Kasen and Malcolm share a wary look, but I only have eyes for my mate. Crossing the room, I sit cross-legged on the bed simply wondering how the hell I got so lucky.
"Since we’re all in agreement that everything happens for a reason, I think we should stay when the construction crew shows up this morning instead of moving to a motel.” As predicted, Kasen and Malcolm start protesting, so I have to damn near shout to talk over them. “We ran into a hiccup, but the plan is the same as it’s always been; let people see our sweet mate in all of her beautiful glory. Not like word hasn’t already spread throughout the office and their families, so while employees are vetted to make sure it’s safe to go home, we can’t pretend that we’ll be able to go back to hiding her away from the world. It won’t be long until the media hounds pick up on the rumors and start investigating, subsequently blowing it out of proportion, so the more people we have on our side before then, the better.”
Getting control of herself, Scarlett pushes herself upright, reclining on her hands. Like the immoral heathen I am, my gaze keeps darting down to the way the position pushes her tits up in the air, begging for me to bite them. “To be fair, he has a point. Motels carry more risk because we don’t know who’s there and if they’ll recognize us, or what they’ll do with the information. At least these are Beck’s friends and a semi-controlled environment.”
Kasen sends me an apologetic grimace before saying, “And just because they’re his friends doesn’t mean we can trust them. Look at what happened at the office, and those people go through background checks.”
I bite my cheek, but much to my pleasure and surprise, Scarlett’s humor drains away as she frowns at him. “The second the phrase ‘those people’ comes out of your mouth in any capacity whatsoever, you should be aware enough that whatever side you’re on is the wrong one. I know what you were trying to say, and that you’re afraid to trust anyone outside of the four of us after what happened, but if we look at everyone else like the enemy, they’ll eventually become it.”
Without hesitation, I drag her onto my lap and kiss the top of her head, clasping my hands above her stomach. “Look at you, defending my friends’ honor and shit. Stop being so fucking attractive or we’ll never get anything done.” To Kasen, I stick my tongue out, knowing full well that I win by default because our mate scolding him will have him on his knees trying to get back in her good graces like the sap he is.
I mean, we’re all saps that would happily get on our knees for her in a heartbeat, preferably when she’s not wearing pants, but that’s neither here nor there.
Malcolm sighs, but he’s the first that breaks. It’s exactly why I roped her into my plan; none of us are physically capable of denying Scarlett something that she wants. “It’ll be chaotic. Loud.”
She tenses against me, backpedaling a bit as she starts thinking about the logistics. “I don’t know the first thing about building a house.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re in the company of a professional.” Snatching her hand, I toy with the ring on her finger. “There are only three guys due to show up today, and trust me, they keep top notch earplugs on hand; otherwise there’d be no way you’d get any shifter into this field of work.” Not above manipulation, I crane my head into her field of view and stick out my lip in a dramatic pout. “It’s for a good cause. Think of the children! The homeless orphans!”
Kasen scoffs, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “They’re not giving orphans their own house, get out of here with that bullshit.” To Scarlett, he explains, “The city owns the mortgage instead of a bank and they don’t charge interest for the first five years to keep the cost lower and give the family a chance to get on their feet, since the market out here is obscene. Whoever’s house it’s going to be, they have to put in a certain amount of hours helping build it, but they don’t have to worry about down payments or closing costs.”
“What if someone puts a nail through their hand?” she asks, but it sounds like a weak protest, even to me.
“You’re welcome to breakfast in bed before we go,” I offer, lifting her fingers to brush the side of my neck and waggling my eyebrows.
Her pupils dilate, but she doesn’t take me up on it. “Let me guess, they’re going to be here at the break of dawn?” At my sheepish grin, she sighs, sliding from my hold. “Let me go get dressed, then. But someone’s going to have to grab me something with a fuck-ton of sugar to take the edge off now that I doped myself up again with that coffee.”
After she walks across the hall to rummage through her bag, Kasen switches to our pack link so that she can’t listen in.“What are you playing at?”
“She doesn’t feel like she deserves to be happy.”
“I’m too tired to try and connect your dots; spell it out,”he rumbles in frustration.
“She wants to even out her cosmic balance after all of the shitty things she’s done.”At his audible growl, I promptly cut him off. “I’m not saying that I agree, that’s just how it is. So may as well hit two birds with one stone. She can feel like she’s scrubbing some of the blood off of her proverbial slate, and we can introduce her to a different class of people than those within Drake Enterprises.”
Kasen’s glare fades away with sad understanding.“This could blow up in your face if they don’t react like you’re hoping, Beck.”
Holding his stare, I’m adamant in my reply. “That woman is drowning in her lack of control of everything happening to her. No matter what happens with Carson and the others, we prove that there won’t be a repeat of the elevator when she had to rely on fucking Fredrickson instead of her own goddamn mates.”
“So it’s a con to make her feel better so that she’ll accept you?”
Shoving his shoulder as I storm out of the room and shoulder past the mage, I mentally spit, “No, you jackass. I don’t need a mark to prove that she’s mine. She needs this because she’s sad, even if she’s doing a damn fine job of hiding it.”
Slamming the bathroom door shut behind me, I start furiously brushing my teeth. “Are you going to let anything happen to her?”
“Of course not!”comes his indignant reply and I snort.
“Then there’s nothing to debate. Our beautiful, amazing mate wants to build houses for the poor to make up for eating people. You really want to be the one to tell her that she isn’t allowed to?”
“Love,” Malcolm’s muffled plea comes from beneath the door.
I unabashedly crack it open to watch as she captures his face in her hands, giving him a hard kiss before turning away. “No.”
“It’s no trouble, really,” Malcolm insists, and I have to crane my head when he blocks part of my view of her getting dressed in the open doorway.
Shimmying into her jeans first, she shucks her nightshirt aside, slipping a black t-shirt over her head. “Getting it done isn’t the point.” Pulling her long, blonde hair free of her collar, she reaches over to snag a hair tie from her end table, tossing her hair up into a ponytail. “Well, it is, but you know what I mean.”
Kasen's as fixated on her as I am from the other doorway, the two of us making no effort to hide our blatant staring. “Let me guess, he offered to call some people to help finish the job quicker?”
