They talked quietly until Jack woke, and then Malachi took him into the kitchen while she changed the linens in the crib and then joined them.

"Oh yeah, look at you, champ," Malachi said as he sat in a chair in front of Jack's high chair, cheering him on as he ate yogurt.

"Carrot," Jack said, grinning widely before shoving his spoon into his mouth.

Malachi looked at her with a smile. "Is he calling me carrot?"

"I think so. It's his favorite word."

"That's cool."

She busied herself with making breakfast for them, watching as Malachi talked to Jack and Jack babbled at him. Malachi leaned back in his chair and said, "What are your plans for the day?"

"Are you talking to me or Jack?" she teased.

"I'm pretty sure Jack's plans for the day involve chewing on as many things as he can get into his mouth."

She laughed. "That sounds about right."

"I thought we could go buy a Christmas tree. I don't usually decorate since we spend Christmas day with my folks, but I thought maybe this year they could come here? Christmas is in eleven days, in case you didn't realize it from the thousands of commercials on TV."

"I'd love to do that. I haven't celebrated the holidays in ages."

"After that, we can go to Mia's. She sent me a text this morning and invited us to dinner tonight. She's a pretty good cook."

"Sounds like a plan."

Nila's own family was gone, and she envied Malachi. She had been the product of a one-night-stand; her mother hadn't even known what his name was. Her mother had gone to live with her sister, Betty, who helped to raise Nila, as her mother worked two jobs to keep their heads above water. One night her mom went to her second job and never came home. There'd been a fight at the bar she waitressed at and someone pulled a gun, and she was caught in the crossfire. Betty had done the best she could, and Diane had helped, too. When Betty died of cancer just before Jack was born, Diane had been the only person there for her.

Malachi stood and hugged her. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice m.u.f.fled by his shirt.

"You look so sad."

She lifted her head and he kissed her. "I was just thinking that Diane is the only tie I have to my family now. You're blessed."

"I know, sweetheart, but my family will be yours and Jack's too. And the pack is like a big family, with Acksel and Brynn as the overbearing parents."

She laughed. She reached over and turned off the burner so the eggs didn't scorch, and hugged him back.

"Do you hear from Jack's grandparents at all?" Malachi seemed to be choosing his words carefully.

"No. Damian's dad, Isaiah, is widowed; his wife died shortly after Jack was born. He had no siblings. One time, before I left him, Damien shoved me and I hit my head on a cabinet and was bleeding pretty badly. He left me there, bleeding. I didn't have a car at the time, so I called Isaiah. It was two hours before he came over with one of the pack members who had some medical training. I told him that Damien hurt me, and he said that I chose him as my husband and I should've known what I was getting into. He doesn't think much of me because I'm human, and he never claimed Jack as his grandson."

Malachi's hold on her tightened just slightly. She peered at him, noticing that his eyes were flashing from blue to amber. "Malachi?"

"I'm not angry at you, sweetheart, I'm furious that Damien put his hands on you. You never told me that. When you talked about how bad it was, I think you skipped some things."

"I was stupid."

"It's not stupid to want to believe that someone is a good person. You got out, that's the important thing, but I want you to tell me everything."

"Why?" Her mouth went dry and her throat tightened. She didn't want him to think less of her for how long she stayed.

"Because I don't want there to be any secrets between us, and also because Acksel is going to speak on our behalf to Damien's alpha and ask him to force Damien to sign the divorce papers."

Her breath seized in her chest and for a minute, she couldn't hear anything over the buzzing in her ears. "Wh-what?"

"I spoke to Acksel last week about the situation. We can't get married until you're divorced, and I may be patient, but I'm not patient enough to wait for him to die of old age. I want you to be free to make your own choices, Nila. You're not free right now, because you're still tied to him."

"Isaiah won't care. The legal marriage is a joke to their pack."

"We'll handle it. But I really need to know everything. Can you tell me?"

She looked at Jack, who'd moved on from yogurt to Cheerios. "When he's done eating."

When they were finished, she cleaned Jack up, put him on the floor in the family room with his favorite toys, and turned on the television. She found the kids' channel he liked and then walked into the kitchen.

Malachi was waiting for her at the table, and she joined him, taking the fresh cup of coffee he'd prepared for her. She looked at the steam that rose from the surface. Malachi placed his hand on her forearm, and the slight weight and warmth was enough to tell her that he wasn't going anywhere, no matter what she told him.

She'd done a lot of foolish things in her life. She'd snuck into a movie theater and gotten caught. She'd skipped school and missed an important test, almost s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up her ability to pa.s.s the cla.s.s and graduate. But the stupidest thing she'd ever done was fall for Damien's lies. His clean-cut good looks had fooled her into ignoring the beast that truly lurked beneath the skin. She'd been impressed that he was a wolf shifter, led to believe that he thought she was special enough to date even though his pack didn't care for humans. Then she got pregnant, and married, and then...the verbal barbs came. She was too fat, too lazy, too stupid. Nothing she ever did was right, but she kept trying hard to make him happy.

