Free Honesty by Viola Rivard Page B

beside his brother. “He doesn’t want to get involved.”
    He had been able to empathize with the bear shifter. Alder was taking a mate of his own, and with the responsibility of providing for his female and possibly pups, he wasn’t eager to play war with Hale and Silas either.
    Hale remained obstinate. “Did you remind him what happened the last time Whiteriver held the valley?”
    “He remembers,” Alder assured him.
    Winter’s former clan had been eradicated by Silas’s father, Maruk. Not something anyone would soon forget.
    “We have the numbers without him, Hale. I suspect that’s why Silas hasn’t made a move yet.”
    Finally, Hale looked at him. “Halcyon won’t have the numbers if you leave. Half the pack will want to go with you.”
    “I’m not leaving you,” Alder said.
    The words came out on reflex. Up until the past few years, their lives had been in a perpetual upheaval. The only constant s they’d ever had were each other. While Alder recognized that he would have to let his brother go, the reality of it was unsettling.
    “One of us has to go,” Hale said, looking away again. “I don’t have any sort of feelings for your female, but I do want her, Alder. I get hard just thinking about her.”
    Alder felt himself tense. He tried to keep his voice even as he said, “I didn’t know you were interested in taking a mate.”
    Hale gave a dry laugh. “I don’t want her to be my mate. I only want to know what it’s like to be inside of her.”
    Alder should have been furious at his brother, but it was just the opposite. For years, Alder had often felt as though he was living in the shadow of his more dominant twin. The idea that he had something that Hale coveted made his chest swell with pride.
    “It’s not that different from being with one of our females. A little warmer, a little softer,” Alder said, carefully watching his brother from the corner of his eye. “It’s the scent that really does it. The smell of her arousal mingling with the smell of yours, it does something to you. Makes you harder than you’ve ever been before. Then, when you finally come, it’s like a revelation. Like your entire life has just been leading up to that moment.”
    Maybe it was a bit poetic, but Alder indulged himself in a measure of satisfaction as his brother visibly paled.
    Feeling smug, but also marginally guilty, Alder said, “You should start looking for a mate of your own. None of this land is going to matter if you don’t have a mate and pups to share it with.”
    Hale tilted his head to scowl at Alder. “I don’t want a mate or pups. That’s always been your thing, not mine.”
    “Then what do you want?” Alder asked, beginning to grow impatient.
    “We could share her.”
    Their eyes locked as the words hung between them, neither male sure what to do with them. After a moment, Alder averted his eyes and stood.
    “I’m going to go speak with Fenix, make sure the patrols are tight. ”
    Hale grabbed his wrist, his grip tight. “She’ll accept me, if you let her.” He moved to stand in front of Alder. “You can have all the affection shit, any pups she has, all I want is her body.”
    There was no face in the world more familiar to Alder than his brother’s, but in that moment he hardly recognized him.
    Shaking Hale’s hand off, Alder gave him a final, hard stare before walking away.
    ***
    “Pass me the spinach seeds,” Taylor said.
    Her eyes burned and she rubbed at them with the back of her hand. Without a clock, she wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but it couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours.
    She wanted to believe sleeping was an issue due to the pack’s strange schedule. They seemed to fall sleep either right before or right after sunrise, waking sometime in the afternoon.
    Today, Lark had still been sound asleep when Taylor had woken up. It was still morning and try as she might, she couldn’t fall back asleep, so instead she had gone outside to work on