Every Blissful Moment (Hyena Heat Book 4) (11 page)

“Thanks, Rome.”

He grabbed her arm lightly to stop her and said in a low voice, “I hope you understand that Bliss doesn’t want Angel to know what happened or why you ended up coming back with us.  She’ll tell her friends when she’s ready.”

“I won’t tell.”

Brierley followed Rome into the kitchen, where they found Bliss and Angel talking in between bites of fat cinnamon rolls.  “Pull up a roll, Brierley,” Angel said.  “I heard your stomach growl, so when everyone leaves I’ll make dinner for us and we can get to know each other.”

“Thanks, Angel.”  She picked up a cinnamon roll and took a bite.  She sighed deeply as she chewed on the sweet morsel, the perfect combination of spicy cinnamon and sugary frosting.

Bliss and her mates stayed for ten minutes, and then, after Bliss checked twice that Brierley was comfortable staying with Angel, they left.

Angel leaned against the closed door and looked at Brierley for a long moment.  “I know you’ve got some secrets, and I have a feeling that a couple of them might be about my bestie.  I’m not asking you to share everything, but I just want to know this – is Bliss okay?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.  So how do you feel about hamburgers?”

“Good, really good.”

“Babe, I think we’re going to get along famously.”

Angel slipped her arm over Brierley’s shoulders and gave her a light hug before steering her into the kitchen, where she spent an hour chatting about her life, Beyton, and the pack, while making hamburgers on a grill pan on the stove.  Angel didn’t seem to mind that Brierley wasn’t sharing much about her life.  She was trying to close the door on that part of herself and move forward.  Maybe she’d talk about her life someday, after Bliss had told her friends about her own ordeal.

Settling under the covers of the twin bed in the spare bedroom, she closed her eyes and let out a slow breath.  She’d never slept on such a comfortable bed before, and she wiggled a little bit and sank further into the soft mattress.  Outside she could hear the wind howling, but unlike the home she’d been raised in, which had drafty windows and a leaky roof, she was perfectly toasty.  She wondered if her mom missed her, and what her friends were doing, but mostly she was thankful that she was all alone in the bed without a nasty old male trying to get between her legs.

Turning over, she curled up, pulled the blanket over her head, and drifted swiftly off to sleep.

Chapter 8

The following Friday, Memphis watched silently as Bliss gathered clothes and walked down the hallway to take a shower before work.  When the door shut and he heard the sound of a lock clicking, he knew she didn’t want to be disturbed.  It miffed him a little that she was locking a door when all she had to do was say she wanted to shower alone, but he decided to think about that later and focus on the enormous elephant in the room.

“She needs to take a pregnancy test,” he said once the shower turned on and he was certain she wouldn’t be able to hear them.

Rome shook his head.  “She’s not ready.  And what’s the rush, anyway?  If she is pregnant, she’s got nine months ahead of her, and if she’s not then she’s not.”

Memphis snarled.  “She’s totally clamming up about what happened with the owls.  She won’t talk to us, she won’t talk to her friends.  She’s trying to act as if nothing happened, but according to the female owls there’s a very good chance she’s carrying our child.  She needs to deal with it.”

“Why are you pushing?”  Rome asked.  “We’ve tried talking to her a few times since we got back, but she’s not interested.”

Memphis crossed his arms and glared at his youngest brother.  “Tell me that this distance between us isn’t driving you batty.  I know she’s embarrassed about us having sex with the owls watching, but we love her and she’s our mate; there’s nothing wrong with what we did.”

Link put his cell down on the kitchen counter.  “I think she’s worried her friends will know that she’s not telling the whole truth about her pregnancy if she leaves out the owls, but Whisper and Angel are already suspicious.  I overheard Bliss on Skype with Angel and Whisper yesterday, and they know something’s going on.  Bliss is being cagey, and I don’t think she’s ever been that way with them before.”

“I can’t stand her being closed off.  It’s even infecting our mating bed, and that’s the one place we should all be honest.”

“So what would you have us do?”  Rome demanded.  “Tie her up and torture her feelings out of her?”

Link growled.  “Don’t be an asshole.”

Rome sat down heavily on a stool at the counter and put his head in his hands.  “If we push her, she’ll hate us.”

