Saving Briar

Harlow bent, kissing her sleeping daughter’s sweet smelling curls before turning and padding silently out of the room. She closed the door, leaning back against it with a small sigh, before reaching into her back pocket for her cell phone. There were no missed calls and no new messages. She’d hoped to hear something about how that damned Alpha was doing but knew that even if he was awake she wasn’t on the short list of people that he would probably call to update about his condition. The status of their non-relationship meant that when she was out of his sight she was probably also not on his mind.

Gathering her hair up into a ponytail as she walked out into the part of the apartment that acted as their living room, dining area, and kitchen she took a deep breath, before letting it out slowly. If she’d known that she was going to have the night free she would have picked up a few shifts dancing, but after Cara had promised her at least a week’s worth of work she had taken the entire week off and gotten other girls to cover her shifts.

Saying a quick prayer that she could still convince the future pack Luna to pay her for the work she’d guaranteed, Harlow sank down onto the couch, picking up her cell phone and unlocking it, so that she could scroll through her text messages for the twentieth time, knowing she still hadn’t missed anything.

The knock at the door had her scrambling to her feet. It didn’t sound like Cara’s knock and she rushed across the room, throwing the door open, fully expecting to see Theon standing there on the other side, ready to tell her what the doctor had said about why he kept passing out.

She knew what she was to the man. She wasn’t his mate, and she’d spent enough time around werewolves to at least have a passing understanding of what mates were. Harlow had also been a dancer for long enough to know what it felt like to be used. He wasn’t the Prince who was here to rescue her. But as the Alpha of her daughter’s pack, he might be able to make the situation better for Kayla, and that was really all she could hope for.

Harlow froze, her eyes widening when she saw who was leaning against her door frame. It wasn’t Theon. In fact, she couldn’t think of anyone she would have been less happy to see darkening her doorstep.

“Fuck.” The words were barely louder than a whisper, after all she didn’t want to wake Kayla, but he heard them and he threw his head back and laughed as he pushed past her and walked into the apartment, his eyes skimming appreciatively over her body as she ground her molars together in annoyance.

“I didn’t invite you in.” Asshole. She said the last part in her head because the last time they’d seen each other she’d promised herself she wouldn’t outright pick a fight, and she was trying to stick to that, even if she hadn’t gotten off to the best start with her immediate, automatic reaction to daughter’s father.

“Oh, Angel. Don’t be like that. You know I’ve been out there in the snow, tracking down that little whore that happens to be mated to the Alpha? Without any female company? For days.” Harlow rolled her eyes as she reluctantly closed the door, not locking it, because she hoped that he would catch the hint that this wasn’t going to be a long visit.

“That must have been torturous. I’m sure. You have my sympathy. And pity. Really.” Harlow was surprised at how flat she managed to keep her voice this time, but then she remembered how rough he’d gotten the last time she’d gotten even a little bit sarcastic with him, and realized that maybe she was finally getting a hold on her tongue. Her words were certainly sarcastic, but as long as she didn’t add that edge to her tone she knew that he probably wouldn’t catch on. Now, as long as he didn’t go looking for excuses to go after her, she ought to be okay.

“Now Hux.” She tried to force her voice to sound pleasant, but not flirty as he took a step closer to her, forcing her back towards the wall closest to the bedroom. “Kayla is asleep right now. And she was so upset about what happened earlier in town that I think it’s best if we don’t wake her. Maybe you can see her tomorrow at my Mom’s house. I know she would just love that.”

Hux took a few steps closer, and she moved backwards until he’d backed her all the way into the wall. He leaned close, his nose trailing across the outer edge of her jaw while she held perfectly still, not willing to set him off, especially while Kayla was home. She listened as he took a slow, deep breath before hissing out a string of profanity unlike any she had heard before.

Pushing off the wall, Theon’s future Beta stalked away from her, his hands balled up into fists, which Harlow could hardly keep her eyes off of.

“Tell me exactly why our daughter was so upset, Harlow.” Just like that he’d turned and crossed the room, grabbing her by the bicep and yanking her down on the tiny couch that years earlier he had helped move into the apartment when she’d been pregnant with Kayla.

“We were at the diner, in the parking lot when Alpha Theon collapsed. We called for an ambulance. She was worried about him and was upset we hadn’t heard anything before her bedtime.” Hux’s bright blue eyes were focused on Harlow, narrowing as she gave him the bare bones narrative of what had happened when his best friend had passed out.