"He cheated on you?" Malachi asked. His face was blank, his features carefully controlled.

"On the full moons, but probably more frequently than that."

"And he never marked you?"

"No. I didn't know anything about that until Brynn told me."

"The marking means that the man and the wolf are claiming the woman. It's a territorial thing, too. If another wolf sees the mark, he'll know she's taken."

"No one ever messed with me from his pack."

He leaned back in the chair and drummed his fingers on the table. "Tomorrow, Acksel is going to tell Isaiah that you are not truly mated to Damien, and that the legal marriage is a hindrance to everyone involved."

She wasn't sure it would matter to Isaiah, but maybe hearing the words from another alpha would tip the situation in her favor.

Malachi left his home Monday morning with Nila and Jack in the SUV and drove to Brynn's house. At the moment, nothing was changing about the guard situation with Brynn. Originally he'd thought he could stop sitting at the clinic all day, but since Damien had beaten up Nila's friend, Malachi didn't trust that he'd stay away completely.

"Should I get in the back seat?" Nila asked as he stopped the SUV in front of the house.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because she's your alpha."

"Mate trumps alpha."

Her brows rose. "Does she know that?"

He chuckled. "Of course."

Brynn and Acksel walked down the sidewalk together and Brynn climbed in the back seat, greeting them all. Malachi rolled Nila's window down and said, "I'll be back after I get the girls settled."

Acksel nodded. "We'll be ready."

He rolled the window up and pulled away from the curb. Nila asked, "I thought it was just you and Acksel going to see Isaiah? What did he mean by 'we'?"

"Acksel knows Isaiah by reputation only; they've never met. Alphas stick to their own territory, and Dorlan is far enough away from Wilde Creek that their paths have never crossed. If it was just me and Acksel that showed up to see Isaiah, he might think that we were a weak pack or that we saw him as weak. Either way, we might end up with him bringing his pack here and causing trouble. Acksel is bringing Sam and a few other protectors, along with his dad, Dade, and Hollis, one of the elders."

Nila was quiet, chewing her bottom lip, which was something he noticed she did when she was worried.

"What, sweetheart?"

"I'm putting a lot of people out."

He glanced in the rearview and found Brynn frowning. She said, "You're important to Malachi, and that makes you important to the pack."

He reached for Nila's hand and she took it, lacing her fingers with his immediately. He wasn't sure what else to say, so he let the silence hang between them. He pulled into the parking lot of the daycare first. Nila took Jack inside and dropped him off, and then he drove to the clinic. Malachi escorted both women into the clinic and followed Nila to the breakroom.

She leaned against the counter and he placed his hands on the counter on either side of her body and looked down at her. In a low voice, he said, "What's bothering you?"

"I'm worried."

"About your safety? Don't. Two protectors are already in place here, and they'll make sure you're safe while I'm gone."

"I'm worried about you." She blinked her big brown eyes at him, and he swallowed at the sudden lump in his throat. She really cared about him.

He pressed his lips to hers, and she made a soft, sad sound in her throat and wrapped her arms around him. He pulled her close as they kissed, and then he lifted from her lush mouth and cupped her face. "I'm going to set you free so I can work on making you mine forever. I'll be back in a few hours."

"You'll be careful?" She chewed on her bottom lip and he gently pulled her lip from her teeth with his thumb.

"Of course. You're not going to get rid of me that easily." He smiled, but she didn't smile back.

Kissing her forehead, he hugged her and said, "I need to go, they're waiting for me. I'll be back before the day is over, and if there's a problem, you can find Devin and Hayden outside."

He left her in the breakroom, took a few minutes to scan the security footage from the night before, and then he left. He was anxious to get to Dorlan and get the situation settled.

When Malachi stopped in front of Acksel's home and programmed the GPS to head to Dorlan, he was aware of two other vehicles pulling next to him. He glanced up and saw Sam and two protectors in one SUV, and Dade's truck with Hollis in the pa.s.senger seat. Acksel walked down the sidewalk, opened the pa.s.senger door of Malachi's SUV and sat down.

"Nila said that there's a gas station on the edge of Dorlan that's run by one of the pack members," Malachi said.

"We'll stop there first and ask for a meeting with Isaiah," Acksel said.

Malachi nodded, put the SUV into gear and pulled away from the curb. The drive to Dorlan took over an hour, and Acksel and Malachi talked about the pack and Nila's situation. Acksel was not the most compa.s.sionate male on the planet, but he didn't approve of females being abused in any form, and believed that it was an alpha's responsibility to ensure that everyone within the pack was safe. That included the mates and pups, whether they were entirely wolf or not. Isaiah's pack was all-wolf, the way that the Wilde Creek pack had been not too long ago.

