Outlaw (Wolves of Royal Paynes #4) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,21

my wraith, who grabbed it before the door could slam into Jazz's face.

Jazz jerked back. Thankfully, he didn't have Angus with him. "Whoa, hey there!"

"I'm sorry!" I held on to the door as if it would swing back and try again. "I heard motorcycles."

"Yeah, it's Badger's pack. Well, no, I don't think you would know Badger. He came after you die—shit! Sorry! They met Badger after it seemed like you had died." Jazz went to shove his hand through his curls but stubbed his fingers against the bill of his hat instead. "Ow! Dang! I forgot I put that on. For Knox," he said like the words were the most tiresome words ever spoken in all of time.

"Mate?" Knox called up the hallway from the first floor.

Jazz rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. Just hurt myself on this hat you made me wear."

"He hurt himself on a hat?" Diesel said, his voice coming from the same direction as Knox.

I forced my lips to remain in a straight, unamused line.

"Fork you, buddy!" Jazz called back.

"Fork you?" I couldn't believe the alphas I'd once known would have a problem with anyone swearing.

"I'm trying not to cuss for the baby," he explained.

"Why?"

Jazz threw his hands up in the air, "I don't know? I wish someone would've told me that half the time of being a new parent is thinking up ways other parents would judge you! I can't have Gus's first word be shit. Or, more likely, asshole."

It was lucky I wasn't still trying not to smile because I would've lost the war. "Let me guess, pet name for Knox? It suits him."

"At this point, we could probably get away with calling it his legal name."

The Knox I'd known hadn't been so unlike the Knox I'd witnessed since he bust into my cage. The former Knox hadn't been quite so certain nor so steady. He'd been a force, relentless, demanding and blunt, but with a restless edge. This Knox wasn't restless, but confident, and I believed that had a lot to do with the person standing in front of me.

"That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me." Jazz's eyes filled with tears, and he hugged around my shoulders, taking special care not to bump into the wraiths.

One thing about—mostly—solitary captivity was that I never had to worry about accidentally speaking my thoughts. Whenever Pierce had visited me, my wraiths wrapped around my body like a protective film that blocked his sight as well as sounds. Still, he never gave up on trying.

"It's the truth." I shook off the dread that thoughts of Pierce always brought me. They'd said I was safe here and that Pierce couldn't get in.

Agaaaain yooou believe?

I didn't know what made it worse, the derision or the fact that taunting me was what got them to talk again. This wasn't like last time. I wasn't placing my body, mind, and soul in a single man; I was merely relying on the pack's Alphas to protect. Just as every pack member should.

And youuuu call us sllllllliiiiippery.

"Shut up."

"I…wasn't talking?" Jazz cocked his head to the side, quick like a songbird. "And really, for me, that is, like, a miracle."

"Good afternoon, brothers!" Sitka said after popping up in the shadow of the door in the hallway.

Jazz gripped his chest, making a big show of being startled. "I'd say to get you a bell, but that wouldn't help at all." He smiled widely as he spoke, emphasizing how he was only joking.

I nodded my hello. Several days had passed since my arrival, letting me see more of how the nephilim interacted. I liked how, at different times and from each of them, the jokes sometimes got a little barbed. It made them seem more real. When I'd truly seen Storri, the moment before my whip nearly did the unthinkable, I'd been so sure he wasn't real. Something that made me feel that good couldn't be real. But then I realized Pierce never showed me anything that made me feel good. Not once. So he had to be real.

Jazz looped his arm in mine but I was reluctant to continue. "Aren't we waiting for Storri?"

Jazz smiled like he understood. "He's outside getting the critters to tell him the least peed-on spot. We don't normally picnic so close to the hotel since Dr. Dark Doolittle has an animal magnetism that the little critters can't resist."

The wraiths pulsed, eager for a chance to see Dog.

During our walks the days previous, I'd enjoyed the view from