Memphis exhaled loudly and rolled his neck.  “What if we tell Whisper and Angel that Bliss needs help?  She might accept their meddling more readily than ours.”

Rome lifted his head and arched a brow.  “Are you actually suggesting we sic Bliss’s friends on her?”

Memphis felt a little shitty for it, but he nodded anyway.  “If we don’t do something, Bliss is going to make herself sick dealing with this on her own.  If she is pregnant, the stress isn’t good for her, and if she’s not, then she’s worrying about something for no reason.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Link said.

Rome shook his head.  “I’m not so sure, but I do think she needs to talk to someone.  I just wish she’d talk to us.”

Memphis agreed.  Their parents were best friends.  Their mom never turned to anyone but their dads when she was upset or needed help.  It burned in a special way to know that Bliss didn’t want to share what she was going through with Memphis and his brothers.  He understood it in a way – their relationship was still new – but it wasn’t
so
new that they were strangers who didn’t trust each other.

* * * * *

Rome unlocked the door to the bar’s office and held it open for Bliss.  She gave him a small smile and walked inside, setting her purse down on one of the two desks they’d pushed together to make a larger workspace for him and Bliss to share.  He didn’t usually spend a lot of time in the office.  There was always something to be done around the bar, and Mack put Rome to good use.  He enjoyed working there.  The wolves were a cool group; Kayne and Kross were like brothers, and Mack was like a fourth father.

Rome turned on the computer on his side of the desk and glanced at Bliss, who was staring at her own computer blankly.  His heart twisted, knowing that she was wrestling with what had happened on the mountains.

He’d just opened his mouth to ask her to please talk to him, when someone knocked on the doorframe.  Whisper and Angel stood in the doorway with their arms folded across their chests, unhappy frowns marring their faces.

Bliss looked at them and then at Rome in confusion.  She smiled brightly at her friends.  In the voice she used when she was pretending to be happy, she said, “Hey guys, what’s up?”

Whisper pointed at Rome.  “Give us a minute, please?”

Bliss stiffened in her chair.  “We’re kind of busy.  I’ll see you two at break, though.”

Angel shook her head.  “Nope.  We need to girl-chat right now.”

Bliss turned her head slowly and stared at Rome, her gaze full of reproach.  “What did you do?”

He moved around the desk and kissed her cheek.  “It’s for the best, love.  It’s been long enough.”

Before Rome could be swayed by her unhappiness and tell Whisper and Angel to take a hike, he walked swiftly from the room and out into the bar.  He found Brierley sitting and talking to Kayne and Kross, and joined them.

She smiled sadly at Rome.  “I never said anything, I swear.”

“About what?”  Kross asked.

“Nothing,” Brierley said.  “Bliss isn’t happy, and she needs some help from her friends.”

Kross looked at Rome, his eyes narrowing.  “Did something happen on your honeymoon?  Whisper said Bliss has been acting weird since you guys got back.”

Rome liked Whisper’s adopted brothers, but he wasn’t about to bare his soul to them.  The only person he really wanted to talk to was Bliss, but she wasn’t talking to him or his brothers.  He looked over his shoulder toward the hallway, where his mate was probably being berated by her best friends.

His heart clenched, and unease filled him.  He looked across the bar to where his brothers were sitting at a table with some pack members, and realized that the last place they should be right now was away from Bliss.  Standing slowly, he stared at Memphis and Link.  Their gazes met his for a moment before he turned and walked back toward the office.

He shoved the door open hard enough that it cracked against the wall.  All three females jumped in surprise.

“You said you wanted us to do this,” Whisper said.  “Get lost so we can talk.”

He shook his head.  “You’re not her only friends.  If she wants me gone, she can tell me to go herself; otherwise I’m staying right here.”

He looked at Bliss, who blinked tear-filled eyes at him.  “I don’t want to talk about this when you’re not here.”

Relieved, he turned to close the door and found his brothers behind him.  “Can’t stay away?” he asked.

“It’s not right,” Memphis said.  “I’ve been feeling guilty since we got here.”

Rome moved over to the females, who were sitting on an old couch against one wall.  He lifted Bliss up and sat down in her place, settling her on his lap.  She snuggled against him immediately, and he smiled to himself, knowing he’d made the right choice.  Memphis and Link stood behind him as he leaned slightly against the arm of the couch and put their hands on Bliss.

