Page 78 of Resisted
“But—”
“Bella…” This time, the words were Boyce’s, not mine, as he spoke barely coherently into his arm. “Regardless of what you think concerns you, when it comes to the work of a subpack, it only involves the individuals.”
“I’m an individual.”
“You most certainly fucking are,” I said with a sigh. “But what he means is if you aren’t on the road with us, Roth won’t speak about the matter in front of you. There is a lot of stuff that goes on out there that we shield from the town and the people we love.”
“Stuff like?”
“Baby.” I gave her a stern look. “Use your imagination.”
Her breath hitched, and I knew she had to be thinking of what exactly went down when she lost her own mother, but she didn’t say it. Instead, she asked, “Can I wait in the truck?”
Could she wait in the truck? What kind of mate would I be if I let her wait in the truck? I opened my mouth, but Boyce spoke first. “Of course.”
“No. You can wait here or at the diner. I don’t want you to wait in the truck,” I argued.
“But if you won’t be that long, does it really matter?” Her fingers drew a little line across my abdominal muscles, and my body flexed unintentionally.
“It does to me. There’s no telling how long it will take. What if it took hours?” I mean, I doubted it would, since Roth was efficient. He would get the info he needed and then decide how he wanted to proceed. No immediate answer? No problem. He knew how to operate a phone.
“Does Roth take hours to do anything?”
“The ladies say so,” Boyce mumbled under his breath.
There was a pause, a long beat, then Bella burst into laughter, her words nearly inaudible. When she could finally catch her breath, all I could understand was her repeating Boyce’s words. It took a good two minutes for her laughter to die down.
“You done?”
She snorted, a smile still on her face. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“So we agree—you’ll wait at home.”
“I didn’t agree to that,” she argued.
“I’ll stay with her,” Boyce offered, but we both needed to be there for the planning. It was important. This was our subpack, not just any old mission.
“I need you there,” I pointed out. “If he decides to take immediate action, you need to be ready to roll.”
Bella sat up like a spring, her back stiff. “Why would he need to take immediate action? Do you two know something I don’t?”
“Fates, baby. it’s a precautionary scenario. That’s all.”
Her fingers found my own as she placed them in her lap. “Precautionary or not, it makes me nervous.”
“You’re thinking too much into this,” Boyce added before sitting up himself. “It’ll be fine.”
She looked around, her eyes roaming over every corner of my room, and I’d never thought such a simple act would make me feel so damn exposed. I wanted to please her, wanted her approval, wanted her to see the space that I kept as an offering, proof that I could be a sufficient mate. It was crazy, but my wolf didn’t think so. He longed for her approval, nearly whimpering as he waited for her to speak.
“Your room is so damn clean, Vincent. It’s like no one lives here at all.” I beamed, my wolf grinning lopsidedly inside of me. Clean, that was the best of compliments, right? She blinked a few times. “I’m getting sidetracked. You will let me know what the plan is, right? If I stay here?”
“Wouldn’t dream of holding out on you, baby.” When had I sat up and leaned into her neck? It was nearly automatic, an instinctive reaction I’d suddenly developed, and I didn’t want to give it up. Her scent was an addiction, while the underlying essence of myself still lingered and the overlay of both Boyce and Silas coated her skin. The mingling of smells was fucking intoxicating.
“If you promise to not leave me in the dark…” Her eyes burned into me almost as a threat. “Yes, Vincent. Then I’ll stay. But I want an update on everything. Everything, Vincent, I mean it.”
My brows furrowed. “Why isn’t Boyce getting the third degree?”
“Because Boyce wouldn’t dream of leaving me in suspense, right, Boyce?” She looked toward him, her violet eyes growing big as she did her best to act like a pup.