Dire Desires

No one could deny that, but it was apparent none of them would sleep at all if that baby got moved from Vice’s arms.

He sighed in defeat for the second time that night and crawled into his bed, the kid like Velcro against him.

“You should probably name it,” she said. “It is a boy, right?”

“Definite boy parts,” Vice agreed. Hell, the kid was cute for sure. And the truth was, Liam wouldn’t name it, and they couldn’t let Max. It would actually be too cruel for her, and Vice had done the right thing by taking the baby away.

Max hadn’t wanted to see or hear him.

“I’ll think about it,” he said. Because it had to be the right name.

“I’ll put the crib in your room,” Rifter offered.

“Seriously? You’re serious,” he said as Rifter went down to the basement. Gwen added, “I’ll bring up some bottles. I’ll help with the night feedings. . . .”

“Night feedings?” Vice grumbled. “I’m owed big-time for this one.”

Chapter 26

Liam hadn’t been able to bring himself to visit the baby. Cyd told him that Vice—Vice—had delivered him and was currently caring for the kid who screamed if anyone else touched him.

Liam had to fight his smile at that, because, although Vice wouldn’t ever see it himself, Liam could understand why that was. In the short time he’d been under the wolf’s tutelage, Vice had become a father to him. And an X-rated older brother, all at the same time. The best of all possible worlds.

And now, he just wanted to make his mentor proud of him. Get his pack behind him.

He’d seen Max only once since she’d been here, and that conversation burned in his mind.

“I’d kill myself, but that would be another dishonor to you,” Max told him. “I want to give you the honor back.”

“I don’t want anything from you,” he told her. Wondered how he’d once loved her, considered her a mate.

Humans are weak. Foolish. Vice had been teaching him that, the same way his father had been trying to drill that into his skull for years. But he’d learned firsthand, and in the most painful way possible. He hated Max for her betrayal for the past month, had burned with the desire for revenge in his gut.

And then, just as suddenly as the hatred had come, it was gone, replaced by a sense of duty and responsibility for the bigger picture. The pack. His pack.

For the kid’s honor, he had to do what pack law demanded. And that pup deserved a shot, no matter what his parents had done. If Liam had learned anything from living with the Dires, it had been that fact.

If he didn’t kill her, he would never be able to get the pack under control and that was dangerous to all their existence.

He knew from Gwen that Max had been silent for twenty-four hours since the birth, as was expected. She was following pack law out of respect for the wolves. For him or Teague, he didn’t know, but suspected it was for the baby most of all.

Still, she was allowed to talk when Liam gave her the opportunity. A chance for her to share her dying request. And as she knelt before him, she couldn’t even look him in the eye, not until he told her, “Speak, Max, and tell me what’s on your mind.”

“You can’t let that child pay for my mistakes,” she blurted out, her voice unwavering but the emotion showed in the tear that ran down her cheek. “You have to show mercy. That’s the kind of king you are, Liam. The kind of wolf you always were.”

He wanted to tell her that she never really knew him, but that wasn’t true at all. “I promise you that.”

“Thank you.” She stood, moved forward toward him. She was dressed in a simple white robe, as tradition called for. Cyd had made the arrangements with Gwen, and now Max followed him out through the tunnels and into the field. She remained silent. Stoic. That was the Max he’d once known.

Cyd, Cain and other Weres were standing guard against outlaw attacks. This matter was always done in private, and Liam held the sword, the handle smooth and the metal heavy in his palm.

She turned to face him, chin up.

“I’m not doing this out of anger, Max,” he told her. “It’s for the pack. I’ve forgiven you. Your child will have a chance.”

“Thank you.”

The night was silent. Somber. He did his duty quickly, not allowing her to suffer. As per tradition, he turned and walked away once Max crumbled to the ground. Cyd and Cain would take care of her burial. He smelled the blood and went into his room and into the shower and stayed there for as long as he could stand the hot water on his skin. Stayed until the smell was gone and his body stopped wracking with sobs and he could stand tall and say he’d done what a king was supposed to do.

He toweled off, put on sweats and a T-shirt and walked out to find Rifter waiting for him with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, already poured. Rifter handed one to him wordlessly, clinked his glass to Liam’s and the men drank. Liam appreciated the hot burn down his gullet and Rifter refilled the glass for him several times in a short span.

Rifter didn’t expect him to speak at all, he realized. He was simply offering support from one king to another. And when Liam had enough to drink, only realizing that when the room spun, Rifter got him into bed and left Cyd and Cain to watch over him. Liam kicked them out of the room after half an hour, too restless to have anyone staring at him. He opened the window for some light and the moon’s touch and found Violet sitting about twenty feet away from the house she couldn’t see, facing the woods he often ran in.

He was still angry at himself for egging her on the other night, but for some unfathomable reason, he leaped out the window and stalked her.

Whether she knew he was coming or not, she never turned. He gave her credit for that, more so when she said, “Rough night?”

Instead of growling or pretending it didn’t happen, he sat next to her. “I’m never mating again,” he told her, because if that was somehow her intention with this whole beta thing . . .

“I’ve never planned on it,” Violet agreed. “Seems like a really good way to get screwed up.”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to rub salt in the wound.” She actually looked abashed.

“It’s all right.”

“My mouth tends to get me in trouble.”

“I know a few wolves like that.” He paused. “I’m supposed to meet with the hunters tomorrow. Are they going to tell me anything about you that you’d rather tell me yourself?”

“How much time do you have?”

“Why did you leave the hunters?”

She stared straight ahead. “They kicked me out.”

“Why?”

“They were scared of me. Said I was uncontrolled during a fight.”

“You’re young.” He realized it just then.

“I’m nineteen, okay?”

Fuck, this was not okay. “Then you’re still in moon craze.”

“I fight it. I didn’t lose control when you fought me,” she pointed out.

“Did your pack kick you out?”

“Yes. The hunters took me in. They think I’m twenty-three.”

She looked it, but for Weres, there was a big difference between nineteen and twenty-one, which was exactly why she lied to the hunters about being well past moon craze. “Betas need to—”

“Keep the peace? Don’t give me that bullshit. That’s what omegas are for. Betas are to back you up. To keep