Chapter Two

 

Carly wasn’t ugly, per se.

She also wasn’t pretty. Or cute, or any other fluffy word of endearment that one might bestow upon a girl like her. She was homely, plain and simple.

Her blue eyes might have been pretty, but they were too close together, bulged out a little too far, and were topped by eyebrows that were in desperate need of a trimming. Her nose was narrow at the bridge, and then ballooned out at her nostrils. Both her mouth and her forehead were too wide, and the effect was that all of her facial features seemed squished together at the center of her face.

While not precisely ugly, she was exactly the sort of girl Taylor might have looked at while having an off day and thought, ‘well, at least I don’t look like that.’

It wasn’t only Carly’s face that was unfortunate, but also the rest of her body, which was boxy. Her shoulders were too broad and her breasts too small. Her skin was pale in some places and badly sunburnt in others, and her legs were short and incongruously thin beneath her wide torso.

Taylor tried to picture the pale waif next to Silas. Silas, who was tall, olive-skinned, muscular, and—though Taylor would never admit it aloud—handsome as hell. While she firmly believed that her own mates were the two hottest men alive, Silas was certainly up there. On the few occasions when Taylor had been in the same vicinity as her mates, Silas, and Shan, she’d often lose track of the conversation as she looked between the four of them, humbled to be in their presence.

While the pair was still far enough away, Holly whispered, “If Silas doesn’t send this gremlin packing after five minutes, I’ll do your laundry for a month.”

With massive restraint, Taylor managed not to laugh. “It’s a deal.”

She didn’t think she’d actually win, but she didn’t do her own laundry anyway. Her pack mates had always helped out with the household chores here and there, but ever since she’d become pregnant again, she hadn’t so much as washed a dish.

A moment later, Clover had crossed the clearing and was embracing Taylor. If she’d heard what Holly had said, it didn’t show on her bright expression. Taylor got a quick whiff of her woodsy scent, which had vague hints of the scents of her mates, before Clover pulled back to beam at her.

“I’m so sorry that we’re late. Have you been waiting here all morning? You shouldn’t be out here. Gosh, look at you!” She moved her hands to either side of Taylor’s waist. “I feel like we just got the good news and you’re already so big!”

Taylor laughed off the comment, trying no to feel self-conscious. She was a lot bigger than she should have been, though she couldn’t attribute it to eating too much, as her appetite had been nonexistent. She also wasn’t having twins again, though the knowledge was of little comfort as it left her stumped as to why her midsection was expanding so quickly.

“This is Carly,” Clover said, extending an arm towards her human companion.

Carly had been hanging back, but at the invitation she stumbled forward, at first reaching out to shake Taylor’s hand, and then pulling back to instead give an awkward wave.

“Hi, you must be Taylor. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Her voice was a bit nasally, but not unpleasant. To Taylor’s surprise, she didn’t have a valley girl accent and sounded more liked she’d grown up in the Midwest.

“I can’t say the same,” Taylor replied. She offered her hand to Carly, who took it, only to pull Taylor into an embrace.

“Sorry, I’m a hugger,” she said against Taylor’s shoulder.

Of course you are, Taylor inwardly grumbled.

After she’d pried Carly off her, Taylor could see the younger woman’s eyes shimmering with tears. Carly sniffled and swiped at her cheeks.

With a shaky smile she said, “Thank you so much for taking care of my baby.”

My baby.

Taylor’s throat caught. She wanted to take the woman and give her a good shaking, but all she could do was nod dumbly. There was something about Carly’s eyes, not the color of them, but the shape, that reminded her of Henry. The more she looked at the woman, the more she saw the little boy that she’d been raising. Henry was a gorgeous little boy, but in the nooks and crannies of his features, he looked similar to the woman who had made him.

In a clear effort to fill the silence, Carly said, “Clover tells me that you kept his name?”

Taylor gave another nod, her voice hoarse as she said, “I always liked the name.”

Carly let out a bubbly laugh that was surprisingly pretty, though it revealed her buck teeth. “I never did, but my grandpa passed right before Henry was born, so I wanted to honor him. Henry’s full name is Henry Conrad Hitchens II.”

