Scion (Norseton Wolves Book 4) (8 page)

Ashley followed her through the door and Vic skirted in behind her before it shut. Obviously, he wasn’t going to be content to wait in the lobby. She was
glad
he wasn’t going to be content to wait in the lobby. She wanted him near and interested, and on his own accord.

She settled onto one of the hard, institutional chairs adjacent to the exam table in room two and hugged her purse against her belly.

Vic paced in front of the door, looking alternately from her to his feet. He couldn’t have been doing it very long—thirty seconds, at the most—but that was long enough agitate her inner wolf, who Ashley already had enough problems settling.

“Vic, sit. You’re tying my stomach into knots.”

“Sorry.” He sank onto the chair beside her, but even sitting, his energy was through the roof. He bobbed his knee and drummed his fingertips atop the armrests. Obviously, the tea’s calming effects was wearing off.

She clapped a hand over his turbo-charged knee and stilled it, unable to suppress her chuckle. “Stop. It’s just a shot. It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s not just the shot. It’s a lot of stuff all at once, you know?”

She started to pull her hand back, but he gingerly grabbed her wrist and wrapped her fingers over his knee again.

He didn’t say anything, but stared at her. His expression was a curious blank, and never before had Ashley wished so much that she’d possessed some of the Afótama’s psychic skills. Reading Vic’s mind would be a lot easier than trying to figure out what to say to him to get him to say what he needed to.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I guess that’s the best place to start. It’s probably not enough, but it’s all I got.”

“What are you sorry for?” Squeezing the words out of him felt cruel, but she had to know if they were on the same page, and if he was apologizing for the right things. There were so many things both of them could be apologizing for. She owed him a few
I’m sorrys
, too.

“Mostly, I—I guess I’m sorry for not giving you a real chance.”

“You were right to be cynical. Look what happened.”

She still didn’t know how her father had gathered that she was leaving. Maybe he’d guessed preemptively that she wouldn’t stick around and had a contingency plan in place. Or maybe he’d bugged her apartment. She might never know, and she didn’t care enough to ask him. She was done with all the bullshit—didn’t have room in her new life for it. Adam had presented her with the opportunity for a clean break from her old pack, and she was going to snatch it.

“Cynical, maybe, but not mean. I don’t want to be mean to you. It’s got me all fucked up, you know? I knew I’d gone too far and that what I said was wrong as soon as it came out of my mouth. I don’t go around trying to hurt people’s feelings. I do everything I can to avoid it.”

“Those are words I never expected to hear coming from a wolf.”

He shrugged. “Most wolves don’t have a mother like mine.”

So fuckin’ true.
In Ashley’s opinion, Mrs. Carbone should have been sainted. She’d raised four born alphas while living on the road. Those grunting hunks of fur and testosterone were her boys, even the ones not related by blood. And they were all decent men.
Surprisingly
decent. It was a damned shame that Ashley would be so surprised.

“I don’t know what’s going on with you and your family—your old pack—right now. I have to trust, though, that you’re here on good faith.”

“And that I’m not going to sabotage things, huh? I’m not like my father, Vic.”

“I know.” He put his hand over hers and gave it a tentative squeeze.

Such gentleness from a wolf
. Given the aggression he’d expended during the last time they were even a little bit physical, she hadn’t thought he was capable of it. There were probably a lot of things he didn’t think she was capable of, either. Like loyalty, kindness, and affection.

But, she was capable. She
craved
those things and wanted to give them in return. They meant security, and a wolfpack had nothing without it.

“My allegiances are in the right place. I’m not going to do anything to compromise this pack, even if that means having to turn my back completely on my old one. I don’t want their interference. I don’t want the garbage they put out following me here.”

“Clean break, huh?”

“Yeah, if I can manage it. I’m sure my father has already got folks out on the trail, hoping to join up and infiltrate. To annex another group of wolves to pay into the pack dues.” She sighed. “I’ve been doing my research in the past couple of weeks, with some help. Looks like he had some reach into Lisa’s pack down in Delaware.”

“How many packs has he annexed? No, don’t fuckin’ answer that. I don’t care. If you want to tell anyone, tell Dad. I don’t want to get my blood pressure up about it.”

“He already knows. I told him.”

“Oh. I guess I missed a lot.”

“Yeah, you’ve missed a lot.”

He cringed.

“It’s all right.”

“It’s not, though. I’m not gonna get mad at you for telling me the truth, even if it hurts me. I sure as shit gave it to you.”

She nodded, slowly, but even with what had happened, she didn’t want to hurt him. He’d been hurt enough already—maybe not by her directly—but she understood why he’d be suspicious of her. She wished they didn’t have that history so that nothing got in the way of them connecting, but it was like Adam had told her over dinner a few evenings ago—“
It’s not supposed to be easy.
”

After two brisk knocks, the door swung open and Jackie stepped in holding a capped syringe. “I want you to come back in a couple of days so I can check you out. You should be okay, but you’ll have to humor me for feeling like this is experimental. There’s only the bare minimum of information available in the database. I imagine there’d have to be, given the private nature of the people the drug is developed for. How do you people manage to spawn if you miscarry when you shift?”

