21. Rhyson

21

Rhyson

He's not father material.

Scowling, I watched as they walked away. I didn't like the look on Gideon's face. It wasn't predatory.

It was adoration.

Maya was a beautiful woman. Here, she'd be something new and exciting. The news that she was pregnant clearly didn't bother him. Judging from the children running around the camp, he'd welcome a babe. Pups could be hard to come by and were revered. Maya was young, and already proven to be fertile.

"You're growling," Duke sighed. "Nash isn't happy to be pulled away from Dante to follow her."

"Nobody should be alone."

"And yet you're letting her walk around with him."

"He's going out of his way to appear relaxed around her so he doesn't scare her. That means he's letting his guard down. If he's a threat, Maya will sense it."

"We're trusting her perception?"

"I get the feeling Maya understands danger very well." The more I got to know her, the more I realized she wasn't the pampered princess everyone made her out to be. What kind of secrets was Maya hiding?

"Care to explain what happened in the cabin?"

"She shifted, but her wolf was still in charge."

Duke snapped his head around and stared at me in horror. "And you decided to fuck her instead of kill her?"

"She says it's the first time it's ever happened, and I believe her. Her wolf took control while she was unconscious. Honestly, I think her wolf is trying to tell me something, but I can't communicate with it the way I can communicate with others."

A young pup bounded up to me with his long legs and scrawny body, still so gangly and so much growing to do. I didn't need to release any power to reach out and understand him. "That's cheating," I told him. "Use your nose to find her."

His tongue rolled out of his mouth, and there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he bounded away. "He's playing hide-and-seek with his older sister, and he can't find her."

"You can't do that with Maya?"

I looked at Duke steadily. "When she's in human form, I can't reach her wolf at all."

"She attacked Juniper."

"She woke up in an unfamiliar place and in pain. She's still learning to trust. I don't think it will happen again, but if it does, I will deal with it."

Duke raised an eyebrow. "That still doesn't explain why you were fishing out your cock."

Gideon and Maya circled back around, and Nash stole through the trees toward us. "Nothing weird happened. Maya didn't give him any information about you. Can I go?"

"They were gone a long time. They just spoke about the wolf hybrid creature?"

"No. She didn't know anything else. He told her that she could stay, if she wanted. She wouldn't be the only single mother to raise a pup here. They're a village. Yada yada."

"What did she say?"

"What?"

Impatiently, I turned to Nash. "What did she say when he offered it to her?"

"She said she'd keep it in mind. Honestly, I say you should leave her here. We'll circle back around and pick her up on our way out."

Fury rose in me, and I turned to face him. "She saved Dante's life. She's been instrumental in our journey, and yet your response is that we drop her off with a bunch of strangers in a mountain we are increasingly discovering that we know absolutely nothing about, and leave her here. Am I understanding that correctly?"

"She did save Dante's life, and she nearly died for it. She's not trained for this," Nash said in an even voice. "I just thought she, and that baby she's carrying, might be safer here. But maybe there's some other reason you want to keep her around."

Jerking my head, I dismissed him, and Maya walked up to us. "There's some sandwiches being sent to the cabin for us. I'm going to eat and go to bed," she said tiredly.

"See anything of interest?"

"Actually, yeah." Her brows furrowed. "Some of the kids are…stoned."

"Stoned?"

"Yeah. Like, really high."

I understood her confusion. Drugs were rampant in the world but often didn't do shit to werewolves. "I asked Gideon about it, but I didn't want to seem like we weren't from around here. He said there was a dealer nearby, and they were working on finding him."

Drugs weren't anywhere on the radar of a problem for me. I ran my hand over my face, tired and annoyed that she didn't mention that Gideon had asked her to stay. "Duke will take you back to the cabin to eat. I'm going to walk around for a little bit, and then I'll join you. I want to rouse Dante so Tessa can examine him, and then we're all going to get some sleep. We're leaving in the morning if we can."

Whatever she wanted to say to me, she swallowed as she spun on her heels and walked away.

Furious, I followed her. The atmosphere was tense while we ate. I managed to awaken Dante's wolf, who told me that all was well, although I'd spent too much power doing it. We separated into the cabins, once making certain that no one was alone.

No one batted an eye when I took the cabin with Maya. She glared at me as I walked in. "What?" I snarled.

"Don't snap at me. You're the one who's been in a bad fucking mood."

"Maybe it was the crack about the father being a one-night stand."

Her eyes flashed in fury. "And was it a lie? Or have you fucked me some other time without me knowing? What the hell did you want me to do? Gideon is not some harmless do-gooder out here in the middle of the woods. He has power, Rhyson. Enough power to hold this base together. I don't trust him, and the last thing I'm about to tell him is that the baby is yours. What if he figures out who you are? It would not be very hard for him to take me."

"So that's it. You think I'm not keeping you safe?"

"Did I say that?"

As furious as we were, we were keeping our voices down. The last thing I wanted was my own wolves to hear us arguing, not to mention any of the strangers that might be lingering outside. She threw the pillow on the bed and slammed her fist into it.

"You're not fucking saying much of anything."

"Because you told me not to, you asshole. You're keeping me here, and you haven't even told me what the fuck you're doing. A dead brother? A whole group of wolves who are on some kind of revenge mission?"

"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't understand," I said sarcastically. "Loyalty doesn't mean that much to you."

"Oh, right. Because I'm a slut who opens her legs to anyone who pants after me. I guess I should take Gideon up on his offer so I can get nice and fucked."

She turned, and I bounded across the two rooms in two steps. Whirling her around, I pushed her up against the wall. "You want to get nice and fucked, Maya? I'm right here, baby."