"No, Hallie. No. It doesn't sound stupid at all. It sounds like you've had a tough time." I gave Knox and Faust a sad smile. "That's something we all have in common." I bit my tongue to keep what I'd been about to say from coming out. I hated the idea of someone amazing as Hallie living in a place where she was despised.
Never stay where you're not wanted only worked if you had someplace to go and a way to get there. But I didn't want Hallie to leave Rockshell; she was my only friend.
That was selfish, but it coincided with what Hallie wanted too. I looked to Knox. This wasn't my thing to offer, and I couldn't be positive Knox was even on the same page, but he nodded, and I hoped.
"Why don't you move in here, at the hotel?" Knox asked. He coughed and grabbed another sandwich. "Jazz would like it if you were closer…"
My old softie.
"Would you want to?" My voice trembled with enthusiasm. "Would you want to move into the hotel? You could have all your own space, and I wouldn't use you as a free babysitter, I promise."
"Hearing you promise that is giving me doubts," Faust said, his teasing directed at me.
I figured this had been one of those alpha wolf moments where the five of them had a conversation without ever speaking—or being in the same room.
"Stay here? With the ghosts?" Her eyes rounded, and I imagined that was how they'd looked when she'd come to the hotel as a child, daring her friends to see who could get the closest.
"Ghosts?" Faust scoffed. "That's just Diesel."
Hallie looked like she might be in shock, but I hoped it was the type of shock that faded rapidly into excitement. She didn't exactly resemble a person who was excited, but her lips were pursed. She was thinking about it.
Which meant I should get the next thing out of the way.
"Before you say yes, if you do say yes, you'll know a secret, and it's a secret you can't tell anyone, and if you do tell someone…I mean, I don't know what will happen…" I was butchering my threat. There was no way Hallie could live here and not know that everyone else who lived here could turn into a wolf. She'd taken Angus's rapid birth extremely well. It helped she'd had an adorable baby to distract her while I gave as best an explanation as I could without actually explaining. If she moved in, telling her we were shifters was an unavoidable risk, but she didn't strike me as the type of person who would blab if she decided this sort of crazy wasn't what she wanted.
"Another secret? Will this explain how you conceived and gave birth to a baby within a month?"
I beamed because Hallie was curious. Not curious and skeptical or curious and afraid, just curious. "Absolutely. This will explain everything."
Chapter Eighteen
Knox
The prospect of leaving Jazz alone in the hotel was as appealing as shoving sand down my pants, but if he came he would try to help, and he wasn't resting enough as it was. He claimed not to be tired, but I kept catching his eyelids drooping or a surreptitious yawn breathed into a secretive elbow. Faust was leaving Dog—already standing guard next to the door—so Jazz wouldn't be left unprotected, but he still felt left out.
"Hallie gets to go," Jazz pointed out with a mutinous nod in her direction.
Hallie gawked back, clearly wondering how she'd been dragged into this argument. "You're mad because you can't help me move?" She shook her head letting Jazz know just how crazy that sounded to her.
Like everything else, Hallie took the news that we were shifters—and that shifters were a thing that existed—as well as she took everything else. I understood her actions better now. Hallie was lonely—the type of loneliness that took years of neglect and disdain to take hold.
Jazz's bottom lip stuck out, shiny from where he'd licked it. The lip begged for a pair of teeth marks, a nibble or two. I couldn't decide how I liked Jazz's mouth more: when he was whispering he loved me or when his lips were wrapped around my dick.
My omega caught my gaze, heating the air between us. He knew what was on my mind, and I was fairly confident he'd just conjured up a few dirty images on his own. My dick pulsed, wanting to hear my omega's dirty fantasies, but that would have to wait until after we got Hallie's things out of her house. I'd offered to make her ex stay away instead so she didn't feel like she had no choice but to move in, but she'd waved the idea away.
The choice to tell a human our secret hadn't been a reckless spur-of-the-moment decision. I'd made the decision quickly, but in the field, we often only had seconds to make a choice. I didn't doubt my choice to offer her a place in my home, but I didn't know if that meant she had a place in the pack.
That wasn't something I couldn't force on the others; each of them would have to decide on their own. But, until that happened, Jazz would have a friend, and Hallie would feel safe in her home—as safe as anyone could feel living with a pack of wolves.
"By the time you get Angus down, we'll be back." I led him away from the front door to the sitting room and sat him down, taking care to adjust the pillows and blankets so that he sat as comfortably as he could on the sofa.
Jazz frowned, but he didn't try to get up. He let his gaze drop to Angus, blue eyes open, taking in the world around him. "I guess I won't be here alone, anyway, will I? I have Dog and Angus." He brought his face down, pressing his nose close to Angus's head. "I get it now. The sniffing thing. I could sniff him all day."
I grinned smugly, pleased my omega hadn't remained upset for long. We wouldn't be gone more than an hour. I'd toyed with asking Hallie or one of the others to stay, but if we went all at once, we'd be able to get Hallie's things out of her house in the shortest amount of time—which would lessen the chance that we'd run into her ex again. I wasn't worried about the prospect but knew it would only cause problems.
I brushed the tip of my nose along the shell of his ear, scenting him as he did our son. He smelled happy, with nothing sharp or bitter to muddle his fragrance.
"When I get back and finish moving everything in, I'm going to be hot and sweaty," I whispered.
That was the guys' clue to load up. They needed to hook the trailer up to the Hummer anyway. I had time to make my omega's temperature rise.
Jazz tilted his chin, offering me more of his neck. "Yeah?" he breathed. "That sounds like a personal problem."
My sweet prince attempted to make it sound like he wasn't interested, but the hitch in his breath gave him away.
"It is a personal problem, baby. It's very personal."
Jazz visibly trembled. "Okay, okay, get out of here. I'll scrub your back once Hallie's all moved in." He couldn't resist his desire for long—a fact I was infinitely grateful for.
With one last kiss, I went out to join the others, glad that it wouldn't be long before I had Jazz in the shower.
The guys had the trailer attached by the time I got out there. Diesel waited in the Hummer with the twins, while Faust sat, with the engine going, in Hallie's boxy blue Volvo.
"I can't believe you got him to stay." Jagger slid into the passenger seat.
"Incentive to get this done," I grunted. I'd given us thirty minutes to load before. Now I'd push for fifteen.