“Full disclosure?” Hail asked.
“Of course,” Alison said, giving Hail her undivided attention.
“I’ve never had a friend that was just my friend because they liked me. I was always assigned to a team and we functioned as one or we died. The sitting here chitchatting and just relaxing is new to me. It’s refreshing, and I like it, but it’s new to me.”
Alison smiled at Hail. “It’s new for me, too. I’ve never really had a friend to come lay by the pool with, or to just talk aboutwhatever. It’s not that I’m excluded. It’s just that I’m just kind of always on the outskirts.”
“You got a friend now,” Hail said.
“Same!” Alison said.
“Second full disclosure?” Hail asked.
“Yep. Give it to me.”
“I kinda want to climb that male like a tree,” Hail said, staring across at two of the Pride males who were obviously working security.
Alison leaned closer to Hail to get a better idea of which one she was looking at. “Titus, or Dane?”
“The bigger one.”
“Titus. He’s in charge of all our building and construction and such. He’s very laid back and very easy going.”
“He mated?” Hail asked.
Alison turned and looked directly at Hail, waiting for her to look at her.
Hail turned her head and looked at Alison.
“Not yet,” Alison said with a smirk. “But I think he might be getting climbed soon. He may be claimed before he knows what hit him.”
Hail burst out laughing. “Girl, you just don’t know how right you might be.”
~~~
Rance sat quietly beside Gwen’s bed in the suite she and her boys had been given. It was early evening and the sun had ducked down behind the trees. It wasn’t completely dark, but dusk was in full swing. He could hear the laughter and the shouts from everyone downstairs at the pool as they played and enjoyed each other. He could even smell the chicken they’d fried in theoutside kitchen to go with all the dirty rice Alison had brought over just before the Variant had arrived. But he wanted no part of any of it — not the companionship, not the food, nothing. All he wanted was Gwen to wake up. Even if she threw him out, at least she’d be alive.
A tap on the door had him closing his eyes and begging silently for control. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then spoke aloud to whoever was at Gwen’s door. “Go away. Please.”
The doorknob turned, then the door swung open.
“Hi, my buddy,” Frenzy said, leaning on the doorknob as he leaned into the room, at an almost ninety degree angle.
“Hello, Frenzy. What do you want?”
“That’s not nice. You think you sound like you’re nice, but, nope. Not nice,” he said, shaking his head.
“I’m sitting quietly, hoping she wakes up at all. And you want to come visit,” Rance said.
“No. I do not want to come visit. I want to come check on the patient. But you were not nice.”
“You going to tell me that if this was your female lying here like this, you’d be patient and accommodating, sitting with sunshine shining out of your ass while her life could be slipping away?” Rance asked, leveling him with a doubtful glare.
“Oh, no. Not me. I’d have already burned the fucking place down and beat everybody that tried to stop me to a pulp and probably be locked in Brutal’s jail by now. But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you.”
“What makes me any different than you?” Rance asked.
Frenzy’s grin faded from his face, he stood up straight and stepped just over the threshold and into the bedroom. “You’re a much better male than I am, Rance. Always will be.”
