So now the Alpha female was doing her best to convince Nick that they should give Ally sanctuary. Although Nick appeared to be stubbornly sticking to his decision, Derren could sense that the guy was wavering, hating the idea of upsetting his mate.
“We shouldn’t get involved; this is none of our business,” insisted Nick from the sofa, cuddling their infant daughter and plucking at her short, blonde, corkscrew curls. Like her mother, Willow had a pixie look about her, but she had Nick’s green eyes. She was also Derren’s goddaughter.
Staring down at Nick, arms folded, Shaya frowned. “It is your business if Cain is your friend.”
“I don’t have friends.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course, my mistake: you have ‘contacts,’” she said dryly. “But you like Cain, right?”
Nick grimaced. “I don’t dislike him.”
Eli, Nick’s younger brother and the pack’s Head Enforcer, laughed. “Which basically makes him your BFF.”
It was true that Nick did his best to alienate the majority of the population, being strongly averse to company. The guy was a born leader, an alpha by nature. But he didn’t like having lots of people around him, which was unfortunately for him one of the trimmings that came with the Alpha role.
“This is your friend’s mate, Nick,” stressed Shaya. “Even if he has no intention of claiming her, she’s still his mate. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Derren wondered if much of Shaya’s compassion came from knowing what it was like to have her mate choose not to claim her.
Caleb pursed his lips. “I wonder why Cain hasn’t mated her.” The submissive male belonged to the same pack as Shaya growing up and was a lifelong friend of hers. Caleb was also genuine, smart, and had recently mated another submissive male within the pack, Kent.
“Maybe it’s to keep Ally safe,” Shaya theorized. She looked at Derren. “You said Cain told you he keeps their connection quiet to keep her off the humans’ radar.”
“Yeah,” confirmed Derren, “but he also said he’s known her since she was six and he was eight. He could have claimed her after he left juvie when he was eighteen. Instead, he let her go pack-trotting.”
As such, Derren wasn’t quite sure why Cain had refrained from claiming her. In fact, he wasn’t sure how Cain was managing to ignore the mating urge either. It was supposedly painful. But then, Cain didn’t feel the way others did. Not anymore. Maybe that had stopped the mating urge from coming into play.
“It doesn’t matter,” maintained Nick. “It’s none of our business. Besides, this could blow over soon. It’s natural for the Beta female to be jealous of her mate’s ex-partners—mates are possessive like that.”
“Yes,” Shaya allowed, “but if the Beta’s so jealous that she’s bitter, spiteful, and targeting Ally to this extent, that’s not good. I don’t believe the Beta will let this go.”
“I agree.” Kathy, Nick’s mother, reached for a babbling Willow, but Nick was having none of it. He was just as possessive and protective of his daughter as he was of his mate. “But the fact remains that this Ally person is a Seer.” The latter word dripped with disgust.
Nick spoke then. “I don’t like Seers. I don’t trust them. And I don’t want one around my pack.” His expression said: end of story.
Shaya seemed baffled. “Why? What’s so bad about them?”
For a moment, Derren wondered if Nick would mention what had happened all those years ago—a story only very few knew. But, as it turned out, Nick didn’t have to mention Derren’s past to make his point.
Nick arched a brow at Shaya. “Have you forgotten what happened with Roni and Marcus?”
Roni, Nick’s younger sister and an enforcer, had mated with an enforcer from the Phoenix Pack. Rather than asking either of the couple to switch packs, Nick and the Phoenix Alpha male had blooded so that the mated couple now belonged to both. It hadn’t made the packs into one, but it had united them on a psychic level, making each one an extension of the other.
Nick continued, “They almost didn’t mate because a Seer fed them bullshit about Marcus’s mate being someone else.”
It was yet another example of Seers misusing their gifts. As Derren considered Roni a good friend, it had pissed him the fuck off—adding to his loathing for Seers.
Shaya waved a dismissive hand. “That’s because Kerrie is an evil bitch. It doesn’t automatically make Ally one.”
Marcus tilted his head, conceding that. “How would you feel about Ally being here, sweetheart?” he asked Roni, while lounging on the other sofa with his arm draped over her shoulders. The two were an unlikely pair in that he was a dominant, very sociable, easygoing charmer, while Roni was a socially inept, intimidatingly intelligent, and seriously lethal tomboy.
“I’ll only have a problem with her if she turns out to be anything like Kerrie,” replied Roni. “Honestly, though, I can’t see anyone being more evil than that bitch.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed at Roni. “Not sure you’re in a position to call anyone evil.” He ran his tongue along his teeth, which still had a slight pink tint thanks to Roni’s latest prank. The two siblings insisted on playing pranks on each other on a regular basis, merely for their own entertainment.
Roni rolled her eyes. “Are you still holding on to that?”