“My species of wolf shifts as needed and isn’t pulled by the moon, so it isn’t an issue,” Vic said. “Moon shifters, though—”

Ashley sighed. “Most of us get knocked up before we get our bites. It’s why our families aren’t very large, usually. Once a wolf knocks up a bitch, he wants to bite her. My father managed to resist biting my mother until after I was born. I was kid number four.”

Jackie set down the syringe and massaged her temples. “Here I was thinking Afótama mating practices were complicated. All right. Stand and hitch up your dress. I’ll try not to jab your bony little hip.”

“I’m not bony. I’m streamlined for efficiency. But don’t worry. A few years and a few kids from now, you probably won’t even be able to find my hipbones, or even my waist.” She stood, put her back to Jackie, and pulled her dress by the hem.

Vic’s eyes were comically wide as Jackie swiped an alcohol pad over a meaty stretch of flesh.

Ashley chuckled. “Scared of needles, wolf?”

“No. You said
a few kids from now
.”

She cringed. “Yeah. I guess I did. I’m sorry. It was automatic.
Ow
!”

Jackie giggled and emptied the syringe full of drugs into Ashley’s ass muscle. Then she pulled out the needle and pressed a bandage over the skin. “All done. Two days, missy. If you don’t show up, I’ll hunt you down and you won’t remember which of us is the wolf.”

“That’s cruel. I want a new care provider.”

Jackie grinned. “Good luck. I hear Doctor Lee has cold hands and likes to clear his throat every fifteen seconds during exams. You’ll never know if he’s just phlegmy or if he simply doesn’t know what to make of what he’s looking at.”

“Never mind.”

“Thought not.” Jackie waved goodbye and glided away like some kind of graceful, evil midwife fairy.

“Jeez.”

Chuckling, Vic stood and pressed a hand to the small of Ashley’s back.

She was startled, but then rolled her eyes at herself. He wasn’t going to hurt her. She
knew
that. But for as much as she craved his touch, she was unused to it.

“I think we need a reboot,” he said softly. “A do-over.”

She looked up at him. His expression was so earnest—
repentant
—that she would have given him anything he wanted at that moment. “A do-over?”

“Sounds stupid, but I can’t think of anything else.”

“Not stupid at all.”

It was romantic, even, and wolf men weren’t much for romance. That didn’t mean she didn’t crave it, though. “So, what, you wanna meet me at the bench in the courtyard and let your dad reintroduce us?”

“We don’t need the chaperone. I think we can figure out how to be nice to each other without being told what to do. Don’t you?”

She nodded and slipped her arm around his. “I have to go back to work and finish teaching Ótama about—
uh
—Internet security.”

“I’ll walk you back there.”

And he did. They didn’t talk as they traced their steps back to the executive mansion, but for once, she felt like they didn’t really need to. They had plenty to talk about, but they also had plenty of time. They didn’t have to get things right all at once, and they had a lot of things to fix. They owed it to themselves to go slow and easy. And to forgive themselves for their rocky start.

He deposited her at the atrium door and gave Darius, who was on guard duty, a head bob of acknowledgement as he strolled past.

“So—courtyard at five?”

She shifted her weight and mentally ran down the list of things she had to accomplish with Ótama before the end of the day.

“Never mind.” His cautious grin dissolved into its former, neutral blank. “Maybe some other time. I’ll see you later, huh?”

He started to turn away, but she grabbed the back of his shirt and gave it a forceful yank.

“Seven o’clock. If you’re late, I’ll take it personally.”

Bit by bit, the electric tension around him eased and his shoulders relaxed down to their natural position. He reached out, slowly, and pushed her hair back from her eyes.

“You can touch me, Vic.”

“I don’t feel like I’ve earned the right. Will you let me earn it?”

She bit her lip to keep the hasty words from spilling out, and forced herself to think for a moment. Forgiving him was an easy thing, and she was probably three-quarters of the way there already. But, he was showing he didn’t want to take her for granted. It was a sentiment she’d never expected, and she wanted to learn what such regard felt like. She wanted to be able to teach her daughters one day, should she have any, what to demand from their men. First, she needed to figure out what to ask for herself. Her mother hadn’t been able to teach her that, and would probably never learn the lesson herself.

“Yeah. I’ll let you, Vic.”

He stroked his thumb along her jaw and a wry smile pulled at the luscious lips she had yet to kiss. And gods, she wanted to, so she did. It was just a longish peck, but that small touch was enough to make her heart race and cheeks burn. It made her inner wolf rejoice and the tension in her gut unfurl. They felt
right
.

Thank the gods.

She would have swooned if he hadn’t been propping her up.

“Seven, then,” he said with a smug grin, and turned her toward the door.

Vic thought his wife was a bit off her rocker for even entertaining the idea of letting his mother name their kid, but he didn’t like arguing with her. That pout she wore whenever his words took on the wrong inflection tore him to shreds on the inside, and there was only so much of that a man could survive. He’d walked away from at least five car wrecks, been shot three times, and had once had his femur crushed by a sailboat mast, but Ashley’s sad-face fucking killed him.