“Oh,” Taylor said, not sure how else she could respond.

Still beaming an eager smile, Carly asked, “How has he been? Is he well? Has it been tough for you, on account of the arm? You know, they say it isn’t genetic, but my great grandmother had the same thing, except it was a finger that was missing, her ring finger.”

The flurry of words only strengthened Taylor’s conviction that Carly wouldn’t be there to stay. Even if Carly been pretty, Taylor couldn’t imagine Silas, quiet and contemplative by nature, being able to handle Carly in anything more than small doses.

Carly clapped her hands together, showcasing nails that were painted hot pink and bitten to the quick. “So, do you think you could take me to him? Can I meet him? I mean, I’ve already met him, but he was so little then. I can’t wait to see how big he’s gotten.”

“He’s right here,” came Holly’s terse response.

Unbeknownst to Taylor, Henry had awoken during the commotion and had come to sit close to her side. The silvery wolf was staring up at the newcomers through speculative golden eyes.

Carly put a hand to her mouth as she sucked in a breath. “Oh. That’s… He’s a…”

“He’s a pup,” Taylor said, reaching to pat the top of his head. “Henry prefers his wolf form.”

She felt a little smug as she said it, and also guilty. She remembered grappling with her own children’s first shifts, and she’d been well prepared for it. She knew that in Carly’s mind, she’d been expecting to see an infant human, not what appeared to be an adult wolf.

“But, he can be human, can’t he?” Carly asked, worrying her bottom lip. “He’s not stuck like that?”

Clover put an arm around her shoulder. “We talked about this, remember? Pups grow a lot faster than human babies, and most of them can shift back and forth whenever they want.”

“He can also understand a lot of what we say,” Taylor said, more as a warning than anything else.

Carly’s thick brows rose. She instantly fell to a crouch so that she was a level with Henry.

“Hi, sweetie. Do you remember me?”

As she spoke, she lifted her hand towards the boy.

Everything inside Taylor clenched. Even her lungs refused to take in air. What would she do if Henry went to her? In her mind, she could envision a future in which he no longer laid at the foot of her bed, cuddled up at her feet next to Shadow. Where he no longer chased his big brother around, or played with his little sister. Where he lived on the other side of the valley in the cold, dark confines of the Whiteriver den. Or worse still, far, far away from here, sequestered in a house in a human town.

Henry inched closer to Carly, until he was sniffing her hand.

Carly’s smile widened. “That’s it. You remember me, don’t you? I’m your—”

She was cut short as Henry opened his mouth and chomped down on her hand.

Both Carly and Taylor shrieked in unison. Beside Taylor, Holly did an about face, burying her face in the crook of her arm to stifle her laughter.

Taylor rushed to Carly, who had promptly stood and staggered back a few steps, her face pale.

“I’m so sorry,” Taylor said, at the moment feeling nothing but horrorstruck. “He’s never like this.”

“It’s okay,” Carly said, a tremor in her voice. “He didn’t break the skin.”

After turning her hand over, Taylor could see that she was right, though there were angry red marks left by Henry’s canines. Taylor recognized it as a warning bite, though she couldn’t fathom why Henry had made it. Henry seldom bit even when playing, let alone to ward someone off. He was a friendly boy who liked everyone.

Taylor almost told Carly as much, but stopped herself. It would have been cruel, and Taylor had exhausted much of her antipathy for Carly.

Gently, Clover said, “He’s probably just confused. You’re a stranger, but you also smell like him. Who knows what’s going on in his little pup mind?”

Her smile back in place, Carly said, “You’re right. I shouldn’t have come at him like that. I was just so excited to see him.” To Henry, she added, “I’m sorry, little guy.”

Henry’s response was an unfriendly bark.

The panic that had been gripping Taylor for weeks finally began to abate. It was over now, right? Henry didn’t like her. Silas wouldn’t go for her, not in a million years. The bomb that had been set to detonate in the middle of Taylor’s life had been a dud.