He returned to lie at her side, idly caressing the hair on her mound. She spread her legs wider and tilted her cradle, humming in appreciation of his touch.
“That was good. Good enough to repeat. What do you say? You wanna be my bitch?”
“Yes, alpha,” she answered softly.
There was a pause as he stiffened. Then he thrust two fingers into her sheath and gave her clit a twirl with his thumb. “That’s a good bitch,” he murmured.
Gotcha! Ashley smiled inwardly in satisfaction. The seed was sown. Now all she needed to do was water it and watch it grow.
“I had an epiphany tonight,” Shay declared.
Rory chuckled as he climbed naked into bed beside her, smelling of soap and water. “And what was this revelation?”
“At the howl tonight I felt my wolf. She got off on being the center of attention, on knowing the males wanted her. And later, while we were having sex, she…” Shay searched for a word. “Gloated, I guess you could say. ‘Look at me. See who I am? I’m the alpha’s bitch, top female.’ At the time it shocked me. Later I got to thinking about it and wondering about your mother.”
He slid down until his head was propped on his hand, and stroked her thigh in random patterns. “In what way?”
“Tonight while we were talking, Shannon said now that she is older, she realized your mother instigated a lot of the public interactions between your father and her.”
“Shannon’s mistaken.”
“I don’t know, Rory,” she said, shaking her head slowly. “I realize I wasn’t here and didn’t witness it, but I know what I felt inside of me tonight. If her beast was in any way the same, if it felt it had something to prove…”
“And yours did?” he asked.
“You saw how they reacted to the idea of me as your mate. How against it they were.” Shay paused to let a thought simmering in the background come to the forefront, then continued thinking aloud. “The ‘look at me’ wasn’t directed at the men. It was for the other females of the pack—her competition.”
“I never wanted any of them,” Rory interjected.
“That doesn’t matter. To my beast the other females were rivals. And you said yourself your dad only mated your mother because she was pregnant. If that’s true…” Shay stared off into space, trying to imagine it.
“What do you mean if?”
His question, the tone of it, brought her attention back to Rory. “Well”—she frowned—“you really don’t know, do you? I mean, did your father ever say, ‘Son, the only reason I mated your mother is because of you’?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Did your mother?” This time his response was slower. “No.”
“Then you don’t really know for sure, do you? But you got that impression from someone, somewhere along the way. If that’s what the pack also thought, it means she constantly had to prove she was worthy—of being the alpha’s mate, being alpha-fem, basically everything.” And wouldn’t that be a bitch, she thought, having to constantly prove the unprovable.
Rory’s brow wrinkled in thought.
Unreasonably irritated and scowling at the thought of it all, she turned on Rory. “Where’d you get an idea like that anyway?”
“My uncle, Wesley.”
At the simple response, Shay froze, her mind blank of all but one thought. “You have an uncle? I thought there was only you and Shannon.”
Rory pushed to a seated position, his turn to stare in disbelief. “I have family—a sister, a brother, uncle, cousins—”
“Hold up!” Shay held out a hand like a police officer commanding traffic to stop. “Brother?”
He shifted, and an expression crossed his face that she couldn’t decipher. “They mentioned him tonight,” he said finally.
She searched her memory and came up empty. “When?”
“When Graham questioned the wisdom of keeping me as alpha—as if they had a choice,” he scoffed. “He mentioned Kian and Shannon, remember?”
“No,” she admitted, “but then I was so busy waiting for your explosion over what he said about Shannon, I didn’t pay attention to anything else.”
He arched an eyebrow in response. Shay waited and, when Rory didn’t say anything, asked, “So where is Kian, and why haven’t you—or Shannon, for that matter—mentioned him before now? Does he know about me and the baby? How old is he? When can I meet him?”
Again with the strange expression. Why doesn’t he want to talk about this? Can’t he see I’m curious? He met my family. At that last thought, Shay glared at him, sending her determination to get answers through their bond.
When he winced, she knew he got the message. With a sigh, he glanced away. “Actually, he’s here.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Here…where?”
Still he didn’t meet her gaze. “In the house. He lives here.”
“I’ve been all over this house and never…” Her eyes met his, and she trailed off. In a sudden flurry of movement, she shot to her knees. “The basement? Your brother lives in the basement?”
Rory watched her warily. “It’s not what you think.”
“You don’t know what I think!” Oh my God! Kian’s been here in the house this whole time, and Rory didn’t tell me. What else don’t I know? She took a calming breath and ran her hands through her hair. In a lower, less sharp tone of voice, she said, “All right. I’ll bite. Why does your brother live in the basement? The one I was warned by Shannon to stay out of?”
“Shannon said that?”
When she only glared at him, he said, “Shay, you’re judging a situation you know nothing about.”
“I don’t remember making any judgments, just asking questions. So enlighten me already,” she commanded.
He shoved his hair out of his face. “Kian’s…different.”
Should she ask the obvious? No. She stared, her impatience pulsing between them.
“Kian doesn’t like being around people, not even the pack, so I don’t force him.”
“I’m not people. I’m family, or at least I thought I was,” she muttered.
“Shay, don’t make this about you. It’s not.”
Insecurity raised its ugly head. Rory never wanted a mate, pups. Like his father, was he making the best of a bad situation by doing the honorable thing? “You’re ashamed of me.”
He reared back. “What? No! Where the hell did you get an idea like that?”
“What else am I supposed to think?” she shot back. “He lives right here in the house, and you haven’t introduced us.”
“Did you hear nothing I told you? Don’t make this about you, Shay, ’cause it’s not. Ashamed of you? Hell, I claimed you in front of my men, my whole pack!” He got off the bed and paced, frustration in every stride.
He was so irate, so outraged that Shay immediately felt foolish. “You’re right. I’m sorry,” she added before he could build up a full head of steam.
At her words he halted with his back to her.
My God, she wondered, was this how Rory’s mother had felt? This constant sense of insecurity that rose at the oddest moments? How many times had his parents had this very same fight? How many times had Rory’s father had to reassure his mate that she was the one he wanted? Worse, how long before he tired of it—her constant need for assurance, her lack of trust—before he tired of her?
The thought had her feet moving. Laying her hand on his shoulder, Shay made herself vulnerable in a way she never would have believed she could a month ago. “I’m trying to believe you love me, that this true mates stuff is the real deal. It’s not easy. Just like you thought you’d never mate, I never believed I’d find a man who could accept me—all of me. No one has before, so if I forget sometimes, just be patient with me. It will eventually sink in.”