Acksel's sister Eveny had been about to choose to leave the pack in order to be with her human mate, Luke, which was something that would have resulted in her banishment from the pack. She would never have been allowed to set foot in Wilde Creek again, under penalty of death, just because she loved a human. Malachi had never given much thought to what would happen if he were in a similar situation. If it weren't for Acksel changing pack law for Brynn so that she, and any other mates who were human or other forms of shifters, were welcomed into the pack, Malachi would be taking banishment for Nila, and he wouldn't have hesitated. Some other packs didn't care what sort of mates their people took, but most had wolf-only laws. He was glad that Wilde Creek wasn't one of them, but it wouldn't have mattered in the long run. Nila was his, and he'd do anything to make her his and keep her safe.

Acksel grunted, and Malachi glanced over to see him reading the divorce papers that Nila had given to Malachi. "I wonder if Damien didn't sign the papers because there's also this little thing here that says he waives parental rights to Jack." Acksel made a motion to one section of the papers.

"I wondered that myself. But if he really cared for his pup, he wouldn't be terrorizing Nila and withholding support. According to her, when they were together she had to beg him to give her money for diapers and clothes for him. When she left, she had nothing at all, and if it weren't for Diane she'd have wound up on the street. I think that if he actually wanted Jack, he wouldn't just be terrorizing Nila but would be demanding that Jack be returned to him."

"He might see Jack as a means to an end. If he keeps his parental rights, than Nila will never be free of him. Sever that link, along with the divorce, and she can be free."

That was what Malachi wanted for her. He wanted her to be free of her past so she could make her own choices. When he asked her to be his mate officially, he didn't want anything in the way of their happiness. He wanted to mark her and marry her as soon as she was ready and willing to be his.

"Brynn will skin you alive if you get married before we do."

Malachi chuckled. "Get out of my head."

Dorlan Auto was just about the filthiest place Malachi had ever set foot in, and that included a fraternity bathroom after a party. They waited for the owner of the shop to bring word back from his alpha. The male reminded Malachi of a rat, with a sharp nose and beady eyes.

"Alpha Isaiah is meeting you at the park outside town. It's neutral territory," the male said after thirty minutes. He handed Sam a slip of paper with an address scrawled on it.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Acksel said.

As they walked out of the shop and to the vehicles, Sam said, "I feel like I need to take about a hundred showers. That place was disgusting."

"Me, too." Acksel said, his nose wrinkling in disgust.

Sam led the way and Malachi and Dade followed, heading out of Dorlan and to a neutral-ground park. The 'park' as it turned out, was a gra.s.sy field with a rusted swing set and some picnic tables that looked as if they were about thirty years old. As they walked into the park, they found a small group of males next to one of the decrepit picnic tables. One male sat at the table, and the four other males with him stood in a row behind him.

"Welcome to Dorlan," the male who sat at the table said. "My name is Isaiah Caruthers."

Acksel extended his hand and introduced himself as he sat down. He tried to hide his grimace, but Malachi saw it. "Thank you for meeting with us."

Isaiah was a thin male, but the sort of thinness that came from a life of hard living. He was graying and unkempt, his long hair pulled back in a ponytail and his beard long enough, and dirty-looking enough, to make Malachi want to spray him down with Lysol.

"I understand you wish to speak to me about my son, Damien."

Acksel folded his hands on the table top, and although he appeared relaxed, Malachi knew that he wasn't. "One of my pack members has entered into a relationship with Nila Caruthers. She is technically married to your son, and has been separated from him for nine months. I would ask you to see that he signs the divorce papers and releases Nila."

Isaiah stared at Acksel in silence for a long moment and then said, "I don't see what my son's affairs have to do with me. Does your pack come to you with such inconsequential things?" The distaste was clear in Isaiah's voice.

Acksel's head tilted just slightly. "Your son is attacking the mate of one of my pack members. As alpha, I take issue with that."

Isaiah's brow lifted. "She's human."

Malachi bit back a vicious snarl.

"Regardless," Acksel said, "Nila is Malachi's mate and he wants her free from her past obligations so he can mate her appropriately. Your son never mated her. Their marriage is by human standards alone. As her true mate, Malachi is within his rights to demand her freedom."

Isaiah straightened slightly and eyed Malachi as he stood behind Acksel. "My son didn't want to really mate her because he would have been kicked out of the pack. He didn't want to ruin his life because she was too stupid to remember birth control."

Malachi tensed, wanting to leap over Acksel and punch Isaiah for the numerous insults to his woman.