Honesty Read Free Page B

stared after them for a moment before grabbing a light crate of her own and walking briskly to catch up.
    They brought the junk to a small cavern a little ways north of the main den entrance. According to Glenn, the inside was dark and prone to flooding, so Taylor waited outside with Lark as he hauled the loads down one by one. It didn’t seem like the ideal place to store Lark’s stuff, but Taylor figured the raccoon would probably forget about it after a few days anyway.
    As she waited for Glenn to come back, something in her own crate caught her eyes. She plucked out a Mason jar and unscrewed the cap, pulling out its contents. There were four brown packages with pictures of leafy greens on them. She shook one of the packages, hearing a rattling noise.
    “ Whatcha got there?” Lark asked.
    Taylor scanned the back of the package. “These are spinach seeds.”
    “Is that a food?”
    Taylor nodded. “Yeah, it’s one of my favorites.”
    Lark’s eyes widened with delight. “We can plant them in the garden outside the cabin.”
    “Yeah,” Taylor said, grinning. The strawberries were great, but after only a day she was already getting tired of them. That, and she doubted that they were enough to sustain a healthy diet.
    Lark sat down on the grass, her shoulders slumping. “But you probably won’t be here long enough to grow them.”
    Oh, there was that .
    Taylor sat down next to Lark, resting her chin on the heel of her palm. “I don’t know if I’ll be leaving or not. Alder seems pretty adamant about it, but…”
    But would he even want to leave with her after what she’d told him this afternoon? And if he did, would she really be able to accept him leaving everything behind for her?
    “It’s just so much pressure,” Taylor said, lying back on the grass. “I mean, what if he decides he doesn’t want to be with me after all? He’ll have left his home for nothing.”
    Lark lay down beside her. “ I don’t think Alder would ever leave you once you were carrying his pups. He’s not that type of male.”
    Taylor turned her head, giving Lark a quizzical look. “What do you mean, carrying his pups?”
    “Babies, ya know? That’s what the wolves call them, at least, the ones who were raised in the mountains.”
    Taylor laughed. “Who said anything about having kids? I’m not even sure if I’m ready to live with Alder, let alone procreate with him.”
    “It’s not really a choice,” said Lark. “I mean, you always have a choice of which male you want to sire your pups, but the rest of it sort of comes with the territory of taking a mate.”
    Taylor sat up. “ Are you saying Alder will expect me to have kids with him?”
    “Well, yes. Didn’t he tell you that?”
    “No,” Taylor said, feeling queasy. “I really don’t think he’s interested in that sort of thing, and I’m definitely not.”
    Her life was already a disaster. The last thing she wanted to do was add a baby into the mix.
    “It’s instinct,” Glenn said, emerging from the mouth of the cavern. “Doesn’t matter what Alder wants, though he’s always liked kids.”
    “Instinct?”
    “Birds fly south for the winter, squirrels hoard nuts, alpha wolves take human mates to breed with. Instinct.”
    The queasiness in her stomach evolved into full-on nausea. She tried to reassure herself that they were probably generalizing. After all, that was a pretty huge thing for Alder to leave out.
    The thunder rumbled again, this time sounding closer. Almost immediately, it was followed by the howling of wolves. No matter how long she lived with wolves, Taylor was certain she would never get used to that eerie noise.
    “Sounds like it’s cleanup time,” Lark said, sitting up. Taylor recalled that the wolves hunted each night, leaving the pack members who didn’t hunt to strip the carcass. She hadn’t seen the grisly affair herself, but judging by the woeful note in Lark’s voice, it wasn’t a good time.
    It was the lack of anything