Saving Briar

Theon’s head throbbed. His entire body ached. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck as he tried to push himself up, but finally opted for rolling over instead, groaning when he realized that he was laying, naked, on the floor.

“Does that happen to you… often?” He winced at the sound of a female voice, his hands going up to press on both sides of his temples as if he could hold his head together in case it actually split in two. The human’s voice wasn’t loud, but any sound at this point that was louder than silence was going to be too loud. “We need to get some food into you.” She murmured the words this time, and he found that it didn’t actually hurt to listen to what she said the second time around. “I’d really like to get back to check on my daughter today. She’s with someone I trust and I know I’m making money here, but she’s never been away from me for this long. But I can make you something.”

He finally managed to force his eyes to focus on the human, as she pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt he hadn’t noticed the previous day. She must have changed out of them while he was sleeping, when Cara had first brought her there. Cara? Where the fuck had she been during all of this? And what the fuck had happened to him last night?

He hadn’t had that much to drink had he? In his entire life he had never been black out drunk. And the last thing he could remember was going down on the human, whose name he now couldn’t even remember. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What was it? If his head could actually stop pounding for even a few seconds he might be able to think of it. He pressed the palms of his hands against his eyelids, wondering if he was going to be sick. Again? Had he already gotten sick once?

“Harlow.” Bits of memories flickered through his mind and he said her name out loud as he massaged his temples, his eyes still squeezed shut. When he opened his eyes she was standing facing him, her arms crossed.

“Mhmm.” The corner of her lips were turning upward, just barely, and he had the distinct feeling that she was trying not to laugh at him. “That is in fact, my name. Impressed that you remembered it. Although you did say it quite a few times last night. Before you passed out.”

“Could you tell me about that? Was it after we-”

“No. We did not have sex. We’d barely done anything. You went down on me, things were just heating up and all of the sudden you seemed like you were in pain for like a second, and then you passed out.” She shrugged, but didn’t seem overly concerned.

“And you didn’t think to call anyone for help?”

“I figured after everything that had happened you’d probably just drank a ton before I’d gotten here. Or in the shower. Who knows where you have liquor stashed in here. Or what drugs you’ve taken. I mean werewolves don’t usually have medical emergencies, right? I threw a blanket over you,” she motioned to the comforter he now saw on the floor, “crawled up onto your very comfortable bed, and waited for you to sleep it off. I mean it’s not like I could call 911 for help, right?”

“Oh.” Theon couldn’t think of anything else to say. It was odd, spending time with this girl. She was nothing like Cara, or any of the She-wolves in the pack. Hell, she wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met. She didn’t treat him like he was the Alpha. She didn’t really treat him like he was anything special. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it. Especially since he was basically paying her to spend time with him.

The Alpha, who was used to being wanted by just about every unmated female in his pack, pushed away thoughts of the depths he’d sunk to over the course of the previous week.

“So is there a kitchen around here where I could make you breakfast?”

“How about we take a quick shower together,” his eyes skimmed over her body appreciatively as she rolled her eyes, letting out a surprisingly deep laugh that was possibly the sexiest thing he’d ever heard, “and then we can drive into town and get breakfast together. If you want we can even pick up your daughter and take her with us.”

Harlow bit her lip, and Theon could immediately see the uncertainty written across her features. He spoke again before she had a chance to say anything. “We’ll keep it strictly platonic. In public anyways. You can just tell her I’m a friend. Anyways, she’s part wolf. She’s part of the pack. It would be good for her to meet her Alpha. That way when she’s older I can start to introduce her to everyone and she’ll be comfortable. It’ll be good for her and it will be good for her status within the pack.”

Harlow nodded, running a hand nervously through her dark hair. “You sure the shower a good idea, Boss? Last time you touched me you ended up passing out. If you’re going to claim it wasn’t because you were black out drunk-”

She paused and raised an eyebrow at him- “I wasn’t. I swear.”

He wasn’t sure why it mattered to him that she knew that, but it did.

“-then I’m going to assume you were just overwhelmed by my sexiness. That could be dangerous in the shower. I couldn’t move a lump of muscle your size on my own. If you pass out, Sir. You are on your own.”

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. “Whatever happened last night, I’m pretty sure that I need to make it up to you. At least tell me that I made you cum before I passed out?”

“Sorry Alpha?” She smiled sweetly at him as he took a step towards closer so that they were chest to chest. The longer he was on his feet the better he felt. His head was feeling clearer and clearer, although his body still hurt all over like he’d been training all day with his best warriors and hadn’t put up a good fight.

“Are you serious?”

She laughed as she stripped off her shirt and shimmied out of her jeans, his eyes taking in her body appreciatively, his cock growing harder than he’d thought possible when he realized she wasn’t wearing a bra or underwear.

“No, not really. It’s just that last night wasn’t all that memorable.” She’d half turned towards the bathroom as she giggled the words and now he knew she was teasing him. “I guess you’ll just have to try harder today, Theon.” She hurried towards the door without looking behind her and he could hear her laughter as he shook his head, trying to put everything else out of his mind, except the girl that he was following into the shower.

-----------

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Half an hour later Theon was sitting on the side of the bed, finally feeling well enough to put on his shoes. Harlow glanced over at him nervously.

“We really don’t have to go out. I can make something. Honestly. I’ve been cooking since I could lift a frying pan. I can whip up something as good as any cook in town.” She was already dressed, her dark hair twisted up in a bun on the top of her head as she continued to steal glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. She’d already offered once to help tie his shoes, but that hadn’t gone over well either.

As he tied his shoes, Harlow’s phone beeped and she rushed over to get it, visibly relaxing when she saw who it was.

“Boyfriend?” Theon was surprised at how jealous he felt as he asked the question, watching her face carefully as she rolled her eyes and put her phone facedown on the bed before looking up at him, her eyebrows raised.

“Do you think I would be sitting her, fucking you, if I had a boyfriend?” Her tone was different than it had been at any other point since he’d met her.

“I don’t know.” He almost muttered the words and found himself looking down as if he were checking his shoelaces. Fuck. He’d never felt less like an Alpha than he had in the last forty-eight hours. He’d just let a little human stare him down and now he was avoiding looking her in the eyes.

“The answer is no, Theon. No. I’m not a cheater. You may be okay with fucking me while you have a girlfriend, but I’m only here because your girl, is okay with it, you’re both paying me, and I have a kid who needs to eat and who could use a new pair of shoes and new clothes for school. I wouldn’t cheat if I had a man. I don’t understand what all y’alls kink is,” she wrinkled her nose making it plain that she didn’t even want to understand, “but I know that if it were me I would be scratching the eyes out of any girl doing what we were doing here. Hell, no, not even that. I’d be after you. Because you would be the one that would be cheating on me.” She pinned him in place with a glare as if considering the possibility.

“But thankfully we don’t have to worry about that. This is just some fucked up transaction that you and Cara put together.” She glanced at her phone again. “And my daughter has to eat because her son-of-a-bitch of a father certainly isn’t going to help pay for anything.”

“I know him?” Theon asked.

“Of course you know him. You know him too fucking well.” The last words were so low under her breath he knew she hadn’t meant him to hear them, so he didn’t force the issue. But now he was more determined than ever to find out who her kid’s dad was.

“Come on. Let’s get something to eat. I’m not making you cook for me after everything else you’ve done. And I want to meet the newest member of my pack. I apparently owe both of you a lot since we should have been taking care of her since she was born. And that means taking care of you too.”

Harlow looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. Taking this job had felt dangerous but it never felt more dangerous than in this moment, as Alpha Theon stood and then reached over, offering her his hand and tugging her towards the door to take her out to breakfast.