It was easiest to just let the woman have what she wanted, and she wasn’t all that unreasonable, so it was usually no inconvenience.

But still…naming their son “Adam” might have started a pack war if word ever got out, and if Vic hadn’t taken certain precautions. Word would get out, of course. The Norseton Wolves were excellent at keeping secrets, but that didn’t mean everyone they encountered was. Vendors and delivery people cycled in and out of the neighborhood all the time, and it wasn’t unreasonable to assume that eventually, word would get back to New Jersey that Ashley had a son, and that his name was Adam Carbone.

“Quit fidgeting.” Ashley looked up from the exam gown she’d been loosely tying over her big belly and furrowed her brow at him. “My inner wolf is cranky enough with being locked inside me for this long, and your agitated beast isn’t helping matters.”

“Sorry. I’ll run it off later.”

“Go now.”

“No. I want to know how close you are.”

“Why, so you have a better shot at winning the betting pool?”

Shit.
He winced and raked a hand through his hair. It was hard to be a moralistic asshole while participating in illegal betting behind his wife’s back.

“Thought I didn’t know about it, huh?”

“The prize is five thousand tax-free dollars, babe. It was either I stand back and let one of the wolfpack assholes or opportunistic Afótama gamblers collect money on my kid, or I’d toss in some cash and try to scoop it up myself.”

“Five thousand bucks, huh?” She rubbed her chin and narrowed her eyes. “You know what I could do with five thousand bucks?”

“You? I was thinking of using it to finish paying off your bride price.”

“Ha ha. I’m worth more than five thousand bucks.”

“So much more, but the going rate on an ex-Madeira with a Carbone husband is fifty thousand bucks.”

“Whatever, Vic.”

He entwined his fingers and sank a little lower in his seat, pulling his gaze down to his outstretched legs.

“Seriously, tell me you’re joking.”

If only.

A knock sounded on the door, and Jackie pushed in the portable ultrasound machine before they could respond. “Let’s see if we can figure out how big this kid is. Your amnio said his lungs were mature, by the way. So—labor could happen at any time.”

“
Mm-hmm
,” Ashley hummed.

Vic looked up at her, and as he expected, found her looking at him, and not Jackie who was bent over plugging in the machine.

“What?” he mouthed.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Fifty thousand dollars?” She didn’t even bother whispering, but in five months, he’d learned that was Ashley in general. She didn’t keep things hidden, and she didn’t lie about important things. She didn’t have to, because she tried so hard to be decent—maybe harder than anyone would have expected her to. Sometimes, he wondered if she believed she had something to prove, and perhaps that was partly his fault.

He sighed. “It’ll be worth every penny.”

“How much have you paid them so far? And where did you get the money? And what, exactly, does it buy?”

Jackie tamped the bottle of ultrasound goop against her palm and looked from Ashley to Vic and back. “Should I step out?”

“No need to,” Ashley said. “We’ll probably be loud enough that you could hear us anyway.”

“You gonna yell at me, babe?” Vic asked.

“If I have to. Have you forgotten how loud Italians can be without trying?”

“Okay, look. Shit. I used to do penny stock trading in my downtime. I took it up when I was out of commission because I’d broken my dominant arm. I was going to use the money on the new house, but this was more pressing.”

“They
blackmailed
you?”

“Yes and no. A couple of your dad’s enforcers caught up to Anton and me when we were on the road last month with the Afótama royalty. Let’s just say some threats were issued—on both ends—and your father agreed to forget you or anyone with the name Carbone has ever existed for the previously stated amount.”

“You shouldn’t pay it. That pack’s got nothing on us, even if they do outnumber us ten to one. They’ve got no strength. What the hell do you think they could do? You guys are already sniffing the mail that comes into this place for bombs and chemicals. Nobody comes in here that hasn’t been cleared, and us girls rarely even leave the Norseton boundaries unescorted.”

Jackie turned her stare to Vic and made a
Well?
gesture. The conversation would probably turn out to be the most entertaining thing she’d witnessed all day. If she wanted to see
real
entertainment, though, he’d direct her to his parents.

“Maybe they can’t really hurt us, but they can annoy the shit out of us. Fifty thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a little peace if we can get it. We’ve got enough problems without that petty bastard stirring up drama.”

Ashley pinched the bridge of her nose and sputtered her lips. “You’re giving him the last laugh. You know that, right?”

He shrugged. “Let him laugh until he cries. He’s not always gonna be the leader of the pack, and when he’s cast aside, all he’s gonna have are whatever ill-gotten gains he’s squirreled away. And, you know what? When you go, you can’t take it with you.”

“Wise words, wolf,” Jackie said. She helped Ashley lie back onto the exam table.

“He’s so smart, and I get to go home with him,” Ashley said. “Aren’t I lucky?”

“I’d say,” Jackie said, and switched on the machine.

Vic knew better. She had an obstinate, hardheaded wolf for a mate. If anyone were lucky, it was he. Fortunately, they had a lot of years ahead for him to prove it to her, and if it took paying off a bribe to make those years far easier than their rough start had been—so be it.

She was worth it.

The End