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this had something to do with how Tulip was constantly talking about Hale. How brave he was, how kind he was, and how caring he could be. Taylor wasn’t sure if Tulip was talking about an entirely different Hale, or if Hale was only a jerk to Taylor and her friends.
    Taylor sat on the steps of her porch, chin resting on her hands and forcing a smile as her blood simmered within her veins. In her peripherals, she could see Holly in her fox form, curled up beneath a tree, sleeping.
    “Are you nervous?” Tulip asked. It was the first time she’d asked something Taylor couldn’t simply nod or shake her head at.
    “About what?”
    Tulip wet her lips. “The mating thrall.”
    Taylor didn’t care to explain that there would be no mating thrall, so she replied, “Nope. Not at all.”
    Tulip smiled. Her smiles were so pretty and genuine. They made Taylor dislike her even more.
    “I wouldn’t be, either. I admit, I don’t know Alder well, but if he’s anything like his brother, he’ll take such good care of you. And it’s so good that Hale is willing to share his territory with the both of you.”
    Taylor turned her head away, feigning interest in the quail coop to hide the irrepressible look of incredulity that had overtaken her face. She didn’t know whether she should despise Tulip or pity her. The woman was absolutely clueless.
    “Um, yeah, Alder’s great.”
    “The two of you will have such beautiful pups.”
    Taylor cringed. The fact that she didn’t disagree was one of the numerous problems plaguing her existence.
    Motherhood had always been chief on her list of things she wanted to avoid, landing somewhere between heroin and dark alleyways at midnight. Having a child was an incredible responsibility, and even before she became a fugitive, Taylor had recognized that she wasn’t strong enough to be anyone’s mother. She had no idea who she was or what she wanted out of life.
    It could have been her desire to make Alder happy, or maybe it was because a naïve part of her believed everything was going to work out for her, but Taylor could see herself having Alder’s children someday.
    “We’ve known each other for less than a month,” Taylor said, more to herself than to Tulip.
    “That’s the way it is with most alphas and their mates,” Tulip said. “You’ll get to know Alder while you’re carrying his pup. It’s a beautiful experience.”
    That sounds like the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard .
    Tulip went off on a tangent, recounting the story of her parents and how they fell in love. The story wasn’t half-bad, Taylor had to admit. Tulip hadn’t been born to Whiteriver, but rather, she was the daughter of a lone beta wolf and his human mate. They had raised her on the outskirts of a fringe town. When she was eighteen, she’d left home, hoping to live amongst her own kind. She’d joined Whiteriver shortly after they split from Halcyon.
    “It was tough living out in the wilderness, especially with how rough things were for Whiteriver,” she told Taylor.
    “Why did you stay?”
    “Silas,” Tulip said with a wan smile. “He was always trying to be strong for the sake of the pack, but I saw a different side of him. I wanted to be strong for him and I did everything I could to help him. But I suppose I wasn’t enough.”
    “What do you mean, you weren’t enough?”
    Tulip shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I have Hale now.”
    Taylor wanted badly to pity her. She wanted to feel anything besides the hot coals of jealousy and resentment that burned in her stomach. Taylor knew that it wasn’t fair for her to cling to Hale when she had Alder, but she couldn’t stop herself.
    “How about you?” Tulip asked. “How did you come to live here?”
    “It’s a pretty long story,” Taylor said.
    “She’s an assassin on the run from the government.”
    Taylor twitched at the sudden appearance of Lark. By now, Taylor was almost immune to being startled, even when it came to the raccoon