Angel rolled her eyes.  “If you guys are done with the show of solidarity, we were just about to get to the reason Bliss has been acting so strangely since you got back from your honeymoon.”

Bliss tensed, and Rome could hear her heart pounding.  She didn’t say anything for a long moment.  Then she took a deep, trembling breath and said, “I’m afraid I’m pregnant.”

* * * * *

Link mentally cringed as Angel and Whisper screamed in happiness at Bliss’s announcement.  It didn’t take them long to realize that Bliss wasn’t joining them.

“What’s wrong?”  Whisper asked.  “Why is a baby a bad thing?”

Bliss looked down at her hands, twisting and untwisting her fingers together.  “Because of how it happened.”  Bliss looked over her shoulder at Link and Memphis.  She looked utterly wrecked.  Dropping to his knees, Link took her hands and kissed her fingertips.

“Do you want to go home?  We don’t have to do this now.”

Memphis snarled softly, but Link ignored him.  He felt like no matter what they did they were hurting Bliss, and that was tearing him up.

She kissed him, and he tasted the salt of her tears.  “No, it’s okay.  I know I’m not being fair.”

Taking a deep breath, she wiggled one hand free of his grip and slipped it behind Rome to grasp Memphis’s hand.  She looked at her best friends.

“Brierley is here because I took her place.”

The room was silent as Bliss shared the story of their time with the owls.  She didn’t tell her besties everything, but she told enough of what happened that they understood the situation.  Link wasn’t surprised that she was embarrassed after the fact about the nest seeing them have sex, or about her wanton desires because of the drug, but he was surprised that she worried about how she’d feel about the baby.

“I feel like I just made one mistake after another,” Bliss confessed.  “I’m afraid I’m going to look at our baby and see the owls every time.”

Whisper put her hand on Bliss’s shoulder.  “I don’t think that will happen, B.  Sure, the circumstances sucked, but two really good things came from it – Brierley didn’t have to marry a dangerous male, and you’ve possibly got a little baby hanging out inside you.  I mean, talk about starting a new chapter of your life!”

Bliss gave Whisper a watery smile.  “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”  Angel scoffed.  “You were traumatized and we didn’t know.  We were worried about you, because you always talk to us but suddenly you were clammed up.  I know it won’t be easy, but you need to let go of what happened on the mountain.  We’ve all made mistakes, but you’re safe, Brierley’s safe, and you’ve got a kiddo on the way.”

“Maybe,” Bliss said.

“So let’s find out,” Whisper said.  “Someone go get my bestie a preggo test so we can find out if she’s cooking a bun in there or not.”

Bliss laughed; it was the first time Link had heard the sound since they’d been back.

“I’ll go,” he offered.  “I don’t know what to get, though.”

Angel stood up and walked over to the desk, picking up a pen and writing quickly on a notepad.  Tearing the sheet from the pad, she handed it to Link.  “Here’s the name brand of the kind that can read an early pregnancy.  If they don’t have that brand, ask the pharmacist for something similar.”

Whisper cleared her throat.  “Why do you know so much about pregnancy tests?”

Angel sniffed.  “Shut up.”

Whisper coughed out a word that sounded like ‘slut’ and Bliss giggled.

“You’re lucky you’re sitting by our preggo bestie or I’d slap you silly.  In fact, I might do that later anyway,” Angel said.  Although her tone was annoyed, she was smiling.

“Thanks, Angel,” Link said.  Leaning forward, he kissed the tears from Bliss’s cheeks.  “I hope you’re not mad at us, sweet thing.”

Her arms went around his neck and she pressed her face against his throat.  She trembled slightly and he hugged her tight.  “I’m sorry I’ve been such a nutcase since we’ve been back.  I was trying to handle it on my own, but all I did was push you guys away.”

He rubbed her back and glanced up at his brothers.  He’d known she was upset, but he hadn’t guessed that her worry had run so deeply.  “Whatever comes sweet thing, we’ve got you, okay?”  He pushed her gently to arm’s length and stared into her pretty brown eyes.  “You’re our mate.  We’d never let anything bad happen to you.”