logan was doing to Drake, how he waschangingDrake. Hayden did nothing to stop his uncle, not one fucking thing to save his brother.
Hayden had only regained his courage as a young adult when he finally confronted Logan. He had failed then, too. Oh, he had killed the alpha, but not before Logan had killed Reina. Beautiful Reina, with her golden locks, sky-blue eyes, and innocent smile. A good shifter, an innocent, had died because of Hayden’s weakness.
Though Hayden escaped to Damien’s pack where he trained with Damien, learned from him, worked harder than everyone else in camp because he wanted their respect, Hayden was the same shifter who had left his pack in disgrace. He’d always be the shifter who abandoned his brother, the shifter who turned against his pack by killing their alpha, the shifter who couldn’t truly fit in with his new pack. The shifters here saw the darkness in his soul. . . darkness he had unintentionally unleashed on Mila. He was no good for her. He would continue to stir those memories that haunted her. She needed lightness and sunshine, not the misery that clung to him like flies to a decaying corpse.
The best he could do for her now was to give her distance and continue to watch over her. Or maybe he could talk to one of the women she seemed comfortable with. Anna, no, he couldn’t talk to Anna about this. Anna was weary enough of him. Kate. Yes, Kate!
Where the hell was Kate? And Callen for that matter? He suddenly realized he hadn’t seen either one in days. Had he been so obsessed with Mila that he had failed to recognize something was wrong, that Callen who was one of the most responsible shifters he had ever known hadn’t come to see him in a while to go over progress reports of how his vetting of new shifters was going, not to mention provide security updates?
Hayden winced at the uncalled-for nip his wolf delivered. Damn wolf kept growling inside, displeased with him, with everything it seemed. God help him, this better not be the first sign of his wolf going feral. He needed to talk to Damien. He’d know whether—
Between the heavy snow falling, worries over Mila, and now his damn wolf fighting him, Hayden hadn’t been paying attention to where he was walking. He plowed right into a small form bundled in a thickly padded white coat, knocking her into the snow. Her hood had slipped partially off.
“Reina! I didn’t see you, I’m sorry!” he said as he bent to help her up.
“What did you call her?” Blade said, his voice brimming with anger as he swooped in, shoved Hayden aside, and helped Anna up.
“I was just apologizing to Anna for knocking her over. I wasn’t paying attention. Are you okay, Anna?” Hayden said, reaching for her to make sure he hadn’t injured her or the baby.
The moment Hayden’s hands neared her, Anna flinched and began shaking, but not from the fall. Blue eyes went wide a second before she buried her face in Blade’s chest and cried. She wascryingbecause of Hayden. What the fuck? “I didn’t mean to hurt—”
“Why did you call her that? Why would you torment her like that?” Blade demanded, his tone that of a shifter protecting his mate, a male ready to defend, even attack.
“What are you talking about?” Hayden asked, wracking his brain for what he had said other than apologizing for knocking her over.
“You called her ‘Reina’.”
No. Hayden hadn’t called Anna ‘Reina’, had he? From the corner of his eye, Hayden noticed the crowd forming, Mila among the shifters looking at him as if he’d punched Anna.
