AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He flung himself to the side. Neither man was particularly bothered by his own nudity or by the other’s. They’d been running wild in Greenacre since they were kids, and then shifting for years and years after. Nakedness was no different than fur. Still, he kept his eyes locked on his friend’s face and folded into himself. “Shit. This is the second time I’m going to have to let January know that I shifted and destroyed my clothes.”
“You can get a change at my house.”
“Thank you.” It suddenly felt really awkward between them. Tavish searched Kier’s face and found the same thing there. A fervent wish to forget this ever happened. “We’ll never talk about this again.”
“No. We won’t.” A short pause. “I’m sorry that I lost it. I was just… When you get between someone and their mate…”
Trace dug up a handful of wet earth. He was starting to realize how chilly the night was without clothes. “She’s from Pinefall, isn’t she?” If he didn’t ask Kier now, if he let him leave to go and get clothes, he wouldn’t have another chance.
“We’re not forbidden from seeing each other,” Kier snapped.
“No, but our alphas are basically still the only ones that are meeting. They’re notorious for sticking to themselves. They haven’t opened up like we have, and they haven’t been as accepting of us as we thought they would be. They don’t really even want anything to do with us. How did you meet her anyway?”
Kier sighed like he didn’t want to get into it, but he responded anyway. “She was walking the perimeter of her land and I was out doing ours and our paths crossed. We exchanged cold shoulders and insults and then we started laughing. We talked. We wanted to meet again.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kier. We’ve been friends forever. You can trust me. I’m not going to go running to Sam and inform him about this.”
“I don’t know. A few months.”
“But you said—”
“Mates? Yeah. She’s my mate. You should know it can happen pretty much instantly. It wasn’t like that for us. It took a while, but the attraction was strong and immediate.”
Tavish had never been with another shifter. He’d certainly never done what he just witnessed. As he thought about that, it was clear that Kier was embarrassed. He wouldn’t meet his eye anymore. “Sorry,” Tavish muttered again. “I wasn’t spying on you.”
“I know.”
He obviously did and his bear did too, or Tavish might have found himself far bloodier than he was before it was all said and done. “Is she okay?”
“I’ll find her. She will be.”
“You should tell Sam. I won’t, but you should.”
Kier got up and Tavish looked in the other direction. “It’s complicated,” he grunted.
“Why?”
Leaves rustled and twigs snapped. Branches swooshed. An owl called out in the distance. Tavish could hear the sounds of Kier throwing his clothes on. “She’s Clay’s sister.”
Glendy’s ex-husband. They shared a daughter. “It’s not that complicated. Clay’s not so bad. He came around to Glendy being part of Greenacre in the end.”
“He used to do cage fighting,” Kier snorted. “He can be a crazy motherfucker. I’m not worried about having to fight him, but I am worried about hurting him and then she would never forgive me, and Glendy would never forgive me, and Emma would never forgive me and that would put Thaddius in a bad position, which would put Sam in one, so it is complicated. A little.”
“She’s a grown woman. She can do what she wants,” Tavish insisted.
“We don’t have surly older brothers here and we’re not females. You don’t know how it goes. Imagine if someone was pestering your mate. How angry would that make you?”
His body instantly filled with hot rage.
“Yeah. See?” Kier stood before him wearing his t-shirt and jeans. He threw a light windbreaker in Tavish’s direction. “The sibling bond is strong. We just don’t have any female siblings in Greenacre, so we don’t really understand that part of it.” He stayed where he was, but used the thing like a shield. “How deep did I get you?” The regret in that question made Tavish’s chest feel like it was going to explode.
“Oh, it’s manageable.”
“We should go to the clinic. I can get you bandaged up if it needs it.”