“So you just happened to be there?” Harlow was almost certain that he knew the answer to the question before he asked it. She wasn’t sure how, she was just certain that he did. This was the sort of thing that he’d done when they were together. He would set her up, already knowing the answer to the question he was asking, and ask anyways, just to see if she would try to stretch the truth to avoid his wrath.

Not that they’d ever really been together. Not officially.

She was a human, which meant he’d been very clear that she’d never be more than a side piece, at least he’d been clear after he’d knocked her up. They broke up entirely when he started publicly dating a she-wolf when she was eight months pregnant with Kayla and he had the nerve to bring that bitch to her baby shower, which Harlow seriously regretted letting her friends make co-ed. No one, outside her mother and a few of her closest friends, had known that he was the father, and that’s the way that it had stayed.

Even after that disaster, Hux had still expected her to be available to him though. But after the baby shower, anything beyond just tolerating each other was a hard pass from Harlow’s point of view. The issue became much stickier when he came by the club and paid for private dances, which he did at least once a month. He seemed to think those dances counted as Kayla’s child support since that was the only way he ever passed money on to the two of them. Hux was also the only man who came to the club that expected extras with his dances.

Contrary to popular belief around town, Harlow was only a dancer. She had never actually done what she’d done with Theon before Cara approached her and asked her to help her. If Hux had made any effort to regularly contribute to the raising of his daughter she probably wouldn’t have ever considered it. But Cara had offered her so much money and she had so many bills to pay. And Hell, the thing was she hadn’t had a boyfriend since she and Hux had broken up, which felt like it was possibly the most pathetic thing in her life, because everyone in town thought she was an actual whore according to her mother.

“Theon was giving Kayla and I a ride to get breakfast.” Her voice was so low if he was human he would have had trouble hearing it, but she knew he’d be able to pick up every word.

“The fuck, Harlow? Are you fucking my best friend?”

He asked the question in a low voice, his eyes fixed on her face and Harlow knew the moment the words left his lips that he expected her to deny having anything to do with the pack’s Alpha. Instead she pressed her lips together and shook her head before speaking.

“What I do or don’t do with anyone else isn’t any of your business. We broke up years ago. Fuck, I was never even your girlfriend. You were always fucking other girls.Yes, I’m your daughter’s mother, which I would think would get me at least a bit of consideration and respect on your end, but I certainly haven’t seen that, have I?” Harlow tried to stand but he caught her by the wrist with a bruising grip and yanked her back down beside him. Hux’s free hand tangled in her ponytail, forcing her face to turn up so she would have to look into his eyes.

“You’re right about one thing Harlow. You aren’t my girlfriend. A fucking half bred mutt is only good for getting my dick wet.” He was yanking so hard on her hair that she wasn’t entirely sure she’d heard what he had just said, as he leaned down so that his face was only inches away from her own. “But that doesn’t mean I want anyone else from the pack touching you. And if Kayla is going to have a little brother or sister you can bet your ass I’ll be it’s father.”

Harlow felt an icy band of fear grip her heart at his words. Hux didn’t know anything for certain yet about what had happened between her and Theon while he’d been out hunting down Briar, but she was suddenly terrified that if he found out that she’d been entertaining him for Cara he would feel the need to reclaim her for whatever sick reason he had bouncing around in his head. It didn’t make sense to her, because she knew she’d never belonged to him in the first place, but then again, she knew she was a person and not some thing that could be claimed or given away to a buddy. During private dances she’d given him hand jobs and rarely, blow jobs, when she hadn’t had any other choice, but she’d managed to avoid fucking him since she’d been pregnant with Kayla and she wanted desperately for it to stay that way.

“Harlow?” His fingers gripped her chin so hard she was certain that they were going to leave a bruise. “I asked you a question. Did you fuck Theon?”

Her eyes were squeezed shut and all she could hear was the blood roaring in her ears as she whispered, “you need to leave, Hux. Kayla’s asleep right now, but she could walk in this room at any minute.”

Just like that his hands released her, letting go of both her hair and her chin at the exact same moment as his weight lifted off her little bright yellow thrifted couch.

She let out a breath she hadn’t realized that she’d been holding and then muffled a scream with both her hands as blood splattered on the white walls of the room as Theon’s fist smashed into the side of his best friend’s face, sending him flying away from Harlow and directly onto her tiny dining room table. The small table collapsed beneath his weight with a crash that resounded through the small space as Theon turned his gaze on Harlow.

“Hux? Hux is Kayla’s father? Are you fucking kidding me?”