Outliers

Twenty

"Everyone likes me," Adriel grumbled, "What's not to like? Besides, you think anyone likes you, you grumpy old man?"

"I have a feeling Emily likes him very much," Sandra teased, winking in my direction.

"Okay," I cleared my throat, swallowing the embarrassment that consumed my cheeks in an unavoidable heat, especially as Thane's heated eyes caught mine, the grin on his face, a promise of more satisfaction to come. "I'm going inside now, I need a shower. Don't involve me in your pissing match."

"Yes, it must be horrible having to smell like Harris," Adriel sympathised, upper lip curling in faux disgust as he eyed his Alpha with distaste. I only rolled my eyes and turned away, just in time to catch Thane grabbed his Beta roughly.

Seconds later I heard Adriel's grunts, and Sandra's and Lorcan's encouragement of what I was sure would be a playful, albeit rough, fight between the two males.

***

"Where's Riley?" I asked hours later, laying in my bed with the Alpha male wrapped around me. I hadn't seen the young wolf since my fight with Daniel, and I found it hard to believe that he had been left unsupervised.

Like the last time I found myself sharing my bed with the Alpha Male, he had not received an invitation to join me, and yet he hadn't seemed the least bit unsure of himself as he confidently strolled into the room.

He lay on his side next to me, fingertips trailing a delicate path as they danced up and down the exposed skin of my midriff from where my sweatshirt had risen.

"I left him to get settled in one of the spare rooms downstairs, with an enforcer. Figured it would be less intimidating for the pup. He was shaking the entire journey beside me."

"You left him by himself with an unknown enforcer wolf, in an unfamiliar pack, and you thought it would be less intimidating for him?"

"I had just seen you spar with Daniel," he shot me a pointed look. "I was barely holding onto my composure. I didn't need the pup to see me like that and risk him never trusting me enough for anyone to train him."

"Let's hope he doesn't run across Alpha Allister then." I remembered vividly the young wolf's reaction to the Alpha more than twice his size. Stumbling upon him again in the Colorado cabin would surely send Riley running.

Even Thane cringed at my statement.

"Why is the Alaskan Alpha here? He mentioned an anniversary, when we were in Nevada. Anniversary of what?" Perhaps I shouldn't have been prying. It was hardly my place to ask such personal things of Thane. Just because he was now sharing my bed, just because I knew he held some form of affection towards me, it didn't mean he would want to pour out his heart to me.

"My parents death," he murmured quietly, shifting to curl up beside me and rest his head against my stomach. I briefly wondered if he did so to hide his expression from me, as if the privacy of it would make it easier to speak on the subject. I didn't speak, hoping my silence allowed him the courage to continue, but didn't hesitate to run my fingers through his hair, desperate for that extra contact. "It was a long time ago."

A long time ago perhaps, but clearly still just as hard for him.

He turned his face into me, pressed against the softness of my belly, a hand sneaking under my sweatshirt to rest against the bare skin, as if he too needed the extra physical contact.

"What were they like?"

"My mother was perhaps the kindest woman I've ever met," he began, speaking softly, his words muffled by the fabric of her sweatshirt. Woman, not female. His mother had been human? "She was soft spoken, but strong. Strong enough to stand beside my father in all his might. I don't remember much though. I was young when they died."